Comments on: Azed 1908/Noel

By: ilancaron

ilancaron — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:00:37 +0000

to be honest count me out of those who saw the obvious xmas tree from the diagonals (should have paid more attention in Divinity years and years ago at school).

thanks for the KEENLY observed explanation and the units typo. I thought as much but didn’t dare presume…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:45:15 +0000

I agree that the LEONE clue looks like a mistake, though the surface would read rather oddly (or even more oddly) with singular “unit”. I await the Slip to see what Azed has to say about it…

Re the lettered clues – I’m sure Azed has used a similar gimmick before: it wasn’t mentioned in the rubric this time but I think the idea is that they are (vaguely) in the shape of a traditionally-drawn Christmas tree. But I’m sure you all noticed that anyway.

By: DFM

DFM — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:02:07 +0000

The clue to LEONE seems to have an obvious misprint : units instead of unit. Enjoyable puzzle. You don’t need to work out the slanting answers of course ( esp. if the clues give anagrams) but for all that it was a pleasing challenge to precede the much greater challenge of writing a decent clue!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:26:58 +0000

Thanks Matthew – it eventually came to me in the middle of the night but you beat me to it!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:07:57 +0000

21d is EN L’[air] inside KEY. This was the last clue I solved, and I had to think a little just now to remember how it works.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:17:40 +0000

Hi Ilan,

I had NEEDLY where you had KEENLY, though I can’t fully justify it: Needly = like needles = sharp (unfortunately not “sharply”), and “essential to go round” is NEEDY, so “in the air but airless” should somehow be L. Hmm, now that I write this down I’m even less convinced than I was before…