Comments on: Guardian 23,944: Thank Puck it’s Friday

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fgbp — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:05:46 +0000

Certainly a spot of tighter editing wouldn’t have gone amiss on this, but there were some good ideas. And I admit that PERGOLESI is not the most felicitous choice for “obscure anagram” fodder – if it is obscure: even a near zero in music like me has heard of him, altho’ that may be from doing too many puzzles!
I’m puzzled a little by the comment that Guardian puzzles need to relate more to each other? How so? But I agree that the Indy is a class act just now.

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ilancaron — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:44:22 +0000

Quick summary of what eimi said re online Indy: it’s a money-loser.

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Fletch — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:42:18 +0000

Thanks for the answer Peter. I haven’t done the poking around, I wouldn’t know where to start but what I don’t understand is if The Times and Guardian find it viable, why The Indy doesn’t.

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petebiddlecombe — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 16:29:58 +0000

Fletch: My understanding is that the Indy stopped having a xwd service because it wasn’t making enough money. Poke around in some comments made noe ortwo weeks ago and you’ll find comments from the editor and a setter with more detail. Can’t remember where the comments are, I’m afraid, and I don’t know a place where you can search blog comments.

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Dennis MacKinnon — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 11:14:59 +0000

Anagrams are definitely UNFAIR for the indication of obscure words, as solvers may not necessarily deduce the letter order – even with some checked letters to help. And with PERGOLESI offering a good number of alternative possibilities, I’m with The Pedantic One on this.

As to fine-tuning, I think Pete suggested that a Good Edit could have helped this puzzle out somewhat, and I agree with that too.

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Fletch — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:35:26 +0000

You reckon fgbp? I hated it and assumed it must be another promotion of one of the Quiptic setters.

Yes, what’s the gen with The Indy ceasing its online service, anyone know?

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fgbp — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:12:23 +0000

I hope Puck won’t be put off by Miss Pedant’s remarks, some of which are a little unfair, and one or two inaccurate. Where I come from an anagram is an advisable device for indicating “obscure” words like PERGOLESI.
Otherwise, “Baked” passes muster as an anagrind with meat least. I agree that some of the clues were a little “loose” but there were enough bright ideas here to suggest to me that with some fine-tuning Puck could become a favourite with many.

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petebiddlecombe — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:05:29 +0000

The online service may well make a difference to the number of comments (assuming this reflects no. of solvers). But I think it’s also to do with long-standing tradition. Araucaria in particular got lots of his fans 20-30 years ago, when there was no Independent. In those days, if you wanted thematic 15×15 puzzles, the Guardian was just about the only show in town.

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ilancaron — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 20:21:48 +0000

Perhaps the Guardian’s reach is simply far broader that the Independent because it has an online service (hint hint) and thus generates more interest?

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Dennis MacKinnon — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:34:56 +0000

And maybe not!

Of course it’s always a matter of opinion, but I feel the G needs to pull it together at least a bit. At the moment many puzzles are too loose, and seem to lack a relationship to each other – the kind of communal spirit which IS very evident between the Indie offerings, for some reason.

Puck gets maybe 4 out of my 10.