Comments on: Guardian 25,179 (Sat 27 Nov)/Araucaria – Hob story

By: maarvarq

maarvarq — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:01:29 +0000

I got the theme by Googling “delightful duties” and “little errands” to find a song I’d never heard of from a lesser G&S operetta, and was wildly unimpressed with 13 ac, 14 dn and 24 ac (“pour out the tea” = “BE MA”? Really!) Araucaria is back in wilfully obscure mode, I see.

By: Judge

Judge — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:24:10 +0000

Re 13 across - if I remember correctly, the clue was something like: needed supoort of the "ass of the bridge".... It seemed to me that the quotation marks were deliberately placed to allow the answer to be "le ane" rather than "l'ane".

By: tupu

tupu — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 08:53:14 +0000

Hi Roger
Sorry if my comment was opaque. Yes, I agree with you – though whether the reference in the clue is too obscure (capital or not) is another matter. On balance I feel it is educative, at least for those with search engines, given the clear possibility of solving by other means.

I first wondered if to ‘file with’ might be some form comparable to ‘file for’ (e.g bankrupty, divorce or both) but soon realised what you meant.

By: taxi phil

taxi phil — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:32:10 +0000

“Filed” should read “failed” !

By: taxi phil

taxi phil — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:31:11 +0000

My limited knowledge of G&S didn’t run to this particular quotation, but I soldiered on and eventually got stuck in the North East corner after about 75 minutes. Picked it up four times during the week, but gave up. I know even less of Wodehouse than I do of G&S, but both are rather old hat to a mere youngster of 63 such as myself ! Hence I filed with Little & Larg(e)o, and also failed to pick up Tyneside, for which I have no excuse. Pleased to report that this week’s offering was cleared in 20 minutes despite being a tricky little devil.

By: Roger

Roger — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:54:31 +0000

… indeed so, tupu ! Hopefully I read into your comment @20 an air of support for my assertion that there’s no real problem with ‘bingo’ as it stands and if so, thanks. We’ll probably never know whether Araucaria intended the lower case or not but I hope he did ~ it certainly produced the sound of pennies dropping and even an “Oh, no” or two once I saw what he was after. And that’s a large part of what it’s all about, isn’t it ?

By: tupu

tupu — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 20:07:59 +0000

Hi Rightback and Sil

Re little. As I, like many, did not know Bingo Little I had to work out the answer from the other available information and find out about the character by using a search engine. Since such engines are not case sensitive the answer comes up anyway, and a capital B would not have helped me in the least.

Also for those who know of Bingo Little, the lack of a capital may be an irritant but it will not noticeably affect their solving. For them the presence of a capital B would simply ‘nursemaid’ them into the solution.

I do realise though that ‘stylistics’ are legitimately a major focus of interest to yourselves and some others.

Sil says there are unwritten rules about these things. I recognise the need for basic rules but in particular cases like this, I am not at all clear about the source of their authority and whether to quote Samuel Goldwyn they are always ‘worth the paper they are written on’.

By: Roger

Roger — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 18:33:56 +0000

Thanks for that, rightback (@17). However, I still like to think that Araucaria was employing a little (and new ?) trick here to confuse the punters … libertarian setter that he is, cocking a snook at perceived convention. One comes to expect nothing less, after all ! It would be interesting to hear his side of the story, I think.

… but then again, it might just be a typo/balls-up.

By: Laros

Laros — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:09:21 +0000

For what it’s worth, I think 9ac is a triple definition: management is “running”, sport is “running” and in contest, eg an election, is “running”.

By: rightback

rightback — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 11:14:50 +0000

Thanks for all comments. Roger (#10): the reason that it is generally considered acceptable (but not by all, as Sil rightly points out) to have a capital letter where a lower case letter would do but not the other way round is that given the right context, any word could conceivably have a capital; in a newspaper headline, for example, all letters are usually capitals, and in book chapters or song titles the first letters of words are often capitalised. On the other hand, there is no circumstance where a capital letter necessary for a name (such as in Bingo Little) may be uncapitalised (unless, of course, you're trying to be cool for cool's sake, as in 'the guardian' or e.e.cummings).