Comments on: Guardian 25,237 / Orlando

By: ernie

ernie — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 22:08:56 +0000

Thank you, mhl and Orlando.

As a chemist, I don’t object too much to yttrium being described as a rare earth.

Lots of good clues. INSPECTOR was very good.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:18:53 +0000

Got all the answers but failed to understand ‘shell like’ and it=vermouth. Thanks mhl for the explaination.

A bit of a mixed bag I thought, some very good clues but some old and tired cliches in there too.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:06:45 +0000

Why is it that it’s always the NW that causes us (ánd some others) problems?
RIVERMOUTH (11ac) being part of it. Extremely well clued, but I am not sure whether ‘Vermouth’ for ‘it’ is really fair or not.
Ah well, it’s Crosswordland after all.

We didn’t like DEAR (12ac), but apart from that it was Pure Joy.
Capital P.
Capital J.

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:33:47 +0000

I haven’t particularly been one of Orlando’s fans until now, but I did think a lot of these clues were very clever indeed. For me, just the right level of challenge – manged to finish but not without a struggle!

I associate ‘a word in your shell-like’ being used with heavy irony in cop dramas where the ears of the recipient of the advice were anything but shell-like…

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:21:38 +0000

Tupu @ 17

Your eyes are like pools. Limpid pools ? No, cesspools.
Your skin is like peaches. Peaches and cream ? No, all pink and fury.

.. not personally, you understand

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:30:32 +0000

Re Robi @24: Ytterby, a village in the Stockholm archipelago, has the unique distinction of giving its name to four elements: yttrium, ytterbium, terbium and erbium. The ‘rare earths’ are not particularly rare, but they are not found in many concentrated deposits. As they are chemically very similar it was some time before scientists managed to separate and identify them individually.

By: Robi

Robi — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:59:57 +0000

Nice puzzle Orlando and a good blog, mhl.

I’m glad you explained 1a, which I failed to parse.

Last in was 12; very misleading but good clue – I thought it must involve the shell of like i.e. ‘l’ and ‘e.’ Hadn’t heard of (geddit) ‘a word in your shell-like.’

I gather that yttrium is usually classified as a rare-earth element and, according to Wikipaedia, the etymology is thus: ‘for the village of Ytterby, Sweden, where the first rare earth ore was discovered.’

I did like 11.

By: yogdaws

yogdaws — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:39:35 +0000

Like them tougher but…

1a and 5d were fun and 11a was crafty.

Here’s looking forward to something really taxing (but not too obscure) at the wknd.

By: mhl

mhl — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:11:49 +0000

Thanks to everyone for explaining “shell-like” – I am familiar with the expression “a word in your shell-like”, but it didn’t come to mind… I’d always assumed it was “a word in your shell, like.” :) I’ve updated the post.

Kathryn’s Dad: yes, 16d was what I meant – thanks for pointing that out.

By: gm4hqf

gm4hqf — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:06:29 +0000

Thanks mhl & Orlando

Finished this one in short order compared with yesterday but I think that the clues to 2d & 18d could have been better. Perhaps I’m hard to please.