Comments on: Guardian 24,709 / Gordius

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:18:23 +0000

Hi Ygor

The connection between the two clues is ‘Gin’, a tot being ‘a little of it’. You’ll realise we all had problems [still not resolved] with the rest of it!

By: Ygor

Ygor — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:11:22 +0000

I hope there’s still someone out there who can answer a latecomer’s question. I can’t understand why the “… …” connection between 1A and 8A. Is “boarding card” somehow a figure of speech that I am missing?

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:20:19 +0000

Hi Ciaran

I was surprised, too – but then I never cease to be amazed at what’s in there!

By: Ciaran McNulty

Ciaran McNulty — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:02:05 +0000

Eileen – ah I didn’t have the crossword to hand, you’re right. Very surprised to find PERDU as an English word!

By: Mezzle

Mezzle — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:06:55 +0000

I agree with Dangnabit et al. 1ac is simply [GIN]* (indicated by ‘served’ in a container of ‘cardboard’) – which I saw as a wrap-round container, hence no second anag indicator.
But 1ac was my fist in so I may be biased in its favour.

Two clues that slightly grated me were 6(RESTINA) and 25 (INSULIN).
Thought the modified substitutions cANISTER and INSULt were too close to words in the clue itself.

Hence I solved them as con[TAINER]* + random S?; [SUL*]r + IN +(extra IN?)
I knew these were wrong as they lacked anag indicators, but they fitted the definition and the checking letters – but it annoyed me until I came here to check the ‘correct’ interpretation.

This frustration and short-cutting could be avoided with some slightly more abstract susbtituttions, and still retain the surface reading and stop slackers like me guessing from the letters on the page.

eg Case with top off = cANISTER; Endless pain = INSULt (verb)

Best

By: Dagnabit

Dagnabit — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:43:11 +0000

Sorry, Liz, I meant to cite you as my predecessor but clicked “Submit” too quickly. Eileen, you’re right that the indicator is missing – another reason I disliked this clue. And Sil, I agree with you about the unsatisfactory nature of simply swapping left and right. Similarly, it also bothers me when an anagram differs from its source by the placement of only one letter, yet the setter doesn’t mention this but instead just uses a standard anagram indicator – very lazy! (Admittedly, I see this mainly in U.S. cryptics…)

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:27:30 +0000

Dagnabit / Sil / Liz: I think I’ve reluctantly come to the same conclusion: that’s all there is. [But where's the anagram indicator? - I still think there should be one, Liz!] Thanks, all, anyway.

By: liz

liz — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:13:39 +0000

Dagnabit — that’s what I was trying to get at earlier re 1ac. Yet I don’t see it as an anagram per se, simply the two words ‘card’ and ‘board’ containing gin*. Unsatisfying perhaps, but the only clue that niggled (and it really didn’t niggle me very much).

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:05:08 +0000

…and that’s what it’s probably is.
Very unsatisfying, ‘board-card’ as an anagram of card-board’.
I must admit: the clue as a whole sounds really smooth.
But why does (any)one make such an anagram?
Just swapping left and right.
Well, maybe, Gordius likes to provoke.
Never seen that before, so: accepted, but ‘don’t believe you’.

By: dagnabit

dagnabit — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:38:16 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Eileen. I was able to get everything today but 24ac, not knowing either the Hindu text or the auto – not a bad result, I think, for a first day back after a four-day weekend.

My take on 1ac was simply [gin]* inside a container made from the letters of the word “cardboard.”