Comments on: Guardian 24239/Pasquale – missed the sugar

By: Clare

Clare — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:33:54 +0000

Bother, my bugbear is missing again. I can’t get 10 across, it’s the only one that has me stumped. Blow on? Slow on? Slew in? I have no idea.

Oh! Hang on! I just got it!

Doh. I am an eejit.

By: Mick H

Mick H — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:13:45 +0000

Indeed. I think the difference is that in these cases, you are given a reasonably precise idea what to do with the synonym once you have it (HARLOT cycling could be ARLOTH, RLOTHA, OTHARL or THARLO, but that shoudln’t hold one up for too long). This is not the same as having to find a synonym and then find an anagram of it.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:12:56 +0000

Geoff, neither of the cases you cite are indirect anagrams. Something much more specific has to be done to the “indirect” words to produce the answer (or in these cases part of the answer.) These clues are no more indirect than defining a word and then, say, asking for last letter to be promoted to be the first.

By: Colin Newman

Colin Newman — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:11:59 +0000

25 ac = OFFEND

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:31:27 +0000

I originally had “turnip” for 1 across, which I thought fitted the clue almost as well (“Swede gives you wind? Then take very little!”)

By: Pasquale

Pasquale — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:24:25 +0000

Thanks to all for the feedback. I plead not guilty of course to the charge of using indirect anagrams!

By: Fletch

Fletch — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:12:56 +0000

20: Key take was how I read it.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:46:32 +0000

Agree with all of the comments above.

Rather a tricky puzzle, I thought – but then I generally find Araucaria and Paul much easier than Pasquale. It must be something to do with the way my frontal lobes are wired…

Two clues caused me to raise an eyebrow: 5dn and 12ac. Both contain cryptic clues to words which have to be further manipulated to fit into the solution (CALLAS and HARLOT respectively). I thought that indirect anagrams were taboo, according to strict interpretation of the ‘rules’. (Admittedly both words need simply to be chopped in half and reassembled, rather than completely shuffled, but my point remains). This isn’t a criticism -I’m as libertarian as they come – just an observation that this is a bit of a departure for Don Manley, who is usually one of the most Ximenean of Guardian compilers.

By: AlanR

AlanR — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:02:56 +0000

8d: atto is an SI prefix meaning million million millionth or 10^-18.

By: mhl

mhl — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:01:34 +0000

12 across LOTHAR is HARLOT cycling round

In 13 down “pain” is the French for bread

Is the Spoonerism in 20 not “key take” -> “teacake”? (“key” = “important”, “to get hold of” = “take”)