Scrumptious DA on 5/6th of March, 2010
Awesomeness, humdrumness or crappiness?
You be the judge!
(No spoilers until Monday)1
Update: I just didn't do it:
I looked at for about ten minutes on Saturday, got nothing and never looked at it again.
I think I'm losing my DA mojo. Of my usual DA partners, RC is in Rio and TH is about to head to NYC. Their absence might have something to do with it.
DA Joy from the 26/27th of February
It's time to fall in love all over again with DA.
Happy times.
(No spoilers in the comments till Monday.)
Update: I didn't even look at the crossword this week.
RC in Rio has had me reminiscing of the times I spent there, where everything is in Portuguese, and English doesn't have the same flavour.
Portuguese really is much prettier than Spanish or French or Italian -- I recommend your learning it, and I thoroughly recommend your reading anything by Jorge Amado, Clarice Lispector and Machado de Assis, all of whom are largely unknown in the Anglophone world.
DA for the 19/20th of Feb, 2010
Your verdicts below.
(No spoilers till Monday)
Update: Fun, although I didn't have enough time to do it:
The Dylan clue tipped me off, and then stuff got in the way and I didn't have time to proceed.
DA on the 12/13th of Feb, 2010
Any good?
By the way, have a look at what's in store in the next edition of Meanjin.
Until then, let us know your diagnosis on this week's.
(No spoilers, though, till Monday)
Update: A decent crossword by all reports, and I say by all reports because I hardly did it:
Sadly, I only looked at this week's for an hour or so and didn't get so far in that hour.
The Verdict on the First DA of Feb, 2010
Good, bad, indifferent?
I reckon it's time for a theme. Have I guessed correctly?
(No spoilers on this post until Monday)
Update: It's a theme all right:
Yes, this one's a sweet delight, and an excellent head bender even when the key 4-down is put away. I've ultimately been held back from taking it all out with what I find most difficult: DA's short clues.
Part of the Para Pantheon at least.
DA’s Last in Jan 2010
What have we got this time?
(No spoilers about the crossword in this post until Monday)
Update: A solid DA:
I gave up on the last three, which I assumed I would never have gotten without some external assistance.
I think I was right given the comments.
I was also hoping for a pangrammatic crossword. I hope for that each week anyway, but I thought there was a good chance this week given 1 across. Shame that DA just missed out.
DA’s 4th of 2010
I'm looking forward to a quality showing.
(No spoilers until Monday on this post).
Update: DA's back:
Not anything brilliant by DA's standards, but a solid performance nonetheless.
I had a solid crack solo on Saturday before CL, FS and M? -- all very eager newbies -- managed to lend a hand on a couple while at Poached on Rathdowne in Carlton.
Overall, pretty good without anything standing out.
DA’s Third for 2010
This week's a goodie?
Make your verdict here.
(No spoilers on this post till Monday)
Update: Has this been the poorest month of DAs on record?
I really wanted to love this crossword. I love cricket and I especially love cricket terminology -- silly mid off, short leg, fine leg, french cut, left-arm chinaman, googly, slips, leg cutter, yorker, flipper, bumper, bouncer, cherry, full toss are all colourful and fun.
Alas, I struggled. Maybe I whinge too much, maybe my skills are waning, but right now I'm thinking I was unjustifiably made to struggle on a few occasions.
Am I just a trundling grumbler, or was this cryptic as lacking in joy as I found it?
2010’s 2nd DA
Sydneysiders still get in first with the DA goodstuff. At least for a few minutes, my impatience is diverted by the kenken puzzles that The Age has only recently started to publish, but not on Saturdays.
DA, Friday still misses you.
(No spoilers till Monday)
Update: I didn't do it.
For the first time in a long time, I didn't do the DA while in Melbourne. I had a quick look in a cafe, worked out LOST CAUSE and SIGNED UP and never went back to it.
By the sounds of things, though, this week's was rather a frustrating one. I harbour the suspicion that working out LOST CAUSE was what stopped me bothering with the rest of it: COST LAWS as a slow movement towards anarchy was a DA-ism that I thought pretty poor and which put me off the rest of the damn thing.
I'll be back, but I think I needed a break, and I get the impression that I chose a good week to take that break.
A New Year DA
Be not surprised: DA's crossword has not been published early. I am writing up this post early, though, because I'll be without internet for the next few days, including Friday and a lot of Saturday.
I have a sneaking suspicion, or maybe just an idle hope, that DA will be published on Friday in Melbourne so that the crosswords are aligned.
Whatever day it comes out, though, talk about it here (but without spoilers until Monday).
Update: I feel brutalised:
I can't remember the last time I started with such a flourish. I knocked over the south west in record time and few more to boot only to stall badly for a long time indeed. I resorted to looking at what people had said on the DA Confusion to help me out, and even then I was left with a few to spare.
I was thinking DA may have answered my challenge and produced a pangrammatic crossword. Alas, as others who've completed the crossword have pointed out, an F is missing. If GAWK had been FARK or FALK (the actor's surname), the dream would have come true.
In my opinion, very hard indeed, although others seem to have completed it comfortably.
