Panthera
@pantherapuzzles.bsky.social
Fiend in feline shape. Mostly cryptics, sometimes other puzzles. Still not panthchesh. they/he hella gay 🏳️🌈
Reposted by Panthera
This is also why people react so badly to self-described centrists making pronouns in bio jokes, you're providing rhetorical space for this radicalisation.
January 8, 2026 at 9:28 AM
This is also why people react so badly to self-described centrists making pronouns in bio jokes, you're providing rhetorical space for this radicalisation.
Reposted by Panthera
I appreciate a lot of us will think "they've always been like this" but the utter moral decay on the right in the last few years has been notable.
A shift from love the sinner, hate the sin fig leaf to "yeah, kill she/her, haha, pronouns in bio."
A shift from love the sinner, hate the sin fig leaf to "yeah, kill she/her, haha, pronouns in bio."
Jesse Watters highlights that Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by ICE, had "pronouns in her bio" and "leaves behind a lesbian partner and a child from a previous marriage"
January 8, 2026 at 9:28 AM
I appreciate a lot of us will think "they've always been like this" but the utter moral decay on the right in the last few years has been notable.
A shift from love the sinner, hate the sin fig leaf to "yeah, kill she/her, haha, pronouns in bio."
A shift from love the sinner, hate the sin fig leaf to "yeah, kill she/her, haha, pronouns in bio."
(in summary: ~57% of respondents would classify the online NYT Crossword as a video game, presumably on the grounds that it is a sort of game that appears on an electronic device. But, let's be real, ~13% said the paper copy was a video game, and ~3% said mayonnaise was too, so who the hell knows?)
January 3, 2026 at 7:46 PM
(in summary: ~57% of respondents would classify the online NYT Crossword as a video game, presumably on the grounds that it is a sort of game that appears on an electronic device. But, let's be real, ~13% said the paper copy was a video game, and ~3% said mayonnaise was too, so who the hell knows?)
I was reminded of a survey that did the rounds on Tumblr last year, asking whether or not various games, game-adjacent experiences, and mayonnaise counted as video games, and while the version I answered didn't feature crosswords, turns out the expanded version did:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
what even is a video game? version 2
no nuance. no "it depends". for as many of these examples as you feel like answering, ask yourself if you think if you think they are "video games" or not.
this is a sequel / expansion to another pol...
docs.google.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:41 PM
I was reminded of a survey that did the rounds on Tumblr last year, asking whether or not various games, game-adjacent experiences, and mayonnaise counted as video games, and while the version I answered didn't feature crosswords, turns out the expanded version did:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
There will be a #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with myself come noon, but I am nowhere near organised enough to tell you what I'll be tackling then. Anything from the past week of MyCrossword puzzles is fair game!
twitch.tv/pantherapuzzles
twitch.tv/pantherapuzzles
December 28, 2025 at 9:54 AM
There will be a #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with myself come noon, but I am nowhere near organised enough to tell you what I'll be tackling then. Anything from the past week of MyCrossword puzzles is fair game!
twitch.tv/pantherapuzzles
twitch.tv/pantherapuzzles
Delighted to discover that there actually is at least one family of pangrammatic mini grid fills that uses SKIBIDI, and that it honestly comes off comparatively well against its kin from the dregs of Chambers...
December 18, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Delighted to discover that there actually is at least one family of pangrammatic mini grid fills that uses SKIBIDI, and that it honestly comes off comparatively well against its kin from the dregs of Chambers...
I'm a big cat fan, and I'm a big cat fan, and I'm a big cat fan.
(it's also an oblique twofold callback to my puzzle hunt days, which is what clinched it over the other candidates - I do sometimes regret not going with Macavity, mind, especially in the context of my occasional sudoku flirtation...)
(it's also an oblique twofold callback to my puzzle hunt days, which is what clinched it over the other candidates - I do sometimes regret not going with Macavity, mind, especially in the context of my occasional sudoku flirtation...)
December 11, 2025 at 7:38 PM
I'm a big cat fan, and I'm a big cat fan, and I'm a big cat fan.
(it's also an oblique twofold callback to my puzzle hunt days, which is what clinched it over the other candidates - I do sometimes regret not going with Macavity, mind, especially in the context of my occasional sudoku flirtation...)
(it's also an oblique twofold callback to my puzzle hunt days, which is what clinched it over the other candidates - I do sometimes regret not going with Macavity, mind, especially in the context of my occasional sudoku flirtation...)
I'm prepared to try streaming a second puzzle, even though I haven't actually tested OBS on the new computer yet... but, honestly, it's not like the typical Replacement Stream Service isn't rough and ready at the best of times anyway...
