Comments on: Independent 6560/Scorpion – Thursday 25 October 2007

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:46:45 +0000

Sappho featured in a recent Azed which I blogged, when I pointed out that: ‘the lyric poet Sappho was a Lesbian (i.e. she came from the island of Lesbos); her sexual proclivities are not known for certain, but because she wrote love poems addressed to both women and men, she has long been considered bisexual’. I haven’t read the full clue, but I think she may well have been more than half of AC/DC.

By: rightback

rightback — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:12:11 +0000

I thought this was brilliant in places and unsatisfactory in others. JOKE, SAPPHO and DIBNAH were the best I could come up with for the respective answers but I was surprised to find that any, much less all, were right when I looked here.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:11:53 +0000

4 across QUAFFERS I think “above one boozer” = more than one drinker ie quaffers. 21 across, I took as emptying Zambia as you suggest, leaving ZA. 8 down SAPPHO thought only half was as AC/DC is bisexual she was just lesbian ie half. STRUDEL – had doubts at first but think it means revealing underwear is rude (it used to be anyway). That was where I noticed checking was less than 50% in places which made me think there was more to it all ie the pangram.

By: neildubya

neildubya — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:01:27 +0000

11A I had FEEDBOX too. 13A was the last to go in for me – couldn’t believe I didn’t spot what was going on earlier! Fantastic puzzle.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:01:04 +0000

Another way of reading 23dn is as card = JOKEr making JOKE. I’m not so sure it’s a good parsing though.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:51:37 +0000

11 I think it’s FEEDBOX, which makes a pangram (every letter used).
Very tough and satisfying. CARBON DATING was absolutely brilliant.