Comments on: FT 12,924, Set by Aardvark, November 13, 2008

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:03:13 +0000

Hi Agentzero, it’s good to see you visiting us again.

“I feel obliged to point out, though, that Wyatt Earp was never a cowboy.”

That depends on your definition of ‘cowboy’ which, according to Chambers, can be ‘any rather rough male in stories, etc of the old American West, such as a gunfighter or a man involved in fighting Indians’.

I don’t think there is any doubt that Wyatt Earp was a gunfighter

By: Agentzero

Agentzero — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:52:27 +0000

Thanks, all. A number of these had me stumped.

I feel obliged to point out, though, that Wyatt Earp was never a cowboy.

By: Octofem

Octofem — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:21:14 +0000

Back again! I wasn’t happy about the ‘money’ portion, as there was no indicator for the ‘dreadf’ letters, but was misled by the ‘root of all evil’ into thinking I had better mention it.
I think we all found the puzzle rather taxing, Eileen. Still raining!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:15:13 +0000

Thank you, Geoff. That makes sense. So the MONEY anagram was just a red herring and there was no misquotation!

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:09:44 +0000

Eileen

One of Chambers’ definitions for ‘ulcer’ is ‘a continuing source of evil, pain or corruption’.

There is no ‘hidden’ indicator, ‘banishing some’ means removing part(s) of ‘dreadful ceremony’ to give [dreadf]UL CER[emony].

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:00:26 +0000

Octofem

I’m still puzzling over how 24dn works: I can see that you’ve taken emony [money]* – source of evil – [except it's 'love of money!] from ceremony and that you’ve found ULCER hidden in ‘dreadful ceremony’ but what’s the definition and where is the hidden answer indicator? I’m feeling really stupid over this.

I thought this was quite hard, with some clever clues [by which I often mean I feel clever at having managed to solve them!] I’m glad to see that Aardvark is classified as ‘hard’ on the website.

[Raining here in Leicester, too, after a glorious day yesterday.]

By: Octofem

Octofem — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:02:19 +0000

It never occurred to me for a moment that you were being ill-mannered Geoff. It is always a delight to hear from you and from Eileen too. Incidentally it is even pouring in sunny Dorset!
Only second thoughts I had were that ‘matted’ and ‘felted’ were similar, and that mat =rug, but it is pushing things a little.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:31:22 +0000

Octofem
Further research has revealed that Collins and COED do not support ‘felt’ and ‘rug’ as being synonymous but Chambers does effectively define both as being ‘a fabric made from wool’ (though felt is compressed and rug is woven).

By: Octofem

Octofem — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:21:07 +0000

Thanks Geoff. I agree with you. I have heard of ‘rug’ as synonym for ‘wig’ but not for ‘felt’.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:20:50 +0000

Octofem
Sorry if I seemed to be rude. Somehow I managed to submit the comment before I had added a greeting. Anyway, to rectify that – Good Afternoon (not that it is good, it’s [expletive deleted] raining again).