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SINGAPORE – This week’s ST×NLB Crossword was constructed by ST Assistant Life Editor Boon Chan, who is part of a team of 40 volunteers from both organisations.

Words with no single canonical spelling in English always pose a bit of a quandary for your humble crossword setters. Of course, such words abound in Singapore, where many local terms are loanwords derived from various different languages, or even corruptions of such loanwords.

Take, for instance, the local way to order a [Less-sweet kopitiam brew to beat the heat]: TEH PENG SIU DAI (4D).

Now, the “teh” (tea) part is fairly uncontroversial, but what about the rest of it?

According to Google Trends, the “peng” (ice) variant derived from Hokkien is far more popular than “bing”, which follows the standard Mandarin hanyu pinyin spelling and comes in a distant second. An even smaller minority of people spell it “ping”, including one of our playtesters, and a handful of truly avant garde teh aficionados prefer “beng”.

Also per Google Trends, “siew dai” (less sweet) is the far more common rendering of a term widely believed to be derived from Cantonese. However, the Health Promotion Board favoured the spelling “siu dai” when they launched their “siu dai by default” movement in September 2023.

Whichever variants you personally prefer, the P in PENG and the U in SIU DAI are both crossed in this grid, to help solvers get to our intended spelling (with apologies to “teh ping” enjoyers).

9A. EYE DROPS are a kind of liquid solution which helps to soothe irritated eyes. Be sure to aim them at the right kind of pupils. They may not be effective in soothing irritated school children.

16A. A baker’s DOZEN is a set of 13, rather than the standard 12. The commonly accepted theory of how this came to be is that bakers in mediaeval England were subject to strict punishments if they were caught selling a smaller than advertised quantity of bread. To avoid accidentally coming up short, they would give customers a little extra, just to be safe.

19A. Lorong LIMAU, named after the lime fruit, is the [Whampoa street with a citrusy name]. The area was once known for having many lime trees in the late 1800s, a heritage reflected in other nearby place names like Jalan Kebun Limau and a mosque called Masjid Hajjah Rahimabi Kebun Limau.

23A. What comes to mind when you picture [White-coated laboratory residents?] Besides human scientists in their lab coats, lab MICE have also made great contributions (albeit without their consent) to humanity’s scientific advancements by serving as live test subjects.

Book recommendations

Let the week’s clues inspire your next read, courtesy of NLB. Follow the links to borrow.

1D. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the EDGES of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” — The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

22D. “She mourned that she would never see Aziza grow up… would not get to paint her hands with HENNA and toss noqul candy at her wedding. She would never play with Aziza’s children. She would have liked that very much, to be old and play with Aziza’s children.” — A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

27D. “Had the myth of Narcissus and ECHO had a happy ending, their child might have grown up to become a writer-translator like me. I can trace aspects of my own creative impulses to both figures. For writing is, among other things, a deep and direct regarding of oneself.” — Translating Myself And Others by Jhumpa Lahiri

Don’t have the NLB mobile app? Download it now on the App Store or Google Play to enjoy more great reads.

