Sir, – In the 1970s I played in the Gaiety Theatre pit orchestra. Between playing we’d read books. Gaiety management asked us to desist as we looked bored. So we twiddled our thumbs for a couple of nights until one of the musicians, also a cruciverbalist, put The Irish Times crosswords in among the music on his stand.
I’d never tried a crossword but I followed suit, completing the Simplex but being utterly baffled by the cryptic. The cruciverbalist advised putting yesterday’s crossword and today’s solution side by side. Thus I learned. A year later I could complete both crosswords in under 20 minutes.
Then came Crosheir 10 years ago and I had to revert to clues beside solutions to figure him out.
Now you’ve gone too far. Sometimes it’s so bad that even today’s solutions shed no light on yesterday’s clues.
My neighbour has been dumping their rubbish in my back garden and trespassing. What can I do?
Irish abroad: ‘One local called me a potato eater . . . ironically, he was eating cheesy fries at the time’
Summer Camps 2025: A guide to the best sports camps in Ireland
Housewife of the Year review: A reminder that Ireland of the 1970s and 80s was no country for women of any age
I am defeated and dejected.
– Yours, etc,
KEITH DONALD,
Rockbrook,
Dublin 16.
