iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

There will be a #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service, but I'm a tad under the weather right now so I can't guarantee I'll be on top form. Still, I wanna do puzzles by @longyfan.bsky.social, Baz & @tpgrammar.bsky.social, so do them I will - see you at noon! www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh — pantherapuzzles streams live on Twitch! Check out their videos, sign up to cha...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

All aboard the #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service! We'll be stopping at puzzles by @henriwords.com, Baz & @cricket82.bsky.social, and if Henri doesn't bust my brain too much I might even get to lom - new to me, but I'm weak to the cover kitty. Departing at noon: www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

It's pure luck - BBC Four are showing seemingly random episodes on Monday evenings at the moment, part of a complement to BBC2's quiz night that also includes the 1977 series of Mastermind, and this just so happened to be the one they put out earlier this week. I was tickled pink!

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Choo choo! The #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service will be chugging away from the station at noon BST, making stops at MyCrossword puzzles by Pentman, Meles & @davidjsiron.bsky.social - if we're lucky, we may even get as far as Boznut! Get your tickets here: www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

If you still need your online crosswording fix, the #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service will be departing from its usual platform at noon, with MyCrossword puzzles by @metagloria.bsky.social, @duncanjwitham.bsky.social & Taceo, plus Vanilla if I have the time! www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Not to worry, #CrypticSunday folks, you can all come round mine instead - there will be MyCrossword puzzles by Temple, @henriwords.com & @ozpiper.bsky.social, then possibly even a fourth if I decide I'm feeling foolish enough! See you at noon: www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I can tell the heat is finally getting to me, because I spent the whole time I was preparing and eating dinner thinking "but *could* I solve a puzzle in Finnish? ...well, no, don't be ridiculous... but *could* I?" and so on.

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I was also going to solve Essihy's Quick #403, but it's in Finnish. I mean, the clues look exactly like normal cryptic crossword clues, but they're in Finnish, and the answers are too. So yeah, not *that* much more impenetrable to the untrained eye than your typical puzzle, I suppose...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Husky's #3610 was also lovely, but was the one puzzle that had already gained traction and I basically had nothing to say about it that Jack hadn't already. Phenoform's #3598 is proper solid, even if the grid is a bit wonky, while Pearfalse's #3577 is funny and silly, just rough around the edges.

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I made a point of tackling some MyCrossword debut puzzles this afternoon, three of which had had no other takers, and can highly recommend Doughnut's #3579 as being damn good fun; it's on a theme that I know many here will enjoy, and it's for the most part tightly set, bar some light shenanigans...

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M☿th @monroetempleton.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

this Labour Government has largely presided over the sharpest uptick in racial, religious, and LGBT+ violence in my lifetime and it's hard to really stress just how much Labour actively chose this

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Tom Phillips @tom-phillips.com · 21/05/2026

I don't think it's a good idea to legally privilege someone else's discomfort over another person's rights.

13.147 A legitimate aim for excluding a trans person from a separate or single-sex service for their own sex might be to prevent discomfort or distress for other service users.

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

And sadly, there will be no #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service because my body's been on the blink again and I'm afraid I don't think I'm up to it. If you're in need of some bank holiday fun, though, plenty of puzzles have gone up on MyCrossword this week, and you should go solve some!

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

I did indeed get to yours, around 1h20m into the vod, though I fear I rushed through it without really highlighting your tight cluing, or picking out favourite clues like I did for the other puzzles - I wanted my lunch, what can I say? That said, the top-left corner was devious enough to hold me up!

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Oh, we'll absolutely be doing this celebratory puzzle on the #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service at noon, along with some of yesterday's bumper crop of crosswords - @davidjsiron.bsky.social, @duncanjwitham.bsky.social and (time-allowing) @rkempley.bsky.social. www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Well wishes your way, of course, and if folks have nothing better to do with their own long weekends, they can pop round mine at noon for a #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service feat. @andrewt.net, Ozpiper, Baz and maybe a puzzle from yesterday if I have the time: www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Technically I'm indisposed, but I'm also stubborn and (already) bored, so there will be a #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service come noon. I might just stick to the two puzzles by @evilflea.bsky.social & @duncanjwitham.bsky.social, though; we'll see how we go. www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

I should be fine enough; turns out I've got a fairly nasty infection, but have been prescribed some strong-ass antibiotics to match, so fingers crossed they do the trick and I just have to rest and grouse for a bit...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

The bad news is that I had to spend the day in various hospital waiting rooms; the good news is that I've caught up with so, *so* many of the crosswords that I've been meaning to do, plus I helped a fellow patient complete the Times Quick Cryptic, much to his delight. So, you know, silver linings.

