Comments on: Guardian 25,003 / Pasquale

By: walruss

walruss — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:49:02 +0000

Bill, I am waiting to get my teeth into that, and for the same reasons as you! I will sign off from Pasquale with a complaint that OR does NOT equal ‘men’, but only ‘other ranks’. It isn’t fair to ask us to take another step, it’s indirect.

By: Bill Taylor

Bill Taylor — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:00:05 +0000

Today’s (that is, Friday’s) Puck is truly awful — but too appalling for someone to blog about it?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:16:00 +0000

Geoff Chapman @46

OR = Other Ranks (in the Army) – very popular with several setters.

By: Geoff Chapman

Geoff Chapman — Fri, 07 May 2010 11:52:43 +0000

It was far more interesting than watching the election – but took me about as long. ‘Grogram’(because I’d never heard of the word) and ‘Ecclesia’(because I’m too young for the Goons) last in.

Why does ‘OR’ equate to ‘men’?

By: rrc

rrc — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:16:09 +0000

i found this difficult, i actually gave up and used the cheat button on two clues. in fact this week has been a total contrast to last week. perhaps its possible to find the middle ground

By: Paul (not Paul)

Paul (not Paul) — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:00:38 +0000

One man’s wonderful and lit is another man’s obscure bag of washing.

Too hard for me. At least half a dozen words or references that meant nothing to me.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:40:06 +0000

I struggled. I think Goons ref.s are pretty redundant and guessed Ugrian from hearing of Ugric. The rest I just sweated out, basically.

Goons and ‘royals’! Not my things.

By: scarpia

scarpia — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:42:31 +0000

Funny how we all have different ideas about what makes a great puzzle.
I’m not the Don’s biggest fan,but I did enjoy this one.Had to check Ugrian and also looked up George’s final words.Enjoyed the homophones(I usually do)and loved 3 and 5 down.
Wasn’t keen on 6 down though,I thought the wordplay was more akinto that found in a barred puzzle.
But perhaps I’m just being thick!

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:28:24 +0000

Duke #39 “&lit” stands for “and literally”, meaning the whole of the clue (rather than just a subsidiary part) defines the answer, too. I would think it is pronounced “and lit”.

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:41:07 +0000

Re Ugrian, this is most commonly encountered in the term ‘Finno-Ugrian’, which is the standard term for the Finnish-Hungarian language family. It is said that when the ancestors of the Finns and Hungarians went their separate ways, it was agreed that the ‘Finns’ should take the vowels and the ‘Hungarians’ would keep the consonants.