Comments on: Guardian 25,175 Gordius – Blogging in Brrritain

By: maarvarq

maarvarq — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 04:06:40 +0000

I’m bemused by Mr Jim’s (@20) three examples of erroneous answers to clues he hadn’t bothered to read, when in every case the clue was perfectly sound for the answer, and in a particularly easy Gordius to boot.

By: Judith

Judith — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:04:29 +0000

William @ 18 I can’t see that anyone has answered your query re 2dn teach. The whole thing is the definition.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:14:25 +0000

Thanks UY. Nothing too taxing here apart from 15, a new word for me also. Thought de facto was rather clever and smiled at soft fruit (see your point M-me @26, but I guess that's why the clue has a '?' ). Had hoped that 19 was going to be gnus (a gnu and a g-nother gnu !) but sadly no.

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:55:17 +0000

Hi dad’s Lad
Re 1a. I’m sure you have got this one right – it does have evocations of yesterday’s redundancies (which I saw yesterday and for some reason did not pay much attention to today). Perhaps we can expect more such clues as the weeks go by. Incidentally Dave Ellison @8 also deserves credit here.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:39:20 +0000

OK, Dad’s Lad, that’s fine by me.
And if your ideas are right, it took 30 posts to parse 1ac – ah well.
But forgive me that I just haven’t got the right ‘feel’ for these kinds of clues.

By: Dad'sLad

Dad'sLad — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:30:17 +0000

Thanks UY.

Re 1a, Sil, Tupu and others, I read this as a play on ‘notice’ as in to be given one’s notice, that is fired or sacked from a job. In such a situation, as yesterday’s posts about redundancy suggest, it can feel as if it is ‘all up for you.’

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:28:18 +0000

Hi, tupu, not sure whether we disagree.
I see the hidden answer indicator now after your explanation, but to call something ‘doing double duty’ as it is here, clever – well, indeed not my cup of tea.

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:38:39 +0000

Hi Sil
We are not in disagreement. Perhaps I should have specified that I had grandpuzzler’s comment re looking upwards in mind. I thought I made it clear that the ‘all’ was much more puzzling and that IMO liberties had been taken here as in 1a for the sake of surface.

Re tilde. You are right that ‘some letters’ is doing double duty – though in a slightly complicated way – firstly alone (as where Tilde sits) and then with ‘some’ referring to the whole phrase ‘letters until December’. I am sure we will disagree about how acceptable this is, but it seems reasonably clever to me.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:58:55 +0000

In fact, we all seem to like the same (good) clues!

But I’m afraid 1ac, 1d and 6d are exactly the reason why, in general, I don’t like cryptic definitions [of course, sometimes they can be fine (but mainly when Rufus is at the wheel)].
And tupu, “I’ll put it up on the notice board’ is a pretty standard expression”, I’ll agree, but “it may be all up for you [with an exclamation mark]” – what’s thát?

One may assume there’s a hidden answer indicator in 12ac (TILDE) – where?
Or is “some letters” doing double duty? If so, that’s surely not enough.

Nonetheless, enough OK clues to make it an enjoyable though undemanding solve.

And of course, Uncle Yap: a warm (???) welcome back in England!

By: M-me

M-me — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:56:24 +0000

Re 21A – Plums usually are placed in the category of hard fruits; strawberries and raspberries are typical soft fruits. If in any doubt try some of the supermarket plums.