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

(technically I wanna do one more because the two versions of One Last Gift used different backgrounds and I'm not sure that should count, but that'll wait until after I've done the current No Man's Sky expedition) (also there's a wip called Attractive Target that i can't remember how to solve lol)

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

With the stage-sharing part of @humanitygame.bsky.social shutting down at the end of the month (boo!), I've been playing it again to tidy up my wips: partly to achieve my old goal of having a stage for every background and partly so I can finally answer a long-forgotten question about my stage names

A screenshot of a custom stage in the game Humanity, showing a series of pillars against a pale, cloudy sky, the focus being on a string of people (uncontrollable Others) jumping between two of these while the player (a dog) stands on a switch beneath them, surrounded by their own bunch of people (controllable Humans). The stage is called Trustfalls, because it involves forcing Others to repeatedly make leaps of faith in the hopes that you'll materialise a landing platform/obstruct a laser/move a fan to cushion their fall in time. Hewn from a wip called All The Way Round and given a new name to catch the end of last month's Love Jam (and also because I disconnected the four subareas and stopped you from having to do them in counterclockwise order in a bid to make it easier)

A screenshot of another custom stage in the game Humanity; this time, a bunch of people are failing to push a black block down a narrow, tree-lined path in a garden-like maze, with a lush rainforest in the distance and various Others milling around other garden features. This one's Lazy Garden, because it is seven hastily-combined vignette puzzles with the shared constraint that the player has no commands with which to effect change; there aren't even any switches they can press.

(shout out to the one person who has completed this level and gave it the default 3/5 stars because honestly, I get it. the conveyor belt section especially.)

One more screenshot of a custom stage in the game Humanity, this time showing a handful of humans and a Goldy (special human) making a (spoiler: futile) jump up to a platform floating in space. Literally, space. There's the Milky Way behind them and everything. This is A Higher Place, because (a) it's the Cosmos background & (b) you gotta figure out how to get someone up to that "higher place" because there's a switch up there.

A screenshot of a playlist, consisting of:

Frugality Inertia - Xploding Plastix
lane switch - beardy
Rowdy Pup - Spoonbill
Concrete Over Water - Jockstrap
Light and Waves - I Am Robot And Proud
Rolling Blackouts - The Go! Team
One Last Gift - Sidney Amos (ft. Felix the Hammer)
Help Me Through - David August
Circuit Breaker - Röyksopp
Spring Cleaning - Jack Stauber's Micropop
Unit Delta Plus - Ott
Metropolitan Glide - Tom Waits
Never Stop Running - Trentemøller (ft. Jonny Pierce & The Drums)
Keep Stepping - Moloko
PUSH ME ASIDE!!! - lizzy's personal army
Trustfalls - Mister Lies
Lazy Garden - Vanishing Twin
A Higher Place - Röyksopp

Each track gave its name to a stage I made, because once I started I couldn't stop. Frugality Inertia was a current single when I made my first level, and it fit so well I couldn't not, and then when I was trying to think of what to call my second I realised the song that was playing at that very moment described the central conceit so well that I had to commit to the bit.

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Ben McKennaaaargh @benmckenna.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

I’m sorry, I know it’s a minor point, but crack dens are traditionally indoor establishments. What the scaremongering Labour minister is describing here is a crack paddock.

INDEPENDENT
Playgrounds would become 'crack dens' if Greens were in power, policing minister says

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

@cranberryfez.bsky.social I FOUND OUT THE THEME NOT ONE MINUTE AFTER YOU LEFT

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Probably should have given a few minutes warning, but I've just started! www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

Inquisitor 1947: Four-Letter Word by Cranberry

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

(wait hang on i never saved the video of me doing a Chalicea, so it just looks like I've only ever streamed Cranberry Inquisitors, and specifically soon-to-be three of them back-to-back. whoops.) (other setters are available)

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

I threatened this on Sunday, but here's some (belated) confirmation - I'm going to stream my solve of this live on Twitch tomorrow, starting ~2pm. I'll also be saving the vod to upload later, like I've done with my previous Inquisitor solves, so folks can watch my unedited floundering at any time...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

From experience I can tell you that being present for a live solve of one's own puzzle is both satisfying and terrifying, but even just being able to watch the process back can be incredibly informative. And yes, imo that was a defensible gerund, not least because it benefits from the rule of cool!

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Inspired by @cranberryfez.bsky.social's recommending of Fossil's debut, the #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service will feature puzzles by folks who are new to me, including @bendrobinson.bsky.social & @fimjishwick.bsky.social (maybe Kempley too?). See you at noon! www.twitch.tv/pantherapuzz...

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

When it arrived this morning, Lionel very happily posed with @unchcrosswords.com issue 2... and then he realised it had Catnip in it, so he's had his nose stuck in it ever since. *ba-dum-tish*

Lionel, a Jellycat soft toy lion, sat on a grey chair, holding a copy of Unch issue 2 between his paws.

The copy of Unch is now upright and open, and Lionel has stuck his head in it so that only his rear paws and tail are visible.

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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

This is also why people react so badly to self-described centrists making pronouns in bio jokes, you're providing rhetorical space for this radicalisation.

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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

I appreciate a lot of us will think "they've always been like this" but the utter moral decay on the right in the last few years has been notable. A shift from love the sinner, hate the sin fig leaf to "yeah, kill she/her, haha, pronouns in bio."

