Comments on: Guardian 25171 / Arachne

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 14:43:18 +0000

I thought ‘unsophisticated’ was an anagram of ‘i sit chop nuts’ and n (‘and’ marginalised)but there was an extra e!

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 23:22:10 +0000

Felt sure 22ac was “set off”. This caused a considerable delay in complating the crossword.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:11:10 +0000

I also was almost stuck with ‘set off’, am glad I finished with some reservations about answers like ‘usenet’. Got some without understanding, like ‘assist’.

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:39:09 +0000

Yes, despite it’s attractive surface, 20d was a minor blemish in this wonderful arachneid tapestry. I am reminded how the spider is a well known ‘trickster’ figure in folklore. Coincidentally, given the answer, it’s only complexly ‘inflected’ languages like Latin or Finnish that are less dependent on word order as a major semantic indicator. As Chomsky long since pointed out, ‘John plays golf’ and ‘golf plays John’ are radically different in English. If we had inflected nominative and accusative cases, it would or could be different.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:08:00 +0000

Yes, this was hard ánd extremely satisfying.
We think it’s a real tour de force to incorporate all these clever constructions into so many great and sometimes wacky Paulian surfaces.

And what a pity of 20d.
Although the definition is very nice, the “Student swallowed poison” bit we qualified as wrong – yes, I know, one can justify it as you do, mhl [and thank you once more for your exemplary blog], but we don’t want to see it like that.

22ac? My PinC wasn’t pleased, but I couldn’t be bothered.
No problem with ‘numero’ either, in fact it’s a very clever clue.

We needed the blog to fully understand 24ac (UNSOPHISTICATED). It was our first word in the South, but – now we see the parsing – it’s all a bit too contrived to our taste.
In another one that we found without knowing why (KNAVES), we missed the hidden reversal completely [probably due to the break between lines in the PDF version].
And we didn’t think of ‘Do’='Ditto’.

Two days ago I had, for some reason, a discussion via email with rightback, in which he pointed out that a containment indicator in the past tense is not accepted by everyone in Crosswordland.
In 17d Arachne used “held”, which may an example of this.
BTW, the creature [ROC] in this clue is, I think, a lot more obscure than USENET (15ac). But what’s obscure, isn’t it all about what you’re familiar with in the end?
I think, as long as the construction is crystal clear and the answer gettable, it’s OK. Why not say to yourself: I’ve learnt something today?

All in all, forgiving her 20d, a magnificent crossword by our Spider Woman, worth of a Saturday Prize Puzzle.
Perhaps, some might say [some did, actually], this is something that I recently (at another occasion) called “a setter’s crossword”, but I don’t agree.
Hard, fair, 99% precise, witty – very very good.

By: mhl

mhl — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:47:33 +0000

tupu: I wasn’t criticizing! (My uses of “whatevs” et al are alarmingly losing their irony…) Thanks to you and Rishi for the additional “tupping” references as well.

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:56:45 +0000

Hi Rishi @30
Thanks. The quote nicely brings out the metaphorical link from animal to human behaviour without any of the confusion that the dictionary compiler seems anxious to avoid.

Hi John @32
While ultimately one prefers a balance, it does seem a little odd to complain strongly about making use of words crossing in a crossword. Would you prefer a simple list? Surely shared letters in crossing answers are an intrinsic part of the game.

Re numero :- as the clue suggests, ‘no’ is regularly used in English and is an abbreviation of ‘numero’. OED gives several examples of the use of ‘numero’ itself dating from mid 17th-century to the present.

By: Median

Median — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:15:33 +0000

Carrots @29, if you managed the top half of today’s puzzle you’re doing OK. Believe me and several others here – it was a particularly tough one, with the bottom being harder than the top.

By: John

John — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:12:18 +0000

Most of these were solved after crossing letters were in, or else by thinking of possible answers when definitions were identified. In other words, solved backwards. I much prefer to solve from the fodder.
Overall I think this has been a case of the setter concentrating too hard on clever surfaces at the expense of challenging cluing.
E.g. what’s “numero” doing in an English crossword? I would defy anyone to solve that without crossing letters. And INFLECT is only solvable when its neighbours are in, since the wordplay is plain wrong.

By: James G

James G — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:02:58 +0000

excellent blog. Thanks.
re 24, the anag indicator is “nuts”, and “marginalised” surely means placed at the margins (ie the ends)
Great xword. 4, 11, 22 brilliant!