Comments on: Guardian 25,217 / Arachne

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:21:47 +0000

Good stuff!!

By: Monica M

Monica M — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:28:32 +0000

With Gaufrid’s indulgence

Well I’m very lucky, I am high and dry and safe. But there are many people suffering greatly. The scale of these floods is epic, almost 3/4 of the state is affected.

Brisbane was spared a record flood, the main problem here is that the CBD is shut down. I don’t imagine there will be many offices reopened until next week.

The best way for those overseas to help is through the Premier’s relief appeal at http://www.qld.gov.au/floods

Also, make contact with any friends you may have, a quick email or text message can make the world of difference.

Thank you for your kind support.

I’ll be dusting off my steel caps and work duds, there is plenty to be done and we’ll all need to pitch in!!!!

By: Carrots

Carrots — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:40:08 +0000

Thanks for your support Mr Beaver (I don`t get much from some pit-knickers). I`m glad my melancholia is not entirely to blame for plucking a couple of legs off Spiderwoman. I just wish you hadn`t named your pseudonym after my “`Ol Skool Magazine”, copies of which I used for target practice until the ghost of my adolesence was well and truly laid.

By: tupu

tupu — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:34:03 +0000

Hi Mr Beaver

Thanks for that. It makes good sense and the thought if not the name did fleetingly cross my mind. It’s just typical, though, that no-one (your kind self excepted) tells me anything! Here I am, thinking I’m living in one epoch, and I suddenly hear just as I’m off to bed that I may well not be. Most unsettling, I must say!

By: Carrots

Carrots — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:24:01 +0000

Wolfie: this 2011, not 1811, and Tupu: how will I know when I`m not (in the holocene)? Now “cleave to the principal”, Dr Grumpy, I like…a bit like “cut to the quick”, which I don`t understand either.

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:12:26 +0000

Tupu – according to some, we’re now in the ‘anthropocene’

I must say I rather side with Carrots on this crossword, several clues seemed forced or a little inaccurate and we put in three (1a, 26a, 27a) without being able to parse them, so thanks to Eileen for explaining these!

By: tupu

tupu — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:13:17 +0000

Re 8d Given the clue’s wording (‘present era’)it is perhaps worth noting that we are still in the holocene.

By: dr grumpy

dr grumpy — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:16:55 +0000

I know that Paul is ever so clever, but I do tend to cleave to the principle that clues should not read as clues, but as credible sentences or phrases; so thanks to Arachne for such a well-mannered crossword.

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:27:45 +0000

Carrots: WARMTH crops up frequently in nineteenth-century literature with the meaning of ‘anger’ or ‘passion’. (The OED gives an example from ‘Pickwick Papers’.)

By: Carrots

Carrots — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:25:29 +0000

I must be sickening for something because I found yesterday`s puzzle tedious and I didn`t like this one at all. Although I got all the answers except HOLOCENE (couldn`t get “Plioscene” out of my head) there were quite a few guesses which I needed Eileen`s blog to explain. Even so, I still don`t understand “nurse” in 12 ac. and I think “Heat” rather than WARMTH provokes passion….”warmth” is just congeniality or cordiality.

However, many thanks Spiderwoman and for your blog Auntie E. Maybe I`ll get out of the right side of bed tomorrow…I certainly hope so.