Comments on: Independent 7544 by Radian

By: scarpia

scarpia — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:06:57 +0000

Thanks nms.
I found this pretty tough but,ultimately very satisfying.I now know more about the secession and the Civil War,so Radian’s mission to “Educate, inform and entertain” is bearing fruit.
Many years ago my uncle kept 2 donkeys,one of which was named O’Tee, the other was (jenny)Fur; so I was quite happy with the homophone even though it was a bit strained.Also,it paired nicely with 28 across.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:30:10 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Radian, and best festive wishes to you too. That Reith advice is not too bad, I guess. Thanks to Gaufrid for explaining the ones where I missed the wordplay and to all others who commented on the blog.

By: Radian

Radian — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:51:22 +0000

The homophone was I agree a bit of a liberty but irresistible – perhaps a Christmas present from the editor? I too was fascinated by the whole build-up to the Civil War, which was almost a closed book before I noticed the date. “Educate, inform and entertain” (or whatever Reith wrote) is not a bad piece of advice to try to live up to. Happy Christmas everyone. Hope to see you in the new year.

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:29:25 +0000

Glad to see you’re not stuck on a motorway K’sD. So will we get a cheesy Christmas filled week here or will Eimi and the gang just be trying to send us nuts or crackers.

I’d prefer wine to whine… back to today (party) hats off to Radian for a job well done.

By: Mick H

Mick H — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:26:03 +0000

I enjoyed the Don Quixote clue, despite a sense that the homophone was a wee bit of a stretch. But on reflection, the ‘e’ in Quixote in Spanish is surely closer to ‘wet’ than ‘day’, so ‘hote-’ is not a bad stab. Nice one!

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:18:46 +0000

And meant to say that the inkblots at 7dn are the brainchild of Hermann Rorschach, who’s here if you’re remotely interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Rorschach

And forgive me if I’ve asked this before, but what happens if you have more than one brainchild?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:02:27 +0000

Thanks, nms. I solved this one this morning before battling with the elements, and I found it quite inventive. The gateway clue was pretty clear (I had to google it to find the subject matter, but I don’t mind that) and then it was a question of looking for the eleven states. I thought this was where it got inventive, with a variety of devices used to fit them in. The rest certainly wasn’t a giveaway, but I liked HEEHAWS and AS UGLY AS SIN. Of the states, I liked ALABAMA best. Like others, I’m not convinced about DON QUIXOTE.

I wouldn’t have finished this twelve months ago, so it’s nice to feel you’re making a bit of progress. The other thing I liked was that it made me go and do a bit of background browsing on the secession and the Civil War.

By: NealH

NealH — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:42:56 +0000

The newsagent had no copies of the Indy and the website doesn’t function at work, so I had to wait until the evening to tackle this one. It wasn’t as bad as I initially feared when I saw it was a themed puzzle. It was obvious that 13 across was something states, so that and the date pointed fairly firmly to the US Civil War. However, it took me ages to get the slave bit because I’ve always thought of them as being rebel states or confederate states.

I needed a fair bit of help for l9 down – had to look up the missing state (Virginia) and then still couldn’t see it because I’ve never heard of “ut”. I also think Don Quixote was stretching things, although I could see what Radian was trying to do. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the puzzle and found it quite a nice level of difficulty.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:23:54 +0000

All this discussion of the homophone reminds me that I studied the Cervantes novel in my second year of grammar school. We had just finished ploughing through some Thomas Hardy so, when our English teacher announced that the next book would be Donkey Oaty I was looking forward to some light relief. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that it was a book about a deluded Spanish knight.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:25:33 +0000

Hi scchua

Yes, I know it was a stretch but it made me laugh when I saw Gaufrid’s explanation and I just so wanted it to work!

Many thanks, Radian, for a great puzzle to add to all the others!