Some hoarded toilet paper and non-perishables in the pandemic, but my storm cellar was packed with five volumes of cryptic crosswords. | theage crossword compiler David Astle
My plague journals run from August 2019 until August 2022, three years of curfews and lockdowns, vaccines and staycations. Plus 606 crosswords, or 202 per book, being the marathon I solved along the way. The trilogy is dog-eared, its grids and margins loaded with my earlier scribble: the anagram wheels and nib-testing squiggles, the fugitive ideas and to-do lists – my life, in short, squashed to fit.
That was July 2019, a job lot at Dymocks. If alien overlords arrived at the weekend, at least I had a life’s supply of puns and other treats, a chance to hide in my storm cellar to chew untold deceptions. I began Book 1, Puzzle 1, on August 1, never realising the alien force was just months away, via a questionable bat in Wuhan.
Still, the trilogy lends a glimpse of the blur we’ve all endured. We still endure. Late 2019, tackling a pesky homophone, I noted how some acronym called COVID began to hog my newsfeed. By March 2021, I was decoding charade clues and other formulas in a bid to limit the doomscrolling.The crosswords kept me sane. Or to quote Book 1, Puzzle 194, 14-down: Violent upheaval in which many stay calm, remarkably .
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The latest watches serial collectors have added to their wish listsOf the hundreds of new timepieces released each year, just a few will become must-haves.
Read more »
I regretted not having a long braid when my mother diedHair is considered a sacred part of the body in my tribe, and Mom left me her hair, but I couldn’t give her anything
Read more »
COVID cost Qantas more money in three years than was made in five years prior: JoyceQantas CEO Alan Joyce has addressed various issues the company has been struggling with as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. “On a statutory basis, Qantas … has seen COVID cost us more money in the past three years than we made in the five years before that, including some record years of profitability,” he said during a media conference on Thursday. “That fact that we have been able to steer through it is really remarkable, and now that we are through it, things are improving even faster than we expected.”
Read more »
The Sydney home owners slashing their price expectations to sellHouse price discounting in Sydney has reached its highest level in almost three years, as sellers in some pockets slash their price expectations by more than 10 per cent.
Read more »
Qantas records $1.9 billion loss as it takes off again after pandemicQantas has recorded an underlying loss of nearly $2 billion, the third year in a row the airline has lost substantial amounts of money.
Read more »
Bayles in the Blockbuster: Quaden to star in Hollywood filmThe young Murri boy already has one in the can with Three Thousand Years of Longing alongside Idris Elba, and is set to start filming for Mad Max spin-off 'Furiosa'.
Read more »