Monkey puzzles come to an end.

[magister]

I've been doing Araucaria's crosswords for the best part of thirty years. Of all the crossword setters in The Guardian, he's the one I look forward to - the standard weekly ones and the special bank holiday ones. Doing the Guardian crossword with my father is one of my favourite parts of Christmas. Simply he does better crosswords than anyone else. The clues are wittier and often there's something special about the construction - the letters round the outsde of the grid spell out a message; there are two grids and the clues have been run together so that you have to decipher where one ends and another begins; clues are not numbered and you have to work out how to fit them into the grid.

Today's Guardian crossword started with the following message.

Araucaria has 18 of the 19 and is being treated with 13 15. The numbers refer to clues for the crossword.

If you solve them, the message reads: Araucaria has cancer of the oesophagous and is being treated with palliative care.

This may sound like an overreaction given that I've never met the man and until a few minutes ago I didn't know his name or even what he looked like, but I feel like I've just heard that a friend's going to die.

I really don't think I can write anything else, so here's an article about it all.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/2013/jan/11/crossword-araucaria-reveals-dying-cancer?CMP=twt_fd

Comments

[sir_guinglain]

I saw the article earlier. What a dignified way to announce one's illness, though.