Comments on: Guardian 25,092 – Quantum

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:30:20 +0000

Oh no it can’t ! 12 of course, silly me. Better go back to sleep. Has got 8 corners though but that doesn’t really help. Now, where’s that retract button ?

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:18:30 +0000

Am a bit late here due to internet problems ~ but for what it’s worth , I read 1d in the sense that “It’s six-sided or eight (sided)” and a CUBE can have 6 faces (“sides”) or 8 edges ( also “sides” ?).

By: Barnaby Page

Barnaby Page — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:52:29 +0000

2d: is ARCH, meaning “chief”, really a word on its own? Surely it’s just a prefix.

28ac: possibly this is nit-picking (surely not…) but the “as” didn’t work for me. “Unknown quantity by missile plant” would have led more logically to YARROW.

By: Richard Pennington

Richard Pennington — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:57:52 +0000

Well I liked it.

By: Ian W.

Ian W. — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:28:21 +0000

Stella @17 — since when is a bikini not a swimsuit? The bare reference to “one piece” without a “for example” just left me, as with several other clues, scratching my head after solving, still wondering if I was missing something. The measure of a good clue, to my mind, is not whether it can be justified with Chambers et al., but whether it leaves an unambiguous sense of completion and satisfation on solving. Alas, too many in this did not.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:01:29 +0000

Re.39 – That should have read SWIMSUIT and establishment.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:05:34 +0000

For Myrvin (who @ 35 says: ‘if something is light, it’s likely to be portable’. And: fiasco, a failure in a musical performance, a complete failure of any kind, that can be a collapse), I’m afraid to say that definitions for clues, not to mention SI elements, for published cryptic crosswords really need to be much tighter than that. Indeed, excluding accepted inaccuracies as seen in the dire but ubiquitous crosswordese, they probably need to be as good or the same as the dictionary def itself (unless the clue is an &lit or a cryptic definition).

Solvers need to know for sure they’re getting it right, and poor craftsmanship does nowt to reassure in that regard.

By: tupu

tupu — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:02:40 +0000

Hi Carrots
Kind of you to include me in the list – though I thought I was fairly sympathetic in my own response. You were just a little OTT but, for what its worth, I generally enjoy your stylish and refreshing sallies.

Another memory – The Crazy Gang performing their version of ‘The Scarlet Pimple!’ He has assembled a group to take to safety in England when the enemy arrives. ‘Quick. Hide them in the secret chambers!’. ‘Where are the secret chambers?’ ‘Under the secret beds you fool!’. Sorry!

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:52:23 +0000

Thanks Andrew.
Pretty easy puzzle from Quantum with a couple of “loose” clues.Cryptic definitions usually seem to split opinions – I liked SWISUIT but thought GOSSIP COLUMN was poor.Like MickH @6 I put in leader column,which I think better fitted the definition(pillar of the eatblishment = leader).1 down would have worked better if it was 2 down.

By: Carrots

Carrots — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:07:31 +0000

Tupu/Muck/Cholecyst/Myrvin et al: I am chastened by your invocations of higher authorities (such as Chambers) and welcome your thoughtful and helpful comments. Alas, I am in the habit of solving the daily Grauniad in a basic drinking establishment in which, were I to ask for a Chambers, would be gruffly told to spit in the sawdust on the floor. I detest those electronic “portable” dictionaries almost as much as “portable” phones, so I fumble my way to solutions limited as much by own prejudices as linguistic knowledge…or lack of it in this case!

I don`t usually get to this site until relatively late in the day, so there`s not much I can usefully add “when the hurly burly`s done” (to labour the precedent set by 13dn.) I do follow your deliberations though…and marvel at the blogger`s ability to function before 08.00am., which is like the middle of the night for me.