Posted by Admin on December 26th, 2010
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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 26th, 2010 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Archive.
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June 9th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Re: The “Spoiler” debate apropos bloggers preambles.
Although I think, in general, that bloggers should be dissuaded from revealing themes and specific answers in their preambles, I would not wish to constrain the obvious enhancement they provide for cross-word solving. Indeed, I would welcome an opportunity for bloggers to provide a robust “digest”, perhaps after, rather than before, their list of annotated solutions.
I`m sure that solvers use 15sqd. in many different ways (I know I do!) so getting a format that suits everyone is extremely difficult.
June 19th, 2011 at 10:26 am
Does anyone know how to get a decent hard copy of The Independent`s daily cryptic puzzle? When I try to print it out all I get is a postage-stamp grid and only half the clues.
June 19th, 2011 at 10:35 am
Carrots
Download and install Crossword Solver from here:
http://www.crosswordsolver.info/
This program provides the facility to download and print the current day’s Indy.
June 19th, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Sorry to be a pain, but I`ve now downloaded crosswordsolver, but can`t find the INDY link….any suggestions?
Will you be with us in Brummieland next Saturday?
June 20th, 2011 at 3:32 am
Carrots
Try File > Download Puzzle.
June 21st, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Thanks for that, Gaufrid – I must try it – and thanks Carrots for asking the question.
Now – is it me?
After 6 years of joining in on internet forums (one of which discussed whether they are forums or fora!), I’m beginning to doubt my use of English.
Its and ones for possessives – yes? It’s and one’s being contractions – I’m feeling the pain!
Its noise may disturb ones rest.
It’s good that one’s doing that.
In Monday’s Rufus (Guardian 25353) there was 2d: ‘Encounter reserve in one’s social network’. And in two recent FT puzzles ‘one’s’ appeared incorrectly.
I keep expecting the grammarians amongst us to comment but nothing has been said. So, can it possibly be me who’s (whose
) wrong.
June 21st, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Hi Jan
You’re (or as my younger daughter would spell it ‘your’ even though she is nearing 40) not wrong.
June 21st, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Hi, Gaufrid,
Thank you – I was beginning to think it was me. How do you suppose the editors excuse ‘one’s’ appearing in clues incorrectly?
I still wonder why nobody has commented about this on the threads. I will do, next time.
Golly-gosh, you’re/your is the other bugbear of the forums I read. What have English teachers been teaching for the last 50 years?
Is 40 the cut-off age? My daughter has just reached 40 and knows that I will notice if she uses our language incorrectly.
June 21st, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Hi Jan and Gaufrid
I think I may well regret joining in this but I can’t resist it!
Having taught English Language for a number of years and battled endlessly with the superfluous use of the apostrophe, particularly in ‘it’s’ and various other instances, including straightforward plurals and even verbs, I have to say that I have never, ever, come across any discussion regarding its use in the personal pronoun ‘one’s’ to indicate possession, which I would never have dreamed of omitting!
Jan’s comment sent me to ‘Fowler’s Modern English Usage’ where the only discussion of the possessive ‘one’s’ [sic] was about whether one would say e.g. ‘One doesn’t like to have one’s word doubted’ or ‘One doesn’t like to have his word doubted’.
I have found the following on-line sources, all of which confirm the apostrophe in the possessive pronoun ‘one’s', ‘anyone’s', ‘someone’s', ‘everyone’s’. – not to be confused with the incorrect use in ‘her’s', ‘their’s’ etc.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/one.htm
http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node22.html
http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifwhrtptpstrphsnp.shtml
Needless to say, I’m right behind both of you regarding your / you’re!
[I’m really sorry you’re not coming to Birmingham after all, Jan.}
June 21st, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Hi Eileen
You are of course absolutely correct. I didn’t read Jan’s original comment carefully enough before replying and only the its/it’s in her example actually registered.
