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Torvic and Old Gal-I agree about responding to nonsense. I think genuine posts are recognizable and we can ignore the rest. All Charlie thinks is that my tag should be Old Crone and her Familiar and as for Newsletters, well, he's too busy sleeping. Have a good weekend everyone....

Hello Caravaggio. Thank you for the long explanation for my missing words. Believe it or not, I am still stuck on 7A. I had even got the Roman numeral bit in the middle and remain stuck. As I have ceased sending the puzzles in owing to the cost I shall just wait till the penny does eventually drop! It always does in the end. I don`t know why these little words always seem to stump me - and others!

I too hope the objectionable person or people just stay away.

John d`Arran. Some people have commented on your absence. Have you abandoned us? Hope not as we live in the same regional council area, but miles apart!!

Hi Mondrian,

They make plastic rulers...

Best wishes,

Caravaggio

Thanks again Caravaggio, but I`m ashamed to say I am still stuck!!! Can you believe that after all your help. Brain doesn`t seem to be working at all!!

Mondrian, think DNA!

Evening all! RT arrived with Royal Mail apology at lunchtime. A good one! Clues getting better! As has been commented on 3D, 7A & 11A were interesting. Always find TV questions daunting because I watch so lttle - so 10D was a bit of a struggle. Favourite clue was 7A. have a good weekend all!

Thank you torvic and Caravaggio. The DNA bit confirmed what I was thinking. I have at last finished!! But I have to say I have never heard of the little 3 letter word that went round the Roman numerals and my knowledge of voodoo is limited to what I read in `Our Man in Havanna`. Live and learn!

A good weekend to all contributors and see you next week.

No excuse this week. Received RT on Tuesday and finished it without any problems too (for a change). Liked 7A and 9A. Haven't been able to log on for a few days so that's why my post is late. Must admit on reading the earlier replies I thought - here goes, someone trying to be clever, and I use that word loosely. What is the matter with some people, just acting their shoe size not their age!

Now that everyone seems to have completed all the answers I feel I can mention the little word that stumped me this week - `hex`, there was no mention of anything to do with witches etc. The only explanation my dictionary gives for it is `an abbreviation for hexadecimal notation` Further down the page, I see that this notation starts at 16. That being so, I ask myself what earthly use is this notation to anyone? Perhaps someone can enlighten me. And I can then remove it from the long list of things I appear to know nothing about!!

From Answers.com Hope this explains.
WORD HISTORY The word hex is a good example of the sort of borrowing from other languages that occurred in the English-speaking former colonies of Great Britain. German and Swiss immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania in the late 17th and 18th centuries spoke a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch. In this dialect hexe was the equivalent of the German verb hexen, "to practice sorcery." The English verb hex, first recorded in the sense "to practice witchcraft" in an 1830 work called Annals of Philadelphia, is borrowed from Pennsylvania Dutch, as is the noun.