Comments on: Independent 7,356/Phi

By: Derrick Knight

Derrick Knight — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:50:05 +0000

Might be a bit late to join in this thread. But good to see so many new names. flashling might be interested to know that I went to a Jesuit Grammar School where I was chucked out of the Latin class but top in French. It wasn’t until I was in my forties that I realised the reason for my lack of understanding of Latin, which we began in the first year, was that I had managed to pass the eleven plus with absolutely no understanding of English grammar and therefore completely mystified by essential grammatical terms like subjunctive and stuff. It was, incidentally, the surprise of my life when I got O level maths!

By: TRIALNERROR

TRIALNERROR — Sat, 15 May 2010 20:49:43 +0000

Um, how about a link thus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaeon
for those who didn’t have a classical education and might be wondering where the dogs came in. Nice picture too.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Sat, 15 May 2010 03:30:51 +0000

“L for leather” is from the Cockney alphabet, which normally starts “A for ‘orses” “B for mutton” “C for yourself” …

It has many variants (easily googlable) but L is one of the most consistent. My favourite is “Y for runts”.

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 15 May 2010 00:18:14 +0000

Lopakhin, no need for that /joke Still it was a fun fill as it were

By: scarpia

scarpia — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:26:24 +0000

Thanks Ali,
Got off to a flying start but some of the longer answers slowed me down somewhat.
Thanks Rishi and Kathryn’s Dad for the parsing of 5 and 8 down.Hadn’t been able to work those out, although the solutions were gettable from the definitions and check letters.Had to look up festina lente but I enjoy learning new Latin phrases and ‘make haste slowly’ is a great concept.
Another very pleasing puzzle from Phi.

By: Lopakhin

Lopakhin — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:52:14 +0000

Oar cant spel?

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:47:41 +0000

graduate even who can’t type.

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:45:25 +0000

Finished it from the wordplay but not being a great classicist, hey I’m a maths gradute who couldn’t do Latin at my local comp have never come across festina lente before or heard of actaeon so filled it with guesses. Nice to see my guesses were right though! dunno why everyone says Anax was difficult yesterday, horses for courses I suppose.

By: sidey

sidey — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:14:48 +0000

I liked this. Turncoat was one of those unfortunate clues that is gettable from the definition and then requires working backwards.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:24:17 +0000

15dn: RENEGADE is TURNCOAT.
Split it, it becomes “TURN COAT”.
If you obey this instruction you get TA OC – which is “thanks senior officer”!