December 7, 2025 at 10:19 AM
I'm prepared to try streaming a second puzzle, even though I haven't actually tested OBS on the new computer yet... but, honestly, it's not like the typical Replacement Stream Service isn't rough and ready at the best of times anyway...
tbh my troubles are wholly self-imposed, because I'm 90% sure there's no acceptable fill that includes anything more than the most desirable optional extra...
...but I just wanna keep whittling that 10% down in the desperate hope that something comes up...
...but I just wanna keep whittling that 10% down in the desperate hope that something comes up...
December 6, 2025 at 4:16 PM
tbh my troubles are wholly self-imposed, because I'm 90% sure there's no acceptable fill that includes anything more than the most desirable optional extra...
...but I just wanna keep whittling that 10% down in the desperate hope that something comes up...
...but I just wanna keep whittling that 10% down in the desperate hope that something comes up...
me, a week ago: look, i love the process of making thematically-dense grids, but it's tricky, time-consuming and sometimes sisyphean. this time i think i'll do a perimeter nina with a handful of optional bonus entries instead
me, now: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
me, now: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
December 6, 2025 at 3:36 PM
me, a week ago: look, i love the process of making thematically-dense grids, but it's tricky, time-consuming and sometimes sisyphean. this time i think i'll do a perimeter nina with a handful of optional bonus entries instead
me, now: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
me, now: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
...and me reading the final Mog book while left unsupervised and promptly bawling my eyes out so dramatically that some poor stranger tried to step in to help out the weeping child who had presumably got lost or something similar!
November 29, 2025 at 4:56 PM
...and me reading the final Mog book while left unsupervised and promptly bawling my eyes out so dramatically that some poor stranger tried to step in to help out the weeping child who had presumably got lost or something similar!
I've just asked my dad and while neither of us are 100% sure, there's a chance that the same trip to the (long since closed) Borders in Bournemouth was the source of our favourite anecdotes about the place: him braving their dodgy headphones to listen to the thematic record for the first time...
November 29, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I've just asked my dad and while neither of us are 100% sure, there's a chance that the same trip to the (long since closed) Borders in Bournemouth was the source of our favourite anecdotes about the place: him braving their dodgy headphones to listen to the thematic record for the first time...
I'm flattered, though I'm definitely younger than the average setter... I just don't act my age! Josh is just scarily young; when I first rocked up to Cryptic Sunday, I was already older than he is now...
November 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
I'm flattered, though I'm definitely younger than the average setter... I just don't act my age! Josh is just scarily young; when I first rocked up to Cryptic Sunday, I was already older than he is now...
(though funnily enough I started loading the "spread the word(list)" into my mini grid building code the other week so I could have these new-fangled terms like "emoji" and "gyoza" and it has meant I have had to grapple with whether or not I am fine with e.g. skibidi as a gridfill which is. yeah.)
November 28, 2025 at 10:50 AM
(though funnily enough I started loading the "spread the word(list)" into my mini grid building code the other week so I could have these new-fangled terms like "emoji" and "gyoza" and it has meant I have had to grapple with whether or not I am fine with e.g. skibidi as a gridfill which is. yeah.)
oohhh I feel this in my bones. I still felt the need to semi-defend textspeak in my wordplay yesterday, and when i did the WOTY puzzle at the start of the year I had to use W as an adjective and it was both liberating and terrifying, despite the entire conceit giving me a source to fall back on!
November 28, 2025 at 10:41 AM
oohhh I feel this in my bones. I still felt the need to semi-defend textspeak in my wordplay yesterday, and when i did the WOTY puzzle at the start of the year I had to use W as an adjective and it was both liberating and terrifying, despite the entire conceit giving me a source to fall back on!
(as an aside, I *adore* the link card that @mycrossword.co.uk gives you when you share a puzzle on here; it's lovely and neat, shows the cover photo in all its glory, and in this instance makes me feel good about staying up late to finish the annotations so that the displayed date would be correct!)
November 27, 2025 at 11:35 PM
(as an aside, I *adore* the link card that @mycrossword.co.uk gives you when you share a puzzle on here; it's lovely and neat, shows the cover photo in all its glory, and in this instance makes me feel good about staying up late to finish the annotations so that the displayed date would be correct!)
