Comments on: Independent 7547/Nimrod

By: scarpia

scarpia — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:49:22 +0000

Thanks John,for what must have been a very difficult puzzle to blog.
I got MAKING A DRAMA … from checking letters and guessed it was an anagram but didn’t try to work out what was being anagrammed.
As Michod says,’on’ seems to be the anagram indicator for 5 down,which I have seen before but I cah’t say I particularly like it.
As for Amazulu – it would seem their biggest hit(Too Good To Be Forgotten) was somewhat ironic.
Plenty of good stuff here though,favourites being 28 across;4 and 22 down.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:54:07 +0000

Too few comments for such a sterling effort. That’s one hell of a sneeze to get you in Derby K’sD I knew I was ill but. I got all the long anags by guessing the answer and fitting the wordplay in, which made this a pretty long solve and I still, despite the blog (thanks john btw)haven’t really convinced myself about several others. Glad for the first time in a month or so I’ve not taken the bullet!

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:02:09 +0000

Wouldn’t have got Goya for the right reasons, I only saw that and gays fitting – obvious SF misdirection there but couldn’t understand either really. The anabolic steroid clue really should have used “and” in it to give us a break IMO.

By: Michod

Michod — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:21:57 +0000

Some great stuff here. I liked FROSTY and HOTHEADS – which involves re-pairing the two halves of the word, rather than repairing.
24 across was made easier as I was solving online for once, otherwise I’d have had to think about which key was at the top left.
Re 5dn, I think ‘fitting’ is a containment indicator, and ‘on’ (old-fashioned slang for tipsy) is the anagrind for T(ime) THAT.
Not quite sure about non-believer=goy – surely non-Jewishness covers a multitude of believers in other religions as well as atheists. Then again, Ricky Gervais argues in the WSJ that any believer in one god is just as atheistic as he is: “I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869″.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:31:09 +0000

PS. Sorry Gaufrid, just got overtaken by you on the cyber highway.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:29:36 +0000

Thanks John for the blog, and Nimrod for a challenging puzzle, requiring a good dose of perseverance before I got all of it. As with difficult clues like 1,5,29,30 I could only work out the wordplay after figuring out the answer.

Last one in was 4A GOYA: GOY = non-Jewish, ie. non-believer + (s)A(n) = heart of San. Great piece of misdirection, and my favourite – sometimes it’s the shortest lights that can be most difficult.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:26:24 +0000

Hi John
4dn is GOY (I don’t believe {non-Jew}) [s]A[n] – Fransisco is Goya’s first name.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 07:54:03 +0000

Meant to say I couldn’t see GOYA either. I thought it might have something to do with San Francisco being known for its gay culture, but I still can’t make it work.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 07:51:33 +0000

Morning, John.

Flashling has given me his man-flu, so I was up early this morning with a fuzzy head, not the ideal state in which to attempt a Nimrod. I did finish it, but there were many clues where I couldn’t see what was going on, so your blog was welcome. I got the two long anagrams when I had a few crossing letters, and that helped. Of the ones I did understand, I liked OREGANO and ORIGAMI.

Thanks for blogging. Try not to overly worry about split infinitives: the rule is an invention of 18th century grammarians …