Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Feeling rather pleased with myself for finishing this morning's quick crossword despite almost all the across clues being out of sequence...

( Completed crossword spoilers... )

After I took the snapshot, I revealed the final missing letter — the difficult one alluded to by WightOut — and discovered that it was "+" which clearly isn't right, but since the original clue is missing, it's impossible to know which of the possible options is correct.

To be honest, I rather enjoyed the additional challenge of working out what was going on before solving the clues...

ETA: now fixed by the efficient Guardian crossword team. The missing across clue was Shoot-out (at the OK Corral?)...

A touching surprise from the Guardian today: a last crossword set by Araucaria to mark the first anniversary of his death. Alan Connor has the backstory in G2...

Adhering to the tradition of marking crossword milestones: my first successful completion of a Boatman puzzle. I'm not really sure it's legitimate to count it, because it was definitely at the easier end of the spectrum...

Mopped up the last couple of days cryptic, both of which required some heavy thinking. I was particularly impressed with Imogen's You struggle to gut two hens to feed the Queen's horse (9) which, after much contemplation, I worked back to houyhnhnm. Like the best clues, it's baffling until you crack it, at which point it seems completely obvious!

Via the Guardian, I've discovered that John Halpern — better known as master setter Paul — gave a talk on crosswords at TEDxAlbertopolis:

I'm definitely adding his book, The Centenary of the Crossword, to my to-read list!

Thanks to a enjoyable music themed crossword from Crucible, I've learnt a new word: orra, as in a Scottish word for odd, as in She's nervous in court among odd Scottish players (9)

( The solution... )

It's a good example of being able to get to the answer without knowing quite why, only to get confirmation during the backsolve...

Perhaps it's consequence of the bank holiday, but I found both yesterday's and today's cryptic crosswords enjoyably straightforward. Which is in total contrast to this week's quiptic, set by Nutmeg, which I found considerably and enjoyably tough...

ETA: I'd expected Paul's puzzle on Wednesday to break my run, but it was actually well within my reach. There were a couple of nasties, including "Spiced drink, say, drunk by setter, not going down (5)" which I managed to solve despite having no idea what a negus was until afterwards, and some fantastic puns: "Reproduce artist, say, for the royal issue (8,4)" for Princess Anne!

It's not often that crosswords make the main bulletin of the Today Programme. But this morning's summary carried the sad news, made public via yesterday's Guardian cryptic, that nonagenarian national treasure Araucaria is terminally ill. A fitting tribute to John Graham's status as the doyen of crossword setters.

Despite yet another horribly busy day I still managed to find the resources to finish today's cryptic from Brendan, who is normally too difficult for me. Fortunately, today's puzzle featured enough crackable references to the Trojan War to allow me to make pretty short work of it.

Amusingly risqué clue in today's cryptic: Silver rocket's tip breaking through with means of facilitating entry (6) Answer? Viagra!