Comments on: Independent 7437/Mordred

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:31:22 +0000

beermagnet – you and me both! Many thanks to all involved for the explanation.

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:16:42 +0000

Thanks both – I should’ve thought of the Do,Re,Mi “notes” but was completely misled by NOTES potentially being part of the anagram. As you see I had a sleepless night worrying about it

By: MikeS

MikeS — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:18:33 +0000

@beermagnet
I read 27A as sos = notes as in do re mi fa so etc. I think it is more normally spelled ‘sol’ but apparently sometimes ‘so’ as well. Then we have ‘to tune’ as the fodder and ‘playing’ the anagram indicator.

Mordred is still too tough for me alas, I had to cheat a bit down in the SE corner!
Cheers

By: DorothyS

DorothyS — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:02:28 +0000

beermagnet @ 27

SOSTENUTO = SOS (plural of SO, a variant of sol in the sol-fa notation), plus (TO TUNE)*. Tricky, I agree.

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:06:20 +0000

I still can’t see how 27A SOSTENUTO works
Notes to tune playing thus? (9)
It seems to be an &Lit with an anagram (AInd: playing) of NOTES and half of TUne with SO from thus, but how do we know how to choose the fodder?
I wrote it in with a associated “?” next to the clue.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:10:09 +0000

Hi Anne
Welcome and please contribute again. I think you will find that 12 & 28ac (stirrup and anvil) were mentioned in my comment #2 as being relevant to the theme. Agreed, this was a hard puzzle and the full theme did not become apparent until several people had contributed to the blog. Sometimes several heads are better than one (except for various items designed by a committee ).

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:50:57 +0000

I’ve followed this blog for a while, but never contributed. Thought I would mention that stirrup and anvil are also bones, in the ear. I didn’t spot the bone theme until I looked here, which I did because I found it quite a hard puzzle and needed to check a few answers which defeated me.

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:23:11 +0000

Or maybe you’re paying for the free copy I get through work

Found this remarkably hard myself, didn’t finish despite spotting the theme. Particularly troubling really, as I don’t think I’ve struggled with this setter before.

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:11:55 +0000

on line damn it!

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:03:56 +0000

Let’s hope it’s a normal(ish) Dac for tomorrow. I do the dead tree version and pay twice as I have subscription to my home and live away for work, so I’m paying for at least one of you who do it one line too. All contributions accepted.