A long time in the making. There is something extraordinary in every episode.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm | Amazon
“Additional material”, written before the substantial Covid elements, for this, released on 23 October.
Richard Osman’s House of Games | BBC2
Series four starts on 12 October. Happily (for me), the question-editor bit of production preceded … the Unpleasantness.
See also: my book for Penguin, The Joy of Quiz. And, to a lesser extent, the official spin-off book.
Crossword column | The Guardian
An unusual honour: featuring in The Antidote: the ‘list of non-coronavirus [Guardian] articles our readers spent the most time with’.
Attention should pass to St Christopher’s hospice in Sydenham.
Jam On It | Podcast
Since the mid-’90s, my friend Pandora and I have been planning a music- and ingredient-themed experience where the listener cooks along in real time. It’s finally here, as an unofficial podcast. Get involved.
How to solve Cryptic Crosswords during Coronavirus
Looking for a distracting hobby that takes a chunk of time?
Maybe one with a bottomless supply that you can access without going out into the world?
But you find cryptic crosswords baffling?
Here’s a selection of understandable explainers from the Guardian (if you prefer, your local bookshop can get my book for you).
And another thing: crosswords are best learned with a friend or family member. Beginner-friendly puzzles: Observer Everyman; Guardian quiptic; Telegraph; Times2.
Cryptic devices
Right, these are the bits of business like anagrams that you find in cryptic clues: hidden answers; double definitions; soundalikes; initial letters; spoonerisms; Cockney rhyming slang; containers; reversals; alternate letters; cycling; stuttering; taking most of a word; making a word naked; first & last letters …
Bits and bobs
You also come across abbreviations and whatnot: Roman numerals; Nato alphabet; Greek letters; chemistry; abbreviations for countries; points of the compass; playing cards; capital letters; apostrophes; cricket; alcohol; the church; drugs; music; animals; cars; cities; rivers; when the setter’s name appears; when the solver appears; royals; newspapers; doctors …
Individual letters
A surreal set of “interviews” with the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L …
Top 10 Crosswords in Fiction
10: Brief Encounter
9: PG Wodehouse
8: The West Wing
7: Martin Amis
6: Madness’s Cardiac Arrest
5: Rubicon
4: Alan Plater
3: Inspector Morse
2: Lord Peter Wimsey
1: The Simpsons
Interviews with setters
What makes these people tick: Paul; Enigmatist; Anax; Tramp; Boatman; Arachne; Rufus; Shed; Puck; Pasquale; Morph; Orlando; Gordius; Audreus; Philistine; Otterden; Doc; Crucible; Picaroon; Nutmeg; Chifonie; Screw; Chalicea; Knut; Styx; Marc Breman; Azed; Navy; Smurf; Enocta; Vlad …
Random bits and bobs
100 years of crosswords; commentary from the Times Crossword Championship; rudeness; plagiarism; David Nobbs; Steve Pemberton …
- If you prefer quiz, there’s a book about that too
Inside No 9 | BBC2
You should watch this episode first …
… then listen to the podcast to discover my indirect association.
The book in question is The Joy of Quiz.
See also: The Riddle of the Sphinx
The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book | BBC Books
For every Shipping Forecast area, you find the places on the map indicated by various clues. Join the places to form the shapes of letters. Join the letters to form a sea shanty.
Out 5 November from your local bookshop / Penguin / Waterstones / Amazon etc.
It also gives a flavour of what it’s like to be in each of Dogger, Fisher, German Bight…
- BBC Books / Ebury Publishing
- ISBN: 9781785945106
- 240 pages; 216 x 135 mm
- Goodreads · LibraryThing
- Previously: Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword; The Joy of Quiz
Richard Osman’s House of Games | BBC Books
I am proud of this book, which comes out on 17 October.
It has some games from the TV show, and some new ones and, with a couple of exceptions, all new questions. There are some imaginary behind-the-scenes conversations and general nonsense.
- Previously: Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword; The Joy of Quiz
- £14.99 RRP hardback
- 17 October 2019 hardback
- BBC Books
- ISBN: 1785944622 and 978-1785944628
Blurb:
Do you know how many post boxes there are in the UK? Could you guess how many times the word ‘goat’ appeara in the King James Version of the bible? Fancy playing a game of charades where all of the books, films and plays are entirely made up? Now, look around the room. Is anyone there the kind of person who’ll say ‘I just don’t understand this’, when faced with something that’s not just perfectly easy to understand, but is … well, fun? Ask them to leave. Have they gone? Good. Now welcome inside the House of Games.
Hotel California | BBC News
A Smashed Hits about (the) Eagles’ Hotel California:
“Vaguery is the primary tool of songwriters,” Frey told a journalist during a 2003 pro-am golf tournament in California’s Pebbel Beach, where he was partnered with Huey Lewis. “It works, it means whatever the listener wants it to mean.”
Sources: History of the Eagles; Hit Story: It All Started Because Of Rattlesnakes; Rockin’ ‘Round The Round, SF Gate; Jennifer Parker’s McBusted: The Story of the World’s Biggest Super Band and this lovely data collection from Southern California Public Radio.
Trump, double-negatives and politics | BBC News
A quick piece for the BBC about double negatives:
It’s hard to understate how often we find ourselves using two negatives when we don’t mean to – in fact, this sentence begins with a common example
See also:
