Comments on: Guardian 25,233 / Rufus

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:15:08 +0000

Hi Duncan

I left a small amendment @3 to your excellent blog which seems to have gone past you.

The two forms of overcome involved are different. In ‘master’ it is an activce form of the verb. In ‘lost for words’ it is a past participle passive of the verb and the equivalent of ‘overwhelmed’.

By: Val

Val — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:29:20 +0000

Thanks to Rufus for another excellent offering and Duncan for the wonderfully detailed blog.

Though it’s perhaps too long after the fact to be of interest to anyone I would like to raise an objection to 16ac. Scrooge was in fact visited by four ghosts, Marley appeared first to warn him of the next three. Perhaps the intention was that our Christmas Present was one of three Christmas ghosts but I feel this is a bit of a long shot. Still got it though!

By: crosser

crosser — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:18:57 +0000

reference

By: crosser

crosser — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:18:22 +0000

I was also unhappy about infer/imply and was interested to see what everyone had to say, and relieved to read Robi’s explanation @11. Then to get the post from Rufus himself was an extra bonus – thank you!
Forgive me if someone has already said this – I may have missed it – but surely, in 21d, the reeference to “capital” means not only Samson’s main assets (his strength) but also the assets on his head?

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:17:44 +0000

A lot of fun clues here (thanks Rufus, and DS of course) like ahoy, off colour and so on but am not entirely sure about 7d. Like others, I read this as (PA + NA ('an ascending') + MA) but does the resulting PANAMA on its own really fit the definition 'waterway' (ascending or otherwise) ? Odd to get the answer to 6d from the clue to 10a which crosses it !

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:52:22 +0000

Pace Snidey, I’m with Derek on 11a – I was about to put LARCENY in when Mrs B pointed out it could equally be ROBBERY, so we left it until we got a crossing word – 3d – but Doh! it fits either! A good clue may take a while to get, but once you’ve got it, there should be no doubt about it.

I feel better about not getting 23a, and both 21s, when Sil was in the same boat and they were Duncan’s last to go in! Though we kicked ourselves over SAMSON: we were trying to think of mythic characters who had had their head cut off whilst asleep (Holofernes?), we didn’t think of hair…

By: Davy

Davy — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:45:34 +0000

I quite often don’t finish Rufus despite the perception that he’s so very very very easy. I didn’t get ADVENTURE, DUTY (so so obvious when you see the answer), GYMNAST, AHOY, OVERCOME and SIEGE. I will take my hat off (I don’t wear a hat) to those who complete a Rufus in 30 seconds.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:41:41 +0000

Sorry, Sil!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:41:20 +0000

Hi stiofain

The pictures are on the ‘Sloggers and Betters in Derby’ thread:

http://fifteensquared.net/2011/01/29/sloggers-betters-in-derby/#comments

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:39:03 +0000

Yes, stiofain @30.
Just go to the most recent Sloggers & Betters post by jetdoc.
There are two links in there that give you plenty of photos.