http://www.fifteensquared.net/2007/07/06/independent-6465-phi-mr-dependable/ Never knowingly undersolved. Sat, 18 May 2013 09:49:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://www.fifteensquared.net/2007/07/06/independent-6465-phi-mr-dependable/#comment-2942 Wil Ransome Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:13:52 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/06/independent-6465-phi-mr-dependable/#comment-2942 23A (STRIGIL, of which I’d never heard): I think “almost all of steps” is “stil(e)” not as suggested. Certainly it is if he uses Chambers, which he seems to do.

]]> http://www.fifteensquared.net/2007/07/06/independent-6465-phi-mr-dependable/#comment-2938 nmsindy Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:43:39 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/06/independent-6465-phi-mr-dependable/#comment-2938 Yes, this was a good puzzle, a little harder than usual from Phi. Azed’s recent book on setters reveals that Phi is a trained astronomer so 5 down I thought would be something he was familiar with. It was a great pleasure to work it out from the wordplay though it was new to me. Thought there was a good chance the first word was SOLAR which narrowed it down. ALLEGRETTO was nicely misleading as you finally discovered no “part of bird” was involved. Like you, I’d pencilled in DAWN for 15 down thinking I was very clever. The two different mammals in 3 down was good too i.e. not just the expected plural. 17 across refers to LOCKET as a small container, I think – this was good because you could think it might be a philosopher with a letter short so I got it only near the end after finding LIONS SHARE.

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