John

Wordle 1,572 5/6* (very mildly.) ⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 8 October, 2025 (I got this by guessing then got it got it. I hear people my age go on about how much worse they feel than when they were younger and it has never rung true for me because I had bouts of severe juvenile arthritis and continuing bouts of spondyloarthritis. So I've generally felt about the same or better most of the time. Or, at least I have worse reference points to how bad one can feel, or something like that. I think going on a skateboard would probably not be a good idea without practice and I definitely get fatter quicker. However there is an accumulation of grief dreams. When one has a dream about someone or someplace that directly or indirectly isn't there any more. I had three last night - dad, Peter the mechanic visiting and realising dad wasn't there to talk to him, one of two gramdads being a bit mad but in a nostalgic way, and a deaf great aunt, at a house that had been demolished in a town where my family no longer lives and I'd now visit as a tourist not a guest, all made cameos. On the other hand, I am still amused by someone having "Send flowers over dick pics anyday!" in their Tinder about info, last night, because I thought about the types of flowers that could cover genitals and the logistics of taking the selfie*. What a wonderful age of technology.) "Spain's and France's and Italy's earliest hairy humanoid" (4) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 2 under the community par (34,120 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_NsRgb4Eg * for reference I wouldn't do this for fear of them turning up at a later date on a website for, the albeit probably tiny, community of women with a fetish for flowers over dick pics. Plus solicited dick pics are less foul than unsolicited ones but also a bit of a red flag. I don't think the flowers over dick pics were solicited. I could send a picture of Morrissey but that's maybe a niche joke.

Wordle 1,571 3/6* (1/3 answer, but effectively 1/2 or 2/3 depending on how the goat was removed, they were similar choices but I had prior understanding, gained through guesswork & intuition, of how they pick words.) ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 7 October, 2025 (a British internet piggy bank. I don't really agree with it because I think a world in which there is loads of nonsense indistinguishable from truth means people won't trust what they read. Which is, in some ways, what has happened. Except rather that self reflection and attempts at critical thinking people believe in whatever makes sense to them and makes them angry or happy. In an attempt to monetise GPUs AI firms are going to increasingly pivot to video content with adverts. Nothing could go wrong there. I saw a cool video in which Dutch people go nuts for tulips. There was a happy, or at least not sad, ending - maybe it needs to be angrier or sadder for maximum engagement.) "Tailor billed 500 less for offensive suit?" (5) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 1 under the community par (34,535 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=HdfcM7SMfmU

Wordle 1,570 4/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 6 October, 2025 (got it. I'm not so much in hibernation as grumpination whereby I feel the news is depressing enough that the best reaction to it is to do something else. Reading the news is like reading a medieval bestiary, where the underlying creeds curate a collection of thinly veiled moral stories that, from their perspective, can teach the reader something about themselves and god's plan for the world. Reinforcing societal norms and normalising concerns. News was proto-social media. Social media with fewer bosses and fewer people called things like beatingmyCuck667, PeaceSusan13, PaulioNo2Vx, NotRscistBurtI88 and ReikiHerbert3, replying and subscribing and sharing and lapping it up, like a snowball made of gits. That's not to imply news doesn't exist or isn't important, because it does exist, and is important. Also breakfast.) "Rejected dwarf Bashful left plushy toy unfinished" (5) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 2 under the community par (31,080 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=iz9MToFZFMM

Wordle 1,569 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 5 October, 2025 (Once I got it, it makes sense and there is unambiguously a single answer but I found that one difficult because I assumed the obvious guess wasn't the answer. Dioxus*, which is a full stack app framework for Rust, which I'm hoping gets to 0.7 because it's pretty exciting and useful - the extent to which I dislike node.js electron etc. is because I see it as an unaccountability and emshittification framework, but quite irrationally so. Anyway, that aside, Dioxus' 0.6 tutorial has an app that pulls random images of dogs and a user can click yes or no if they like those dogs. I would never use dogs in the context of women because of the connotations of bitches but I am on Tinder and while I don't consider myself a dog, but there are worse animals.) "Right, Left! Marches keeping time for strikers?" (7) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 2 under the community par (27,950 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqnw_kPh9-8 * https://dioxuslabs.com/

Wordle 1,568 3/6* ⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟩🟨🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 4 October, 2025 (breakfast. Talk later.) "Leaves Inca ruins in Western Hemisphere" (7) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 3 under the community par (27,400 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bNMxMtiv3aY

World Food, 108-112 Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells. Long may their quality be supreme, their sales volumes high, and their prices reasonable. Recommended. A large range.

