Comments on: Guardian 24117/Araucaria (Sat Jun 30) – flighty

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:36:15 +0000

Re 16dn had this friend called Mimis Domassos (or something like that) way back. He drank like a fish.

‘Abzorba’ we called him.

By: radchenko

radchenko — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 20:50:46 +0000

Thanks (or merci) for the enlightenment. I’ve read the article, of course the answer then makes sense. But it still seems to me that one of the Girondists is a Girondist, or, according to the article, a Girondin, not a Gironde, which in any case is an estuary more than a river.

It still seems rather obscure though. Maybe it because I are an enjinear and aint got no klassikal educashun.

So while it is good the know the answer, Grr rather than Grrr.

By: ilancaron

ilancaron — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:44:06 +0000

5D: if you read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girondist you’ll find that they were in fact moderate radicals (if that’s not an oxymoron).

By: ilancaron

ilancaron — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:35:12 +0000

yeah you’re right about 15D — I miscounted the O’s — so the wordplay is: STO(C,K,DO)VE indeed.

By: stilt

stilt — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:16:18 +0000

Actually, on reflection, since one of the notes in 15 is C and the other is DO, and these are the same note… well, maybe it’s witty or something. Makes it a bit less annoying than usual, anyway. I’ll let him off.

By: stilt

stilt — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:12:38 +0000

I thought this was considerably tougher than usual. There’s a Portia in Julius Caesar as well (Brutus’s wife). The drink in 12 is perry. I think “a problem has come up” and “a problem has arisen” means 2 is fine (though it seemed seriously dodgy to me until I thought of this a minute ago). And I’d really like to see the end of “note” = “anything from A to G”, but I’m not holding my breath.

By: roland

roland — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 11:15:45 +0000

This may be heresy, but I didn’t like PEREGRINE at all- in fact I just put it in because I had some of the right letters. Maybe I am tone-deaf where “sounds like” clues are concerned…

By: radchenko

radchenko — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 11:01:35 +0000

Whoops. “distionaary” indeed. Typing all to pot as well. Sorry.

By: radchenko

radchenko — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 11:00:12 +0000

Why is 5dn GIRONDE and not GARONNE?

I checked through my atlas and the only two rivets I could find that would fit were these two. I could not make either mean mildly revolutionary though. However the distionaary claimed the former as an estuary and the latter as a river. So I got it wrong.

Grrr after slogging through all those obscure birds (fieldfare, phalarope, brambling, …)