Comments on: Independent 7352 / Punk

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:09:46 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.

It wasn’t my intention today to attempt The Independent crossword but for the fact that the restaurant I visited for lunch offered a complimentary copy to its guests.

Three hours later and a little worse for wear, I took a peek at this effort by Punk.

Maracana & Atacama were first in. Surely not I thought, a grid with all solutions containing only the vowel A!

Completed in 133 minutes and looking back I spent far too long assuming no other vowel was present, having already rejected ‘Tie’ for 11 ac. That changed with Anaemia and I moved on a little disappointed that the theme was broken.

The whole exercise still quite an audacious feat with much to admire. Chief among them are ‘Adam’ (how good is that), ‘Lava’, ‘Alas’, ‘Heinz’ and ‘Bananarama’.

By: walruss

walruss — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:09:22 +0000

I agree with Richard’s theory where words would only be thematic with an A in a checked square. Very good puzzle too.

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:14:47 +0000

Didn’t get agana, never heard of it and blew (!) 23 with havana as no references to hand but it half seemed to fit, oh well. Still easier generally than usual Punk especially once all the As started to appear.

By: scarpia

scarpia — Mon, 10 May 2010 12:47:26 +0000

Hi Gaufrid,
I’m sure you and sidey are correct about agar agar.I vaguely remember growing cultures in it in school science lessons but science is definately not one of my strong points!

By: Ali

Ali — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:38:02 +0000

Nice puzzle. On the subject of other similar puzzles, I think there was a recent Guardian Genius in which clues were given in alphabetical order of their answers, the trick being that they all began with A.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:33:02 +0000

Hi scarpia
Thanks for the link. Music theory is not one of my strong points and I’m always pleased to learn something new.

My observation was based solely on the definitions given in the three usual references and I didn’t think to google ‘raga scale’. Had I done so I would have found (as I have now) many references to raga being a scale so I withdraw my reservation about this clue, though I think sidey’s quibble in comment #3 is valid, I had the same thought when solving but then got side-tracked by raga when writing my post.

By: Richard Heald

Richard Heald — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:29:39 +0000

Further to Dac’s comment #4, I remember a (different?) Araucaria puzzle in which A was the only vowel used not just in the grid but also in the clues themselves! It appeared in one of the Guardian books published in the ’90s.

By: scarpia

scarpia — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:12:53 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.I thought this was great fun and like youI had to check 1 and 28 across.
Re 4 down – a raga can be,rather loosely, defined as a scale see http://cnx.org/content/m12502/latest/ .
I only came across this while trying to solve an Ithos puzzle in Araucaria’s subscription magazine 1 Across.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:41:55 +0000

Thanks for a comprehensive blog, Gaufrid. Gave up with a couple that I couldn’t see, despite the theme, but I don’t normally get that far with a Punk, so pleased with that. It’s a very clever construction, but for me a few too many obscurities, so it didn’t really float my boat today.

But happy to have learned AGA SAGAS, which is a delightfully evocative phrase.

By: dac

dac — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:13:00 +0000

I remember an Araucaria puzzle which appeared on the 1st of April in 1970-something, in which the only vowel in the entire grid was A; central crossing answers were (if my memory serves me correctly) Panama Canal and the rather odd Banana Salad.