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Araucaria RIP

StoneHappyMonday

StoneHappyMonday

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May 10, 2001
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http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2013/nov/26/araucaria-crossword-setter-john-graham-dies

This won't mean anything to any of you but it means a fuck of a lot to me. John Graham, cryptic crossword Don, the main setter in The Grauniad, has died at 92 after a short illness with cancer.

Best crossword setter ever, bar none. His knowledge went beyond what polymath describes. Here was a 92 year old as aware of drug terms/slang as he was of the Classics.

Guardian prize crossword will never be the same again.

RIP great man.

<3
 
Respect. Everyone says that keeping your mind active can keep you well and help prevent you going batty in your old age. Gotta be better than watching daytime TV all day every day, then followed up by 5 hours of ITV brain rot, like my ancient next door neighbour does.

She's sharper than her taste in TV would belie though, nothing too gaga about her, though she does her moments, believe me, like she put the blockers on the whole block of terraces getting security gates fitted to the back alleys, next day i could hear her on the phone going on about how she wants them, but i heard her tell the people who were collecting the signatures that she didnt want them. We are now one of the very few blocksof terraces in the area witout these back alley gates, thanks to the dotty old bat next door. Respect your elders ? Only if they earn it. :?
 
"Araucaria," it said, "has 18 down of the 19, which is being treated with 13,15".

Got to give him respect just for that alone.
 
He definitely means something to me SHM, I do the guardian cryptic crossword at work every day.

He was one of my favourite setters, 90+ and managed to stay topical and relevant. And revealing his oesophageal cancer in a puzzle took an amazing amount of courage.

RIP Araucaria
 
RIP, though I have never attempted the guardian puzzle, crossword compiling must prolong life, Crosaire in the Irish Times died aged 93 in 2010 having set its crossword for 73 years.
 
Shiiit, he was my favourite setter, the only one I could reliably complete 75% or so most times...

I thought he was already long gone tbh.

Puzzled monkey :(
 
Heh, when I see "Wcote" I think "Wilnecote". Near Tamworth in Staffordshire, famous for a high-voltage laboratory where they tested insulators for high-voltage power cables. And also for not having any trains stop both there and at Water Orton (the next station towards Birmingham New Street, as you head out of Tamworth High Level -- you have to go to Birmingham and wait an hour for a train back the other way.)
 
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