Comments on: Independent 7564 – Anax

By: anax

anax — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:01:16 +0000

Hello friends

Lovely blog Gaufrid, and thanks for all your kind comments.

I must put my hands up and admit 15a was a risk. It’s difficult to pick references to popular culture as one person’s ‘classic’ is another’s ‘bilge’ and obscurity depends on what you’re into as a reader/viewer/listener/attendee. To be honest when I found the Fell reference it was a case of some faded memory being dredged up (I don’t really do movies), and I’d probably have abandoned the idea were it not the fact that the Hannibal films (or SOTL anyway) were based on a novel, so it felt like there might be more currency than there would be had it referred to film only.

And, of course, I needed to start the clue with F as well…

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:55:13 +0000

Re sweet Fanny Adams – it has a rather gruesome derivation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Adams

I upset a poster here with this link after the sane phrase cropped up in another puzzle,but it is given in Brewers,which is generally regarded as the definitive source for this sort of phrase.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:47:12 +0000

flashling@15 re FAST yes, I know. Gaufrid hasn’t quite explained where the “sweet” in SFA has gone to, has he?! Though I’ve come across plain Fanny Adams before, and obviously plain FA as well! (besides in football!)

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:26:21 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.
A mostly excellent puzzle from Anax,shame about 15 across which I would never have understood without the blog.I’m surprised there haven’t been any adverse comments,I think some other setters would have been slated for that type of clue.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:38:49 +0000

@Succha #9 FAST has a rather ruder explaination in UK English, not Gaufrid’s bowderised version although I’d have done the same @K’s D personally it just irks me when I can see the answer but not why. I’m often irked, especially on Thursdays here.

By: Robi

Robi — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:24:46 +0000

P.P.S. Sorry, Gaufrid – didn’t follow your link to the Drill ape!

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:42:30 +0000

Thanks K’sD. That is one philosophical question I have about doing crosswords. The other perhaps more “shades-of-grey” question is where is the boundary between a legitimate search for answers and “cheating”. The two extremes are clear: the purist “nothing except what’s in your brain” as with crossword competitions on one hand, and pressing the “reveal” button on the other. I think both of these take the fun out of doing crosswords and learning, for mere mortals like me!

PS. I played cricket in my schooldays but alas not well, so now I’m only an observer! But I fully understand your analogy.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:04:46 +0000

Hi scchua. To answer your question: yes, I think you completed the puzzle. That’s what I’d claim, anyway. Not sure if you’re into the game, but my analogy would be a cricketing one. If I make a fifty (an increasingly rare event these days), it still appears in the scorecard in the local rag the week after. It doesn’t say that I played and missed half a dozen times before I’d got off the mark, there were some ugly shots, and that I nearly ran myself out on 49 in a frantic attempt to get a half-century. Arriving at destination is the key; how you get there is up to you!

By: Robi

Robi — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:04:19 +0000

P.S. Could drill in 16 be A PE??

By: Robi

Robi — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:57:14 +0000

Finished this rather late in the day, but needed the blog for some explanations e.g.15.

Was too dim to spot the theme!