There has been quite a few good releases recently. My liked list currently stands at 534 songs (although some albums those songs are from would substantially increase that number). A screenshot of current top of the stack. Far Away is from an album I own that has been reissued because I don't recall that version of the song and Matt Friedberger is a marvellous musical pain in the arse (which I unequivocally mean as a term of endearment - if people were quarter of the musician he is they'd likely be very successful). I quite like Israel Strom's Fizz Inc. because it's like Zappa meets Windows 95. And DJ_Dave live programs, which isn't new as a concept but DJ_Dave's songs have the expression and feeling that is often missing and not ephemeral - in summary live programs music and is good at it. They're unrelated musically but in my head it's filed next to Stellardrone's Airglow and Simian's Orange Glow. I think neurons work like that.

Wordle 1,567 4/6* 🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟩⬛🟩🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 3 October, 2025 (I feel like I'm that answer, getting this clue because I used a crossword dictionary and went backwards from there, which is barely satisfactory, and it would have between three and one under the community par, had I used hints. Not entirely without skill because there were 15 other potential answers and I knew it which one because of the wordplay. As an adult I think it is an advantage and a disadvantage to have a realistic idea about one's own abilities. It's an advantage because knowing what you don't know is half the battle and also a disadvantage because knowing what you don't know makes you less likely to attempt something and learn as you do it. Or look like a dick, a legend or both. Yin and Yang naïvety.) "Sham hearing: litigate partner for a buck" (6) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 4 under the community par (23,400 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=_qO2v4IuIws

I add the All Bran in the morning so it goes crunchy cereal, cocoa, yoghurt, fruit/chia, cocoa/raisins. If the serial was in overnight it'd lose too much crunch.

Wordle 1,566 3/6* 🟨🟩⬛⬛⬛ ⬛🟩⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 2 October, 2025 (It's difficult to balance any game or puzzles when it has mass market appeal unless its schtick is that it is casual or very difficult. I think varying it up is the only sane approach because then there is something for everyone. At the.moment, well not right not at this moment, I am eating cherries for breakfast with yoghurt and All Bran‡. It is quite a feat of engineering, or at the least, evolved deliciousness. I have half gram sensitive scales for cooking. I take a French style breakfast bowl and place 20gms of raisins at the bottom and about a teaspoon of cocoa powder. I put 80gm of frozen fruit on top, at the moment it's cherries, then add 15gm of chia seeds, then 100gm of Greek type yogurt, then another teaspoon of cocoa. I cover it with tinfoil and put it in the fridge for the fruit to defrost overnight. Then when I wake up I add 40gms of All Bran although I'm vaguely considering replacing it with just bran sticks, because I really don't need the fortifications, but the unsweetened, unfortified, bran sticks cost more than both Sainsbury's own brand bran sticks and Kellogs All Bran. To their discredit Lidl stopped selling their bran sticks. The chia seeds, raisins and cocoa powder below and adjacent to the fruit absorb excess moisture from the fruit juices and make a kind of chocolate sauce. All Bran contains sugar. So basically I start my day with a kind of dark chocolate pudding.) "20/20 vision eye patch" (3) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 1 under the community par (31,188 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=hyEbFfuesxQ (A footnote regarding; Psychologist's Propeller EP. I don't really know much about how popular music works and the bits I do often seem appalling, but between the Propeller EP and the album: https://woodsybransfield.bandcamp.com/album/psychologist Very, very, good art and music. ) ‡ https://youtu.be/IENDDX3r_0k

