Comments on: Independent 7,395/Virgilius

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:52:06 +0000

Similarly I assume 32A is how you end up after having that many men.

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:17:10 +0000

I assumed that CHIMERAS at 1a indicated the theme, in that answers were part-MAN, part-something-else. Yes, it was on the easy side for a Virgilius.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:42:27 +0000

I found this very easy – even without spotting all the “men” – like flashling @8 about 10 mins.
12.15 still seemed a bit early for bed so tried the Guardian Quiptic for the first time,which I found a tad more challenging than this!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:32:16 +0000

About MANUMITTED, about a year ago I clued it like this:
“Emancipated football team with German replacing popular back”.
[I don't think thát English football team would, at this very moment in history, like to replace one of its backs by a German ... ]

Oh, of course, great crossword by one of the best setters around!!

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:21:00 +0000

Two or three words I didn’t know here. No doubt the one I’ll actually remember in the future is the one I guessed wrong: TIMAN? – sort of half way between Timon of Athens and Toman of Persia.

Ali, your Agamemnon’s missing an A.

Coincidentally MANUMIT is an answer in the Guardian Quick today.

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:49:14 +0000

Knowing it was a Virgilius was looking for the grid answer links and saw it very quickly, only put manumitted in at end as it was the only was clue anagram could go, but never heard the word before.

Very quick solve not really timed but it would be sub ten mins which somehow left me feeling cheated!

Been looking for a further link on the other answers but other than placement can’t see one.

By: NealH

NealH — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:33:17 +0000

I didn’t spot the fact that everything contained man until I’d completed most of the grid, so it didn’t make the puzzle a great deal easier for me. It did help slightly with one or two of the more unusual words such as maniple. Pregnant was the last I got – one of those answers I feel I should have got much more quickly, but the conviction that the word would end in ing was probably what stopped me.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:06:11 +0000

sidey, well spotted.
The MANs reflect the 180 degree symmetry of the grid, so even more elegantly constructed than I first thought.
There are two long interconnected chains of MANs and a single X in the centre square—maybe that’s where Virgilius’ treasure is buried!

By: sidey

sidey — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:37:25 +0000

An amusing diversion, what else can one ask for?

A beautiful construction, is there some significance to the placement of the theme words? They seem to make a pattern.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:23:39 +0000

Thanks to Ali for the blog and to others for clarifications. I agree that this was very cleverly put together and I’m not going to say it’s a poor puzzle because it isn’t, and without exception I enjoy tackling a Virgilius/Brendan offering. But once the MAN theme became apparent, then I was just using that to stick in the answers rather than enjoying and teasing out the wordplay. I guess I’m saying that I usually enjoy being taken round the houses by Virgilius, and today he just showed me the path to the front door a bit too easily.

Never happy, are we?

But PREGNANT was, as Kathryn would say, a lmao moment.