Comments on: Independent 6619/Mordred

By: Peter Swalling

Peter Swalling — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:33:55 +0000

18 across is FLYING DOCTOR. This is probably because when ill or injured, we Australians say that we’re “crook” (and if we happened to live in the remote outback and were seriously crook, we’d give the RFDS a call).

By: Testy

Testy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:59:49 +0000

The E also comes from “feEls” essentially. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen “essentially” being used to indicate the central letter of a word and it isn’t the first time I’ve had to query why? Does essence/essential/essentially mean centre/heart/core/middle? Not in my dictionaries: “essence – the qualities which make any object what it is” which would make any of the letters a potential candidate but whenever I see this used it seems to exclusively indicate the central letter. Can someone please enlighten me?

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:39:24 +0000

OTIOSE It’s from “Miss Otis regrets” – I’d never heard of it till I saw it in a crossword some years ago – it recurs from time to time.

By: NealH

NealH — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:07:27 +0000

Could someone explain 25 across ? “Spinster who regrets getting old feels essentially superfluous”. I guessed correctly that the answer was “otiose”, but other than the fact that there is an “o” for old in there, I didn’t get it at all.

Also, I guessed that 1 across was “Balboa” from the “Rocky” hint, but had no idea what it had to do with steps. However, having just checked on the internet, I see it’s actually a dance.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:31:00 +0000

Curious, about spelling, I was told many years ago that in the sense to “do without” it was FORGO and that FOREGO (to go before, an entirely different sense) was wrong. So 20 down raised an eyebrow. Dicts confirm that Mordred is perfectly right – that spelling is now accepted.

Fave clue after KNIGHTED was PLOVER – “Nothing to eat for extremely poor shore dweller”. There were many misleading scenarios before light finally dawned.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:07:53 +0000

There is indeed – parts of 9 and 10 across run together.

By: eimi

eimi — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:47:33 +0000

I’m guessing there’s an Alice Knight around somewhere.

By: allybazz

allybazz — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:35:30 +0000

I enjoyed 24ac ALEHOUSE instead of (Amy) Winehouse

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:11:26 +0000

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON Had difficulty with this too. I think the girl(who “comes over” is INA and this all leads into the next clue IONA so maybe “very seldom” is definition and “at all” = ONCE but I’m far from sure. I thought KNIGHTED was top drawer too, quite a hard puzzle overall. And, unlike, some earlier Mordreds, I did not see a dedication.