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Diabolically Arcane

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Order Paper [April 11-16]

11 April, 2011

When it comes to mockumentaries about stationery companies, my bias has been towards The [American] Office, only because I find Steve Carell’s cowardice more comic than Ricky Gervais’s egotism. And on Saturday, that bias bit me on the ass. Or arse – depending on which sitcom you prefer.

Because I slipped again. This time in Times 8974, with this clue:

Use services of Wernham Hogg, where business is down (5,5)

Firstly, I forgot that Wernham Hogg was the original Dunder Mifflin. And second, I was wrongfooted by the Times resorting to contemporary TV. Not a common event. Meaning I missed the sitcom link, in tandem with then Westminster reference of Part II – since an ORDER PAPER is a running sheet of Parliament’s carry-on. I took a dumb punt with GREEN PAPER.

Rats, and double rats. And I’d worked so hard to reach Number 3 in my new century bid too! Untying some real pretzels, including these last two that I still fully grasp. Do you?

Extent of Crusaders' objective? = ACRE [Essentially sacred?]

To lose weight, steals fruit = HIPS [does steals = whips?]

So if you wish to start a clean slate with Astle, aiming for a run of solved Times with no book-peeking, and no Google-whacking, and no solution-trading among peers – but plenty of peer support – then order your paper for Times 8974 today in The Australian. And save me from being a Dunderhead.

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If you missed my riddle chat with Richard Fidler, then feel free to slurp the podcast at http://ab.co/1I9t1x5

Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
OBVS I'm fine with it
Entrenched stuff - like LOL and OMG - but no more.
Words With Friends, maybe. Scrabble, no
Let the 'real' dictionaries decide first
Just the handy stuff, like FAQ and EUW
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