Garment made by exploited worker? (7) SWEATER
Overseas race? (5) SPEED
Every second letter an ‘a’ – bananas? (9) ALTERNATE
Pop singer’s first love is chopped crumbs! (2,6) BY GEORGE
Boats that finish in Madagascar, start there too (6) ARMADA
Above are the answers to the sublime Taupi clues, as posted last week. (ALTERNATE is truly a thing of beauty.) Even [...]
So what difference does a day make?
Far more than 24 hours, going by the chorus of gnashing teeth. Sydney Morning Herald-ites – those in need of a punctual DA fix on Fridays – have filed an official beef with the powers. Just as many DS fans – that’s David Sutton on the payslip – have griped about his own gear switching [...]
Bad news travels slowly – despite what your hear.
Just learned this morning that a slot-machine collector named Albie Fiore died on July 28, the result of a lung tumour. More than hoard one-armed bandits, Albie was a yacht chef, a comicbook writer for Scooby-Doo, a game confidante with Erno Rubik and a crossword maker of the first [...]
My new word for the week. And a new genre on the shelf.
By my reckoning, JM Coetzee is the art-form’s inventor, the South African novelist behind Disgrace, and double-winner of the Booker, plus a Nobel in the swag as well.
I’ve just finished reading Book 3 in his memoir trilogy, a thing called Summertime – and [...]
Double in size, double in size….is not what INXS intended. Their rock anthem – Devil Inside – is among thousands of lyrics we mishear across the airwaves, from Mice Aroma (My Sharona) to Where Was The Thunder (Werewolves of London) to Louise the Bra Eater (La Isla Bonita).
There’s a Dallas Crane song about jetplanes and [...]
Scan this lot and you should be able to make some headway, someway, either via the definition, or at least of glimpse of worplay. My trouble is accounting for every last detail. Like how’s the DOT defined in Herodotus? Or who’s the bloody TV chef? And why are percussion instruments found in a kitchen?!
You’ll see what I mean as [...]
Thirteen outa fourteen is not a bad hit rate. Only one term – the curious HIJAZ KER – in need of defining. The rest, meantime, take us to Japan, Russia and the bottom of the ocean:
barratry: shipmaster’s breach of duty
coadjutor: bishop’s assistant
dieffenbachias: showy houseplant
hijaz ker: ????
lagan: jetsam thrown (and often marked by buoys) with the [...]
Off the bat, no Oxford involved, how many words from the list below do you dare define? All 14 run feral in Pynchon’s latest novel, Inherent Vice – and each lent me pause at the time of reading. While a few remain naggingly familiar, tempting a stab, others present new colours in the rainbow.
Next week, I’ll play [...]
Fritz Drybeam chases bail jumpers.
Dr Rudi Blatnoyd is a smile consultant.
Welcome to the psychodelic cosmos of Thomas Pynchon, his latest novel (Inherent Vice) set in the dope-laced 70s of Gordita Beach, California, a gumshoe mystery embracing zombies, surfies, hippies and Jewish Nazis [sic].
I’m currently putting a review together for The Book Show on Radio National, [...]