Comments on: Guardian 24,474/Gordius

By: Barrie

Barrie — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:36:54 +0000

Why did you not include 5dn? (Clue “A right in a wrong is still a wrong)? I didn’t get it originally but, with the missing letters from your other answers, it was obviously AVARICE. Thanks for the help.

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:14:20 +0000

Re 6 down, I took ‘pear-shaped’ to mean the top of ‘belly’ falling to the bottom. Probably not a standard construction though !

By: Bogeyman

Bogeyman — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:21:51 +0000

For 6 down, could “pear shaped” indicate a spoonerism of “Belly Jean” rather than an anagram indicator for belly?

By: jvh

jvh — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:12:26 +0000

Thanks Muck and PBE for the learned responses. I am afraid it is a long long time since I studied any Latin, and I never learnt Italian.

By: muck

muck — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:42:45 +0000

Sorry PBE, I do speak a little Italian, but had to refer to my Collins Italian dictionary to check for possible irregular forms of venire. ‘Vieni’ is certainly the (irregular) 2nd person singular for ‘you come’, which I would use to my cat: they don’t understand the imperative! I believe ‘veni’ is the correct 2nd person singular imperative.

By: Comfy Settee

Comfy Settee — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:16:49 +0000

Had no end of trouble with this because I put BARBED for 13ac (well, something barbed can scratch, no?). Im still happy with it as an answer, just not as THE answer!

By: PBE

PBE — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:44:00 +0000

Well, “Veni, Creator Spiritus” is sung in English as “Come, Holy Ghost”. And ‘veni’ isn’t the 2nd person singular imperative of venire, which is ‘vieni’ — as anyone who has heard an Italian summoning a cat will tell you.

By: Fletch

Fletch — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:09:05 +0000

Or do a lot of crosswords, they do crop up quite frequently!

By: Tom Hutton

Tom Hutton — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:40:21 +0000

Ambler and Travers! You really have to be old to do crosswords like this….or have access to reference books.

I agree about “veni” (I came, I saw, I conquered)

By: muck

muck — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:37:57 +0000

3dn VENICE: I was doubtful too, Jvh, about ‘veni’ as ‘come’ in Italian. However, regular -ire verbs, eg dormire, have the imperative forms ‘dormi, dorma, dormite, dormano’. Although venire (to come) does have some irregular forms (eg vengo, vieni, viene, vengono in the present tense) the imperative is regular, so ‘veni’ as ‘come’ is correct.