When I read the preamble to One-Taker by Harpy in Magpie 76 (‘famous film scene’, ‘15-letter film title’, etc) I immediately thought of the Union Station shootout scene from The Untouchables. This was probably partly because it’s one of the few films I actually own and partly because of the classic Commodore 64 version from some years ago (more…)
I first became acquainted with the graphic art of Maurits Cornelis Escher in the mid-1960s, and quickly became a fan. So much so that in 1969 I wrote to him, and was delighted when he replied - his letter is a treasured possession (more…)
Time Pressure by Mr Magoo
A period off work led me to resuscitate a long-considered idea to apply to appear on Countdown. An emailed entry form soon led to an invitation to attend a local ‘audition’ for the show, and when that came round I found myself in a room with five other hopefuls, tackling six word rounds, two numbers rounds and three conundra.
I was annoyed to find I had missed a maximum on the first round EEPICETRS (more…)
February 1st 1930 saw the publication of the first Times Crossword, and this event is commemorated at least twice in the media this year. Firstly the Times is publishing three historical puzzles to intrigue its readers, from 1940, 1960 and 1980, and then The One Show, a daily BBC documentary magazine, is looking at the mystery of the cryptic crossword. (more…)
Starting from the idea of the same clues and same grid producing different solutions in different bases, the initial question was - how (more…)
This puzzle was developed by the two of us – Charybdis (C) and Ploy (P) – entirely by email. In fact, over 50 emails were exchanged between conception and submission!
It started when P chanced upon the ABRAXAS entry in Chambers. (more…)
Providing an almost respectable excuse to seek out and digest arcane information is a seldom recognised benefit of solving and setting thematic crosswords. A crucial step for the setter is assessing interesting titbits as possible themes, and while with sufficient guile any subject can be worked up thematically, some topics seem to cry out for such treatment. The ogham (or ogam) theme sits in the latter category (more…)
The editors created a puzzle for the annual Magpie party. If you want to have a go at it, download the puzzle with no name here.
The solution is also available.
Greenland: where better to escape from everyday life? Or so I thought in early August, as I looked forward to a group walking holiday in the Tasiilaq area (more…)
Thanks to the clairvoyant genius of Mark and Simon in publishing the Quadratum series of puzzles I have the dubious honour of introducing Magpie solvers to the delights of Sudoku before it was popularised in The Times. (more…)