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

(in summary: ~57% of respondents would classify the online NYT Crossword as a video game, presumably on the grounds that it is a sort of game that appears on an electronic device. But, let's be real, ~13% said the paper copy was a video game, and ~3% said mayonnaise was too, so who the hell knows?)

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

I was reminded of a survey that did the rounds on Tumblr last year, asking whether or not various games, game-adjacent experiences, and mayonnaise counted as video games, and while the version I answered didn't feature crosswords, turns out the expanded version did: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

what even is a video game? version 2

no nuance. no "it depends". for as many of these examples as you feel like answering, ask yourself if you think if you think they are "video games" or not. this is a sequel / expansion to another pol...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

There will be a #CrypticSunday Replacement Stream Service, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with myself come noon, but I am nowhere near organised enough to tell you what I'll be tackling then. Anything from the past week of MyCrossword puzzles is fair game! twitch.tv/pantherapuzzles

twitch.tv

pantherapuzzles - Twitch

fiend in feline shape -~ they/he -~ mainly just replacement streams for twitch.tv/crypticsunday -~ still not panthchesh

164

Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Delighted to discover that there actually is at least one family of pangrammatic mini grid fills that uses SKIBIDI, and that it honestly comes off comparatively well against its kin from the dregs of Chambers...

Output from code that produces pangrammatic fills of the "default" mini grid, showing a family of six valid fills that all utilise "skibidi". The six are achieved by picking 7a from MISTERY, MASTERY & MYSTERY, while picking 1d from TRANS AM & TRANSOM; for example, the last is:

across: TV SHOWS / AJUTAGE / SKIBIDI / MYSTERY
down: TRANSOM / SQUAILS / OXAZINE / SPECIFY

TV SHOWS is the only other non-Chambers entry that is forced, and even that's not hideous compared to AJUTAGE, SQUAILS and OXAZINE...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

I'm a big cat fan, and I'm a big cat fan, and I'm a big cat fan. (it's also an oblique twofold callback to my puzzle hunt days, which is what clinched it over the other candidates - I do sometimes regret not going with Macavity, mind, especially in the context of my occasional sudoku flirtation...)

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

I'm prepared to try streaming a second puzzle, even though I haven't actually tested OBS on the new computer yet... but, honestly, it's not like the typical Replacement Stream Service isn't rough and ready at the best of times anyway...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

tbh my troubles are wholly self-imposed, because I'm 90% sure there's no acceptable fill that includes anything more than the most desirable optional extra... ...but I just wanna keep whittling that 10% down in the desperate hope that something comes up...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

me, a week ago: look, i love the process of making thematically-dense grids, but it's tricky, time-consuming and sometimes sisyphean. this time i think i'll do a perimeter nina with a handful of optional bonus entries instead me, now: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

...and me reading the final Mog book while left unsupervised and promptly bawling my eyes out so dramatically that some poor stranger tried to step in to help out the weeping child who had presumably got lost or something similar!

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

I've just asked my dad and while neither of us are 100% sure, there's a chance that the same trip to the (long since closed) Borders in Bournemouth was the source of our favourite anecdotes about the place: him braving their dodgy headphones to listen to the thematic record for the first time...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

I'm flattered, though I'm definitely younger than the average setter... I just don't act my age! Josh is just scarily young; when I first rocked up to Cryptic Sunday, I was already older than he is now...

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

(though funnily enough I started loading the "spread the word(list)" into my mini grid building code the other week so I could have these new-fangled terms like "emoji" and "gyoza" and it has meant I have had to grapple with whether or not I am fine with e.g. skibidi as a gridfill which is. yeah.)

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

oohhh I feel this in my bones. I still felt the need to semi-defend textspeak in my wordplay yesterday, and when i did the WOTY puzzle at the start of the year I had to use W as an adjective and it was both liberating and terrifying, despite the entire conceit giving me a source to fall back on!

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

(as an aside, I *adore* the link card that @mycrossword.co.uk gives you when you share a puzzle on here; it's lovely and neat, shows the cover photo in all its glory, and in this instance makes me feel good about staying up late to finish the annotations so that the displayed date would be correct!)

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Panthera @pantherapuzzles.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Rannygazoo, let's have a tune! Specifically, one you could bookend thus: Colin? He runs a lab, right? (6) All the bad stuff you've been caught doing online! (6) When I count three, you can solve on MyCrossword, but be warned - afterwards, you may need a lie-down! mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2895

mycrossword.co.uk

Cryptic crossword No 2,895 · MyCrossword

Solve Cryptic crossword No 2,895 on MyCrossword. 15x15 grid with 30 clues by Panthera. Published Thu 27 Nov 2025. Features annotated solutions. Free to solve online.

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Sam Whyte @samwhyte.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

BBC News: "the government believe refugees are deliberately bringing their children to avoid deportation" As opposed to doing what with their children??

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

The way Labour are talking about migrants validates far right narratives of dehumanisation *at a time of far right riots and racist violence*. The leadership group responsible needs to be removed right now as a matter of public safety. This is simply a factual description of the situation before us.

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