Comments on: Independent 7,600/Nestor

By: ele

ele — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:30:37 +0000

@flashling no.10. Shoulder bag rather than briefcase, and complete disregard for other passengers, means you have one hand free and the Indy just about folds up conveniently. But it is difficult to actually write the answers in!

By: Lenny

Lenny — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:14:31 +0000

Sorry Rodders, you say we are overcomplicating things but it is actually Nestor who is doing the overcomplicating. “Film about people who insulate apartments?” would have been fine.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:21:21 +0000

Flatliners now puts all of us within 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon … and the cardiac monitors featured heavily in the film. Don’t know how you strap hang and read crossword on tube Ele I’ve never managed the knack.

By: ele

ele — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:08:07 +0000

After failing to finish yesterday’s, this was a good start to the day (dispiriting if you can’t even start the thing while strap-hanging on the tube). Thank you Nestor, and Ali for the blog. Last ones in were herald and mud. It’s often the easiest ones you can’t see for looking! Didn’t know about the film so assumed 3d referred to cardiac monitors.

By: rodders

rodders — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:38:31 +0000

Re 3down I think some solvers are complicating things – the film was all about life and death and I believe it is that simple – nothing to do with flat liners on cardiac monitors – sometimes we make clues more complicated than they are !!

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:10:03 +0000

Thank you, Ali.

I seldom do the Indy Saturday puzzle, but I’m aware Nestor has a reputation for being tough, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this not over-tricky and most enjoyable. Some nice long anagrams, and my other favourites today were TONSURE and SOLAR CELL.

From being 0-2 down on Tuesday lunchtime I have pulled this week back to 2-2, so I am looking forward to snatching a late win with Phi tomorrow.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:15:30 +0000

Thanks Ali and also to Nestor for a fairly gently workout. I enjoyed the clues to Tonsure, Kitties and Ersatz. I was not so keen on Flatliners. Not a very good clue and the whimsical definition comes first so, really, the question mark should come after insulation. Perhaps Nestor should have finished the grid with Glitziness instead.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:34:12 +0000

Agree with the general view on this, much easier than usual for Nestor but just as good as usual with novel approaches all through. Thanks for the blog, Ali, and Nestor for the puzzle.

By: schua

schua — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:17:04 +0000

Thanks Ali for the blog, and to Nestor for a finely crafted puzzle, perhaps a little easier than previous ones even excluding his prize puzzles (or ekse my memory may be flawed).

Liked all the respective wordplays (am I right in saying there isn’t a single cd or dd?), especially those for 12A LICKSPITTLE, 15A TONSURE and 20A BASTARDISED.

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:16:57 +0000

I probably finished this a bit too quickly and put arbalest for 5 down. It’s one of those unfortunate situations where the word fitted so well I didn’t see how it could be wrong, even though the parsing of les for soldiers didn’t make sense.

I think 3 down is basically two definitions with the break after “insulation”, with Handel’s definition being correct for the first bit and the second bit a reference to the film.