Across

8. Type of coffee with no kick (13): DECAFFEINATED

9. Solution targeted at pupils? (3,5): EYE DROPS

11. Muslim leader (4): IMAM

13. Stay in place (6): REMAIN

16. Thirteen, to a baker (5): DOZEN

19. Lorong _____ (Whampoa street with a citrusy name) (5): LIMAU

20. Satay stick, say (6): SKEWER

23. White-coated laboratory residents? (4): MICE

25. Target centre (8): BULLSEYE

29. 50km foot race, for instance (13): ULTRAMARATHON

Down

1. They may be rough or sharp (5): EDGES

2. Dull discomfort (4): ACHE

3. A long way off (4): AFAR

4. Less-sweet kopitiam brew to beat the heat (3,4,3,3): TEH PENG SIU DAI

5. Squid’s fluid (3): INK

6. Subject grouping often set against the humanities (4): STEM

7. Stubbornly resolute (7): ADAMANT

10. Weakly lit (3): DIM

12. Ineffectual, as a threat (4): IDLE

14. A Nightmare On ___ Street (3): ELM

15. Barbie Girl band who made a splash in 1997 (4): AQUA

17. End of the ABCs, in NYC (3): ZEE

18. Former student (7): ALUMNUS

21. Isle of Dogs director Anderson (3): WES

22. Temporary tattoo dye (5): HENNA

24. Security guard’s video feed, for short (4): CCTV

26. What’s sliced to make sliced bread (4): LOAF

27. Nymph cursed to repeat the words of others (4): ECHO

28. Injection, informally (3): JAB

If you have any feedback, feel free to write to us at stgames@sph.com.sg. See you next week!

Famed actor and martial artist Richard Norton died last year after taking unapproved peptides, according to a newly released coroner’s report.

Norton, who was known for his villainous roles in Hong Kong action films including 1997’s “Mr Nice Guy,” and more recently the latest “Mad Max” films, died on March 30, 2025, at the age of 75. At the time, his cause of death wasn’t known to the public. 

Now the coroner’s writeup, as reported by NBC News, reveals that he died at his home of sudden cardiac arrest “following self-administration of recently commenced peptide therapy” that he was undergoing with the supervision of his doctor.

Norton, however, had been exceeding the dose that he was prescribed. Just two days before he died, he told his nurse that he’d been taking “double the prescribed dose” of two peptides called CJC1295 and Ipamorelin. The nurse then “advised Richard” that “he ought to only administer the prescribed dose.”

The reason Norton was taking peptides was probably to help keep up his athleticism in his old age. He told his doctor that he was interested in peptide therapy, saying he had already taken the drugs under another doctor’s guidance for “fatigue, reduced physical recovery, shoulder pain and loss of lean muscle mass.” The peptides he was taking are commonly blended together to stimulate growth hormone production and help with recovery.

Australia’s ABC News reported that his death is believed to be the first in the country that’s known to be caused by unapproved peptide use.

Norton’s downturn came suddenly. He took blood tests before being approved to start peptide therapy less than two weeks before he died. For the next week, he reported feeling fine and that the treatment was working. Just a few days after checking in with the nurse, though, Norton complained that he felt “hot and flushed and then collapsed and became unresponsive.” Paramedics arrived, performed CPR after observing he was experiencing cardiac arrest, and took him to the hospital. He died two days later.

Peptides are short chains of amino acids that are typically injected to bring about purported medical benefits. Some have made it through clinical trials and can be prescribed legally, like Ozempic and Zepbound. But synthetically produced peptides that haven’t been well studied have simultaneously achieved explosive popularity in biohacking spheres and among wealthy figures and celebrities — and while many swear by their benefits, the long term health consequences remain hazy, as does their legality. Many are produced in China and sold by dubious vendors.

The coroner didn’t mince words on unapproved peptides, noting that they’re not approved by Australia’s health regulators or “any global regulatory authority for human use,” with their use “mostly considered experimental in humans,” and their “toxicology is largely unknown.”

More on peptides: RFK Jr Opens the Floodgates on Experimental Peptides, Alarming Scientists

In October, Amazon announced its refreshed Kindle lineup, its first significant design overhaul in years. The highlights included a new edge-to-edge design that eliminated traditional raised bezels, thinner and lighter Paperwhite and Colorsoft models with better displays, and page-turning accessories like a Bluetooth remote and a magnetic cover with page-turn buttons.

However, given the impact of the global memory-chip shortage driven by the AI boom, the new Kindles also debuted with pricing that had increased by $40 to $50 across the lineup. That makes it more difficult for the average consumer to consider buying one of the more premium devices.

For that reason, the Kindle I most wanted to get my hands on was the 6-inch entry-level device, which starts at $169.99 for the ad-free version. With the price hikes, this is the Kindle that will remain the most affordable to new e-reader buyers.

The question I weighed was whether or not the basic Kindle is even worth buying at this price when there are arguably better Kindles on the market. The answer, after a couple of weeks of testing, is yes — if you can live without the bells and whistles and prefer a smaller, lighter device.

