A reminder of one of the loveliest pairs of siblings in the dictionary: ‘muscle’ and ‘mouse’. To the Roman imagination, the flexed biceps of a (typically naked) athlete resembled a rodent scuttling under the skin. ‘Musculus’, in Latin, means ‘little mouse’.

And possibly the greatest screen villain of all, Alan Rickman.

Tring Tring: ABBA
Poison Harrow: ABC
If I were Harwich Man: Topol
Ryde: )In the Name of Love) U2
Goole for Cats: Squeeze

Playing whackamole in Task 'Manager'. I remain unconvinced that Operating Systems are really meant to be like this in 2024.

Pedents   Foot soldiers in the War on Error, They’re here to save us from ourselves, With Fowler’s Modern English Usage (first edition, nineteen twelve).   They scrutinise each word we write For typos, gaffes, et cetera, Correcting all our dumb mistakes To make our grammar betterer.   They sigh and tut and tell us off For the rules we have forsaken And chart this nation’s steep decline By the care we should of taken.   Custodians of the King’s English, They merely serve to keep it pure And restrict, they hope, the ignorant To three mistakes or less.   In doing so, they hold no fear they will deprive a thing of life: for it’s not important what is said, what matters is that its right. Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is dedicated to all those who have taken it upon themselves to correct the grammar or spelling in my poems over the last few weeks.

It’s called ‘Pedents’.

I have a dream...that one fine day, Google Chrome will decide not to put an unbidden shortcut on my desktop, and that I will never again clap eyes on the New Privacy Settings pop-up. It's not too much to ask, surely?

Just waiting for the Google Chrome "performance" tab to load. Oh, the irony!

Suppletion.

Boatman - the first 50 is a great holiday read, exemplified by this image of the book opened to show the story behind the Shipping Forecast puzzle, on display on Brighton beach.

Reviewing Boatman - the first 50, Alan Connor (the Guardian's new crossword editor) says: "This is one to savour. Boatman's puzzles are witty and ingenious. It is an extraordinary pleasure to read how his unique mind works. The first 50 is a book I never knew I needed in my life. Gift it to yourself and to the word-lovers in yours" and Hugh Stephenson (his predecessor) says: "This is a unique book of crosswords".

Boatman - the second 50 contains another 50 puzzles from The Guardian, with five bonus puzzles previously only available online and including puzzles, solutions and the ideas and stories behind them, exemplified by this image of the book opened to show one of the stories, which is accompanied by a picture of a large cow.

Reviewing Boatman - the second 50, Gyles Brandreth says: "If you want a fiendish crossword, you want the best - which means you want Boatman, because he is the best" and Brian Bilston says: "Cracking crosswords - each puzzle a delightful daily workout for the brain and a welcome tonic for the soul".

It's the Seasonal Reposting Competition! Repost this over the weekend, and one lucky person will get a free signed copy of one of my books. For you or the #crossword addict in your life: 50 @guardian #puzzles and the stories behind them:
boatmancryptics.co.uk/crossword-bo...

The boss of the other place confidently states that the UK has become a police state. V. worrying! I've always been a nervous person, but anxiety has now skyrocketed. I'm not enjoying my chocolate digestives; the Taylors peppermint isn't calming my stomach. Will the next door knock be the Gazpacho?