Wednesday, 6th December, 2023 – Visits to date: 225,870 from 190 Countries. 31st October saw Israel, Tel Aviv, lead for the month with 1,196 Visits. Earlier San Mateo, California answered my support for war veterans along with Lachlan Murdoch on the UK Times, on 340 visits. Today Germany lead.

Monday 4th December began our Christmas competition for Edmund Akenhead’s Classic East African Collection. Winners receive a life subscription with free updates to two early volumes in digital format of Edmund Akenhead’s unique work, grids included, for The Tanganyika Standard (later East African Standard) between 4th June 1960 and 9th June 1962, some 93 Saturday crosswords all told. Feel free to join in. Tell your friends!

Go to: https://www.facebook.com/david.akenhead 

Meanwhile feel free to browse my News article and the stand I have chosen to take in support of fellow disadvantaged authors and artists worldwide.

I have reopened my free samples in my Library on this website especially my Games! and some choice crosswords! Enjoy!

My regular News editorials elaborate what is fair play for me and the late Barbara Hall MBE’s estate, speaking reams of earlier happier days, as Peter Brookes does with his wonderful regular cartoons in The Times – DA

Putin tells sleeper spies to trigger chaos in Kyiv

My comment in UK Times – 27th November 2023

This is your peacemaker, folks. Wolf in sheep’s clothing more like, and if you can’t see that, more fool you! No peace can be possible with either NATO or Israel with Putin at the helm. The enemy is at your door. Wake up, sleepers! This is NOT Andromeda yet! Live long and prosper Ukraine, preferably without Putin, or supporters like Trump, embodiments of Zarathustra’s negativity! We have to live with negativity. It is part of our makeup, but we can equally contain it with humane methods, as opposed to the methods of butchers and terrorists. I speak for the veterans, as one myself, dead and alive, whose lives must NOT be either forgotten or wasted!

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars Oscar Wilde

My comment and feedback in Saturday’s UK Times (amended) – 25th November 2023

The solution is simple. Make Ukraine a member of NATO immediately. This should have been done the moment Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine. Negotiating with terrorists and child-snatchers is not, and never will be in my rule book. Anyone who thinks otherwise, including the US and Germany is a disgrace to their nation. Putin has to step down, full stop, before we can countenance any negotiating table, and the Kremlin need to get that message loud and clear!

Cecil Graham: What is a cynic? Lord Darlington: A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing Oscar Wilde
To Mr Putin my own opinion that you remain the ‘afflicted’ lion in question courtesy of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) and his observation to you in his fable of the one-way traffic (paw prints to the lion’s lair ) – As the fable goes (olim) the cautious fox answered the sick lion’s invitation thus with re-assurances from the latter that there was nothing to fear: ‘because I am frightened on observing that all the expectant signs point towards you and none the other way’
Olim quod vulpes aegroto cauta leoni Respondit referam: ‘quia me vestigia terrent, Omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum’

I have two words for you, David, “nuclear holocaust”. It’s not 1938 anymore.

Replying to Julian Douglas-Smith

I agree with you, but we live in a hybrid world mercifully, and the nuclear scenario is NOT an option as a result! All the nations know this! And I happen to think that Lachlan Murdoch considers this a risk worth taking for the free world too, as he has ably demonstrated with courage and tenacity in Kviv recently with Mr Zelensky. Mr Putin needs help, as does Donald Trump and both need to retire gracefully to a place where they can muse on all their yesterdays too, harmless to anyone! Sounds like the formula for Moderna-Spikevax preferably as far away as possible from the madding crowd on Wall Street!

At the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords we’re all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it Peter Ustinov

Posted extract and comment in The Times of Tuesday, 21st November concerning Lachlan Murdoch’s recent meeting with his entourage from Fox and News expressing solidarity to President Zelensky and his respect for Ukraine and the freedom of the Free World. Well done, Lachlan Murdoch you are a credit to your father, as I try to be to mine – DA

“The Ukrainian president commended Hall for his “outstanding” bravery. It was the first time Hall had returned to Ukraine since he lost both his feet, a leg and an eye in an attack outside Kyiv last year. During the meeting Zelensky dismissed critics questioning the grinding pace of the counteroffensive “For some reason, people treat it like a movie and expect that there will be no long pauses in the events, that the picture before their eyes will always change, that there will be some surprises every day,” he said.

“But for us, for our warriors, this is not a movie. These are our lives. This is daily hard work. And it will not be over as quickly as we would like, but we have no right to give up and we will not.”

“While in Kyiv, Murdoch also met Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s office, and laid flowers at the Wall of Remembrance, a site commemorating Ukrainian soldiers who have lost their lives in the conflict.”

