Comments on: Guardian 24,996 / Gordius

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:04:43 +0000

I LIKE Gordius.
Ah, Gordius, I notice, thinking: I’ll solve this but will have to think. And so it was, again.
As far as I could see, everything here worked just fine, except TAIGA. I’ve learned to look out for these, and translate in my head for these curious, all-too-frequent, examples of such an oddly peculiar minority dialect offering a non-homophone. (“Received Pronunciation” is very odd indeed. Try writing some of it phonetically, as a dialect, which it is).
I think the majority of us who CAN be bothered to pronounce our Rs should continue to protest. Eileen, please don’t give up on it when the presumption that it is ‘correct’ is so rude, narrow and ignorant.
I may have mentioned before that the Western Morning News, covering England’s South West peninsula, proclaims in its banner to be “the voice of the westcountry”, yet their (supposedly cryptic) crossword constantly includes these minority-dialect, supposed homophones. I don’t know if the WMN has reformed its policy as it’s a crap puzzle anyway and I no longer bother with it.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:55:36 +0000

Macca, I think you’re right about 1ac (OF FENS[IVE]) – a bit clumsy.
The area around Cambridge (at least to the North) is largely what they call ‘fenland’ (the Fens). So, when you are living in Cambridgeshire, you are ‘from the Fens’ [which Gordius seems to have reduced to 'of Fens'].
And just like you, I wasn’t that happy with ‘saloons’ for FIESTAS.
Even so, a very good – certainly not boring – Gordius, who nowadays seems to produce crosswords that are much better than, say, a year ago.
My Clue of the Day was probably 7d’s SPITFIRES.

By: Macca

Macca — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:41:14 +0000

Being unfamiliar with Cambridgeshire, can someone explain 1ac to me please ?

We have Ford Fiestas in Oz but I don’t think it’s quite mainstream enough to be clued simply as ‘saloons’ – that was the only real disappointment in a better than usual Gordius.

By: liz

liz — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:26:42 +0000

HI Eileen,

We used to sing Begone, Dull Care at school in Canada too! (‘I prithee begone from me…’)

Funnily enough, I did check that this was the word I wanted before I posted because, as you say, it does seem to indicate the reverse of what it actually means.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:08:25 +0000

Hi FumbleFingers and liz

You’ve got me started now! It occurred to me that it’s a funny word, because, when you split it up, it appears to mean the opposite of what it does mean – as in the song we used to sing at school, ‘Begone, dull care!’.

However, SOED tells me that it comes from Old / Middle English, ‘bego’ [past participle 'begone'] ‘to beset, overrun’, hence, ‘me is woe begone’: ‘woe has beset me’.

[I also like the word because it reminds me of Garrison Keillor's lovely radio readings of his 'Lake Wobegon Days'.]

By: liz

liz — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:22:23 +0000

Fumblefingers — thanks for that! My elderly spaniel often looks woebegone, which is why I found the clue so funny (Although he is probably thinking that I left him…

By: FumbleFingers

FumbleFingers — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:35:12 +0000

liz / Eileen @7/8

Lawks! For over forty years I’ve cherished “woebegotten”, only to discover through you two (plus OED) that it’s just an illusory chimera.

I shall now cherish “woebegone” as the rightful occupant of that lexicographic niche. For as long, God willing!

By: FumbleFingers

FumbleFingers — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:19:44 +0000

Can’t agree with xanthomam there. I think it’s a good puzzle. Maybe not the most challenging, but certainly not boring.

I had to google “Russian forests” for TAIGA, and while I was there I checked EUNICE was indeed Timothy’s mother. The rest I found do-able given a bit of time, but not trivial. Just the way I like it.

I particularly like the way Gordius ignores word divisions in the surface reading of clues for ENDOW and SPITFIRES, for example.

By: xanthomam

xanthomam — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:29:45 +0000

Hello folks,

There is a word which seems,when dealing with some Guardian setters, to be beyond the reach of commentators. That word is BORING. At this point I had intended to list the soporific list, but, since I decided to start with 15 down RED SETTER, I’ve lost the will to carry…………….

By: Martin H

Martin H — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:49:15 +0000

An absorbing and wittily clued puzzle which I found quite challenging. ICING was lovely. Not knowing Timothy or his mum, and having all the crossing letters, I spent some time trying to fit 8d to the enticingly plausible idea that UKIP were being set up as political eunuchs, but finally the penny dropped on a fine clue.

One plea: 15d was a nice clue, but can we have a moratorium on I/me/_(insert name) = setter = dog? It’s been done to death. RIP.