Comments on: Guardian 24,973 / Paul

By: GMJH

GMJH — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:21:13 +0000

‘asking to be separated’ was marvellous. A quite wonderful piece of lateral thinking. It’s the sort of clue you can ask people during journeys etc to while away a nice piece of puzzle time.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:50:29 +0000

My God, talking about G&P, how embarrassing .
Wish the word ‘you’ wouldn’t exist .

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:47:41 +0000

Re ‘grammar and precision’- I can be faulted …
So, “because Paul is a setter that you can hardly BE FAULTED on grammar & precision.”
Excusez-moi.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:40:21 +0000

Today the mini-theme was cracked within seconds, starting off with IMAM (unlike Eileen, we liked it – this time not the usual “I am a Muslim leader”, even though basically the same device was used).
My PinC: “Why does he make it so easy?”
Referring, firstly, to these “but___” clues which were nice (except 21ac), but indeed too simple.
[but when, tonight, I was thinking of being the cleverest boy in class and find another one giving a solution meaning ‘easy’ (or an equivalent of that), it wasn’t that easy, I can tell you]
And secondly, there were too many giveaway clues, like 20d (HAMMER), 16ac (WAIT) and even 24ac (ROGER MOORE) and 8d (THATLONGONE).

But how wrong she was.
It took quite a while to fill the rest of the grid, 10ac and 17ac being the key clues.
Both of them being very very good, especially ROCHESTER.

Whether South African or Australian or another –an, we enjoyed PLIERS.
Paul “ten voeten uit”.
Just as 27ac (ASKING) shows us that he ‘can take more liberties’/’is more original’* than mainstream setters – we liked it.

Like some of you, we had REGAL for 2d too, only to find out that 9ac would be VERY hard to find.
The crossing E came from R.E.M., a ‘group’ (some people might criticise this definition, though apparently not today) that my PinC had never heard of. But in the World of (Pop)Music an extremely familiar name – I wouldn’t call them an 80’s band, they made their first record in 1983, and were miles away from Duran Duran and the likes, and had their major hit in 1991 with “Losing My Religion” (rightback’s Music of the Day, I guess).
[stiofain, don't agree with you at all ]

This post is another long one from Cambridge.
I apologise if I’m boring, especially while I have nothing to add to all the others.
But one can also say: we have to talk about sómething, because Paul is a setter that you can hardly fault on grammar & precision.

There’s at least one who has a different view on his crosswords: Grumpy Andrew.
After reading his #5, I think he should stop now.
Either it’s a gimmick (wanting to criticise for the sake of being critical – but then, for me, the fun’s over) or he should try to find another platform, one that matches his ideas about ‘good’ crosswords.
Or, even better:
find out where he really stands, and take part in the survey of the University of Buckingham: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X8LFT67

By: stiofain

stiofain — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:53:24 +0000

I too was looking out for an April fool joke but alas none to be had. Great crossword but sadly a bit lacking in Paulite ( Paulish , Paulian, Pauline? )smut and scatology Im particularly disappointed that the talentless whiney band REM werent somehow associated with being the middle letters in excrement.

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:37:05 +0000

I’d just like to say I thought this an example of the ideal crossword – fairly hard, but not too hard (for me!), fair and above all, plenty of laughs, or at least groans…
I loved all the ‘but _’s, the link between 2d and 27a was very nice, and 22a was extremely groan-worthy. I thought Eileen might have more to say about this outrageous homophone… (Colin – I thought of ‘sledge’ too, but you have to admit PLIERS sounds like Players for at least some Australians !)

By: IanN14

IanN14 — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:06:56 +0000

don, I don't think you're right about Lord Byron writing Hamlet, Turns out it was some French bloke...

By: don

don — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:55:14 +0000

I was playing with Moose as the only thing that would fit in 24 across, SE for seven seeming as legitimate as THESP for thespian, although the cognoscenti would hammer all but the blessed few, which seems to include Paul, for arbitrarily truncating a word, in this case, without any indication of curtailment.

Regarding temperature, most abbreviations are arbitrary, but the signs, symbols and abbreviations used in the SI system are agreed internationally and temperature, being a fundamental quantity, has the agreed symbol T. It’s likee saying one hadn’t heard of the author of Hamlet – Lord Byron, wasn’t it?.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:37:43 +0000

second (top) half hard today. Otherwise an enjoyable Paul.

(In case you are wondering, I must have hit a control key while typing – I do wish we could withdraw a post)

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:34:46 +0000

Didn’t quite get there in the end. Like Liz, I had a tentative JUST at 7a for a while, and IMAN at 15a (brian still not recovered from cold bug), both of which hindered considerably. Also had REGAL at 2d, which put paid to a finish at 7ac.

No one else seems to have commented thus, but I found the