The Stickler Weekly 88 Solution

If you are a regular reader of the Stickler Weekly Solutions you’ll know that I often refer to articles, blogs, crosswords, clues etc from around the globe. As a rule, I don’t always identify authors of clues due largely to my position as a professional crossword setter. It depends solely on whether my thoughts could be considered to be overly-critical of setters or crosswords. Unlike a solver who can demand the best from their newspaper, I must view every crossword as the property of a publisher and a source of current or future work. The very fact that a crossword is published is an endorsement of that crossword (and the setter) and any questioning of the quality or otherwise would be a questioning of the publisher’s decision to run that crossword. In other words, knock the crossword and you knock the publisher. It’s fine and appropriate (and necessary) for solvers to do this, but not me. So if you see something mentioned without a direct reference, this is why. I want to use real clues to make a point, but I don’t want to intentionally upset anyone. Without this restraint, who knows what I might say?