Comments on: Guardian 24558 / Chifonie

By: Ralph G

Ralph G — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:34:42 +0000

19a NAKED=unarmed. Perhaps what Nye Bevan had in mind at the 1957 Labour Party conference debate on nuclear disarmament when he spoke of a British Foreign Secretary “being sent naked into the conference chamber” if the disarmament resolution were passed. Less recently, more appositely, Daniel Defoe 1727 writes ” I .. scorn to take up arms against a naked man” and J Barbour Bruce 1487 has “He was armyt, The t’othir naked was”.
For ‘double cognate’ lovers: the same Indo-Eurpoean root nagnaka gives rise to nude via Latin nudus and to naked via nag and nak in the Teutonic langauages; naga is current Hindu for a naked mendicant.

By: Ralph G

Ralph G — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:10:14 +0000

RRE is used for ‘rare earth elements’ but I don’t suppose many of us read the Journal of Petroleum Geology.

By: Barnaby

Barnaby — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:53:56 +0000

R for rare appears to be a term in philately – see http://www.askphil.org/b25r.htm. My understanding of it is that R indicates “somewhat rare”, RR “definitely rare”, RRR “super-rare” – though I agree with Eileen that it would be more amusing to apply it to steaks.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:20:13 +0000

Usually I start the Xword on the bus to work in the mornings. Today, exceptionally (putting out controls most of the day for an orienteering event), I started at 5pm and breezed through it, though with a slow down B-L; there must be a lesson for me here.

My mother used “paddy” for “temper”, a common word around my home area (N Lancashire)

By: Roger Murray

Roger Murray — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:47:37 +0000

Blasted through this only to get stuck on 27a as I had put Ajoin(for reasons only known to myself)for 22d, enjoyable puzzle despite my stupidity!

By: John

John — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:25:52 +0000

P.S.
Didn’t Sam Weller stutter?

By: John

John — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:21:42 +0000

Are there any rules for single letter abbreviations? I find their indiscriminate use by some setters irritating.
The “s” in “Son’s” in 28 ac seems to me to be superfluous and only there to make the surface readable. Clumsy. Perhaps “second” would have been better.

By: Phaedrus

Phaedrus — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:31:25 +0000

One of the most famous and beautiful games of chess ever played was by Anderssen in 1852 – you can play it back to yourself here (http://www.chessnation.com/chessboard/evergreen.html)

Because of its enduring quality, it has been dubbed his “Evergreen Game”

I was so happy to be reminded of this by the puzzle today; I dont think Ive looked at it for 20 years.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:44:51 +0000

PS re 26ac: I forgot to say I did spend a minute or two wondering who Brian Spitt was…

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:40:14 +0000

Don; I don’t know whether Ian was more worried about the Kay than the definition, which seems straightforward enough.

Mhl: as far as I can find out from Google, Callas’ last ‘Norma’ [which I mentioned only yesterday as being beloved of setters] was not at La Scala – but that doesn’t spoil an excellent &lit clue. That would just have been the icing on the cake.

No luck with the context of R = rare, either. [I can imagine myself having used it when a waitress in my student days on a steak order to the chef.]

I enjoyed this puzzle – apart from the naked over-exposure, particularly as the two answers crossed. I loved 26ac.

23dn: I took this as eats as in ‘What’s eating you?’