One (or at least I) must be more careful in future to mind one’s p’s and q’s (Chambers or Ps & Qs COED), in the Chambers sense (to be watchfully accurate and punctilious) rather than the COED sense (be careful to be polite and avoid giving offence). Now I wonder which is the correct definition? Brewer seems to confirm both but it has ‘P’s and ‘Q’s.
I think that’s enough apostrophes for one comment.
June 21st, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Thanks, Gaufrid
Regarding your query: there was one grammar book where I taught that gave p’s and q’s but I think, as you suggest, the jury’s out on this. I prefer Ps and Qs – straightforward plurals: the meaning is perfectly clear [unlike with ps and qs - or PS and QS] without any need for apostrophes, of which, as you say, we’ve now had quite enough!
June 22nd, 2011 at 12:10 am
Hi, Eileen,
I thought this might bring you out from behind the arras!
Thanks for the links. It really was me, then. No wonder nobody commented about the use of ‘one’s’ in the clues. It still looks wrong, though. I will continue to omit the apostrophe in my writing.
I’ll be thinking of you all on Saturday. I’ll be having ‘Lunch on the Green’ – better venue but not such good company.
June 22nd, 2011 at 1:09 am
Poor old apostrophe eh? Quite agree it should be done properly. But, um, why does no one seem to care about vanishing hyphens? Last time I mentioned it there was little response.
June 26th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
I just can’t accept the use of “do’s and don’ts”. My reasoning is that the apostrophe in the first word has a different function from the apostrophe in the second word.
If “do’s” takes an apostrophe (as in the expression “mind your p’s and q’s” ), shouldn’t we have “don’t's” for the sake of consistency?
“Dos and don’ts” too may be right. One might argue that this is consistent. But I am a little uncomfortable with this because the first word seems to be from the computer world. And I have a feeling that I proceeded to write the term for the South Indian delicacy dosa and I stopped short.
How about DOs and DON’Ts? I prefer this. (We can use small capitals.)
What do others think?
Derek: I have as much concern as you about the vanishing hyphen.
July 3rd, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Just to let everyone know that the castaway on next week’s desert Island Discs will be Araucaria.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012f7f3
July 3rd, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Thanks, Scarpia – that’s one not to be missed!
July 9th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
I had to chuckle when I saw 11a in Paul’s Guardian 25,369 this week.
“Dinosaur and ferret – one’s one’s one”
Thanks, Scarpia, I’ve written myself a note to remember to switch on.
July 9th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Gaufrid has kindly agreed that I can place a little ad here…
I have compiled a Summer Quiz to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Care. It consists of 140 cryptic clues to British placenames, and the prize is a magnum of Champagne. The closing date for entries is 26th August.
It is available via http://www.justgiving.com/thesummerquiz
or
by sending £2 and sae to “The QuizMaster” c/o The King’s Head, 19 Maiden Lane, STAMFORD, Lincolnshire, PE9 2AZ
Thank you in anticipation,
Richard
July 13th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Some sad news I’m afraid. Shirley O’Brien (no relation) known to Guardian solvers as Auster, passed away at her home in Stafford Heights, Brisbane on Tuesday. Her funeral is to be held tomorrow (Friday).
July 21st, 2011 at 12:05 am
General enquiry. As no-one answered on the Gozo blog.
I have a question regarding setters:
I know a few have passed in the last couple of years, but where is HIGHLANDER a FT setter and MOODIM also FT too?
I do always liked both of them, and unless they have passed, they seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Any enlightenment. Thank you.
Jake.
July 21st, 2011 at 12:06 am
Excuse my grammar.
July 29th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Does anyone have any news of Orlando? No puzzles in July – most unusual!
August 2nd, 2011 at 10:42 am
For the bloggers/solvers of:
Guardian Prize by Biggles/FT Prize by Cinephile, Dogberry and Io (both July 30); and
Sunday Indy by Anax; Sunday Mephisto by Paul McKenna; Sunday Telegraph Prize by Brian Greer;
I hope I’m not breaking any rules about live puzzles, but they’ve something in common…
August 2nd, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Recently had this in an e mail from a young friend.I thought it might be of interest as,I think most posters here are,like me,quite fussy about speliing.