Replying to G Wyatt

I disagree. He’s the best leader we’ve had since Churchill. In fact, he’s better, (Churchill in two World Wars had a habit of denying the Forgotten Few and not just the RAF in Greece, Gallipoli too in the heights of Krithia, courtesy of the ANZACS, 5th Manchesters – Terriers and my grandfather’s regiment – and the French! and for the greater good in multiple theatres. Ask the ANZACS and grieving relatives denied honours to their loved ones until cessation of hostilities, and even then denial for some to this day!); by contrast there isn’t an ounce of ruthlessness in either Boris or Carrie. Decent individuals like them, myself included are being marginalised and threatened daily by ruthless individuals, millennials living in fantasy worlds of their own presently creating hell on earth. It’s time for the decent individuals to make a stand until we all become victims of Newspeak and people like Peter Brookes and myself become labelled undesirable!

A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car Kenneth Tynan

Posted comment in The Times of Saturday, 4th November

America, Biden! make Palestine a US Protectorate immediately is my advice, as one who enjoyed nearly 15 years of peacefulness and respect, within a similar potential powder keg facing us today, housing most of the Middle East, North Africa and a fair bit of India and Ceylon as well, and friends and foe alike from all the main players from WW1 and WW2, Tanganyika under Lord and Lady Twining, with their open house every year to everyone at Government House, in gardens worthy of Kew, as their welcoming card to all, along with the band of the Royal Marines, always a crowd-puller, and afforded us all a state of bliss, in sharp contrast to our neighbours in Kenya facing perpetual strife from Mau Mau, and Ian Smith to our south in Rhodesia. There has to be a lesson in this, and I pray America and Blinken will grab it for the sake of innocent Palestinians and Israelis, alike, both of whom have my compassion. I’m sure the King of Jordan will support me in this, and perhaps the Arab League of Nations too. Another huge crowd-puller was the annual East African Safari, starting and ending in Dar es Salaam for competitors after facing some of the most challenging roads on planet Earth! Does anyone know what Dar es Salaam means in Arabic? It means Haven of Peace!

Israel must not behave like Hamas and Netanyahu needs to reflect on healing, not devastating. America can help with people like US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken to ease a path – DA

Isaiah 11:6 – King James Version

The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.

13 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 19: 13 & 14 (KJV).

I continue to offer my readership and my digital products on my increasingly popular website to HarperCollins gratis with a direct link to their website via mine and indeed recommend subscribing to TOL themselves! – DA

Finally,  aside my token requests to restore my Jumbo royalties with whatever I am due, and my former title at The Times, I’d like to promote the Sun crossword titles again in digital format, as inventor of The Sun Computer Crosswords and long time Proofs Editor of their crossword books – DA

November

Browser Country City Date Platform Referrer Visits
Chrome United States San Mateo, California November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 340
Firefox Netherlands Amsterdam, North Holland November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 327
Chrome United States Ashburn, Virginia November 27 Windows Unknown binance.com 12
Chrome United States USA November 27 Windows Unknown binance.com 12
Opera Ireland Dublin, Leinster November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 4
Unknown Canada Montreal, Quebec November 27 Linux Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 4
Chrome Germany Germany November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 3
Chrome Italy Italy November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 3
Chrome Russian Federation Russian Federation November 27 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Internet Explorer Russian Federation Russian Federation November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Russian Federation Russian Federation November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Russian Federation Kolomna, Moscow Oblast November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United States USA November 27 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Safari China Gansu, China November 27 iOS Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Firefox France France November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Firefox United States Scottsdale, Arizona November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Unknown Switzerland Zurich November 27 Unknown Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Edge Norway Norway November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Safari China Jiangsu, China November 27 iOS Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United States Houston, Texas November 27 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Chrome Germany Oldenburg, Lower Saxony November 27 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1
Chrome Canada Montreal, Quebec November 27 Android Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1

October

Browser Country City Date Platform Referrer Visits
Firefox Israel Tel Aviv, Israel October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1196
Chrome United States Santa Clara, California October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 31
Chrome United States USA October 31 Android Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 28
Chrome United States Austin, Texas October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 20
Chrome United States Tempe, Arizona October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 5
Chrome China China October 31 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 4
Firefox Ireland Dublin, Leinster October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 4
Chrome India India October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 4
Chrome Portugal Portugal October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 4
Chrome Canada Canada October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 3
Internet Explorer Russian Federation Russian Federation October 31 Windows Unknown pornomamki.cc 3
Chrome United States Denver, Colorado October 31 Linux Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United States Los Angeles, California October 31 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Chrome United States Seattle, Washington October 31 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Chrome Russian Federation Omsk, Omskaya Oblast’ October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United States USA October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Unknown Sweden Sweden October 31 OS X Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Russian Federation Russian Federation October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Turkey Istanbul, Istanbul October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Russian Federation Russian Federation October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Turkey Istanbul, Istanbul October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Turkey Istanbul, Istanbul October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Russian Federation Russian Federation October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome Russian Federation Russian Federation October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United Kingdom Camberwell, Southwark October 31 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2

