Comments on: Independent 7603 by Radian

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:11:39 +0000

Nice one, once I twigged the key to it. Interestingly at 1ac I thought of CARBOYS straightaway from the definition, and found ROCOCO and SCREE would check it, before I got as far as unravelling the theme and seeing how 1ac fitted in with it. Perbaps that comes of having been a chemist at one time.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:34:19 +0000

Thanks nms.
Great puzzle from Radian.
Took me a while to get going on this but once I twigged it was anagrams rather than something cinematic,it wasn’t too difficult.
CRIMEA was brilliant!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:01:40 +0000

Started this crossword tonight at work, as usual using the DTV, and was rather surprised to find quite a few answers rightaway.
OSCARS (20d) was one of them, and already having a feeling that 1d had to be CARUSO plus seeing the anagram of SACRAMENTO (11ac) made it clear what was going on here.

As others said, a real feat to have so many anagrammed words in the puzzle containing OSCAR.
On the other hand, I have to say that this might be seen as the Achilles’ heel of the puzzle; there were no real surprises (as to devices, I mean) when a clue had “1 of 20″ in it.

Which doesn’t mean that I (and from a later point onwards, we) did finish the puzzle.
Radian decided to put CHIAROSCURO (14ac) in it. Never heard of it, though it had to be something like that [and why not "Chiorascuro'?]. The same with OSTRACOD (16d). Could easily have been ‘Astrocod’ …. So, a few clues where we got help from the Dictionary eventually.

We failed on completing the NW.
Never heard of CARBOYS – we were thinking of ‘cartons’ [they may store, and perhaps there would be an acid-like thing that gives us TN to combine with OSCAR, but alas].
And because RECCE (9ac) was completely unfamiliar too, there was some faint suspicion that 3d might be ‘outmatches’ [even though Oscar wasn't in there].

All in all, a nice puzzle in which Radian put a lot of thought [something that I always appreciate].
Kathryn’s Dad verdict (“Probably my favourite Indy puzzle of the year so far”) is one or two steps too far for me, but it wás very enjoyable.

I agree with Paul A @2 about RUNIC (23d), even though from time to time people complain about NI being synonymous to Ulster (and Radian is from Northern Ireland as far as I know).

Finally, I found it a pity that in the otherwise smiling clue 4d (SCREE) ‘see’ was part of the construction (‘look’) ánd present in the clue itself.
But that’s only a minor quibble in a fine puzzle that was not that hard (but probably due to what called its Achilles’ heel earlier).

Thanks Niall & Radian!

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:32:58 +0000

Never come oscars* 14ac before, I struggled with that, but after a bit of musing around film, director, actor or scriptwriter etc I realised the link after which it largely fell apart. Thanks NMS for the blog to confirm my workings on some clues and Radian for a nicely semi topical puzzle.

By: NealH

NealH — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:00:09 +0000

9 and 19 were way outside of my range of knowledge and lost me completely, but other than that I didn’t find this too difficult. I got the Oscar theme quite quickly from 28 across, which also gave away the anagram idea. Getting that many anagrams of the same thing was very good going (especially when they were all across, so there was no reliance on the same combinations of letters intersecting with each other). My favourite clues were probably the two 5s.

By: scchua

scchua — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:37:42 +0000

Thanks nmsindy for the blog and Radian for a well-constructed puzzle – 14 answers with (Oscar)*

11A SACRAMENTO, an early one led me back to the OSCARS, after which it was quite straightforward. Favourites were 19A CRIMEA, which as you say referred to a great song from my time and, of course, the themed answers.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:49:43 +0000

Thank you, nms. Very occasionally you get a daily cryptic where the setter seems to be saying ‘look how clever this is’ rather than ‘here’s half-an-hour’s entertainment before you get on with the rest of your day’. This could have fallen into the first category but most certainly didn’t. I’m sure Radian would be too modest to say how clever this was, so I will instead.

This was a topical, themed puzzle that was a delight. I did get the gateway clue as about my third or fourth answer, and not being mad keen on cinema thought I would struggle. But when the anagram element became clear, it turned into a not too difficult solve. What I really appreciated was the fact that there were no obscurities, although I needed the blog to understand CRIMEA.

Probably my favourite Indy puzzle of the year so far.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:50:04 +0000

Thanks NMS. This was an ingenious offering from Radian which I initially found infuriating because I thought the key word was car and I could not work out why the anagrist kept on being two letters short. Eventually it all became clear and the best came at the end when I finally worked out the Cry me a river homophone.
As per usual I managed to get one wrong. I could have been a judge but I never had the Greek, as Peter Cook almost said. If you don’t know the Greek for shell, Ostracod could have its vowels in any order. I went for the plausible star-shaped fish, Astrocod. Good with crinkle-cut chips.

By: Paul A

Paul A — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:52:58 +0000

23d – Could it be Ulster (NI) in ex-police (RUC)? Barracks being the indicator

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:50:41 +0000

Many thanks for an excellent blog, nmsindy, and many more to Radian, for what I thought was a stunning puzzle.

It made me laugh when I realised that this puzzle was not going to be what I expected, from 20dn, but I was just amazed when so many anagrams, all containing OSCAR, kept coming.

Some wonderful clues, too, notably 5, 10, 22ac and 7, 15 and 17dn.

A tour de force indeed and great fun to solve.