Nutmeg's puzzle for 15 October (No 26,391) had the film buffs jumping. The clue for AS TIME GOES BY (18 across) was '10 asked for it in due course (2,4,4,2)', where the solution to 10 across was BOGART.

Casablanca is the film that I have watched more often than any other and I still shed a tear at the ending each time. So I began to prepare another correction and apology. For everyone knows that the line of dialogue involved ('Play it, Sam'), so widely misquoted as 'Play it again, Sam', was not spoken by Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine), but by Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund). However, as is so often the case with things that everyone knows, the sentence above is wrong in almost every particular.

What Bergman actually said was 'Play it once, Sam. For old times' sake', though, when Sam pretended not to know what she was talking about, Miss Ilsa did go on to say: 'Play it, Sam! Play "As Time Goes By".' What I had forgotten is that, later in the film, there is a similar exchange:

Rick: You know what I want to hear.
Sam: No, I don't.
Rick: You played it for her, you can play it for me.
Sam: Well, I don't think I can remember …
Rick: If she can stand it, I can. Play it!

So, though he never said 'Play it, Sam', let alone 'Play it again, Sam', to my relief there is no question but that Bogart did ask for it.

Last month again saw one of those instances where a word, for example 'epicentre', has a general meaning in common usage, as well as its technical one. This time is was Quick No 13,871 for 23 October (5 down) that caused the complaint.

'Plan – birth (10)' was the clue for CONCEPTION. Did I not know that conception and birth were at opposite ends of the gestation period and that conception did not always lead to birth, asked someone who demanded a correction. Biologically and gynaecologically, she had a good point. But outside these specialised fields I can think of many contexts in which birth and conception are acceptable synonyms and will continue to be accepted as such in the crosswords.

However, I must apologise to Reading in Berkshire for a wounding error in a Paul Cryptic clue for 18 October (No 26,394, 4 down): 'Gauge measurement for English city (7)' was intended to be a triple definition clue for READING. It never occurred to me to question the civic status of this conurbation, situated where the River Kennet joins the Thames, important enough since medieval times to be listed as a borough in the 1086 Domesday Book, with its Abbey founded in 1121 by Henry I, who is buried in its grounds, and its university, established in 1892. It seems, however, that the powers that be have got it in for the largest town in Berkshire, as its applications to be granted city status have been turned down on several occasions, whereas upstarts like Brighton and; Hove (2000), Preston (2002) and Chelmsford (2012), all also without cathedrals or even an abbey, have been elevated to city status since the turn of the century.

So, with my condolences, this clue has been corrected to 'Berkshire town' in the online archive version of the puzzle.

The indefatigable Don Manley (Pasquale to us) has just produced a revised fifth edition of his Chambers Crossword Manual, first published in 1986. For those who already have the fourth edition, which came out in 2006, much of the material will be familiar (his list of a dozen memorable clues to be savoured, for example, is unchanged.)

But, for those who do not, it is as ever an engaging compendium of Don's advice to solvers, would-be setters and crossword editors alike, all set in the framework of an annotated account of the development of the crossword over the last 100 years, with plenty of examples of crosswords from the past. At £15.99, a Christmas present to be recommended.

October's Genius (No 136 set by Puck) produced 37 entries on the first day and 262 by the deadline. The first four home were slightly different this month. Tony with Demon was again first, followed by a new name, Jonny R with Hotmail, and then Peter C from Queensland and MJS from New Zealand. Congratulations to Michael Stevens from Kerikeri, New Zealand, who is the winner of the October Genius puzzle.

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