September

Browser Country City Date Platform Referrer Visits
Safari United States Oroville, California September 2 OS X Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 394
Chrome United Kingdom London, England September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 40
Chrome United Kingdom London, England September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 20
Unknown United States Seattle, Washington September 2 Unknown Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 12
Opera Mobile United Kingdom London, England September 2 Android Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Android Browser Ireland Dublin, Leinster September 2 Android Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Unknown United States Scottsdale, Arizona September 2 Unknown Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Edge Germany Germany September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome France France September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Unknown Canada Canada September 2 Unknown Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United States USA September 2 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Chrome Ireland Dublin, Leinster September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Firefox France France September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United States Houston, Texas September 2 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Chrome China China, Zhejiang September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 2
Chrome United States USA September 2 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 2
Firefox United States Tempe, Arizona September 2 OS X Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1
Firefox United States Tempe, Arizona September 2 OS X Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1
Unknown Canada Canada September 2 Unknown Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1
Chrome United States Provo, Utah September 2 Windows Unknown simplesite.com 1
Chrome Russian Federation Russian Federation September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1
Firefox China China, Zhejiang September 2 OS X Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1
Chrome Canada Canada September 2 Windows Unknown www.crosswordsakenhead.com 1

War has overnight become a luxury of the past and we need to think 21st century now. Only the combined brains of this world from every single nation can safeguard our increasingly fragile eco-structure. Our late Queen made a memorable start with her Commonwealth tree-planting initiative. In support of which, this too from the late great founder of our crossword, Adrian Bell:

The oldest profession? (9) GARDENING says it all really, that and celebrating our humanity through sport in all its noblest aspirations.

1 ac. In order of celebration, the ayes have it, it seems! (4,5,4,2) GOOD QUEEN BESS II

1 ac. Silvery-white Ode to Joy, 21st Century style! (8,7) PLATINUM JUBILEE

At the outbreak of World War 2, our beloved Queen Elizabeth was a 14 year old Princess along with her joie de vivre 11 year old sister, Princess Margaret,

both facing an uncertain life ahead but with a sense of duty and devotion to their country reflected in their father King George VI and their own broadcasts to the children in England separated from their families, rather similar to families in Ukraine today, conveying encouragement and hope; but young Elizabeth wanted to go further and by her 18th birthday had persuaded her father that she wished to join the ATS and do her bit for the war effort at their HQ in Aldershot near Windsor Castle.

So it was in autumn 1944 that she met my mother, Angela, and my godmother Stella Cody as she later became, who had both joined the service earlier, and who now acquainted Princess Elizabeth with the business of both driving and servicing Army ambulances, both already well aquainted with their nightly missions of tending in low visibility to the devastation, wounded and dying from London’s Blitz. Below pictures of my mother in 1940 as a young Corporal, after enlisting in the ATS on her 21st birthday, with a troupe of dedicated, selfless, quiet and truly heroic army girls and nurses, culminating in 1944 elevated to Captain, with Stella, by this time her staff sergeant i/c driving lessons, both charged with assisting the young princess in familiarising her and her vehicle with basic mechanics on the one hand, and manoeuvring it in blackout conditions, on the other, both of which she accomplished the following year with flying colours!

Also my father below, an RAF pilot and glider pilot in the newly formed AAC who she met in a pub in 1944 – promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Edmund Akenhead TD by war end.

‘You can’t be a beacon if your light don’t shine. There’s a little light in all of us by God’s design’ Marty Cooper and Donna Fargo USA

Restoration of my late father, Edmund Akenhead’s Arms, pursuant to Queen Victoria’s Amnesty to landed Scottish families post Culloden (ours a Sept of Gordon) and graciously granted to my father and his descendants in perpetuity by Queen Elizabeth the Second and the College of Arms on the 31st October 1989.

Witness below, a handful of clues including our treasured national institution (apart from the tea!), namely our beloved Times crossword, stemming from its inception some ninety-three years ago! Remainder can be found in my new AZ Sketches by DA (courtesy of Boz!).

Her attachment to Poe makes her also write verse (4) TESS

Saw one of the team off then? (5) TENON

There’s no limit to what a sick kangaroo will do (9) BOUNDLESS

Unsuitable entertainment for Father’s Day? (3,8) POP FESTIVAL

Conference material? Impressive! (5) SATIN

What Peter Brookes renders to The Times in pictures, we cryptic wallahs attempt in words!

