WINNER(S) - The Penaddict Prize Crossword!

First of all - wow. Thanks everyone who tried, failed, laughed and cried. To three people in particular, the fact that you got almost EVERY clue should worry you. If you can untangle the thoughts of my twisted mind then you have my sympathies.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the Crossword itself - you have missed the prize draw, but you can still have fun - spoilers below!

Out of more entries than I expected, three stood out - with just one answer wrong, so I have decided to award three prizes, with the grand prize chosen based on submission time. The solutions (and explanations) are below, but first, the winners!

  • Joe Cabrera - a last minute correction to Diamine meant the only mistake was "ENABLERS" - wins a Lamy 2000
  • Joe Austen - missed "DIAMINE" - but still takes home a Lamy AL Star
  • Terry Kavanagh - missed "MINUSKIN"- and takes home the Lamy Vista

Congratulations all of you - get in touch and let me know where to send them! And thanks again to everyone. For those who listen to Analog(ue), the first show was Myke and Casey discussing how it felt to "put something out into the world". I had no idea whether anyone would care about this, but the response was great. To know that people have spent real time on a puzzle I put together, and that they enjoyed doing so, is incredibly rewarding!

The (Unofficial) Pen Addict Prize Cryptic Crossword! **LAMY Vista and more**

"At the intersection of two very boring hobbies"1

UPDATE The entries are starting to trickle in! Once you are ready, just take a picture, scan or otherwise digitise your answers and send them to me at: apropensityto@chrisgottlieb.com

"And lo, there was much rejoicing". The ailing pen industry received a boost this week with the Hurley-Dowdy stimulus plan. The Pen Addict boys are back! In celebration, I give you the Pen Addict cryptic crossword 2 .

The immediate question is, "wait...what? Why?" Many of you will have a very good answer to that question, but to you I say, "have you been reading this blog?" 4

There is a prize for those who submit their entries - judging criteria will be entirely arbitrary based on who has the most right, or the funniest wrong answers. The crossword should be in the shownotes today, but I am going to leave it open for four weeks. None of these widgets where you click a button to enter - you have to work for this one!

Closing date is 14 September, winner to be announced in the days thereafter. The prize includes (but is not limited to - sure there will be some other goodies in there):

  • A Lamy Vista
  • A bottle of J Herbin ink
  • A small Rhodia ice pad
  • At least one Chinese fountain pen

All of the answers relate to pen parts, brands, personalities, stores or nibmeisters, so have a go!

(Below the image there are links to downloadable high-res jpeg, a PDF and an Excel spreadsheet. Once I figure out the best way to do it I'll put a mailbox up so you send me your scans or completed forms for marking before we publish the answers)

High resolution JPG
PDF
Excel spreadsheet version

1 A direct quote from a member of my family. I say "own it"... ↩

2 For all my love of wordplay, I came to cryptic crosswords late. They are utterly im"pen"etrable at first3, but once you get the hang of the patterns and whatnot that help you solve them it is incredibly rewarding to get a particularly elegant clue. It is almost as if you are sharing a joke with the crossword compiler. ↩

3 See what I did there? ↩

4 Ok, so I was at my in-laws in rural Australia with very little to do. So at that particular moment I didn’t really have a good reason why not… ↩