Comments on: Independent 7566 by Klingsor (Saturday Prize Puzzle 15 January 2011)

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:39:14 +0000

I see.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:52:06 +0000

Paul B

I’ve been doing some delving in the 15² archive and didn’t have to go too far back to find examples of bloggers using ‘lift and separate’:

Shuchi, blogging an FT Mudd puzzle on 7th January and an Alberich [Klingsor] on 12th November, along with John on 28th October, in a Klingsor [it's definitely a trademark of his]. John attributes the term to ‘the great Mark Goodliffe’.

Pete Biddlecombe also used it when blogging a Nimrod on 18th December.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:29:01 +0000

Re ‘lift and separate’ as an adperson I’d seen it before, but in the context of cryptic crossword analysis I have been a-strugglin’.

However, there is this kind of see-wot-u-did-there thing compilers deploy, which is to try to disguise definitions by running ‘em on into the SI. That’s what wily ole Klingsor has done in at least the two clues you mention Eileen (e.g. ‘general’ is in fact an entirely separate entity to ‘knowledge’), so I’m plumping for that.

Bon Tempi,
PB

By: mc_rapper67

mc_rapper67 — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 07:58:32 +0000

Hi all – thanks for all the welcoming words and feedback.

On comment 15 – thanks scchua – that sounds more sensible than my convoluted parsing of TORTOISE – will update accordingly.

On comment 2 – I enjoyed Eileen’s new (to me!) technical term for the usage of ‘Emperor Hirohito’ – and thanks to Allan_C and sidey, for keeping us abreast of the situation…it won’t be mentioned again – cross-my-heart…(;+>)

By: scchua

scchua — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:06:23 +0000

Oops, sorry.about the underscore being in the wrong position.

By: scchua

scchua — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:04:37 +0000

Hi mcrapper_67, back again after reading more closely your 4th column for the problematic 18A TORTOISE. I think the “out” sits better if the definition is only “One’s shelled” and the first TO is from “(ou)T (t)O finally”. Makes no difference to the answer of course, just an alternative reading.

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:16:50 +0000

Thanks MC_rapper67 and of course Klingsor. Found this surprisingly gettable for prize crossword. Thanks all.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:01:59 +0000

Thanks MC. This was a brilliant effort from Klingsor. It was ingenious and entertaining with my favourite being the Emperor Hirohito reference. Like MC, I had most trouble with the tortoise/smart intersection. I was going for porpoise/sharp but, even with my limited knowledge of animal biology, I decided that a shelled porpoise was most unlikely.

By: scchua

scchua — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:50:17 +0000

Thank you for a really comprehensive blog, mc_rapper67 (and a wowing 20min completion time to boot), and to Klingsor for a puzzle that was perhaps easier, but only by Prize standards.

Finally got there, with 18A TORTOISE the last one in, after I stopped thinking about peas, and then warfare, and the like. My favourites were 1A THROW A WOBBLY, always like those clue-ic answers, 11A CONCERTO with its seamless definition and wordplay, and 8D BETRAY, a clever misdirection with “newspaper article”.

On a lighter note, I always learn something new from these blogs: from Allan_C@7′s link, this new word: “smushing”. Sounds nicely onomatopoetic …. or at least poetic!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 14:17:43 +0000

I do know what you’re talking about, sidey!