Comments on: Independent 7556/Punk

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:29:16 +0000

I do possess a mobile phone and send/receive the occasional text, though I tend to spell everything out. As far as crosswords go I’m reasonably happy with single letter homophones such as b, u, y and some of the acronyms which have come into common use such as btw or imho – sometimes seen in comments on this site, but I think it could be taken too far. I agree that some sort of indicator is required. “Text” is fairly obvious but one could use, say, “mobile” or “message”. No doubt some of our ingenious setters can think of others.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 23:51:30 +0000

Thanks John.
I enjoyed this puzzle which,as you say,featured a fair number of ‘liberties’.Particularly liked the 7 and 13 coupling.
I share your qualms about using texting language – I’m proud to say that I don’t possess a mobile phone so the abbreviations are not immediately familiar to me.
Saying which.Y,U, and R,I remember from an acronym that was around in my schooldays(40 odd years ago) -
YYURYYUBICURYY4ME

By: John

John — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:54:39 +0000

I’m ashamed (?) to say that I don’t possess a mobile phone and so have never sent a text. Accessible to all? Yes I suppose so in a sense. And I’d be quite happy if there was a convention that texting language could be used without any signposting in a crossword; the only trouble at present is that it hasn’t been so used, so its appearance is arguably a bit unfair.

As for ‘back’ as a reversal indicator, in my opinion if it’s used as an imperative that’s OK, and if it’s used as an adverb then that’s also OK, but in each case the grammar must be correct, and I’m not sure that in this case (10ac) it is — ‘…struggling with back problem’. Where is the proper grammatical instruction to reverse ‘sum’? It strikes me as the same sort of thing as what seems to me to be bad grammar and which I criticised in 25ac.

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:59:26 +0000

Well I finished it without help although the Nagorno-Karabakh tested the brain memory cells. Cheers John/Punk. World series was a tester as indeed spotting the anagram of doorbell.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:33:07 +0000

I enjoyed this gentle Punk. The only problem was of my own making because I initially tossed in Richard the Third on the strength of the numeration and the supposed definition “male struggling with back problem”. I soon realised that the imagined anagram did not exist
I’m used to Punk/Paul using texting language in his clues so I did not think twice about it. I was not so happy about Herbert Beerbohm Tree turning up again. Many solvers, myself included, feel that it is time that this actor was forcibly retired from crosswords. I finished with Nagorno-Karabakh, which I was pleased to get from the wordplay.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:25:30 +0000

Amusing puzzle in the Punk style. I esp liked STRAYS, THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME, WORLD SERIES, and PIMPLED.

By: Mick H

Mick H — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:29:16 +0000

I’m all for using texting language, myself – U for you, Y for why etc are instantly accessible to anyone, it’s not as if it’s some rarefied code. And what’s wrong with ‘back’ as a reversal indicator?
I enjoyed this from Punk, nice to see Nagorno-Karabakh back in the paper after a few years for reasons unconnected with border violence. And 7 down was great, though I tried to justify RUMP-LED for a while!

By: walruss

walruss — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:12:35 +0000

‘In text’ I suppose could be used as some kind of ‘ind’! But very loose all round today from Punk.

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 06:46:44 +0000

Thanks John for the blog, and Punk for an average-difficulty (my standards) puzzle.

Quite straightforward clues, but with the same doubts as you have about using texting language. At the least, there should be some indication that it’s another “language”, or, perhaps, as in the cases here that it’s homophonic.

Favourites were 6D WORLD SERIES, and 17D BEE ORCHID, liked the wordplay of both, and 14D SPOKEN FOR.