Comments on: Guardian 25,135 – Gordius

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:27:55 +0000

Hi Sil.
There’s probably less likelihood of you ever finding this than there was of my chancing on yours @ 33 during a random walk through the various puzzles ~ but find it I did. So what do you think ? At least I tried and it was a serious suggestion.
The fact that I’m bracketed rather implies ‘noted/dismissed’. Nil desperandum though, one gets used to it

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:53:04 +0000

To be honest [but I fear, not many will read this], I am very disappointed by not getting any kind of reaction (apart from Roger’s) to my 4+1 Last Questions.
I think, they were interesting enough to raise discussion (certainly #5).
Well, alas – that’s life.

By: Val

Val — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:13:17 +0000

I’m sorry to be so late to the party but I’m a little bit behind myself this week.

I hadn’t thought of “cryptic” as an anagrind as it presumably is used in 17dn and am not entirely happy with it. Is this a valid device that I should now be looking out for or just a liberty?

Thanks, Andrew, for the blog and Eileen for that link that I would otherise have missed (being even more behind on checking my emails than I am on the crosswords).

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:54:07 +0000

Thank you Andrew. A fairly loosely-tied knot from Gordius, I thought, and quite easily undone without any resort to cutting. (Well, ok, Google for Loligo after the event).
1d could almost have been CHOPPER ~ tool (‘harvester’ ?) to fell trees …

Agree, Sil, that 15a seems a bit of a muddle. Could ‘finds’ possibly be the anagrind in the sense of ‘reveals’ ? The whole clue reads a bit like an &lit anyway in that only mugs exercise ! (Was it Henry Ford who said of exercise “If you’re fit you don’t need to, if you’re unfit you shouldn’t”.)

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:57:05 +0000

Bryan (@ 4) – Mrs Beaver, with her zoology degree, got 6d straight off

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:59:54 +0000

Of course to some of us, Longsight isn’t just part of Manchester, it is 9A. What is 9A? A BR shed code!

http://manchesterhistory.net/railway/Railhist.html

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:21:33 +0000

Sorry Folks, I have one more.
(5)
LONGSIGHT (4d) is a part of Manchester, written as ‘Longsight’.
Hypermetropia looks like that, but is written as two separate words ‘long sight’ (at least in ODE – Chambers only talks about ‘longsighted(ness)’).
Should we call this a double definition then? Or is it something in-between a dd definition and a charade?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:13:49 +0000

Thanks for the link, Eileen – I’ve booked my ticket!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:08:41 +0000

Thank you, Andrew, for your concise but spot on blog.
Eventually an OK Gordius, but at (too many) places not precise enough.

Some nice touches, like 11ac (so, don’t agree, molonglo), 19ac (we liked the combination ‘dubious-tax-record’), 25ac (CAHOOTS) and 21d (in which the second part of the clue (ie the construction for THERESA) was rather unusual).

Unlike tupu, we weren’t that enthusiastic about the FACE PLATE homophone – in a league quite different from Crux’s recent LETTERBOX.

There’s a lot of discussion on US(E)ABLE, but for me it’s a non-issue: USEABLE is legitimate and USABLE simply doesn’t fit.

Four Last Questions:
(1)
Shouldn’t there be a proper anagram indicator in 15ac (GYMNASIUM)? Or is it ‘exercising’ [if so, why 'finds'?] or is the second part as a whole a kind of anagrind? Doesn’t the fact that ‘one’ is part of the anagram fodder, stand in the way?
(2)
Maybe, the ring in a bull’s nose is called a TORUS (is it?).
But if not, what is ‘in its nose’ doing there [just for fun?]?
(3)
The construction of 2d (UTENSIL) is clear, but I guess ‘to’ is just there for the surface [in case that's true, I don't like it at all - mainly because it's linked to 'turn', suggesting 'to turn' or something 'to add to turn']? And is the noun ‘motion’ really a good anagrind here? It suits the surface, but is it cryptogrammatically right?
(4)
Isn’t the use of ‘with’ in ORIGAMI (7d) a bit unusual? The reversal of MAGI with OR – and then IGAM fóllowing OR?

The ones that are waiting for an opinion on ‘not/es’ tonight, I have to disappoint: I Don’t Want To Talk About It [courtesy of Crazy Horse/Ian Matthews/Rod Stewart].

And, Eileen (#22), Should I Stay Or Should I Go? [courtesy of The Clash]

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:00:38 +0000

Yes, I agree with Davy, and thought this was an OK Xword.

In 5a there is a ?, so I read this as the whole clue was used in the definition, rather than just “Where Constable”. That seems fine to me.

Similarly with 23d there is a ? which again seems to me to justify the “looseish” (“loosish”?)definition.

It took ENEMA to make me chuckle.