Comments on: Inquisitor 94 – E-numbers by Raich

By: Raich

Raich — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:16:14 +0000

PS The clue for VESAK was “Have Southern state cut off after festival” i.e. there was no ‘a’ or indeed ‘Buddhist’

By: Raich

Raich — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:29:16 +0000

Many thanks to all for blog and comments. VESAK is ‘VE S AK AK = Alaska (state cut off – from the rest of the US) – ‘after’ indicates position.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:04:50 +0000

Another possible interpretation is VE S A K[s] with ‘state cut off’ being K[s] (Kansas) which is put after ‘a’ and the definition is simply ‘Buddhist festival.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:13:29 +0000

VESAK: Clue was (I think) “Have Southern state cut off after a Buddhist festival”.
I agree with Will Ransome the ‘VE = Have, and S = Southern, but if we take the state as AK = Alaska then the phrase “cut off after” is redundant.
However, if we take the state as ARK = Arkansas then we get VESARK, and reading “after” as the comparative of “aft” we “cut off” a letter ‘nearer the stern’ of VESARK to get the entry – that way, all words in the clue are working.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:15:56 +0000

VESAK

I’ve sent the crossword in and seem to have lost the original clues, so I’m not sure about 29ac, but isn’t it ‘ve = have, with ‘after’ merely a filler?

I liked this. Good clues, which all had decent surfaces and weren’t there simply to be got out of the way so that one could concentrate on the theme and what you have to do once the grid is filled in, as is in my opinion a criticism of a certain very popular crossword.