Alan Connor

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Alan Connor

In February, this clue appeared as eight down in a puzzle from Tramp: 8d Guessing John, finally is eighty: posh spread? (13) [wordplay: anagram of last letter of (“finally”) JOHN & ISEIGHTYPOSH] [definition: guessing]The answer is HYPOTHESISING. The following week, the Guardian received this charming letter: My family are apparently arranging a tea party for my significant birthday in March, and it seems that your crossword setter Tramp has got wind of this.

3 weeks ago | msn.com | Alan Connor

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Alan Connor

How can you tell if a phrase is American English, as opposed to the kinds spoken in the UK and elsewhere? I spent some pleasurable time searching theguardian.com to see who has used the phrase “no way, no how”. An American cadence, but since it had appeared in an editorial about George Osborne, I gave it a clean bill of health.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alan Connor

Not so long ago, we moved the quiptic – the Guardian’s “puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry” – so that it appears on Sundays. We had no way of knowing it at the time but this has recently proved to be a boon as the subsequent departure of the Observer’s puzzles to their new home left us confronting the unacceptable possibility of there being a horrible day when a new puzzle does not appear at this site, in our app and so on.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alan Connor

Happily, for those asking, we can be specific regarding the locations of our departing puzzles: the latest of each can be found on the new Observer site at observer.co.uk/crossword in playable form for the most recent puzzle with an archive for each of Speedy, Everyman and Azed. Vale!Here a splendid Genius puzzle by Tramp takes the place at the top of the index previously occupied by a previous, splendid Genius puzzle by Enigmatist.