Comments on: Independent 6,907/Nimrod

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:25:57 +0000

Thanks all for the corrections and help. Good to see I wasn’t alone in not fully understanding some answers too!

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:23:17 +0000

Nealh
Domestic is a (police) term for a domestic argument or ‘row (between couples)’.

Twosomes – MO (flash, a short period of time) SOW (spread) in SET (ready) all reversed.

By: rayfolwell

rayfolwell — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:18:55 +0000

“Domestic” is (police) slang for a domestic argument I think. At least I’ve heard it in various TV series.
Chambers gives that usage.

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:48:25 +0000

I still don’t really understand the “gross domestic product”, apart from the gross bit being 144. Why exactly is “couple in row” = domestic ? Also, the explanation for twosomes doesn’t look complete, since it doesn’t explain where the “w” comes from.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:44:13 +0000

Thanks for the explanation, Eimi. I studied that clue for a long time after getting the answer and that aspect never occurred, but it can be just about justified when you look at it.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:14:36 +0000

Thanks Eimi for the explanation. Unfortunately I still can’t justify the logic behind it or how anyone could be expected to make that leap of judgement.

By: eimi

eimi — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:06:43 +0000

Nimrod abstruse? Surely not

I read this as ‘on the air’ doing double duty as both the homophone indicator and the sustaining medium, with the cryptic part of the clue relating to old Orville and Wilbur Wright, and the definition simply ‘legally’

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:13:22 +0000

Given that some of the finest cruciverbal minds have failed to come up with a reasonable explanation for 9A by now, I guess it must either be, at best, an overly abstruse clue or, at worst, a dud one.

By: C.G. Rishikesh

C.G. Rishikesh — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:46:15 +0000

Let’s take ‘How an original was sustained legally’ to be the def. for phrase reqd. Thus BY RIGHTS.

As for the two homophones (‘twice on the air’):

Could they be ‘buy rights’ and ‘by wrights’ (carpenters or joiners, in which case the original could be an antique furniture)

But I realise that if all this has to make sense, the clue must probably have ‘is’ rather than ‘was’.

Let me hit the sack before tying myself up in knots…

Rishi

By: Al Streatfield

Al Streatfield — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:29:46 +0000

Don’t like TWINS for sign.

If somebody asks you what sign you are, you don’t say “twins”, you say “Gemini” etc…