Feeling Puzzled

Just in time for the coronavirus lockdown, Belgian-born Pierre Nizet, the first medical director of Casa Dorinda, has come up with a series of fiendishly difficult cryptic clues to while away the stultifying boredom.

Each clue has two parts, one a normal definition of the answer, the other an additional hint using wordplay.

“During my travels I created scores of cryptic clues and had stored them in boxes with a vague idea of publishing them in my old age,” says Pierre, a graduate of the University of Liege, who founded the Montecito Geriatric Medical Group on Coast Village Road. “I rediscovered them in my garage recently and thought they could provide some gentle brain tickling during these anxious times.”

If you want to participate, Pierre, who retired in 1988 and lived for a short time in Europe before returning to our Eden by the Beach, can be contacted at pmnizet@gmail.com.

Be warned, they are not for faint hearted.

Quarantine Wine

Carpinteria actor Ashton Kutcher and wife actress Mila Kunis have come up with a way of mixing their love for wine and giving back.

The dynamic duo have announced they’re marketing their own wine with 100 percent of proceeds donated to charities helping amid the COVID-19 crisis.

They’ve paired with Nocking Point Wines to produce their own Quarantine Wine. All proceeds will be split evenly and donated to four chosen charities – Direct Relief, America’s Food Fund, Give Directly, and the Frontline Responders Fund.

The wine is 100 per cent pinot noir from the Willamette Valley, Oregon, with bottles averaging $25 each.

I’ll drink to that…