Perhaps we make too much of it?
“I cnduo’t bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.”
August 6th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Of course I read 124 completely in one go and I made perfect sense of it all.
I am wondering why I did Eng. Lit. in college, why I pored over grammar and usage books, why I took exams at all, why I had to be so careful in preparing my résumé when applying for work.
August 16th, 2011 at 1:05 am
I came across the clue: 1-.6666 1000m volcano (5) which apparently has the answer NEVIS. Can anyone explain why??
August 17th, 2011 at 1:59 am
David Baker @126.
the 6666 part is VIS, as in roman numbers VI=6 + the S=in plural form could equal 66,666, or in this case 6666(six’s).
Not sure about the NE part. May-be another form of calculation for 1000m as equals 3,280.84 feet ???
August 17th, 2011 at 11:14 am
Unless 1- One minus is ONE less something ie O leaving NE. Can’t promise it is right… Nor would I see the clue getting past Azed.
August 18th, 2011 at 10:23 pm
128
nmsindy.
Yes that is most probably right. And agree not seeing it pass Azed. Although, I have seen a similar clue used the ONE part – O=zero so then left with NE. I cannot remember where I’ve seen it.
David Baker – where did you see this clue?
August 19th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Further to 126-129:
I think we have to take the dot as being zero (=O).
This clue must be regarded as seriously objectionable: the third and fourth 6s are redundant.
August 26th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Off topic comment re 1a in today’s Gordius: Googleing DECUS by itself does of course lead to sites that make us old time programmers go all dewy eyed and nostalgic!
August 26th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
‘cos if one say works around a rectangle one has directions up/down (top to bottom) left/right (side to side), and I don’t know whether you noticed it, but a grid is a rectangle, not a body. Anyway, everybody and their dog moans about which words should only be used in which direction of clue, so it’s my turn!
August 26th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Re discussion on the Nevis clue, 129. It’s one of Araucaria’s
The Guardian, Thursday 16 October 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/22963
Seen also this…
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/268171.html
August 29th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Thanks Jaybee @133 for the source. Note that the published form is
1 – 0 66666, 1000m volcano (5)
This gives us the O to remove from 1, so my suggestion of interpreting the dot as a zero (@130) is unneceesary. However, this form of the clue has three redundant 6s.
August 31st, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Many thanks for all the discussions. I was away so I missed the request for the source, but it is of course as stated Araucaria back in the day. I would never have got this however long I tried, and I’m not even sure I understand it fully now. As for the best clue ever, I think not!! My vote for that is, String from the thound of muthic (5). Any other all time greats??
September 1st, 2011 at 2:47 pm
David @135:
1 – 0 -> ONE minus O -> NE
66666 -> sixes -> VIs -> VIS
1000m volcano is the definition of (Ben) NEVIS
Hope that helps, putting it all in one place. Not the sort of clue I like at all.
My favourite is the one apparently submitted when Ximenes (X for short) set CLARIONET as the competition word but defined it as “stringed instrument”. One solver submitted the clue
Blow me, I carol riotously, X has slipped up
(“Blow me” defines a wind instrument, then anagram of I CAROL plus reversal of TEN – in a down clue, one hopes.)
As I read the story, this clue won second prize, perhaps because X was not too happy at the dig.
September 2nd, 2011 at 6:44 pm
I don’t know if this has been raised before, but is there any demand for a blog on the “i” crossword. As far as I can see. it uses the same stable of compilers as the Indie although each day the 2 crosswords are different. I appreciate that there are restraints on how many crosswords this site can cover, but the crosswords here are of a standard equivalent to the Indie.
September 4th, 2011 at 3:22 am
Re 9d in Azed 2048.
When I, as a setter, use this N word or (more usually) its male form, there are protests from solvers asking me how I can use what is considered an offensive word.
These are usually from young students who have undergone an orientation course at the US Consulate in India before going to the States for higher studies.
My question is: what is the take in the UK?
Also, can a word that cannot fly in a country pass in another country?
