Charlie Methven
@charliemethven.bsky.social
I set cryptic crosswords as Methuselah and Chameleon and write questions for Only Connect • charliemethven.com • he/him
Well I assumed helipad, but even if it it's not abbreviating anything, I think it'd still be legit on the visual principle - O looks like a ringlet etc
November 18, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Well I assumed helipad, but even if it it's not abbreviating anything, I think it'd still be legit on the visual principle - O looks like a ringlet etc
I wouldn't say 'utterly' as you can argue a shared resource is the only way to be really fair, but yes my aim with this is partly to expose the dustier abbreviations to some sunlight
November 17, 2025 at 10:42 PM
I wouldn't say 'utterly' as you can argue a shared resource is the only way to be really fair, but yes my aim with this is partly to expose the dustier abbreviations to some sunlight
The "usual suspects" tickbox sort of does the latter if you mean usage in modern crosswords. If you mean marking abbreviations in common use in real life in 2025 I think that's harder to rule on. I could potentially add tags for Collins at some point
November 16, 2025 at 10:42 AM
The "usual suspects" tickbox sort of does the latter if you mean usage in modern crosswords. If you mean marking abbreviations in common use in real life in 2025 I think that's harder to rule on. I could potentially add tags for Collins at some point
Yeah... there's just not a snappy way to say "abbreviations or synonyms leading to single-letter fodder"
November 16, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Yeah... there's just not a snappy way to say "abbreviations or synonyms leading to single-letter fodder"
You could paste the clues into a spreadsheet and colour-code there or even set up conditional formatting so they're coloured based on the contents of an Easy/Medium/Hard column. I do that for checking variety of devices
November 15, 2025 at 5:21 PM
You could paste the clues into a spreadsheet and colour-code there or even set up conditional formatting so they're coloured based on the contents of an Easy/Medium/Hard column. I do that for checking variety of devices
Ooh maybe? Did electronic scales exist when Chambers was first wrought though? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that'd have made it into subsequent updates, but maybe
November 15, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Ooh maybe? Did electronic scales exist when Chambers was first wrought though? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that'd have made it into subsequent updates, but maybe
Cheers! Those bonus numerals seem fair enough in advanced puzzles, but wanted to warn everyone else that you're not expected to learn them!
November 15, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Cheers! Those bonus numerals seem fair enough in advanced puzzles, but wanted to warn everyone else that you're not expected to learn them!
😬 oops, of course. This is the last thing they need right now as well
November 15, 2025 at 5:06 PM
😬 oops, of course. This is the last thing they need right now as well
Hope it's useful!
November 15, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Hope it's useful!
Yeah I think someone suggested that when I asked before... Thanks for the other suggestions!
November 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Yeah I think someone suggested that when I asked before... Thanks for the other suggestions!
Hope it's useful! It's gonna save me a lot of time too I think
November 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Hope it's useful! It's gonna save me a lot of time too I think
Preparing this list is the direct cause of me trying to get .y head round imaginary numbers... what a trip www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Imaginary Numbers
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss imaginary numbers.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Preparing this list is the direct cause of me trying to get .y head round imaginary numbers... what a trip www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
I'd guess any individual decision to withhold alt text has essentially zero impact on training an AI, but on the other hand guarantees that any visually impaired people coming across that post will be excluded from it
November 2, 2025 at 8:35 PM
I'd guess any individual decision to withhold alt text has essentially zero impact on training an AI, but on the other hand guarantees that any visually impaired people coming across that post will be excluded from it
But if "Woolf novel" ➡️ To the Lighthouse w/o us having to secretly mentally decode it as "novel by Woolf", why can't "red head" ➡️ R directly? You're mentally detouring into the secret third phrase unnecessarily IMO!
November 2, 2025 at 12:27 PM
But if "Woolf novel" ➡️ To the Lighthouse w/o us having to secretly mentally decode it as "novel by Woolf", why can't "red head" ➡️ R directly? You're mentally detouring into the secret third phrase unnecessarily IMO!
But if you were learning a new skill where "red" meant a particular tool, you'd have no trouble understanding "redhead" as jargon for the top/head etc of that tool. So not sure why "redhead" can't just be a setterly coinage where the object is "red" (the word)
November 2, 2025 at 11:16 AM
But if you were learning a new skill where "red" meant a particular tool, you'd have no trouble understanding "redhead" as jargon for the top/head etc of that tool. So not sure why "redhead" can't just be a setterly coinage where the object is "red" (the word)
I've never really bought that "car door" is a sort of illicit shorthand for "door of the car" rather than a parallel way of expressing the same thing. Is "Woolf novel" indirect as a definition because we should really see it as "novel of/by/from Woolf"?
November 2, 2025 at 10:55 AM
I've never really bought that "car door" is a sort of illicit shorthand for "door of the car" rather than a parallel way of expressing the same thing. Is "Woolf novel" indirect as a definition because we should really see it as "novel of/by/from Woolf"?
Love the way you hold out an olive branch just long enough to snap it here 😆
November 1, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Love the way you hold out an olive branch just long enough to snap it here 😆
Some additional thematic material has arrived
October 31, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Some additional thematic material has arrived