Comments on: Independent 6306/Virgilius – New Year, New Theme…

By:

ilancaron — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 04:58:27 +0000

LEE+WAY, where LEE=rev(eel)

By:

Ian Jones — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:03:34 +0000

Not Bear, surely Wear ?

but have every other letter for 22d yet still can’t see it!

By:

eimi — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:23:46 +0000

Although Virgilius lives in Oregon you should assume he’s setting (primarily) for a British readership. Although I can see that BEAR would work, you need to look for something a little nearer to home.

By:

ilancaron — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:50:34 +0000

There are many Bear Rivers in North America — including Alaska and Canada. Not sure which one is the “correct” one. Or if there’s something else sneaky going on: like BEA+R (for “Northern river”).

By:

Wil Ransome — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:28:58 +0000

2D: Is this BEAR? Obvious I’m sure, but I can’t see what it has to do with Northern river.

By:

neildubya — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:18:46 +0000

Re: JIGSAW. Of course, silly me. I thoughts JIGS had to be plural.

By:

nmsindy — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:15:38 +0000

I found this tough, 36 mins. JIGSAW (great clue) is, I think, SAW (understood) after JIG (energetic steps). Hard to set such a precise pattern, I’d say.

By:

petebiddlecombe — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:13:17 +0000

Struggled a bit with this, not seeing the -ling = diminutive connection and concluding that the clue was just talking about the result of a process of diminution of LINGERIE and LINGER. Before that, it took getting stuck on CAESAREA and thinking "hang on, this is Virgilius so there must be something going on" to spot the gimmick. Result: about 50% slower than the average Virgilius Tuesday puzzle. The "tolled" pun is familiar to those who know their Thomas Hood - "They went and told the sexton, and the sexton tolled the bell" - from Faithless Sally Brown, not Faithless Nellie Gray, so he coundn't use the Nell/knell pun.