Comments on: Guardian 24,978 / Paul

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:40:51 +0000

I had collar for 24a instead of cravat so struggled with 23d

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:22:02 +0000

I did enjoy this. Nicely challenging for the most part. Lovely to see some topical references for a change – other compilers please take note! Shame he had to spoil it with 1ac, 17ac, 26ac.

By: sidey

sidey — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:28:45 +0000

The two would be interchangeable in “the earth makes one revolution/circuit around the sun each day”.

Only if your knowledge of astronomy was very, very wrong.

By: stiofain

stiofain — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:18:56 +0000

I thought this was great Paul seems to be doing 1 smutty then 1 clean these days I prefer smutty. Great blo Eileen thanks,I couldnt parse ROAD SIGN before reading.
Great clue for MESSI Mick. I though the GRAHAM NORTON and SIMON COWELL clues were brilliant as Sil says what other setter would try this?
Ive never worn a CRAVAT but on occasion have necked a load of wine on credit great surface!!

By: Bullfrog

Bullfrog — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:13:37 +0000

Given that Lionel Messi pretty much beat Arsenal single-handed, could he be anagrammatised as a ‘LONE MISSILE’?

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:20:16 +0000

Mick – excellent Messi clue:

He scores in games, simply (5). (A disgruntled gooner writes).

Is the Gooner bit part of the clue?

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:51:55 +0000

Welcome, Another Andrew, to add to our regular blogger and the Grumpy one!

As you’ll have seen, you don’t need to have finished a puzzle in order to contribute – but I still remember my own trepidation, a couple of years ago, at hitting the ‘submit comment’ for the first time. Hope to hear more from you!

Thanks for that, Gaufrid. Like Sil, I’d perused Chambers and Collins dictionaries but don’t have the relevant thesauri. I didn’t pursue it because I wanted the clue to work!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:30:47 +0000

Revolution and circuit are given as synonyms in both Chambers’ and Collins’ thesauri.

The two would be interchangeable in “the earth makes one revolution/circuit around the sun each day”.

By: Another Andrew

Another Andrew — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:30:33 +0000

I’ve been reading this blog for a few weeks, waiting to actually finish a Guardian crossword before posting for the first time. Finally managed it with today’s puzzle, although I needed Eileen’s explanations for 4d, 17a and 26a.

Please accept my back-dated thanks for all your help over the last few weeks.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:17:18 +0000

Hi Sil

Mine’s the 11th edition and has ‘bum [2]: adj worthless; despicable; dud; wrong, false’.

I think it’s late enough in the day for this: your last remark reminded me of this, from Simon Hoggart in the Guardian, at the time of the death of Michael Foot:

“By a sad coincidence, last week I said that the headline “Foot heads arms body” was probably apocryphal. Not at all. I have since heard from Martyn Cornell, who was a subeditor on the Times around 1986.

He had to handle a story about Michael Foot being put in charge of a committee to look at nuclear disarmament in Europe, or something similar. The headline was to be in largish type, but across a single column – always a problem for subs.

“I certainly wasn’t going to get ‘nuclear’ or ‘disarmament’ or ‘committee’ to fit, so after a struggle I decided on ‘Foot chairs arms body’, then thought ‘Foot heads arms body’ would at least give a laugh to the revise sub. To my astonishment, the headline was printed, and a legend was born …” “