Comments on: Guardian 24,613 – Taupi

By: Rufus

Rufus — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:35:52 +0000

Re GROGRAM. As a boy seaman we had to learn about nautical history. This included being informed of Admiral Vernon who, because he always wore a grogram cloak, was known throughout the service as “Old Grog”. In 1740, because there was so much drunkenness among the seamen after the distribution of the official rum ration, he ordered that the rum should be weakened with water. Because of his nickname, this mixture – that remained in the RN until 1970 – was given the name of “grog”.

By: John Pidgeon

John Pidgeon — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:51:52 +0000

Hostile sort of nonsense – I’ve got better things to do (5,3,5). Bye.

By: Barnaby Page

Barnaby Page — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:43:54 +0000

Derek – I think it’s hugely unlikely that the clues are re-typed. It’s possible (though I suspect a low priority at any newspaper – certainly not any I’ve worked at!) that the crossword editor can make changes between edition deadlines. And of course online can, at least in principle, be changed at any time.

I use the online “printable” version, which had the correct (4,5).

On another topic, I’m very interested to hear about your software-development project. I’ve been casually specifying an ideal crossword-creation tool for a while. If you’d like to chat about it, email me – it’s firstname@fullname_without_punctuation.com.

By: ray

ray — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:24:21 +0000

I thought the usual reference was to Thor’s hammer ??

By: Geoff

Geoff — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:50:56 +0000

Out all day so have only just got round to the Guardian crossword (did Times and Telegraph on my travels!).

Found this one great fun – I always enjoy Taupi’s puzzles, which appear only very occasionally, alas.

He’s a bit of a libertarian (hence grumbles above!) with a nice line in unusual clues and links – 10ac and 22dn are typical. Thought 7dn was very clever, and getting 5dn was a LOL moment!

By: muck

muck — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:37:48 +0000

Good puzzle and the 5 (drag queen) theme was amusing.

Not sure about 17dn (ladette) and didn’t get the GROG part of 20dn.

By: stiofain_x

stiofain_x — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:45:43 +0000

I loved this one especially after the few weak puzzles lately and thought 5 down was a great clue and liked the nice tie in to 10 and 22.
A point of interest is that grog referring to rum is often attributed to Admiral Vernon introducing the standard tot of rum to American sailors daily rations and that his nickname “old grog” came from his wearing of a grogham coat.
When in fact it is an even older West Indian name for rum. So the good admiral probably got his nickname from being overly fond of his grog and the grogham coat story was probably spread to cover this up.
Stiofain

By: John

John — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:20:04 +0000

However, ouch or no ouch, I still think “God (or anybody else)’s” for “God has” is a liberty.
“I’ve a pain in the neck” is unambiguous, but what does “He’s a pain in the neck” mean?

By: smutchin

smutchin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:51:19 +0000

It’s OK, John, I knew what you meant!

By: John

John — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:35:13 +0000

Smutchin: I’ve just noticed I actually had it the wrong way round in my previous post. I meant “has” not “is” of course. Put it down to recovering from a root canal job yesterday. Ouch!