Comments on: Independent 6643 by Tees

By: Fletch

Fletch — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:19:13 +0000

Star Wars vs The Bible – I can just see that as the next hot topic on the Crossword Centre threads.

By: eimi

eimi — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:03:36 +0000

Thanks to Ali for the encouraging comment. It won’t please everybody, but I believe that the crossword has to embrace popular culture if it is to survive and prosper.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:22:39 +0000

No, it was more raising the question. I’ve seen wording like abcd ‘could become’ so ‘from’ could just about say – take those letters and do something with them.
There was also a ‘spurious’ (a more classic anagram indicator) in the clue “Spurious language from an old git!”, but its position and the definition of ‘dog Latin’ in dicts suggested this did not have a role in indicating the anagram.

By: Fletch

Fletch — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:05:15 +0000

I note the reviewer’s comment that ‘from’ as an anagram indicator is unusual. Is this a subtle and polite way of saying inadequate?

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:58:10 +0000

Thanks for that, and 28 ac had that frisson i.e. when you see the answer you know it’s right. Very tough puzzle and, for that reason and also having some excellent clues, very satisfying to finish.

By: PaulB

PaulB — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:50:35 +0000

28A was an attempt to define the diaries rather than their author, using logic along the lines of ‘diaries attributable to Mr X can only be CROSS MAN diaries’.

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:18:40 +0000

I had the same issues with the bottom half. Fouind it really hard and had to rely on the above for help.

Much to the disbelief of everybody I have ever met, I have never seen Star Wars, but did know that the Ewoks lived on Endor on account of the classic ‘Chewbaccca Defence’ speech from South Park! Well done for leaving it in, Eimi. It’s touches like this that make the Indy crossword stand out for me.

By: eimi

eimi — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:30:18 +0000

I was uncertain about the Endor reference. I was tempted to suggest a change to the Biblical witch of Endor, but then wondered whether Star Wars wasn’t more widely known than the Bible these days. I’ve recently taken advantage of the amazing prices for the first three Star Wars films on DVD at Amazon, so it was certainly fresh in my memory.

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:00:15 +0000

Thanks!

By: neildubya

neildubya — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:57:01 +0000

20a – it’s a cryptic def – CASH CARD.