On the 6-inch Kindle, there’s no warm light to reduce eye strain, no color display, no auto-adjusting brightness, no option to use the page-turn cover, and it’s not waterproof. Obviously, because of its size, the screen is smaller, as is the battery. Battery life is 6 weeks compared with the Paperwhite’s 12 weeks or Colorsoft’s 8 weeks.

Still, even this basic Kindle has seen improvements of its own, mostly from a physical design perspective.

The plastic 2026 Kindle is 11% lighter and 14% thinner than the 2024 model, weighing 140g versus 158g and measuring 6.85mm thick versus 8mm. While this seems like a small change, the 18-gram difference is noticeable and particularly welcome for a device you’re likely to carry in your purse or bag. Plus, it makes it easier to hold for hours on end when you’re really binging your way through a book.

(The aluminum version, meanwhile, is slightly heavier at 162g, or 4 grams more than the 2024 Kindle, though it still benefits from the slimmer design.)

And despite being the “starter” Kindle, the 6-inch basic device still received the new flush-front screen update. This makes it more comfortable to hold in your hand, especially for those long reading sessions. Amazon explained that you don’t have to worry about no longer having a bezel to rest your thumb upon, either, as the new Kindles have been updated to detect a dead zone in the capacitive touch that will readjust to account for the fact that your finger is there.

In practice, that doesn’t mean you can just press your thumb down anywhere on the Kindle’s screen as you hold it — doing so would register this as an attempt to highlight or look up a word. Instead, it means you can rest your thumb or fingers on the outer edge of the Kindle’s screen (the colored border) without triggering an unintentional tap, even though some of your finger will be touching part of the Kindle’s capacitive screen.

In terms of the software, the new basic Kindle is a bit snappier than its 2024 predecessor. This is most noticeable when opening books, which Amazon claims to be 30% faster.

If you’re coming from the 2019 Kindle Basic, the 2026 version is an even bigger upgrade, as you gain USB-C, more storage (from 4GB to 8GB to now 16GB or 32GB), the new flush screen, and the screen resolution jumps from 167 ppi to 300 ppi. It’s faster, thinner, and lighter, too, and the battery lasts weeks longer.

Another perk about the basic Kindle beyond its small size (this thing fits in your jeans’ back pocket!), is that you can now pay a little more for an upgraded version with an aluminum backing instead of plastic and more storage. The new $189.99 aluminum option comes in Seagrass and Alpine Sky hues, and ships with 32GB of storage. Meanwhile, the $169.99 plastic model offers 16GB of storage.

However, even if you go for the less expensive option, you can at least now pick a fun color other than black (aka Graphite), as Amazon has introduced a cheery purple option called Ube. (I almost wish I’d gone for this one, just for the whimsy of it, even though I prefer the feel of the aluminum.)

I should point out that you can use the Kindle Click, the new Bluetooth remote for page turning, with the basic Kindle, but I’m not sure why you’d need to, if not for some accessibility-related reason. The 6-inch Kindle was already the smallest, and now it’s lighter and easier to hold, too. (But perhaps I just don’t get the appeal of the remote? I’ve barely used the remote with my Kobo either!)

The big thing to consider here is whether you want to spend this much on a Kindle that lacks a warm light. While this is something of a personal preference, for some readers, no warm light is a dealbreaker. The warm light shifts the color tone of the Kindle’s display from a cooler bluish-white to a softer amber glow, which is meant to help reduce eye strain and improve reading conditions in low light or at night.

Whether you need this feature depends on where you like to read and how long your sessions tend to be. If you read nightly in bed with little light, you might prefer paying extra for a $199.99 16GB Kindle Paperwhite. (That version only comes in Graphite. The 32GB Paperwhite can come in Seaglass, too, but is $249.99).

If you often read by the pool or on vacation, you also might want to upgrade to a waterproof Kindle.

But if you can live without the extra features and want the best purse- or pocket-sized device, the 6-inch Kindle is still a viable option.