Rosalind Mitchell

I concur with all the others who found it difficult to see where the cursor was in the coloured [sic!] squares. No doubt the next time this comes round the techies will take this into account. As a Scot (by adoption) may I gently if pedantically point out that the word at 125ac is a Scots (different language) word not a Scottish (local English) word. Also may I mention in passing in advance of next Hogmanay that the last line of each stanza of the National Bard's song is "For auld lang syne" not "For the sake of auld lang syne". The latter is a tautology because "auld lang syne" means "old time's sake". Never let it be said you don't learn sometning new every day!

A Caledonian correspondent writes: We say slàinte in Scotland too (52d), but with the accent the other way round. We are likely to say something blunter if you order 12a in a Scottish bar though. And you ain't doing it with my 15-year-old Highland Park! It's not compulsory to wear the 12d when playing the Great Pipes although many do – the World Piping Champions start in Glasgow next week and all sorts of outfits will be on view – Scottish piping champions are as scarce these days as French winners of the Tour de France. The 12d is worn, however, at the kind of event where the Great Pipes get played, and in general on any occasion where an American would wear a tuxedo.

My first though was what the, er, swive but once the penny dropped that was great fun. As they say (stereotypically, not really) in 32d, "Eee that were grand!"

Nessie is of course alive and well, and visitors are welcome to come and see her frolicking in the loch. There's a charge of course, for the hire of the special binoculars you need to see her properly. Available from street vendors in Inverness and Fort Augustus. Nessie is a problem for the endangered wild haggis which inhabit the woods on the quieter south-east shore. What is this LDEASTS of which you speak??? (Only kidding!)

I don't put sugar on my porridge but I do like a sliced banana in it. Marmalade, Lyle's golden syrup and even maple syrup (when I can get it) also work well. It must be cooked (overnight preferably) with plenty of salt. But then I'm a woman, and a Scot only by adoption. A lovely workout for a lazy Sunday, silkily-smooth (John Ewbank should get this) and lighter than usual on transpondian cultural challenges. Chapeau, John!

I don't know whether its the setters or a long backlog of crossword submissions that are two years behind the curve, but the solution to 32a should of course be HIS. Which is what I put in at first, causing me all sorts of problems! As one who spent a goodly chunk of her career supporting a large FOREX desk along with other financial shenanigans, I put USD in 41a. I've never seen DOL as the abbreviation; outwith financial markets wouldn't it always be $? I could also have come unstuck if I'd followed my first instinct and put TAROCK in 63d. Partly because I've never heard TAROTS as a plural before, but mostly because as an enthusiast for traditional card games I have a lovely Austrian Tarock pack (deck) of a much older design than the 1909 Pamela Coleman-Smith one commonly used for divination. I can never find anybody to play Tarock with but just possessing the pack is a wonderful thing!

Oh come on, that should be HIELAND COO! Never heard of 26a and I don't get the feeling I'd like it but I'll try anything once.

I play under a handicap (knowingly and williingly)feel and have to look up quite a lot usually, but I was really pleased today because I knew a gridiron football answer without help! At least, I was able to make an educated guess. So even though it wasn't my fastest finish, I feel entitled to be pleased with myself today, in the circumstances.

Wrens say "teakettle"? [looks it up] Ah right, the Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), which according to Wikipedia says "Some general vocalizations have been transcribed as teakettle-teakettle-teakettle and cheery-cheery-cheery. Various descriptions of the teakettle song include whee-udel, whee-udel, whee-udel, che-wortel, che-wortel and túrtee-túrtee-túrtee and familiar names and phrases such as sweet heart, sweet heart, come to me, come to me, sweet William, and Richelieu, Richelieu". The last are presumably literate birds who have been reading The Three Musketeers. This is something new to me so I've learned something. I don't think Momma B my late Mom-in-Law had Carolina wrens at her many feeders. Our own very common wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), more often heard than seen, is a fine singer but does tend to sound like a machine gun when alarmed. Definitely not teakettle, nor even Richelieu

I was so sure 4d was BETTE that I got into quite a mess in the NW corner. Either my age or my predilection for the films of that era. Then I remembered Thelma and Louise and it all fell into place.

If the answer to 34d expects SOLI shouldn't the clue say 'arie', the italian plural of 'aria', rather than arias? In italian 'solo' is an adjective so it should agree with the noun, 'arie sole'. A musical solo in italian is "un' assolo". Un' assolo di chitarra – a guitar solo – for example. So 34d is a bit of a spaghetti-and-meatballs clue, tasty but not authentically italian!

HAVOCS. Aaargh! Just the sort of noun-to-verb atrocity that sets my teeth on edge! Must be a generational thing. Or something.

