Comments on: Guardian 25,229 – Gordius

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 03:22:35 +0000

After noticing the grid’s structure, I pretty much put this aside. Four separate little 6×9 puzzles connected by almost nothing?

Pulled it back out today (in disgust), and got a few clues. Gave up in utter revolt and came here to see how some of what I found to be very opaque clues – with no real hope for building check letters from anywhere else in the puzzle – I hate to say it, but for the first time, I will: this was a very poor puzzle. The grid *demands* cross-referenced cluing, to make up for the lack of checking.

Thanks Manehi and everyone else for the explaining, Gordius, you should have refused this grid or worked harder to pull the four quadrants together. And if you picked it yourself, shame, shame, shame!

I hope I never see a grid as disconnected as this again – one of my pet peeves are grids that are little more than four separate puzzles, but at least usually the four interconnecting words provide 3-4 checks into each quad.

Oh well, we can’t all be happy all the time!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:24:01 +0000

UNLOOSE is in several “dictionaries” (a.o. in the ODE, but not in Chambers) as ‘(let) free’.
The word was in my Christmas crossword and I clued it as “New toilet in use for free”, but in a more adventurous (read: libertarian) mood I could have gone for “New toilet engaged or free” ….

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:01:24 +0000

Hi FumbleFingers

I too wondered re unloose. The OED tells us “The redundant use of un- is rare, but occurs in Old English unlíesan, and Middle English unloose, which has succeeded in maintaining itself. Later instances are unbare, unsolve, unstrip (16–17th cent.), and the modern dialect forms unempt(y), unrid, unthaw (also locally uneave)”. Unbare is now rare but is quoted as occurring from 1530 till the late C19.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:27:01 +0000

Thanks manehi.
Not much to add this late in the day but,for a self-confessed Laodicean of the cryptic definition type clue,I thought 26 down was ‘eggcellent’.- Sorry!

By: FumbleFingers

FumbleFingers — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:58:39 +0000

Carrots@31 - I too would rather see insolvable / unsolvable restricted to "incapable of being solved", and insoluble to "incapable of being dissolved". But I can't see any support from either dictionaries or the usage of the great unwashed... According to my daughter I'm a grammar nazi anyway, but the one that really grates on me here is 20a UNLOOSE. How on earth can UNanything mean the same as anything?

By: gm4hqf

gm4hqf — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:56:44 +0000

Robi@22: Touche. I didn’t look for it in my McChambers!

By: Jack Aubrey

Jack Aubrey — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:54:31 +0000

After a desperate hand to hand struggle with Paul yesterday, this went down nicely with the post-swim coffee. I thought it all quite fair and good fun; no carping required. I did like the egg cup!

By: Carrots

Carrots — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:46:20 +0000

Another Cuurate`s Egg from Gordius, but at least he provided a cup to put it in.

With no aids I guessed GILLET and ORGANZA (but spelt it with an S). 2Dn had to be FEEDER, but to use FEED as “paid” seems wrong to me: shouldn`t there be an apostrophe (i.e., Fee`d)?

I didn`t know that a meteoroid only becomes a meteor when it enters the Earth`s atmosphere. This was a pity because I was honing the spleen I was hoping to vent about Gordius neologisms had to be wasted.

I also have a sense of unease about INSOLUBLE being used as “unsolvable”, but I`m probably wrong and I can`t be bothered to look it up.

By: Frances

Frances — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:31:33 +0000

Of course. I was thinking of ZIP codes etc.
Thanks.

By: Robi

Robi — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:22:47 +0000

Frances: I think that is because ‘bud’ is a short form of ‘buddy,’ used as a form of address in America.

BTW for anyone still interested in the ??? clue in the Quiptic, it now reads:

Conflict with quiet pervert (4)