Thom

anton lesser

Very difficult; I generally dislike the ones where you've got to solve most of the clues blind before actually entering anything. A certain grim satisfaction from grinding out the solution though, and a real "aha!" moment when I realised what was going on with the prisoners

crossword grid

Ergo, thematic clues needed ‘prisoners’ (CON, LAG, POW) removed before entry. Finally; the opera was FIDELIO, in which FLORESTAN was rescued by FIDELIO - who was actually LEONORE in disguise - so swap the letters for FIDELIO with those for LEONORE, leaving real words throughout, and we’re done. ouch

a filled crossword grid; the words FIELIO and FLORESTAN can be found nestled within the grid

A perfect storm of IQ irritations: no numbers, misprinted clues, 90% cold-solving before ANYTHING could go in, thematic alteration, fiddly endgame, also IT WAS ABOUT OPERA. Anyway. Final grid here. Misprints, once re-ordered (which took ages) spell LUDWIN VAN BEETHOVEN’S ONLY OPERA; FREE PRISONER

The last season of Girls is just really lovely television

This one is a nightmare

Refrain for a Stretch by Bungo Clues are in alphabetical order of their solutions. The answers to six normal clues must undergo a thematic adjustment before entry in the grid; enumerations refer to answer lengths. Remaining clues each contain a misprint of one letter in the definition; with the clues in conventional grid order the correct letters give the theme and a hint to the thematic adjustment required. In the completed grid, solvers must reveal a character's true identity, thereby completing the character's mission, which solvers must highlight (two words, sixteen cells in total). At all points the completed grid contains only real words, names and places.

Oh god I’m too hungover for this

Not very good

And now let’s hope this film about Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch getting divorced is equally as fun!

And now let’s hope this film about Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch getting divorced is equally as fun!

Kermit and Sabrina Carpenter doing islands in the stream!! What more do you want out of television!!!!!

Delighted on some molecular level by the new Muppets show

(boring, badly written on a sentence by sentence craft level, sex scenes that were v embarrassing to read but also not enough of them for this to quality as smut, which at least I’d respect. Can’t see who this appeals to. Americans? In the afterword the first person the author thanks is God? Weird)

Fourth wing

Ok. I try to avoid making sweeping judgement statements re objective quality with my reading; I’m no literary snob, obvs different books appeal to different people & I’d hate to rain on anybody’s parade. This is apparently a huge success so, well done to everybody involved. That said: dogshit

Here’s what I’m going to recommend to my followers, as a treat: put on Mezzanine. Go on. Do it

Fallout theory: I think there’s a connection between the ghoul and Cooper Howard (the guy in the past). Maybe they’re related?

We went to the stage play almost immediately after I read it and I hooted with excitement when I realised who the guy was!!

A murder of quality

See my previous review, but more so. less spycraft, more JLC getting over going to boarding school. In an afterword he describes it as “a flawed thriller with some amusing social commentary” which is about right. By the time this was published he’d already written TSWCIFTC, thank god

Call for the dead

The first Smiley novel: a curiosity from the years when he was meant to be a Poirot type retired spy who solved murders in his spare time. Features several side characters who reoccur in TSWCIFTC so is actually important to the canon. That said I didn’t really need to see Smiley get in a fist fight

Books read in 2026, a thread:

Certainly somebody of a similar level of writing skill

google autocorrect suggesting i change 'loots' to 'lootes', a word that isn't actually a fucking word

what in god's name

I’ve googled it. A talented thief in a big city with magic powers is it. Wow

Genuinely reckon the “swimmingly” was as big a red flag as anything else

Homer looking through the window of moes tavern

Me hearing second hand about all the great banter all my male friends are having on the group chat I set up to organise my stag do

Starmer out

Dunc and egg

I love these two

If you dump most of your points into strength, Bloodhound Fang and Mimic Tear can pretty much get you through most of it without much bother

You think the nice people at bluesky enjoy having to pay for server space to store posts like this gabby?