Comments on: Guardian 25,247 / Enigmatist, Paul and Shed

By: John

John — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:18:29 +0000

Enjoyed the puzzle thoroughly ! There couldn’t have been a better tribute to Araucaria other than this ! Ninety today hooray hooray!
I’m late but still I can wish , belated happy b’day sir!
http://www.iqtestexperts.com/puzzles.php

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:50:23 +0000

Araucaria – we love you!

Paul

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:47:39 +0000

Happy birthday indeed to the Master! Thanks to the 3 Johns and mhl for such a wonderful tribute and blog.

Sil, I agree that it was nice to have this puzzle be on the easier end of the scale, while still demanding some thought, of course. Letting everyone in on the fun by letting us all blow out all the candles, as it were.

One thing that impressed me was the relative lack of clunkiness considering what had to be worked into the grid. I really liked the way all the “theme” bits worked together to help with the solving – especially pencilling in ARAUCARIA which gave me RAUCOUS and OSCAR WILDE!

I suspect I would have had a much rougher time of it if it weren’t for reading 225 sometime in the last day or two, which included mention of the coming celebrations.

One little note about the discussion of RIDDLE (that has died down) – it certainly does mean “pervade” – consider “the house was riddled with vermin”. However, “riddled with holes” has become so common that “riddled” has become a convenient shorthand for the phrase. At least, that’s my thinking about the misunderstanding.

So thank you, once again, John, John, John, and John, for inviting us to the fabulous party!

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:26:52 +0000

It’s all been said above.

Thanks to everyone involved in this – all the Johns, and all the rest.
I had a brilliant time solving the 3 tribute crosswords

We must do this again sometime …

By: Tramp

Tramp — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:45:33 +0000

Wonderful tributes in yesterday’s papers to a brilliant setter. I seem to remember reading around the time of his 80th birthday that Araucaria was “the Tiger Woods of crossword setting”: Tiger’s reign didn’t last 53 years and he’s not number one anymore!

The man is one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting.

Here’s to his 100th!

By: Joshua's mum

Joshua's mum — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:58:19 +0000

This will probably be the latest tribute here. I only opened 15 squared because I didn’t get ‘much’ (thank you mhl) and am persuaded to add my gratitude for years and years of tackling Araucaria crosswords. Our children have grown up with them and now inculcate their own broods. Trying to have a sight of the clues when we all gather is a challenge. We look forward to the next decade of offerings.

By: Bannsider

Bannsider — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:09:10 +0000

Coming to this topic very late, but I’d like to add my own praise to the Johns for a puzzle which, I suspect, was designed to be done in the style of the great man himself.
All I’d say about geniuses is that if you can’t call the author of SURPRISINGLY CHASTE LORD ARCHER VEGETATING as a clue for THE OLD VICARAGE GRANTCHESTER a genius then your definition is indeed a narrow one.

By: Shed

Shed — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:37:08 +0000

Thanks to mhl and all who commented. I’m glad so many of you thought it fitted the bill. It was quite a challenge.

Paul B/ Tees /Neo #55: spot on. I think I speak for all three Js (of whom, at 51, I’m the oldest) in saying that JG has been our biggest inspiration. We may not be quite in the same league but we wouldn’t have got as far as we have without him.

Pedant’s corner: Dinsdale #58: the protagonist of The Trial is indeed Josef K, but the protagonist of The Castle is referred to throughout merely as K. But since K is (by some strange coincidence) the first letter of ‘Kafka’, I figured people didn’t need to have read Kafka at all to solve the clue. (That was one of mine.)

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:10 +0000

Well, Sil, you aren’t the last! I was late in switching on too, but want to add my congratulations to the great and good Araucaria!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:38:33 +0000

Sorry, malc95, I do not really understand what you are saying.

When you go to the Indy online, the puzzle can be solved as a normal crossword, so with Across and Down clues – like “Song about gold vehicle and tree” given as 1 Down.

But in the Dead Tree version it is NOT indicated that this word should be entered at 1 Down. The puzzle is an (Araucarian) alphabetical like in the FT.

I have not visted the eimi blog at Fifteensquared, because I haven’t done the crossword yet, but I can imagine that some solvers might have commented on this.