Two readers, same query. First, Brian Lee: “Is there some sort of competition among Times writers to see who can sneak in the most obscure word? On October 11 Camilla Cavendish had ministers ‘having to bloviate about minor issues'.” Secondly, David Ingall: “‘Dickens bloviated' (leading article, October 17) — second appearance of the verb in the past week. It doesn't show up in my big Collins dictionary. What does it mean? What's its provenance?”

I wouldn't trust Wikipedia for much, but it seems OK on this: “To bloviate means to speak pompously and excessively. A colloquial verb coined in the United States, it is commonly used with contempt to describe the behaviour of politicians, academics, pundits, or media ‘experts', sometimes called bloviators, who hold forth on subjects in an arrogant, tiresome way.

“Although ‘bloviate' is listed in slang dictionaries as far back as the 19th century, the term was popularized by President Warren G. Harding in the 1920s. Famed for his poor English usage, Harding often used the word to describe his long-winded speaking style. The term dropped from popular usage following his presidency.

“It became widely spoken again in the 1990s. Today, it appears regularly in The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post. ‘Bloviating' has taken on new life in the blogosphere, used derisively to identify and otherwise chide the most pompous of contributors to message boards.”

Bet you can't wait to use it now.

Divers queries this week regarding puzzles. From Dr Sam Banik: “Like me, I am sure, many cruciverbalists lose their zeal over the inordinately long gestational period of a fortnight to find out the answers to the jumbo times2 puzzle, or to know who the lucky winner is. Surely the times2 jumbo doesn't require a fortnight to solve? Could you not print the answers the following Saturday?”

It may not take a fortnight to solve, Dr Banik, but that's how long it sometimes takes the post to get through these days, hence the wait.

He also joins newly addicted Codeworders Kate Fell and Hazel Thompson in begging for a fix on Saturdays as well as weekdays, but at present there's simply no room for one. Arthur Ray has the answer to that one: “The Books supplement on Saturday is always a delight. The back page is the only flaw. Why is so much space sacrificed to the Samurai Su Doku? The blurb says it tests powers of logic and elimination. The pattern looks impressive but the completion of the grid, 333 squares in a target time of 10 minutes over an hour, requires only perseverance and a high boredom threshold. Samurai was a gimmick to add variety in the early days. Abandon it.”

I have passed them all to the puzzles editor.

I'm setting up a new Feedback watchdog, a sister for Offplease (Office Of You Can Please Some Of The People All Of The Time, Etc). The new one is Offstone — no, not in memory of old newspaper technology, but standing for the Office Of Let Him Who Is Without Sin, Etc. I am indebted to Simon Coombe of Guernsey for inspiring its inception with the following two extracts from The Times.

October 5, City Diary: “I wonder about Lufthansa, which is running an expensive ad campaign for cheap flights. (One appeared in a rival paper next to a piece about the dying Amazonian rain forest, with no one apparently noticing the irony.) ‘Take off in comfort to Europe,' it says. Aren't we there already?”

October 4, Times travel offer: “On November 14, Eurostar is moving to its new terminal in St Pancras, London, and to celebrate, The Times is offering you the chance to spend a little longer in Europe with a special ‘free nights' offer.”

Further submissions always welcome.

My recent reference to Times style preferring “an hotel” to “a hotel” (Feedback, October 6) prompted Stephen Phillips to pour scorn on us — “Surely no one under 80 (or Brian Sewell) pronounces it 'otel?” — and John Pugsley to unearth and send me an excellent Mark Twain quote from In Europe and Elsewhere: “As soon as the Jubilee (of 1897) was over we went to what is called in England ‘an hotel'. If we could have afforded an horse and an hackney cab we could have had an heavenly time flitting around.”

These slights notwithstanding, we shall continue to do it.