Comments on: Independent 7609 by Eimi

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:28:33 +0000

What struck me most (ánd impressed me) was the fact that the editor, yes, the editor, presented us a crossword with a theme that would be called “obscure” by many, certainly at other places.
Even though I have all four previous Elbow albums, the titles didn’t a ring a bell … Shame on me.
Some people must have heard “The Seldom Seen Kid”, perhaps even more than “One Day Like This”.
Eimi, a theme like this is, in my opinion, what Crosswordland needs to remove the occasional dust from its surface.

And the crossword itself? Nice one!

By: Jack Aubrey

Jack Aubrey — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:19:49 +0000

After a gentle start from Rufus and Orlando this morning (qv) this seemed to be going well until I ran aground on some of the more obscure entries. I must have been asleep at the back because tne theme eluded me almost entirely: just an occasional glimpse of a kid here and there……

By: eimi

eimi — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:03:51 +0000

Thanks to Neal for the blog and others for the comments. I will admit to a being a bit self-indulgent in this tribute to one of my favourite bands, timed to greet the release of their long-awaited fifth album, and containing at least one song from each of the previous four.

I’m sure most people have heard Elbow, whether they realise it or not, as their song One Day Like This has been used as backing music in many TV programmes/trails etc. You can watch/listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0wDYWyYRQo&feature=related.

They are a very literate band, musically and lyrically, and as Paul B has mentioned one of their songs is called Scattered Black and Whites and includes the line “Crosswords through the bathroom door”.

I was a bit unlucky with the timing for KP, but his timing’s been out for a while too. And I can cope with the gentle criticism, KD (good point for your boys on Saturday btw – appreciated in some quarters!)

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:43:58 +0000

Thanks nms.
I guess there must be more in the print edition than on their online database.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:45:21 +0000

Re 16, the citation in TEA, which I should have quoted, is Webster’s New International Dictionary 2nd Edition

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:08:21 +0000

Thanks(yet again!) nmsindy,
I don’t have the software you mention,but Webster’s online does not give UNTUTELAR.I use 3 different dictionary search websites(OneLook,Wordnik and Wordweb)and none of them list it,nor do any of the 5 online dictionaries that I tried.
But as you say with the crossing letters and anagram fodder it could not be anything else.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:26:40 +0000

Re Scarpia’s comment at 13 on 1 down, the TEA Crossword Helper software turned up 1 down UNTUTELAR with a citation in Webster’s dictionary. It seemed the most likely thing that would fit once I’d the crossing letters.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 07:33:41 +0000

Missed the theme but almost got there – didn’t get AGGRATE, all I could think of was ‘agorate’ (‘or’ for ‘old king’) and that it was even more obscure than ‘dripple’, to the extent that even googling couldn’t find it.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:56:51 +0000

Thanks NealH.
Not a bad puzzle from Eimi with some very good clues.POWDER BLUE gave away the Elbow theme for me,but I’m not familiar with all their work so had to Google to confirm the theme.
Quite surprised solvers have not heard of them,they did win the Mercury prize a couple of years ago and they have a new album out this week,which has been widely reviewed.
BRAZEN and KAPPA were my favourites.
Whilst the clueing for 1 down was o.k. I don’t like this sort of word.It may be permissable grammatically to put UN in front of adjectives to form an opposite,but a quick search of Google only gives pages with gobbledegook(dictionary hits only link to tutelar) and there are no English language hits in Google books.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:14:20 +0000

I read somewhere online that Spanish archer is ‘Cockney Rhyming Slang’ for elbow: but shurely thish ish not the caishe. El Bow is a foreigners-are-so-cute kind of a gag, yesh it ish.

Eimi here presents his customary slippery genius in the form of a very up-to-date musical entertainment, and darn good it is too. Lots of fun, and I thought the more difficult words – justified by the theme, n’est que c’est pas? – were handled extremely well.

Scattered blacks and whites everywhere there were, too: should we not add that to the total of Elbow titles given some kind of a mention in this generously theme-dense number? Oh, go on.