Comments on: Guardian 24,583 – Brendan

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:26:56 +0000

Re your Chambers comment, Eileen, at 31 above, I think Chambers serves its purpose as the ultimate reference source for puzzles such as the Listener, Azed, EV, IQ etc which use vocabulary very much wider than normal (or what you might expect to find in a daily cryptic).

It’s important to have an indicated, agreed, source in which everything in those puzzles can, hopefully, be justified.

But for the daily cryptic puzzles and the English language as it is used today, Collins and Oxford are where to look, I’d say.

Unfortunately, I’d not time to try the Brendan puzzle, the subject of this blog.

By: Tom Hutton

Tom Hutton — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:04:38 +0000

Chambers has a very good selection of Scots words which are often useful to a compiler (and at scrabble).

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:39:24 +0000

The flaw in that plan is that some of us have not gone to bed yet. Hoewever, I have nothing to say on the subject (my long term friends would have died of shock at that juncture!).

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:29:18 +0000

Noel: I had exactly the same thought as you re 10ac: I had always thought that ‘suit’ meant the act of suing, ie referring to a civil case, but I was surprised to find ‘prosecution’ as the first meaning given in OED, followed by ‘the action of suing’ with quite a bit of historical detail: Chambers gives ‘the act of suing; an action at law’, with no mention of prosecution and with no historical or etymological background.

This seems an appropriate moment for me to say that in my few weeks’ acquaintance with my newly-acquired Chambers, I have been, on the whole, disappointed in the lack of such detail and I do wonder why it has been chosen as the ultimate oracle. [I realise that this is probably the ultimate heresy, which is why I've chosen bed-time to venture to say it ]

By: Shirley

Shirley — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:00:19 +0000

Eileen – have just seen your very kind comments from yesterday. Many thanks and happy New Year to all.

By: stiofain_x

stiofain_x — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:58:59 +0000

A great puzzle today I think Brendan has the whole package and I would rank this alongside the best Araucaria and Paul themed puzzles
stiofain

By: Noel

Noel — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:53:54 +0000

A minor quibble, whilst I’m here…

10 ac – Regina cannot, by definition, be a party to a ‘suit’, a lawsuit being a civil action brought by one party against another. Regina would be the prosecutor in a criminal ‘case’.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:53:49 +0000

Noel – see response no 4!!

By: Noel

Noel — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:51:01 +0000

sorry – I see David did so (entry no. 4)

By: Noel

Noel — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:48:05 +0000

Very nice puzzle – I got stuck on 7d and 10 ac – don’t think I would ever have got these.

11 ac BEAM – not sure anyone’s fully explained this (i.e. why ‘summer’)?