Comments on: Guardian 24,641 (Sat 7 Mar)/Paul – Star signs

By: liz

liz — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:14:03 +0000

I agree that this way of treating a theme and its interconnections was very elegant. Though I must confess to being a huge fan of Araucaria.

By: Chatmeister

Chatmeister — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:39:33 +0000

Stiofain_x
Fletch did not use the word ‘condescending’ but ‘patronising’. Whatever, let’s keep the comments relevant to the puzzle otherwise I will have to dispatch them to Tartarus (see Discussion Policy).

By: stiofain_x

stiofain_x — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:21:14 +0000

are you aware what the word condescending means mister f?

By: Fletch

Fletch — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:26:47 +0000

Your comment sounded a bit patronising to me but never mind. I thought hackles were raised rather than roused.

By: Ralph G

Ralph G — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:26:25 +0000

28a 778 above. Fletch, I adopt Paul B’s comment. ‘Constellation’ – nice one. I should, of course have nmentioned ‘edible’ as a straight derivation from Latin, giving us a succinct double (Germano/Romance) cognate in eat/edible.
2d, thankyou rightback for the explanation of TO M. Perhaps I’m one of the two persons on the planet who have never seen a James bond film, and married to the other one.

By: Colin H

Colin H — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:13:01 +0000

As a further connection between ‘stars’, Tom Cruise was in “A Few Good Men” with Demi Moore.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:46:51 +0000

To be fair, Ralph G merely notes that hackles were not raised.

Judging from the rest of his learned contribution, it is hard to imagine that he thinks the word should have caused constellation. Sorry, consternation.

By: Fletch

Fletch — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:33:53 +0000

I fail to see why you would expect an adverse reaction to the odd non-commonplace word in a Saturday prize puzzle.

By: Ralph G

Ralph G — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:50:23 +0000

28a I note that EDACITY failed to rouse hackles among the Saturday solvers, despite being one of those words you wouldn’t normally meet in a lifetime outside a philological context or a crossword. Watch out for ‘edacious’ next.
Eng. ‘eat’ and Latin ‘edere’ (short ‘e’s) both derive from IE root *ED. but Eng. ‘eat’ comes via the Proto-Germanic root ‘etanan’ – Ger. ‘essen’, Dutch ‘eten’ (also opeten, eat up).
From the Latin compound ‘comedere’, Eng. has the charming ‘comestible’.

By: Colin H

Colin H — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:15:46 +0000

Took me exactly half an hour (I know, because I was sat in internet caff, and paying by that unit). Liked the multiple meanings of “star”, and 18 across.