Tough Crossword?

I think today’s Times crossword is going to be a toughie.

The clue for 1 down is “Group of Composers – 9?” (3,3)

As it happens, I have always liked the music of Erik Satie – the umbrella kleptomaniac – and know that he and his mates were known as Les Six. So I assumed that was the right answer. But why?

It is because the dash might be a minus sign. Less.

And the Roman for 9 is IX.

So LESS and IX becomes LES SIX.

I might be quite a while with this crossword?

Rufus The Diplomat

I have enjoyed The Diplomat, the 3^rd series of which is now showing on Netflix.

The basic plot is this: highly intelligent US diplomat Hal Wyler, played brilliantly by Rufus Sewell (who demonstrated in The Man in the High Castle that he can do a perfectly good American accent) bonks a staffer (always a bad idea). Yet worse for him, he falls in love with her and marries her. In short order, whatever affection she ever had for him soon evaporates, and upon her bizarre promotion to Ambassador to the Court of King James, she makes a set for a black UK politician, played by the Ashanti Ghanaian actor David Kwaku Asamoah Gyasi. Unhappily for Hal, he still loves her.

Trans Warriors

Riley Dennis is a chap in New South Wales who likes playing football. There is nothing wrong with that. He is also a transvestite, which is a bit more dodgy, but then again you may say that it is okay as long as he does not do it in the street and frighten the horses. He says he is a “trans woman” and wants to be called Stephanie and she/her. And yet more tricky, Mr Dennis has joined a women’s football team and, it is reported, has caused injuries to multiple female players

Kirralie Smith does not think it right that men should play in women’s sports, and is spokesman for an organisation called Binary Australia. Mrs Smith posted on social media complaining about Mr Dennis playing for the Wingham Warriors women’s team.

Mr Dennis sought an apprehended personal violence order (APVO) under s 19 of the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW). He lost.

Mr Dennis appealed to the District Court, and won.