Margaret Thatcher, in support of her economic (and other) policies, would use as an argument the assertion that 'There Is No Alternative'. In fact, her waspish Cabinet colleague Norman St John-Stevas nicknamed her Tina as a result. She was wrong, of course, because in politics, as in life and with crosswords, there are almost always perfectly good alternatives, even if you personally don't like them. I am talking here (again) about Alternative Spellings and Words.
This, for example, is a selection from my recent bag of emails.
1. Quick No 13,815 for 19 August, 20 across: Levelled to the ground (5)
'Disgusted' from Tunbridge Wells: 'Why can't you spell? The word is RAZED not RASED.' However, Chambers, Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English are as one in confirming that RASED is just as good as RAZED.
2. Quick No 13,816 for 20 August, 10 across: Stumbling block (10)
'Crotchety' from Cornwall: 'I decided to test my theory that the only possible answer must be HINDRANCE, misspelt as HINDERANCE.' The fact that most people most of the time spell this word without the 'E' in the middle does not alter the fact that Chambers gives both as valid.
3. Quick No 13,826 for 1 September, 10 across: Group (of larks, ladies etc) (4)
'Livid' from London E3: 'The correct group noun for a gathering of larks is not a BEVY but an EXALTATION. This has been so since at least 1486, when they were listed in The Book of St Albans by Dame Juliana Barnes.' Leaving aside the question whether her name was Berners or Barnes and the further question of whether she in fact existed at all, while Chambers and Collins both agree that EXALTATION is a collective noun for larks, Chambers also gives BEVY as 'a company or flock (of larks, quails, swans, roes or ladies)'. So, an alternative collective noun for larks, it seems, has become current since 1486.
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A year ago I wrote about Richard Cleaver's fund-raising through cryptically clued quizzes for Macmillan Cancer Support. He has now exceeded his Macmillan target of £1,000 in donations and has switched his energies to the mental health charity MIND.
His offering is a cryptic quiz with the names of 100 prominent women as the solutions. There is a £50 John Lewis voucher as a prize for the first correct entry drawn at random after the 30 September closing date. The quiz is available via his JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/MIND-Quiz1 .
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This is absolutely my last snippet (for the time being at least) on the running theme of when is a bear not a bear. The Brisbane Lions, the hugely successful Australian rules football club, is the result of a 1966 merger between the Fitzroy Lions and the Brisbane Bears. The Lions' home ground is The Gabba, as it was for the Bears before the merger. The point here is that the Bears' mascot was a koala and for a time the cuddly non-bear was actually on their shirts. No one in Australia, it seems, was greatly upset by this zoological solecism.
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August's Genius (No 134 by Enigmatist, with Dumas, D'Artagnan and all three of the Musketeers hidden in the completed grid) attracted no fewer than 38 entries on the first day and 265 by the deadline. The first three in were from the ranks of the usual suspects: David H, Tony with Demon and Peter C in Queensland. Next, though, was a newcomer to the lists, Don with Demon.
As an antidote to the stress involved in trying to do the Genius puzzles competitively at speed, I was delighted to get the following note from Gill H. 'Whilst I admire the skill of those who complete [the Genius] within 24 hours, I wonder whether they get as much enjoyment out of completing it as I do. I usually manage to finish it but often I stare at it blankly for two days before solving my first clue, then the next day another, and so on until finally it begins to make sense, so that finishing the Genius is a real triumph and a source of great satisfaction.'
Congratulations to Kevin Stracey from Adelaide, South Australia, who is the winner of the August Genius puzzle.
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• This article was corrected on 5 September: Brisbane Tigers should have read Brisbane Lions.
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