Comments on: Financial Times 13,549 – Dante

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:25:05 +0000

Hello, Uncle Yap. A very enjoyable evening yesterday. Now we have a jumper, which was left in the restaurant and which we think belongs to you. Is there a way of returning it to you before you leave for home?

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:15:58 +0000

Sil van den Hoek, isn’t it such a pity that the trains from Orpington didn’t run on Tuesday night? I waited in vain at Sydenham Hill in zone 3 for nearly two hours before abandoning the journey. I would have loved to have met you as I was told that you were there.

As consolation, we had a fantastic time last night in The Salisbury near Leicester Square. Eimi (Mike Hutchinson), Nimrod (John Henderson), Mark Goodliffe (current Times Crossword Champion), Hypnos (Sam Spad or is it Philip Marlow?) Tees (Paul Bringloe), Morph (Mick Hodgkin) and of course my fellow bloggers like Andrew, Beermagnet, Jane Jetdot and Peter Biddlecombe.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:38:54 +0000

Thanks, Uncle Yap, and what a shame that you couldn’t to the Guardian meeting with Paul [which was indeed quite entertaining, though not digging too deep].

And this puzzle? Well, just Dante, isn’t it?
However, I was a bit surprised by the two consecutive SHOP’s (16/16ac) – not very elegant.
In 4ac you write CHOP-CHOP with a hyphen, which Chambers confirms. Dante, though, gives us (4,4). A similar thing happens in 10ac: Chambers says SKEAN-DHU (with hyphen).
Where as you say HEDGE is probably “so Dante”, HIGHEST (11ac) is very unlike him as it almost gives the answer on a plate.