Comments on: Independent – 7474 by DAC

By: flashling

flashling — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:46:54 +0000

It’s not a cow but “to cow” which means to bully. A nice play on words and misdirection from Dac.

By: redddevil

redddevil — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:14:52 +0000

Nice puzzle but not sure how a cow is bully any more than a woman would be manly.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:52:22 +0000

Excellent puzzle though I completely failed to parse 20ac and couldn’t even guess it from the checking letters. I was looking for a synonym of invitation!

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:12:56 +0000

Very nice puzzle. “Boondocks” was new to me, and I was pleased to find it in Chambers having guessed it from the wordplay. Harder than the usual Dac, but readily solvable, given enough time.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 05:52:27 +0000

I’d definitely agree with K’s D about savouring the surfaces. Some great clus here: 14a,26a,3d,17d and 18d to name but a few.

By: Noddy

Noddy — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:49:48 +0000

134 Moby Thesaurus words for “worm”:
amble, angleworm, animal, armyworm, beast, blast, blight, blighter,
bollworm, bookworm, cancer, canker, claudicate, contort, corkscrew,
cotton worm, crawl, creep, crinkle, cur, dog, dogtrot, drag,
drag along, drag out, dry rot, earthworm, earworm, edge in,

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:32:41 +0000

Re Deserted, I’ve seen it used like this http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Deserted+medieval+village

By: scchua

scchua — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:17:43 +0000

Following on from my@6…In which case the wordplay is not “D(eserted)” but “D(ivorced)” or “D(eceased)”. Is this what Dac had in mind?

By: walruss

walruss — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:32:47 +0000

Yes, I too enjoyed this one, with its easy clueing style. A couple of tough words handled well, which is a skill some other people could try to pick up!! Agree with the ON EDGE pasring above.

By: scchua

scchua — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:21:38 +0000

Thanks nms.
Taking your cue, did some research, and “D” does stand for “divorced” which is sort of “deserted” or for “deceased” which at a stretch stands for “deserted”