David Alfred Bywaters's Crossword Cavalcade & Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender. Every Saturday! Either a new language-torturing puzzle or an old novel by an unjustly neglected Victorian author. Why waste time on other amusements?

Crossword 151: Changing for Dinner

Richard Buckner, Emily Lady Isham
Richard Buckner, Emily Lady Isham

This puzzle is modeled on the upper-class Victorian habit of changing into special clothes at dinner-time—not, as you might expect, special food-repellant clothes, that might be difficult to stain and easy to clean—but extra-fancy clothes.

The process of adapting this custom to the crossword form required a good deal of punning.  Now, the ability to enjoy unlikely puns is something you’re born with or not.  No doubt it results from a long-ago genetic mutation; probably it confers some survival advantage—though it also exposes its carrier to unique risks.  Anyway, if you don’t have such an ability, you might want to spare yourself this week’s puzzle.


Download this week’s crossword:

151-Changing-for-Dinner.puz

151-Changing-for-Dinner.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

151 Changing for Dinner