Comments on: Independent 6308/Mass New Year’s Brunch

By:

eimi — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:08:16 +0000

It’s not entirely inappropriate as Paul will soon be returning to the Independent as his Punk alter ego (Jan 11 and Feb 1 for starters).

By:

BenIngton — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 00:16:34 +0000

Late for me but wondered why the wonderful Paul puzzle in the Guardian wasn’t blogged today – it deserves more than a mention!

tilsit mentioned above the fact that Araucaria ‘was invariably going to make you smile.’ Paul today surpassed that – I haven’t laughed at a clue like 9a for a long while. I could just visualise (or rather hear) Her Majesty saying ‘OFTEN’ in that way.

8a, and 10,26 a also made me smile a long time (though is Wapping really the ‘new’ Fleet Street?) and 4d had me hitting my head when I realised ‘Napoleon’ wasn’t the obvious suspect but rather an Orwellian construct!

Brilliant Paul – thanks for making a good day better!

(p.s. would appreciate an explanation of 6d – got the A + P + TEES bit and easily enough to work out the answer but where does the rest fit in?)

(p.p.s – sorry to post this on the Indie blog!)

By:

tilsit — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:13:40 +0000

If you look through most of the early Morse episodes you will find that many of the characters have the surnames of leading setters. Some of them may have another link.

The whole thing comes to a crescendo in my favourite episode Masonic Mysteries (ITV this Saturday evening at 7:30 ish) where one of the characters who is a retired policeman and Morse’s mentor is named Macnutt (as in Ximenes!)

By:

BenIngton — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:06:19 +0000

It is a coincidence that the late and greatly lamented Custos (Alec Robins) has been mentioned. ITV are re-running Inspector Morse and apparently Custos inspired the whole thing – something I was unaware of. (http://home.freeuk.net/dharrison/ximenes/missing.htm).

Yesterday’s Morse episode featured an academic crossword-setting character who I presume was based on Custos but I’m very glad the real Custos met a far more peaceful end!

By:

nmsindy — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:19:09 +0000

PLUNGER was my last – with the “reckless” meaning (in gambling) confirmed in the Concise OED – I’d flirted with PLUGGER. I may be wrong, but, when verifying with Mass, the Concise OED always seems to explain so maybe he uses it a lot. I agree that his puzzles have become easier in recent years.

By:

petebiddlecombe — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:40:44 +0000

I remember Custos too. When I couldn’t rely on finishing Araucaria or other difficult setters, his puzzles were an important source of encouragement. I’d say that any daily paper should have a couple of puzzles a week in the plain dealing / fairly easy / “just a nice puzzle” style. But this role at the Indie usually seems to be played by Phi and Dac most of the time, with Virgilius fairly close to them. In the past I’ve found Mass one of the tougher Indie setters, and today’s puzzle was surprisingly quick – almost certainly my fastest ever for Mass. Did someone tell him that Dac was harder than usual yesterday? Apart from Ken Wold as “Mr Obvious Anagram” I had no complaints.