Comments on: Guardian 24652 – Araucaria

By: liz

liz — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:05:42 +0000

KG – Don’t worry. The name of Dukakis’s sister must surely rank as obscure knowledge. I thought Dukakis as an answer would generate more complaints. I have to say Olympia is a much better actress than her brother was a politician…

By: KG

KG — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:20:14 +0000

Liz – sorry about confusing her with Miss De Haviland and marrying her off to her brother.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:43:12 +0000

For 13D: I had “Back Ruiner” as “limbo”, which fits the pattern and the clue, if I’m allowed to “ruin” as a synonym for to “go to hell” – in a rather old-fashioned onanistic context. Ho hum.

I’m with Araucaria on “Soccer Mom”. Perfectly legitimate as it’s an entirely American phrase, and they really don’t say “mum” – not even Niles Crane.

But “Jupiter” is shudderingly bad.

By: liz

liz — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:58:55 +0000

Olympia Dukakis, Dukakis’s sister, is an actress and was in Steel Magnolias and Moonstruck.

Sidey, do you think a crossword published in a British paper should not include American terms or references?

‘Soccer mom’ predates ‘hockey mom’ by many years. I’m an American who has lived here a long time and gradually learned enough about cricket to do these crosswords. When my son was younger and cricket-mad, I used to call myself a ‘cricket mom/mum’. Similar amount of driving and sitting on the sidelines…I draw the line at being called ‘septic’ though.

By: KG

KG — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:31:16 +0000

Soccer mom – I became aware of the ‘hockey mom’ during the VP candidacy of Sarah Palin during the last US election and extrapolated this to ‘soccer’ – the idea of a school run (6,3) type mother made sense. The definition ‘I ferry the kids’ has a wonderful air of defeated resignation about it.

‘The King and I’ getting mixed up with a French composer was intriguing and suggested other possibilities, but the Democratic candidate (husband of Olivia I believe) was a good answer.

Paul Dukas might only be remembered for one work – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – but given the Disney treatment of the piece I think his name counts in the ranks of general knowledge.

By: Sidey

Sidey — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:02:40 +0000

I like over reacting Fletch

By: Fletch

Fletch — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:09:45 +0000

For heaven’s sake Sidey, how can you possibly decide never to bother with a particular setter again on the basis of one answer you didn’t like. Get a sense of perspective!

By: Sidey

Sidey — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:01:05 +0000

Geoff, soccer is fine, it’s been around for years. However, I doubt there are any ‘Moms’ in the UK. Horrible septic invention.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:34:35 +0000

What we Brits call ‘football’ and the Americans call ‘soccer’ is an extremely popular sport in the US amongst schoolchildren (the boys tend to graduate to American football as they get bigger, but the girls stay with soccer, which is why the USA women’s football team is so good). Hence SOCCER MOM is not in the least unlikely.

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:53:43 +0000

I’m heartened that others found this tough, when Mrs B and I managed to finish it, which happens by no means all the time!
I thought 9a stood out almost immediately as (commerc so)* – if both ‘e’s were removed, the letter count would be wrong – it just took ages to work out the anag. I did think ‘soccer mom’ a somewhat unlikely phrase: mom is American, but thet don’t play football there much, though I believe they do call it Soccer.

I like 8d, even though it was the last to go in.