Seeing 1ac I thought, either this is going to be an easy ride or, Newcastle-under-Lyme being an infamous bottleneck on the A34 main route between Birmingham and Manchester before the motorway age, a bit of a struggle. As it's the by-passing M6 that's usually bumper-to-bumper these days, the A34 through N-u-L is a comparatively easy alternative these days. This Saturday puzzle did indeed give me an easy ride today. A lot less tough than a couple of the midweek ones this week. SKOSH isn't a word I'm familiar with, and I winced as I do whenever I see "crew" referring to the sport of rowing, but that was a pleasant breeze of an NYT Saturday. I've attended several meetings in the BAYARD RUSTIN room in Friends House, London, so that one made me smile.

When even the clues are gibberish, like 3d, there's nothing you can do apart from get the crossings and hope! Apropos 64a, tikka masala, like the raincoat and the ultrasound scanner, is one of the great Glasgow inventions. Quite possibly accompanied by a salade Glasvège (CHIPS) and/or a glass of crémant de Cumbernauld (IRN BRU), although neither would fit and anyway the upmarket Shish Mahal in Park Street, where Mr Ali first created the dish fifty years, is above that kind of thing. I opted for RICE initially but that didn't work. Incidentally, the Shish Mahal menu calls the tandoori bread NAN, although either spelling is in common use here. Can't speak for the establishments of Curry Hill, NY.

In Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, you can buy tshirts bearing a map of the islands with the rest of the uk in a small box at the bottom. I wonder if something similar is available in San Juan.

I'd never heard the word RAINBARREL before but I can see why those over there hesitate to call it a waterbutt, as we do. That separation by a common language also caught me with 11d where of course I put JELLY SHOTS, since that's what they're called here (made up with Hartley's jelly cubes no doubt) rather than using the leftpondian trade name. That, I accept, was a real sucker punch.

The things one learns: in the year I turned 70 I learned for the first time that the American term for the sport of rowing is CREW – it wasn't a topic of conversation among the people I met while over there, any more than college basketball was. Today is the third or fourth time in the year I've encountered it. I'm wondering: does "crew" still apply to the single sculls?

22a looks very dodgy to me. I don't think in this case its a SBACL problem, just a stretch to fill an awkward light.

Totally bonkers but very enjoyable. I like the NYT crossword because it baffles, challenges, makes me laugh, makes me think WTF, and gives me a cultural education. For the second time in a week one of the only two gridiron players I knw came up and I didn't have to look it up. In fact I got through this one without lookups at all, which is a first for me. Although I did have to check to see if a couple of entries were actually real as they had not previously swum into my ken. I tried to read Stranger in a Strange Land once. I didn't make it to page 10.

Might be my quickest solve yet. Effectively a write-in for the theme, having studied 35ac as part of an Open University course "Literature in the Modern World" years ago, and then devouring everything else by 55ac in short order. 15ac a new word for me.

Apropos 1d: I refuse to acknowledge any incarnation of Fleetwood Mac after the Blessed Peter Green left! [plays Man of the World again]

I've never heard "Jaws of Life", so I assume it's a US idiom. I had LIFE OF JOYS in there at first and that threw me. (Yes I have seen the film but it was a very long time ago now). A couple of spelling pitfalls for me too. I had LOVE OF LABOUR, well I would wouldn't I, and that threw me too, and it took me a wee while to make sense of 3d. All in all though, I enjoyed this and the theme resonated with me more than the average theme.

Kudos to Jackson for his ornithology. It didn't cross my mind that Passeridae would be anything other than SPARROWS and then I remembered that those are Old World sparrows, and New World sparrows are Passarelidae, so SPARROWS couldn't be write. But in the end it was a gift to us Euros who know our birds! I think you have our House Sparrows, don't you? Thanks to the twerp who thought it was a good idea to release breeding pairs of all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare in Central Park.

I recognised the answer to 46d from the crossings as what passes for a strident denial in these parts, but the clue sailed right over my head! Looking forward to a vernacular revival of Nae Nae Nanette at the Palace Theatre!

That was a struggle. A cultural disconnect too far for me today I'm afraid. Glad I identified ITHACA right away though. Been there - the one in upstate NY not the home of Odysseus - and it is indeed gorge(o)us. Lovely picture of the Trossachs much appreciated. We do seem to be about to have a vintage year for leaf colour.

We Rightpondians do have to tread very carefully with 39d!

As the NYT crossword often feels like a three-week struggle through challenging cultural terrain I was delighted to find one themed around a sport I actually know something about! I jest of course; I'm generally familiar with most of the quirks of American culture but the clue to 25a threw me off balance. It looked like something from my own culture, but wasn't. And then I thought of the Big Hoose, the Bar-L, in Riddrie on the opposite side of town from me, and that put me on the right track. Great fun, this one.

I live in a country that prides itself on the best smoked salmon in the world, and 51d is unknown to me in that context!

I've never seen the spelling at 58d before. Also, a pizza without any 63as just isn'y a pizza for me. If you don't like them I'll have yours!