“Madam, I’m Adam” — the world’s first? (10) PALINDROME fits as does  (4-2-4) CHAT-UP-LINE

Inevitable response to that, of course is:

Madam? EVE! (mad am!!) (5,8) CHAIN REACTION

I’d like to share this exchange I had in The Times today 25th July – my 77th birthday gift back to everybody! As my late father, Edmund Akenhead, used to say, ‘a practical demonstration is worth a pound of theory’ – Amen to that! – David Akenhead

Russian diver breaks two world records

Mr David Akenhead
7 HOURS AGO
As a child, African boys taught me how to hunt for pearls on the reef outside Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika, as it was then. It’s all about relaxation and gentle pressure. They tested my resolve by standing on me in shallow water on a sandy sea bed – if I wanted release, I just pulled one of their legs. My record was 4 minutes, aged 11, and I used to win all the competitions aboard ship, picking up spoons from the bottom of swimming pools, so no prizes for depth, although I’d say the reef was about twice the depth of a swimming pool at low tide, but great training for pearl fishing all the same! Once somebody dived into the pool because they thought I was drowning. I wasn’t of course, just behaving like a basking shark, that’s all. Slow but sure wins the race!
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John Martin Mcghee
7 HOURS AGO
So, no pressure, then?
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Mr David Akenhead
7 HOURS AGO
Replying to John Martin Mcghee
Minimised by your breathing technique before you dive. It’s an art form, trust me, mind over matter! Again, if you look at Alexey Molchanov’s feat, brilliant as it is, it is not what I would term free immersion! Surprise! the technique I used in preparation for my unsupported dives was very similar. That rope, weighed down on the sea bed by a heavy stone enables him to glide down to great depths with minimal pressure, as I experienced with my own lightweight counterweights! Experienced divers will know precisely what I’m talking about, I suggest!
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Recent Musings!

Bowler seen at Dover – and at Boulogne (6)
Vma Nair a cricket authority in India, got it, and as I remarked to him, a bit tongue in cheek!

SEAMER

Top contributor
How does “seen at Dover” become a def for ‘sea’ a noun and likewise for mer?
    • Top contributor
      To
      Naru MV I would have thought it was blindingly obvious, depending on your point of view and language! 🙃👍 P.S. View from Dover commands one noun and that from Boulogne the other! (ask Debussy!) Together they make a seamer aka a seam bowler! Vma Nair will confirm! – to make the top table in our business, defer to Humpty Dumpty is my advice – cryptic clues and when I think of a word ‘should be just what I choose them to mean, neither more nor less!’ Médecins sans frontières!
    David Akenhead more clues please
    Short ball and extended dance, paradoxically (4,3)

    LONG HOP

    David Akenhead, former Crossword Consultant to The Times operating under licence from Times Newspapers (UK) Limited and as CEO Akenhead crosswords

Daily Visits to date over 1,000 (24 hours)

Tue 31st October      2023 1,504 – 1,196 from Israel

Tue 29th November 2022 1,481

Fri 21st April 2023              1,421

Tue 7th June 2022             1,282

Mon 17th April 2023          1,267

Sat 15th April   2023          1,265

Sun 16th April 2023           1,197

Fri 14th April   2023           1,156

Tue 18th April 2023           1,136

Sat 8th April     2023          1,125

Tue 28th  March 2023       1,087

Wed 29th March 2023       1,066

Fri 7th April     2023           1,024

Wed 12th April 2023          1,004

Top 102 Countries (Locations) for 2023

1 United StatesUnited States 5,063 

2

Russian FederationRussian Federation 863 

3 ChinaChina 697 

Interesting article by my father for Times News, the House Journal of Times Newspapers, February 1976 Edition where he indulges his readers in the mathematical intricacies of a Mastermind competition in which he was an entrant – father was very much into code-breaking in his War years, and as usual, a master of understatement. As a quiet multi-lingual RAF rudimentary test fighter pilot earlier, he also later flew light aircraft low at night under radar behind enemy lines. I only gleaned this information at the very end of his life in a 5 hour game of chess (which he eventually won instinctively on close to empty!) on enquiring about his TD when he brushed off landing his glider and troop plus jeep 50 miles behind enemy lines prior to the Rhine crossings as nothing much really, and in any case something he had done before at night and in a much lighter aircraft, a Lysander, in more challenging circumstances!  The headline and the signature are adequate evidence of the veritas without any need for the interim RTP or QED!

– 

23rd out of an original field of 800 plus, wasn’t bad going!

Looking on the bright side (and not new), Pimm’s No. 1 time in order! (8) OPTIMISM

Visitors / Visits

Total to date

64,033

225,870

Wise words from a beacon of light in a troubled world:

“Come in I’ll give ya shelter, shelter from the storm” Bob Dylan, 17th September 1974

David Akenhead, CEO Akenhead crosswords, 6th December, 2023

Hits: 38