`A part of my day'

ITS challenging. It's sometimes frustrating. And even maddening

ITS challenging. It's sometimes frustrating. And even maddening. But it has become a part of my day and I am completely addicted.

I know it's only the Simplex but then I console myself by thinking "I despise people who think in puns - I prefer pure literature myself. Who but a mere punster would bother with the Crosaire every day?" But I am haunted by a nagging feeling of inferiority at my almost total inability to complete the Crosaire.

The Simplex is a different matter altogether. Here I can draw on my deep knowledge of literature, history, politics, geography, Latin and Greek derivations, music ... you name it, buddy.

Oh how smug and self-satisfied I feel when I have completed the Simplex. But then there's the odd day - just the odd one, mind you - when to my horror I am unable to complete it. This, of course, is because it has been set by some complete idiot - a mere stand-in for my usual setters, who are my intellectual peers.

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I get along fine with them. I can always complete their puzzles. After all, the stand-in setter is a person of inferior intellect to us.