Comments on: Guardian 24382/Araucaria – running true to form

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:13:43 +0000

Re 4dn: “as heart to heart” refers to the position of the organ relative to the middle (of the chest) — left of centre.

By: radchenko

radchenko — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:13:51 +0000

As always agreeable but somehow more accessible than usual Araucaria, even though (tho) I had LASSIE instead of BASSET, ie LIE for speculation, so could not get 8dn.

4dn is very good, although why is it “heart to heart” and not just “heart”? What am I missing?

I got GERMAN BIGHT from Kes. There is a boy in Billy’s class called Fisher who is absent, so when the teacher calls his name at registration, Billy says “German Bight”, which he explains he got from the shipping forecast, just as Michod says.

It’s worth reading Kes for the description of the football match alone.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:49:26 +0000

Definitely not on A’s wavelength today. Really struggled with this, crawled through it after about four attempts, and didn’t finish top left corner, because I had “Hit good form” for 12ac.

27 ac Another stupid creature is a donkey, so a reference to Drop the Dead Donkey, too?

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:15:26 +0000

Sheer poetry isn’t it? [I often hear it at 12.45 am!] Yes. I think I remember that one.

By: Michod

Michod — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:10:32 +0000

So ‘soft’ can be P or B, but not S. Beautiful.
I did wonder how accessible GERMAN BIGHT would be for non-seafarers or Radio 4 listeners. For your enlightenment, Ilan, there’s a shipping forecast on the radio at ten to six every evening, listing the different regions in order “Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight…” (see it at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/shipping_forecast.html)
Does anyone else remember a Guardian crossword a few years ago with various of these names in it?

By: ilancaron

ilancaron — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:55:41 +0000

Yes makes sense to me now: B is in Chambers as “black (on lead pencils to indicate softness)”. I should be more trusting…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:49:20 +0000

Ilancaron, I think you’re trying to read too much into it: it’s just B = soft (in relation to pencils) = not hard. No need to remove the H from HB: B on its own means soft.

By: ilancaron

ilancaron — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:42:05 +0000

eileen: re form/bench: my skepticism only indicates my ignorance. I haven’t looked it up. I’m sure you’re right!

re pencils: I’m still confused how “not hard” alone indicates B via removal of H from HB for pencil. What hints at a pencil contextually in: “Not hard work following live music”? (work==OP, live=BE, music=BEBOP and ‘following” indicates concatenation in the cryptic grammar — we’re only left with “not hard” — why should I be thinking of pencils?)

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:35:39 +0000

Ilancaron: you sound sceptical about ‘form’! That’s what we always called them when I was at primary school in Leicestershire. I thought perhaps it might be regional but OED has ‘ a long seat without a back’.

Re pencils: they range from 9H [very hard] to 9B [very soft] via HB [medium] the most commonly used one. B therefore stands alone as an abbreviation [for black] and in this context, does mean ‘not hard’. I haven’t seen this use in crosswords before but I thought it was fair enough.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:17:05 +0000

14dn: by itself, h for hand would not do but rh is a perfectly acceptable abbreviation for right hand.