Okay, so the Q&A exchanges irk some of you. DON'T LOOK!
I think you should ask yourselves why is it that the Rainbow puzzles are so successful? How have they raised SO MUCH money for worthy charities - something like ten times the minimum entry fee, on average? Answer: because they are very good, very entertaining, very challenging; because we all get a kick out of doing them - otherwise we'd just put it in the bin, as I saw one miserable contributor suggest, or simply send in a donation.
The success is in the tease, that we are driven mad to answer these clever clues - by our wits if possible, or by research, or by exchange with fellow puzzlers - of thoughts or suspicions, of ideas and clues, or of answers. Does it matter whether this happens in family groups, over a beer or two in the pub, or by correspondence? Surely not?
The WHOLE point is that we enjoy these puzzles - each in our own way perhaps - and we think they are worthwhile. We send in our donations and get the results and poems etc... back, with funny anecdotes about red herrings and blind alleys, transcription errors and mis-spellings. We become part of the Rainbow Puzzles family. We feel good about it and we derive pleasure from it.
Evidently some people derive pleasure from carping criticism, or parading their apparent intellectual superiority over the rest of us mere mortals. Well, good for them. I'll carry on as I am, thank you very much. I'm neither proud nor ashamed of using this site. I am very grateful for the assistance given by people who are either smarter or more resourceful than I am, and who evidently have much more time than I do.
BB.