Comments on: Independent 7570/Nimrod

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:20:59 +0000

John: I see your point. I saw the ‘to’ as just an inserted word making the clue read more smoothly, but looking at it again it would have read just as well without, i.e. as “Work on chokes shut up rival”.

By: John

John — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:46:44 +0000

Allan_C: So far as I can see the present is ‘pen’, and the past tense/past participle is ‘pent’ (presumably similar to penned). There is no verb ‘to pent’ (although there is the term ‘pent up’, which may be what makes one think there is). If the clue is “Work on chokes to shut up rival” then the only way I can parse this is ‘op’ on top of ‘p(on)ent’, where the ‘pent’ is a mistake and should be ‘pen’. Perhaps there’s another way that I can’t see.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:36:16 +0000

Another belated response.
Re 1 dn, I don’t see any problem. ‘To shut’ is one of those verbs where the past tense and past participle are the same as the present. So anything which is pent is shut up. As in prison – cue the well-known lines from ‘The Mikado’ – “… and make each prisoner pent/ Unwillingly represent/ A source of innocent merriment… “.
Re 19 dn, both Chambers and Collins give ‘dance’ as a meaning of ‘measure’. Collins qualifies the meaning as archaic; Chambers adds ‘especially a slow and stately one’ (which hardly describes a mazurka).

By: scchua

scchua — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:59:34 +0000

Late entry:
7D STELLA No-one’s mentioned “wanting” in the clue is a reference to Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, one of whose main characters is named Stella. Too nice a point not to be shared, if a little belatedly.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:49:36 +0000

Thanks John.
As usual a very tough puzzle from Nimrod.I would have struggled were it not for the Nina.Plenty of very good clues here,my particular favourites being 16,20,24 and 26 across and 15 and 19 down.
Great stuff!

By: Robi

Robi — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:42:46 +0000

Thanks Nimrod and John. Too difficult for me and I’m too sleepy but enjoyed the blog to enlighten me.

Not sure I fully understand 19; is the definition ‘measure’ as in: ’2.Music for such a dance or in its rhythm, which is triple and moderately rapid, with a capricious accent on the second beat of the measure?’ Otherwise, I am in more darkness than the clue.

By: walruss

walruss — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:08:27 +0000

It is called that because it stank.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:35:10 +0000

If I can contribute something, isn’t Edinburgh called Auld Reekie? Is that something to do with it?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:32:03 +0000

Others have enjoyed the challenge, which is great, but this was just way beyond me today. Flashling’s currently beating me by some distance.

By: DorothyS

DorothyS — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:17:15 +0000

I loved this. So many wonderfully constructed clues with surface readings that make complete sense, STELLA, CRUISE SHIP, and AKIMBO being just a few. But the real stunner, the one that absolutely floored me, was WAKE-UP CALL. What a marvelous piece of observation! Many thanks to the setter.