Ooh! An anagram! "Crazy bears tin them with no end of patience for hiding smells (5,5)" As a cryptic might put 22d

Apropos 39d: that great 60s R&B singer Rawls was never as successful or taken as seriously in Britain as were his contemporaries like Sam Cooke, Otis Redding or Curtis Mayfield. You do have to wonder why…

Well that was pants, wasn't it! Not really, just couldn't resist. A good workout with a couple of transatlantic puzzlers (but not SNIT as that's one of the Americanisms I took on board from my one-time ex from Upstate NY and use a lot). COD may be good enough for London chippies but up here in Scotland it's not a proper fish supper unless it's haddock!

Lots of scope here for transoceanic confusion and it took me a while today. In late 60s Britain, boots and 15ds were not alternatives but complementary, and went with closely-cropped hair, rolled-up jeans, Fred Perry shirts and Jamaican music. (But those 15ds are known as something else, equally confusing to us, on your side!) I hasten to add that I was not part of that particular cult at the time, although I did like some of the music.

Very gratified to get 18a by an inspired guess, thinking of that brilliant Wim Wenders film with Harry Dean Stanton in a rare starring role (gosh, is that 40 years old now?). I checked for the landmark and wondered idly if it was inspired in any way by my own city's most iconic and most photographed landmark, an equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, with a traffic cone on his head (sometimes his horse has a cone too, and at Christmas the cone may be embellished with a Santa hat with a red nose for the horse. Otherwise, a trickier than usual outing to navigate for this rightpondian. With no idea about 78d I had SWINGER in at first, from a different bat-and-ball game, but that really should have an IN or an OUT at the start so it was just plain wrong however you look at it. And I still have no idea how 114a works. But I got there in the end by grim determination.

In this city (and nowhere else), 61d is a MALKY (after a notorious one-time gang enforcer). Elsewhere in Britain it's a GLASGOW (or GLESCA) KISS. I like this topological formations, others being Bronx Cheer and Birmingham Screwdriver (a hammer) I'm not sure that there's a word for them though. If anybody would care to add to my collection I'd be delighted.

Just one glitch I struggled to find. I was a little uncertain about the spelling of Barack Obama's elder child and therefore not quite sure which way to go for 3d – the medieval French way used in the heraldic phrase 'fleur-de-lys', which the clue hints at (the name of a feew pubs I've drunk in by the way) or the modern French word for lily, 'lis'. I got it the wrong way round. Curses, but no great harm done except for the hurt pride in getting a not-quite-right on completion, on a Monday too! Grr! (Earworm of the day: Me and Bobby McGhee as rendered by Janis Joplin, in memory of the great Kris Kristofferson since we were talking about 4-letter first words in Country yesterday. Kris would fit well, he wrote some great songs that don't just work in a country idiom either. And lest we forget, a damn fine film actor too!

Just brewing a pot of lapsang souchong after finishing. 1a is nice with it but you can't really dunk it like you can a ginger nut. 12d in a crowded polling place? Tsk! Last week I voted in my 14th general election and I've never been in and out in more than five minutes!

I didn't fall into the easy trap at 1a because I didn't think Jude Law had done anything in his personal life that wasn't all over the British news. Well, what do I know, hey! Saved me from going down the wrong track anyway. Great fun and as ever I learned new things about a different culture.

A Monday that almost threw me. I couldn't make sense of the crossing of 23a and 21d because I've only ever seen 21d spelled one way and 23a was just wrong otherwise. Is 21d thus spelled a thing over there? Also, my LOI was the junction of 63a and 57d, a crossing of an unfamiliar phrase and a TV character. A cultural ocean indeed! Glasgow's equivalent scepticism [sic] to 1a is so ingrained in the city's character that our annual literary festival is called "Aye Write". Also, given 54a, I'm sure others will wish to pause to remember Brian "Herbie" Flowers, who died on Thursday last week. Nice guy and unassuming colossus of popular music who provided the distinctive bass riff on 54a's signature song as well as some memorable tuba on other songs on the 1972 album it appeared on. Not only that but he appears on far more popular and jazz tracks that many people realise– check the small print in your album collection. Any producer knew that if they wanted deep and growly, Herbie was the man to call.

That was quick. I was anxious today after uncharacteristically flunking both Connections and Wordle. I'm particularly annoyed about Wordle because I completed a 100-day streak yesterday. It's a common observation in cricket (no apology from me for being a fan) that a batter who has made a careful century will soon get out to a loose shot, and that was my Wordle this morning: took my eye off the ball as it were. I wonder how many readers are familiar with the tale of 29d in Britain, which is not sold here? About 20 years ago Coca-Cola noisily launched Dasani, then it was discovered and widely-reported in the media that the Dasani they were selling here was nothing more than bottled and filtered London tap water. Red faces all round! All British restaurants are legally obliged to provide tap water free of charge on request.

I'm usually a pragmatist about language but 42d is a[n a]busage that really sets my teeth on edge when I encounter it. It is really a word? Where did it comne from? What's wrong with ANYHOW? Is there a difference?