Wordle 1,565 3/6* ⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟨⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 1 October, 2025 (I enjoyed that clue despite it taking me a while head scratching. I've had repeated anxiety dreams for about a week and a half. The first few were about CeX where there was something I wanted to buy but inevitably it wasn't working properly or they had trouble finding it. Today's dream was having left my passport at home and trying to dig it out for a trip to a very saccharine looking farm shop/museum in some posh part of California, where they think apples are magic, cosplay rural life, and cowboys pay $1000 for a jumper that requires a delicate hand wash. Although, as it turned out, in the dream it was actually a more down-market farm that was probably much cheaper and potentially more disappointing yet marginally less annoying. I got the wrong website. I couldn't find my passport and woke up before I could find it, which I'm going to interpret as a good omen because although it generated some anxiety about not been able to find something, neither museum/farm appealed to me and worst case I'd lost the money. Maybe subconsciously I'd lost the passport on purpose. Also maybe it reflects a general anxiety about right now. I'll stick with it being a good omen and underpaid* and overworked CeX workers not adequately checking their camera stock. Also I'm still fairly inflamed and have been since the bug got bored of me.) "Blue feathers discarded?" (4,2,3,5) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 3 under the community par (28,083 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=W9I6vukZdG4 * I don't think the stores have high margins and survive on the volume of turnover. So it's not like Blackwells or something. But I have a soft-spot for CeX workers because they look like people who are finding ways to not fit in. They're not quite my people because I don't really have my people but they're my people adjacent and generate some degree of empathy.

Wordle 1,564 4/6* ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟩 🟩⬛⬛⬛🟩 🟩⬛⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 30 September, 2025 (Pain is a subjective thing, not just physical, and there are lots of people going through worse, so saying that I've woken at five in enough pain not to be able to sleep is a statement of fact rather than an appeal to emotions. It's inconvenient, and unpleasant, but I don't feel that depressed about it. Also, doubly so that I seem to be fighting off whatever it is that's making feel ill and fuzzy headed, and everyone seems to have COVID again, and apart from the last time, every time I had COVID was a holiday from spondyloarthritis. One potential explanation, which is an observation and anecdotal, is that maybe COVID dented the immune system like methotrexate or some other immune suppressant. Well, if it is COVID, and I won't test because I've been mostly keeping away from people other than those who gave it to me, the immune suppression bit has drastically reduced, either I've adjusted or the virus has, because my rib cage currently feels like I've been playing rugby against a team of giant fat men with excellent cardio health, my flanks feel like they've been repeatedly kicked by billy goats I attempted to sellotape to my back during a breakdown at a petting zoo., and my jaw feels like I've being eating snookerball sized gobstoppers. It could be worse in lots of ways. I could have been kicked by an amorous donkey, beaten to a pulp by gammon because they overheard me talking about spices at the snooker hall where the light is dim enough everyone has a tan, or caught hanging Welsh flags outside Prets. I think we should hang Welsh flags because Y Ddraig Goch is more metal than even the Bhutan flag and while I don't explicitly have a problem with the England Flag or the Union Jack they categorically do not feature dragons.) "Little bit of whisky? Not at two in the morning!" (4) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 3 under the community par (14,895 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=lYfZ4TJk1pc

Wordle 1,563 3/6* ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟨🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 29 September, 2025 (Two checking letters. I'm OK. A little congested, subdued and abstract. Like a doorman with a pollen allergy, grieving love lost, on fancy dress night.) "Slender shiny sharpened steel strikers!?" (6) 🟡🟡🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 2 hints – 1 under the community par (36,740 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=htmwzV11Wb8

Wordle 1,562 4/6* 🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬛🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟨🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 28 September, 2025 (I'm still too slow at certain puzzle things. I suspect I have a cold or COVID. Or At least the early stages of either. Last time I had COVID was the 16th of October 2023 to the 18th of October 2023, positive to negative. That was the third, and least severe, having been repeatedly infected and vaccinated, by that time. The first time I had a tremendously bad sore throat - the worst sore throat I've had in adulthood. The second time wasn't that bad - a week of feeling a bit odd and unwell, however the sting in the tail was about a week later I had my first ever bout of Actual Flu. I've capitalised Actual Flu because IYKYK - very unpleasant, I couldn't stand, pain levels concomitant with a full arthritic flare-up, a day of feeling so unpleasantly ill I thought I may die. The one thing that has united each bout of COVID is hyperosmia - the opposite of what COVID is generally associated with and a massive, virtually bonkers, craving for meat. I did my self a bacon, eggs and black pudding every day with a throat of razor blades. All of which sound like bullshit but a quick search reveals a similar theme for some on some vegan forums and I am mostly vegan, very omnivorous, so it's not some misguided meat flex. Nature rolls dice so I'm not confident COVID will always be like that for me and I won't relish having it again. It's not trivial. Any virus, maybe especially a relatively novel one like COVID, carries a risk of post viral complications. I'm not sure I'd notice because I already have an auto-immune disease. If I'm found in Tunbridge Wells' M&S gorging myself on black-pudding, steak & kidney pudding and assorted animal meat products you'll know it happened again. I'd maybe get some pastries or cake for afters. I wouldn't do that because I wouldn't want to infect other people. I'd be there in spirit and someone else will have a shopping list, maybe the person who infected me. I wouldn't discuss this on ordinary social media because of people in general having Opinions.) "Ballpark teams’ tie-breaker" (8) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 2 under the community par (19,033 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=n2v1sj9eRXI

