This is me when I started reading the Guardian Weekly at community radio 2XX in Canberra, where I worked in the early 1980s.
Nowadays I subscribe mainly for the cryptic crossword. My record is 40 minutes, but I only manage to get about one in three finished. I love it when I get tricked into putting in a wrong answer, eg “Cavern rent by large split (5)”. Answer: “clove”, not “calve”. Ouch!
I start with the cryptic and oscillate back and forward when I get stuck, eventually making it to the news pages. I still miss Araucaria, the one true genius of the genre. How about bringing out some old ones that never made it to the Weekly?
Nowadays I work for the Western Australia Council of Social Service in Perth, providing consultancy services to community organisations. Much more fun than my 13 years in state government. Before that I had an itinerant career recording oral histories, teaching broadcast journalism and being a stay-at-home dad. Kids are grown up now – one an eye surgeon, the other teaching computer science at uni.
Thanks for all the hours of enjoyment. I’ve even contributed on occasion, once getting three entries in three weeks: a letter and a question and an answer in Notes & Queries. Still waiting on a good answer to why the propeller is at the back on a ship but at the front on a plane.
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