In India I would never put in PARIAH in the grid.
Generally, can words that are marked ‘vulgar slang’ in the dictionary be used as a component in wordplay (or subsidiary indication), even if we don’t put them into the grid?
For example, I have the clue
Practises sheer trickery to go over Butt (9)
The last word uses false capitalisation and it’s a Kashmiri name.
Can I dare use this clue in a national newspaper in India?
September 4th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Hi bracoman @137
Sorry for the delay in replying. Adding the ‘i’ to our portfolio has been considered on a couple of occasions but for various reasons we decided against doing so.
September 4th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Hi, Rishi @138, these are interesting questions.
9d in AZED 2048 surprised me but I wouldn’t regard it as offensive unlike the other, appalling, ‘N’ word.
On a US forum I once mentioned that my butt (meaning my water butt) was empty after a long spell without rain. I was mercilessly teased! As for my mention of Cornish pasties – how am I to know what other pasties there are.
“Also, can a word that cannot fly in a country pass in another country?
The answer must be yes but can you ever be sure what is acceptable and what isn’t?
September 5th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Rishi @138 (and following Jan’s helpful comments @140):
I offer the following without claiming any special authority but intended as constructive. (Indeed, that goes for everything I say on this website.)
If it is not too late, I would advise trying to find an alternative clue. To me, the risk of causing offence and possibly losing regular solvers outweighs any special merits in the clue itself.
As Jan has said, things vary between countries. I would add that they also vary within countries. I would expect the Guardian and Independent to be more accepting of “rude words”, but less tolerant of anything that smacks of racism, compared to the Telegraph and Times. And, of course, your clue would be perfect for Private Eye.
September 5th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Further to the discussion started by Rishi @138: I originally included this in a single reply together with the remarks made at 141, but it got lost when I tried to submit the whole thing in one go (I had not filled in my name) so I am playing safe by putting this bit in a separate reply.
This relates to the way that views on words change over time. The actual word used by Azed was marked “sometimes derog.” in Chambers 1988 (p. 961). By 1998 (p. 1083) it had become “usu considered to be offensive or derog“. The masculine form was not marked as special at all in 1988, but had become “sometimes considered to be derog or offensive” by 1998. I do not have my 2008 edition to hand as I am typing this, but I checked it yesterday, and from memory “sometimes” had become “usu“, even for the masculine form.
September 6th, 2011 at 5:54 am
Thanks for the responses.
On the day prior to publication, I changed the clue so that my reputation among my solvers would remain intact.
September 6th, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Very sensible, Rishi.
Practises sheer trickery to go over Butt (9)
I can’t solve it! I hate it when that happens.
Hopefully someone will enlighten me.
September 6th, 2011 at 9:06 pm
@Jan: Practises sheer trickery to go over Butt (9)
REHE(ARSE)S
September 8th, 2011 at 11:42 am
To refine it further:
REHE(ARSE)S* (trickery being the AInd).
September 14th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Indicating Cockney rhyming slang in a clue
I’d be interested to hear whether people feel that the words ‘Cockney’ or ‘East-ender’ are the only acceptable indicator of the use of rhyming slang in a cryptic clue, e.g. ‘Cockney plates’ for ‘MEAT’. Do you think ‘Londoner’, ‘Capital man’, or any similar reference to London as a whole would be fair to use?
Thanks.
September 14th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Maybe someone from London can put us right, but I think ‘Londoner’ is not sufficient because the rhyming slang, dropping aitches etc, is not associated with London as a whole – just with certain parts of it.
September 26th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Can anybody help? A crossword-loving colleague is about to retire, and I’d dearly like to put a suitable cryptic clue/comment in his leaving card…
Any suggestions from your combined wealth of knowledge and experience?
Thanks
September 27th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Hi, Max, make an anagram of his name and then write a clue around it with a suitable anagram indicator. Use his job description or his plans for retirement.
Angelfire’s anagram maker is a fun way of turning names into phrases.
Age burns jest – that’s just one of the zillions for my name!