Comments on: Independent 7,260/Phi

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:44:46 +0000

ex works was what I thought of when looking at this.

By: anax

anax — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:02:27 +0000

Wil:

Re EX – yes, a fairly common variety being “ex stock” meaning “direct from stock”. Not that I’m a great fan of it. I only became aware of it thanks to a company I worked for a couple of years ago who, in their constant battle to stay fully abreast with the most banal of business jargon, used stupid expressions like “ex stock” instead of “in stock”. Lordy, how I loathed that place. Still, going forward…

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:51:39 +0000

Yes, good call, sidey – or indeed ex-works, which is still in common use as an indication of a pricing structure.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:48:59 +0000

Thanks, nms and others on EXIT. The answer was pretty obvious from the crossers and it’s a small niggle in a good puzzle. And we’ll all remember AESIR for when it comes up again in five years’ time, won’t we? Or in my case, probably not.

By: sidey

sidey — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:44:09 +0000

Wil, it’s a bit passé, but phrases like ex warehouse or ex London were common in commerce and travel.

Darned good puzzle btw.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:31:53 +0000

Much enjoyed. I though AESIR was a bit rare, then when I tried to fit other words in it seemed that Phi’s hands were tied and there was no alternative. However, he could have had Yemen for yummy, sentinel for betrayal and asset for aesir. But perhaps he wanted to stretch us.

Ex (see 23dn) seems to have a number of meanings, none of them very satisfactory. Is there a sentence where ‘ex’ could be replaced by ‘direct from’ without changing the sense?

By: Mick H

Mick H — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:22:08 +0000

Yes, I admit that one had me completely baffled. I saw the wordplay eventually, and guessed the definition.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:29:03 +0000

EXIT

I think EX = direct from: IT = computer experts. Definition: last instruction of a subroutine. I am probably in a minority on the site familiar with subroutines and indeed EXIT is usually the last command to end it, but Collins gives it as a general ending of a computer program of which a subroutine would be one example.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:08:08 +0000

Thanks, Ali, you’re right, it has been a tough week in the Indy, but some enjoyable challenges, including this one. Strangely, MAKE was my first to go in – I just took the clue at face value. AESIR was a bit obscure, I agree. But I liked ITTY-BITTY, and some very good anagrams too. I got EXIT for 23dn but I’m still not sure of the wordplay for the first two letters – something techie about programming, no doubt.

By: NealH

NealH — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:11:21 +0000

Excellent puzzle with the exception of aesir, which I thought was a bit too obscure and had rather a strange clue.