Comments on: Guardian 24,589 – Orlando

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:01:03 +0000

Hi Derek,

I’m with the West Somerset

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:24:31 +0000

Northern thing? I was brought up in Yorkshire and never heard lane or entry used in that way. Lane was always a type of road, entry would require some sort of gate or gateway, which lanes never have. In any case we used dialect words for such things as gaps between houses, as any proper northener would.

By: Harley26

Harley26 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:00:19 +0000

Entry is also a northern thing, too, and the clue (lane between houses) is an exact definition. I can’t understand why those who complain about such a clue as this do crosswords at all. Likewise, The Remains of the Day, a very famous (hardly ‘minority’)book and film well clued – as it happens, I didn’t get this one but I attribute this failure to my lack of skill not a lack of fairness in the setter.
Do you want a crossword to teach you nothing?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:34:25 +0000

Derek Lazenby – the use of entry may be a regional thing. In Birmingham, one of the most common house types is a long row of terraces with a ‘tunnel’ every 2 to 5 houses to provide access from the street, through the front garden, then through the tunnel, to the back gardens. This access is always referred to as an entry. As a brummie, I had no problem with the use of lane between houses to mean entry.

By: Brian Harris

Brian Harris — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:10:21 +0000

Only had time to look at about three or four clues in this yesterday. Thought 9ac was particularly well-crafted. FLETCHER – Christian first name and one who produces for “the archers” !! Brilliant. That’s the sort of wordplay that keeps me doing cryptic crosswords.

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Also, May I reply to Fletch’s comment about the lack of solving times being posted now.

Posting times on a certain other crossword blog to do with the times crossword was one of the main reasons i stopped doing the times crossword, that and it was like being quized by your dusty old uncle with none of the wit and fun of the guardian red(hot) setters.

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:39:26 +0000

Tought i would add my thoughs as the 4th post of today And I am glad we have exceeded posting expectations, even if it mostly taken up with arguing whether a book/film is well known enough!

I have to say that I think The remains of the day crosses the threshhold of being well known enough, if not the xcellent book then the film must be in everyone’s consciousness unless one has been living under an operahouse for the past 1 years.

I have to also recommend all of Kazuo Ishiguro’s books if only for an insight into the rigid japanese culture:-

* A Pale View of Hills (1982)
* An Artist of the Floating World (1986)
* The Remains of the Day (1989)
* The Unconsoled (1995)
* When We Were Orphans (2000)
* Never Let Me Go (2005)

By: George

George — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:40:39 +0000

Entertaining thread as always! Recently discovered this superb site and it is rekindling what had been a dormant enthusiasm for the Guardian crossword. Keep up the good work all! I’m getting back into the swing of things: almost completed today’s, only missed 2, 9 and 27, and really kicked myself for not seeing ‘fletcher’, a very pleasing clue.

My Grandma (b 1923, also educated in village school up to age 13) used to refer to people she slightly disapproved of as ‘a specimen’. It was a somewhat affectionate insult. I’d never heard any one else use the word in this context until today’s puzzle. Certainly an obscure one.

To humbly offer my two cents: as a cultural artefact, Remains of the Day is certainly more rooted in the ‘general consciousness’ (whatever that might meaan) than is Mary Barton, which I had heard of but which is hardly read these days. So if obscurity is the issue, is 14 not more objectionable? Alternatively, if one objects to the reference to contemporary culture, rather than the classics, (and I recall the action thriller ‘Die Hard’ was a recent answer!), one can hardly approve of Simpson (meaning ‘Bart’) being an element of a clue. Perhaps people who object to this sort of clueing should change to a different puzzle with a more austere house style…

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:22:29 +0000

Dave
I totally agree with your comment!

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:15:37 +0000

Daniel
Look for the ‘Christmas crossword’ (20th December) here:

http://www.ft.com/arts/crossword

or go to:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/df8f974e-cca4-11dd-acbd-000077b07658.html