Comments on: Guardian 24426/Arachne – TGIF

By: Amnesiac

Amnesiac — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:48:08 +0000

Shirley – I got the answer, I just felt it was poor wordplay if the alternation produced 5 letters of which the last had to be discarded without explanation. However, I believe Andrew’s suggestion earlier is what was intended as that works correctly.

By: Amnesiac

Amnesiac — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:44:50 +0000

5a – just noticed the question. No, as far as I can tell, the Carabus genus is not a genus of any variety of scarab beetle, but it is a beetle genus.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:43:28 +0000

Amnesiac 23D The answer is Eton. Starting from the “e” of mention it is the alternate letters ending with the N of New College. The W is irrelevant

By: Shirley

Shirley — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:41:01 +0000

20D GOC is General Officer Commanding
18A I’m surprised no-one has challenged Ilancaron’s assumption that threepenny is something to do with the opera.
It’s vulgar because it’s schoolboy slang for tits (threepenny bits)!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:28:44 +0000

I think u/s is probably an abbreviation of ‘unserviceable’.

The HAS (along with IS and even WAS) for ‘S is a technique as far as I am aware limited to Guardian puzzles.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:35:55 +0000

Amnesiac – I was about to agree with you on 23dn, but looking at it again I suppose it’s “Regularly mention” = ETO, plus N=New.

I do share your puzzlement about 7dn, unless it’s an obscure meaning (I don’t have Chambers to hand to check).

By: Amnesiac

Amnesiac — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:17:18 +0000

Just a couple of questions:

7d: How is “not able” (or “not able to be”) “less”?

23d: Is there a superfluous “w” in the wordplay of this clue, or am I missing something?

Re 14d, the clue is an accurate (if somewhat abbreviated) summary of the plot of La Traviata.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:57:28 +0000

I agree with John about 12ac & 25ac, and with Eileen about 1ac. Certainly some very devious clues here, though also a few easy ones to get a foothold with.

The old threepenny bit was actually 12-sided – ah, for the days when it was worth something! I used to take a one-stop train journey to school on what is now the Tyne & Wear Metro; the single fare was 3d, but bizarrely there was also an off-peak return for 2d.

By: David

David — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:51:52 +0000

19a US is an abbreviation of useless: so boy who’s no good is US ED

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:40:30 +0000

1ac: I took ‘s as being abbreviation of ‘HAS’, which I thought was rather clever [the clue, I mean1]