Wordle 1,561 4/6* ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟨🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 27 September, 2025 (I found this one very difficult and actually had it worked out in terms of definition and indicators but didn't quite get there. I feel like I've been lobotomized because it's obvious. I must have overslept or slept too deeply. So I dipped in and out of solving this one while doing, or distracted , by other things. That's an excuse though because I feel stupid today. Maybe learning is transcending the steps of stupidity. I hope not.) "Dressing naked pair for clip" (5) ⚪️⚪️🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🤝 2 hints – matched the community par (35,370 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fXVs23oSpEw

Wordle 1,560 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨🟩⬛🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 26 September, 2025 (a difficult one. I was given a programme for a school play I was in, from 1995, as the news about digital IDs broke. Which most people are for, which I'm not against, but I'm also quite skeptical about what they'll achieve. In the early 1990s my school trialled, for maybe a year, memory is not perfect, swipe cards as a way of registering pupils. I was done in conjunction with class registers - the teacher would call out the names of the pupils to get them to say "yes sir" or "yes miss" as a kind of visually backed biometric identification. It took about two days for myself, Ashley, and others to work out that double lessons were relying on the swipe cards. On double lessons you could hand your card to someone else to swipe in because all a person had to do was run a card through a reader at the door. I don't think it happened much because class sizes were quite small. But the next stage, were the swipe cards used by the state, in that case the school, to validate pupils, it would necessarily need another authentication factor. Whether that was a PIN or biometric authentication. Which would work well for class registration. They had digital, parent controlled, lunch cards at my nephews school, whereby if someone's card was undercharged or they forgot it they could use someone else's card, possibly with the aid of the cardholder to get lunch. I don't think it happened but one could also convert money from parents on the lunch cards to cash by reselling, presumably at less than face value, more desirable snacks. The only way that a government ID will prevent Bad Things is if it's biometric, if people play by the rules, and if cash, or equivalent value, doesn't exist. Because people doing anything illegal don't give a shit about IDs and aren't going to play by the rules unlike the postmasters in the British Post Office Scandal. It will, TBF, also help if, god forbid, a truly authoritarian government gets in and wants to make the life of [insert your creed/ethnicity/politics here] difficult. I don't think this government has bad intentions regarding digital IDs, like China's National Online Identity Authentication App, and I'd quite happily use a digital ID. I also think it will be subcontracted to people like Microsoft, Palintir or Oracle (any of whom may do a good job), subject to AI evaluation (see post office scandal), and other bits as underfunded and ad-hoc as large chunks of the British state. Like most countries we already have the infrastructure for a police state but lack the police or the inclination, for now. So whatever. It'll effect muggles, haemophiliacs and other healthcare users, and I wouldn't vote Reform because a lot of racists would. I'm sceptical because scepticism makes for a better system not a worse one. Not checked for spelling or grammar.) "PR pro .rD?" (4,6) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 4 under the community par (24,540 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://youtu.be/XQEBzauVIlA

Wordle 1,559 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 25 September, 2025 (I found this one difficult. I have been a little down because it was the 22nd of September last year when my dad died. I had a call at about 3am and last saw him about 11pm. I'm not especially down just not sure I can effectively communicate things that do or don't annoy me about life in a way that isn't coloured by that. It's the time of year too. There are also things to be cheerful about. Having a legit reason to wear a jumper or fleece. Better photography light. Breakfast.) "Undercover reporter changed surname to protect privacy, initially?" (8) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 3 under the community par (26,558 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciYsktj-X2w&t=270s

Wordle 1,558 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html Minute Cryptic - 24 September, 2025 "12 - 55 + n = 9 - 12" (5) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 4 under the community par (32,045 solvers so far). https://www.minutecryptic.com/