Comments on: Independent 7583 by Phi

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:18:09 +0000

Thanks flashling.
I thought this was quite tough but a very satisfying solve.It took me a while to get the theme and couldn’t remember the correct wording of the key phrase so had to work it out from the anagram.
Was going to comment on the plural OPERA BUFFAS but Lenny@10 has answered that for me – I must get a copy of Collins!
Loved 1 down – I’m a sucker for that kind of clue.
I’ve come across the clues/anagrind device in barred puzzles and,I think,it has been used by Araucaria.

Phi,if you’re still around – I’m very much enjoying The Silver Pigs – thanks for that!

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:22:50 +0000

Enjoyed this, nice theme. Although Phi has perhaps justified the use of ‘clues’ as an anagrind I’m not convinced: the historical meaning of the word has surely fallen completely out of use. Had never heard of ‘swear off’ or ‘shield-walls’. And wasn’t sure that a zero is a nobody, in 20ac, for the nothing is not the zero but the letter o, isn’t it?

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:41:02 +0000

I get home and find a welcome comment from Phi, feel honoured. Still glad I blogged it and thanks all for the comments – like lenny I thought it was shall rather than must, old age obviously clouding my memory.

By: Phi

Phi — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:19:56 +0000

I was reading something Carroll-related and ‘All must have prizes’ popped into my mind, and I took it as a way of getting an entry into a themed puzzle. I thought it was reasonably well-known – certainly I’d seen it used in conjunction with articles bemoaning school standards (you know the sort of thing: ‘failure’ rebranded as ‘deferred success’).

I rarely worry about the number of anagrams in a puzzle (indeed, knowing there’s a limit is a useful solving ploy, so I like to ensure you can’t rely on me for that!). The original meaning of ‘clue’ was a ball of thread (as used in a labyrinth), and so one of the meanings of ‘clue’ is ‘to coil up’. Not as common in daily puzzles as elsewhere, perhaps, but I’d like to help people graduate from one to the other.

The i puzzles, I’m told (I’ve only seen one – odd that the ultra-new paper doesn’t seem to have much of a web presence, though its title is a bit of a bummer to Google), are some of my old puzzles from around 2006.

By: sidey

sidey — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:09:03 +0000

I find a very odd thing about the Alice books, every time I read them I’m almost sure I’ve never read them before even though I can recite lots of bits by heart. It’s rather good fun.

By: ele

ele — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:51:37 +0000

Thanks flashling for explaining the wordplay to Pulitzer. Got hung up on Pooter as the literary nobody and although the answer was obvious couldn’t see how you got at it.

By: Tokyocolin

Tokyocolin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:54:16 +0000

To Eileen @8, that is all very nice but it has no pictures! Try this link: http://www.hoboes.com/FireBlade/Fiction/Carroll/Alice/Wonder/alice3/

The picture of Alice and the dodo at the foot of the “tail” is the one that popped into my mind’s eye when you mentioned the dodo. It would not be so surprising if the arrival of grandchildren was to prompt that memory, but who would expect it from a weekday crossword.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:35:54 +0000

I was going to say that I found this ridiculously easy but, in view of other comments, perhaps I had better not. I got the key phrase immediately although I remembered it as “All shall have prizes” so I had to work through the anagram to get the Must. After that it was all plain sailing apart from initially entering Dail as the parliament starting with a D.
There were rather too many obvious anagrams in this for my taste. I think I made the same comment about last Friday’s Phi. It looks as though my membership of the Phi fan club is about to expire.
I didn’t much care for opera buffas as a plural for opera buffa but I see that Collins prefers it to opere buffe so I can’t complain
I read 26 as a semi-&lit meaning that clever clues are relevant ones. And yes, clues does appear to be the anagrind.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:20:19 +0000

Excellent puzzle, excellent blog. Thanks flashling and Phi. Held myself up by spelling EXTRAVERT as EXTROVERT (a rover seemed a reasonable party animal) which delayed me from getting the central anagram for a while. Even after that fell, it still took time to see what kind of prizes we were looking for. Got there via ORANGE (from the crossing letters I was trying to justify BRONZE there for a time) after which it fell into place quite quickly.

I didn’t attempt Crosophile on Monday, but all the subsequent crosswords this week in The Indy seemed to me to set an amazingly high standard. Thanks to Eimi, Dac, Punk and Phi.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:00:46 +0000

Hi Tokyocolin

I couldn’t remember the name of the race before but it’s all here:

http://www.authorama.com/alice-in-wonderland-3.html