Comments on: Enigmatic Variations 862: Secret Tribute by Hypnos

By: mark

mark — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:01:48 +0000

I too definitely sent in a correct entry & with time to spare!

Its bad enough that the telegraph cannot plan out their “puzzle pullout” without clashes on reverse pages, but this “no correct entries”…..

Quality paper, what!!!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:09:31 +0000

This is very surprising. I usually cannot solve the harder Listener puzzles, but I solved this – the last step did take a little while to find but not spectacularly long. I did not send in an entry.

By: Shark

Shark — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:07:11 +0000

You are most probably right, Dave. I cannot believe there were really no correct entries. We shall see

By: Dave Hennings

Dave Hennings — Sun, 31 May 2009 10:55:42 +0000

Shark, I suspect it’s an administrative error. I think that EV gets a reasonable postbag, and not everyone would have forgotten to highlight NORTH (going north-west), which it is quite possible that I did! Watch out for a correction next week.

By: shark

shark — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:39:14 +0000

i see no-one sent in a correct entry for your crossword hypnos. Given this site and theanswerbank are tips of the iceberg, it just shows how many people do the EV but never send them in!

By: Hypnos

Hypnos — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:08:31 +0000

Thanks for the excellent blog and comments.

By: deejay

deejay — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:11:44 +0000

I had to look up faute de mieux in Chambers as I hadn’t heard it before. Made me LOL (I think!). When it comes to football I am a bit of a heathen, although I have of course heard of David James … I am a bit surprised he’s the current incumbent as he seems to have been around for decades!
And, yes, Hypnos confirms that it was the centenary of JM’s birth that prompted the puzzle. I was surprised at how few (relatively) well-known films he starred in … or should that be how few films he is well-known for starring in? But what a voice!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:42:32 +0000

Excellent puzzle. I’d noticed the ‘nominally’ from the start so I did guess James Mason once I found the film. Like you, the last step took me quite a while till I spotted it – the ONSET in the middle was tempting esp as one of his many films was ‘One Way Street’ but it did not quite fit.

I think the tribute may have been to the centenary of James Mason’s birth which was on 15 05 1909 i.e. the Friday after the puzzle appeared.

And David James is indeed a footballer, the current England goalkeeper, faute de mieux perhaps…