Comments on: Guardian 25103 – Paul

By: maarvarq

maarvarq — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:33:09 +0000

The male equivalent of a prima donna is a primo uomo , not "primo donno". I thought that Paul wanted the first letter of "donno" as part of the construction, but now that I know he didn't, I can confidently say that he just got it wrong.

By: Paddywack

Paddywack — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:24:44 +0000

I loved this one too. I’m not a quick solver and find the Ximenean setters offer a fairer challenge for occasional cruciphiles like me.

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:15:53 +0000

Wow! Bollywood. What a clue!! (There were many other splendid ones).

By: Gerry

Gerry — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:06:35 +0000

Enjoyed this a lot. I saw lots of redshanks today…nice to see one turn up in the crossword.
I got 21ac without understanding the clue…until now.
For ‘touchstone’ my Blackies Dictionary includes the figurative use ‘any test or criterion by which the qualities of a thing are tried’.

By: muck

muck — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:30:12 +0000

Thanks for various comments re 26/12 UNDER THE SUN I suppose the clue is typically Pauline A little naughty both in the surface and the cluing

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:58:29 +0000

Hi Petero and Sil

I parsed it that way, too.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:29:26 +0000

Hi Petero, I think your parsing of 17d [with 'variable' being the anagrind and n as 'indefinite number'] is 100% right.
Overlooked this in the blog – but I did it the same way as you, with ‘proves’ just there to say that it ‘becomes’ an irritation.

By: Petero

Petero — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:40:37 +0000

Uncle Yap
Thank you for an excellent blog to an excellent crossword. To split hairs, I feel that 17D reads a little better with n being just ‘indefinite number’, and ‘variable’ as the anagrind, rather than the vaguer ‘proved’.
Mononglo, is bet/imagine such a stretch? I imagine you could come up with a sentence where the two can be used interchangeably. ‘Under the sun’ is perhaps more of a reach, but it brings to mind Ecclesiates’ “There is nothing new under the sun”, which is somewhere in the right area.

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:34:02 +0000

Hi Stella

Thanks. I must try to keep my penchant for childish jokes under control!
As Eileen says, the Latin masculine is dominus and vocative domine. My point ( feeble as it was) was that if donna (IT) comes from Latin via domina, one might also hope to see Italian donno as per Paul or domino ( L. ‘us’ becomes ‘o’), but the first as Martin notes is not there and, as I discovered, domino is, but simply means a domino!

By: Stella

Stella — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:21:58 +0000

Hi Muck@26.

26/ refers to the expression ‘everything under the sun’, ie. anything existent or possible