Comments on: Independent 6411/Phi – All at sixes and sevens?

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Phi — Sat, 05 May 2007 21:04:02 +0000

I thought the sixes and sevens next to the words of that length was a nice touch, and only wish I’d spotted it myself…

Gilbert and Sullivan fans will recall that Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore would ‘never use a big bad D’ (What, never? No, never), although in Act 2 he does let one slip, with the chorus murmuring ‘Did you hear him? He said damme’ antiphonally.

Canute is an allegorical monarch because he is a monarch whose story (however apocryphal) is used allegorically.

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Richard Heald — Sat, 05 May 2007 12:22:40 +0000

Nmsindy’s explanation for D = damn is correct, making 12Ac an & lit.: AGE (rev.) + D.

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bensand — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:56:30 +0000

17A is Greats. A homophone for grates and a term for Classics at Oxford (more or less)

MINE does seem plausible, I had letters by the time I looked at 26A so didn’t happen to go down that path.

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Wil Ransome — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:09:43 +0000

19A: I thought Canute actually existed, in which case how is he an allegorical monarch? The story about him and the tides is more apocryphal than allegorical.

26A: this slowed me down, since I confidently entered MINE, which is I think possible (“Mine host”).

Still can’t see why 12A is EGAD, if indeed it is, and 17A is I think TRIALS but can’t really justify it.

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nmsindy — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:38:55 +0000

EGAD Could be wrong but in old books when damn would not be printed (a long time ago!) it used just say D—

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nmsindy — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:07:07 +0000

SIXes and SEVENS was a nice touch. Yes, NEU is new in German, can’t recall seeing it used in a cryptic before.