Rannygazoo, let's have a tune! Specifically, one you could bookend thus:
Colin? He runs a lab, right? (6)
All the bad stuff you've been caught doing online! (6)
When I count three, you can solve on MyCrossword, but be warned - afterwards, you may need a lie-down!
mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2895
Colin? He runs a lab, right? (6)
All the bad stuff you've been caught doing online! (6)
When I count three, you can solve on MyCrossword, but be warned - afterwards, you may need a lie-down!
mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2895
Cryptic crossword No 2,895 · MyCrossword
Solve Cryptic crossword No 2,895 on MyCrossword. 15x15 grid with 30 clues by Panthera. Published Thu 27 Nov 2025. Features annotated solutions. Free to solve online.
mycrossword.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Rannygazoo, let's have a tune! Specifically, one you could bookend thus:
Colin? He runs a lab, right? (6)
All the bad stuff you've been caught doing online! (6)
When I count three, you can solve on MyCrossword, but be warned - afterwards, you may need a lie-down!
mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2895
Colin? He runs a lab, right? (6)
All the bad stuff you've been caught doing online! (6)
When I count three, you can solve on MyCrossword, but be warned - afterwards, you may need a lie-down!
mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2895
Reposted by Panthera
BBC News: "the government believe refugees are deliberately bringing their children to avoid deportation"
As opposed to doing what with their children??
As opposed to doing what with their children??
November 17, 2025 at 10:11 PM
BBC News: "the government believe refugees are deliberately bringing their children to avoid deportation"
As opposed to doing what with their children??
As opposed to doing what with their children??
Reposted by Panthera
The way Labour are talking about migrants validates far right narratives of dehumanisation *at a time of far right riots and racist violence*. The leadership group responsible needs to be removed right now as a matter of public safety. This is simply a factual description of the situation before us.
Honestly, the potential case for getting rid of Starmer before was the lack of any political project and absence of charisma. But now No.10 is creating a moral imperative for the PLP to act as well.
November 17, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The way Labour are talking about migrants validates far right narratives of dehumanisation *at a time of far right riots and racist violence*. The leadership group responsible needs to be removed right now as a matter of public safety. This is simply a factual description of the situation before us.
the best I can do in terms of sourcing, apart from just browsing image search results of industrial scales, is this Measurement Canada manual, which does at least suggest my initial thoughts about the context in which the abbreviation is used are accurate:
ised-isde.canada.ca/site/measure...
ised-isde.canada.ca/site/measure...
Field Inspection Manual — Non-Automatic Weighing Devices (lm04341)
Field Inspection Manual — Non-Automatic Weighing Devices
ised-isde.canada.ca
November 15, 2025 at 5:09 PM
the best I can do in terms of sourcing, apart from just browsing image search results of industrial scales, is this Measurement Canada manual, which does at least suggest my initial thoughts about the context in which the abbreviation is used are accurate:
ised-isde.canada.ca/site/measure...
ised-isde.canada.ca/site/measure...
For tare, the abbreviation might come from commercial/shipping contexts (I'm thinking cargo containers and the like) but also: weighing scales. Industrial/posh ones might have a tare function as well as the zero function, and it looks like the button for that, if "tare" won't fit, can be marked T.
November 15, 2025 at 5:07 PM
For tare, the abbreviation might come from commercial/shipping contexts (I'm thinking cargo containers and the like) but also: weighing scales. Industrial/posh ones might have a tare function as well as the zero function, and it looks like the button for that, if "tare" won't fit, can be marked T.
Both an excellent resource and a pleasure to browse - "used by medieval scribes and setters of advanced puzzles" got funnier every time I saw it!
November 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Both an excellent resource and a pleasure to browse - "used by medieval scribes and setters of advanced puzzles" got funnier every time I saw it!
Hah, one of my all-time faves just so happens to be "A run of notes getting higher or lower (7)" from a Methuselah a few years back...
November 3, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Hah, one of my all-time faves just so happens to be "A run of notes getting higher or lower (7)" from a Methuselah a few years back...
oh whoops, that's *exactly* what happened, because i wanted an upwards reversal for an initial draft of 4d that never went anywhere - well deduced...
October 31, 2025 at 6:15 PM
oh whoops, that's *exactly* what happened, because i wanted an upwards reversal for an initial draft of 4d that never went anywhere - well deduced...
(as with many ideas one might have for a mini, this one has already been done by @henriwords.com - not long after they were introduced to MyCrossword, in fact! - but I've only gone and one-upped him... or, uh, one-downed him, I guess?)
October 31, 2025 at 5:48 PM
(as with many ideas one might have for a mini, this one has already been done by @henriwords.com - not long after they were introduced to MyCrossword, in fact! - but I've only gone and one-upped him... or, uh, one-downed him, I guess?)