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rusty

9th December 2015, 21:28
Good show, Pigale!
Very nice of Mr Rogan.
I think he will be good at anagrams.
He has been a finalist in The Times Crossword Championship in the past!
I am beginning to wonder if they will use part of Elle's letter for the feedback column? She has had no reply, so maybe keeping her until Saturday.
Unless she had a senior moment and goodness knows where her emails have gone?
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pigale

9th December 2015, 21:35
Rusty, I think Elle did the same as I did - one email to Mr Rogan, AND one letter to Feedback without mentioning Mr. Rogan's name. What I don't know is whether Elle gave her address as required in order to receive an answer.
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rusty

9th December 2015, 21:41
Pigale,
I never gave an address, just my email address.
I sent one email to Feedback, who must have forwarded it to Mr Rogan. That's all.
Goodness knows about Elle, she is a mystery!
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elle

9th December 2015, 21:58
Hi, Rusty and Pigale!
Somewhat surprisingly , considering the silence so far, I too have just had a very nice email from Richard Rogan!
It was similar in content to what you have outlined, Rusty, again saying that , as London is a major city, he considered that most people would know about London landmarks and tube stations, for instance, even if they lived elsewhere than London.
He stated too that most of the setters are representative of different parts of the UK.
But I got the impression from his letter that he really thought that it was perfectly acceptable to use "Londonisms" as most folk would know about them?
I didn't come away with the same feeling as you apparently did, that he would change the situation, and redress the balance? - although he did say that he would bear my comments in mind for the future.

Rusty, less of the "senior moments"!
And what does "forfoughten" mean, please?
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rusty

9th December 2015, 22:24
Hello, Elle!
"I will try and ensure that there are not too many "Londonisms", in future, at least none that might be regarded as requiring unreasonably local knowledge"
That is what he told me. The "too" in the above sentence was in slopey print for emphasis.
I don't agree with him about many people knowing about London. I could take you on a tour of my city and I doubt anyone would know that Brentford is in West London, or "fief" means burglar.
But points have been made and all I want is a fair unbiased puzzle.
And now we know how to get hold of him!
Forfoughten means exhausted. Anne Bradford has four different spellings of the word!
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elle

9th December 2015, 22:37
Hi, Rusty!
I'm copying and pasting the relevant paragraph,s from his email to me, that lead me to believe that Mr R may not really intend to change his outlook with regard to "Londonisms".....
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"I am not sure that it is unreasonable to expect solvers, especially in the UK, to know something of London landmarks etc, although I agree that the use of postcodes should be used with caution. The tube station map, however, is widely available in diaries, for example, and includes many famous landmarks in the names.

Our setters are mostly not based in the capital: they hail from different parts of the UK, and are, I believe, using a knowledge of London that one might expect to accrue about such a large and famous city"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This, to me, does not sound like someone who basically agrees with the points of view we were stating?
What do you make of it?

I am becoming "forfoughten" by it all!

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rusty

9th December 2015, 23:03
Hello, Elle,
That is not quite what he said to me.
I can't copy it to here.
Not up to it.
He is defending the use of Londonisms in that.
It looks like he may not change anything.
It is simple to change newspapers but these setters work for more than one newspaper.
i do not like his first few words, "I am not sure".
Surely he should be sure before replying?
Tube maps are in diaries! I never look at them because I do not use them.
Ach well, at least he had the manners to reply.
Great word, forfoughten!
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elle

9th December 2015, 23:17
Hi, Rusty!
Yes, that is what I felt...that he was more-or-less defending the use of "Londonisms" by his words to me!
That is why I thought I would copy and paste it for you to read!
Well, at least we have made our point - and we now know that at least he has read what we put- even if he fails to act on it!
We did at least "stand up and be counted"!
That is what matters!

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rusty

9th December 2015, 23:51
Hello, Elle,
I shall send him an email tomorrow.
Not sure what to put in it.
I have already pulled him up for the use of "fief" and "Brentford".
I wonder if Brentford is in his diary map!
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elle

10th December 2015, 11:29
Good morning, Rusty!
A dry, mild but dull day here!
Are you back from the dentist?
Have you replied to Mr. Rogan? What did you decide to say?
I don't think I shall bother to correspond further....on reading the email again this morning, I haven't changed my opinion that he has no intention of reducing the number of "Londonisms" used.
I was only trying to redress the balance for the benefit of people from other parts of the world who might not have such (possibly limited) information.
I personally have no objections as I almost inevitably know the answers!
Heads and brick walls come to mind?
What time are you meeting Miss L-B? Shall you look for a bigger Christmas tree that you can put lights on? (Christmas lights are lovely! - I like the coloured ones!)
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