Comments on: Guardian 24,684/Arachne

By: KG

KG — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:02:43 +0000

I’m with Phaedrus and Kamintone on this one.

I used to play in a quiz league where the quality of the question setting could vary. As a general rule, if nobody in either team knew the answer, the question probably shouldn’t have been set. When the answer was revealed and the consensus was ‘who cares?’, the question definitely didn’t belong in the quiz.

I feel a bit like that about this puzzle – was it worth it?

By: Paul (not Paul)

Paul (not Paul) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:02:40 +0000

The least satisfying crossword since the last Arachne. I can only echo the complaints of obscure references and tenuous definitions. Apogee is the furthest point of an orbit not the highest – generally. Fake is different from doctor. Is unplucky a real word? And many others.

I shall seek out an old crossword the next time Arachne comes up.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:00:48 +0000

Mhl
Chambers annotates it as ‘meteorol’, so obviously weather forecasts and the like. I recollect seeing it years ago when I still bought a paper and there was a list (if I remember correctly on the back page next to the crossword) of the weather conditions at various resorts and other locations in the UK. It used ‘s’ for sunny, ‘c’ for cloudy, ‘r’ for rain etc.

By: mhl

mhl — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:05:28 +0000

Andrew: thanks, I take it back – I’d like to think it’s as much a tribute to a nice surface reading from the setter as my own ineptitude as a solver that I didn’t look that up in the dictionary right in front of me.

Gaufrid: thanks – I’ve added it to this list. Any idea where that’s ever used, though?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:49:02 +0000

Thanks Mhl – Aloe Vera is a succulent (plant), so “succulent” seems fine as a definition to me.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:40:41 +0000

Mhl
C as an abbreviation for cloudy is in Chambers (2008).

By: mhl

mhl — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:12:34 +0000

Thanks for the excellent post on this, Andrew – I didn’t envy you blogging this one.

I’m slightly surprised there weren’t more complaints about the definition in 8 across. “succulent” or “that’s succulent” for ALOE VERA? Very weak, I think.

I gave up on this one in the end (which is fairly rare nowadays) and looking at the answers I think that was probably wise. I’d never have got KNOCK for “innings”, for example. BANNOCKBURN for “Scots community” is bizarre, as others have pointed out. We got HEROIC, but where’s C for “cloudy” from? It’s not an abbreviation in any of my lists, and the (admittedly old) Chambers I have here doesn’t list it in the abbreviations.

By: Barnaby Page

Barnaby Page — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:56:42 +0000

9ac – thanks for the explanation – on realising it was APOGEE I became convinced the writer was (James) AGEE and never saw the much more obvious POE.

Country codes – GE (and FR and IT and all the others) are in fact ISO codes used for a wide variety of purposes. http://www.iso.org/iso/english_country_names_and_code_elements

By: Kamintone

Kamintone — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:48:42 +0000

My life-companion and I are always a day behind, having made it a ritual to complete the previous day’s puzzle with the aid of a bracing cup of coffee before getting up to face the day. This morning, for the first time ever, we gave up in disgust with only ten solutions completed in 48 minutes.

The worst clue of many weak ones (in our far from humble opinion) was 24a – ‘fake’ as a definition of ‘doctor’? ‘Hand’ to denote an implied ‘L’?? Also we thought the use of ‘nurse’ in 3d was dubious to say the least. The only clue I really like is 16d (but we didn’t get it).

For the rest, we agree entirely with Phaedrus (comment 24), the only difference in our experience being that we didn’t get there in the end and so found no sense of satisfaction at all.

By: Dave H

Dave H — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:07:05 +0000

Hi all,
First blog posted on Saturady so up and running now I hope. As usual I am a day behind as could not start until last night and completed all but 9a this morning. I am in the lets have a harder crossoword on Mondays camp so well and truly satisfied with this although found very tough as previous comments.
One question re 9a is describing the indicator that A POE goes aroung GE?. I do not think I have come across this before