Comments on: Guardian 25,265 / Paul

By: Paddywack

Paddywack — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:27:35 +0000

I usually struggle with Paul but found this one a bit more accessible. However, 13 and 14 were just too contrived for me.

By: Cosafina

Cosafina — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:59:09 +0000

Great puzzle, and Autocue and Womb Leasing both made me laugh out loud!

By: MadLogician

MadLogician — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:28:18 +0000

Fuzzy logic doesn’t seem like an oxymoron to a logician. By Godel’s theorem any sufficiently complex logical system -has- to be fuzzy, in the sense that there are questions which cannot be answered within the system.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:19:50 +0000

We had no problems with the oxymoronic clues.
My PinC liked the fact that both consisted of two parts, one Across, the other one Down – oxymoronic, see.

MINICAR is in American dictionaries without a hyphen, but perhaps for some one more … oxymoronic thing.

Best clues today?
We thought: VENDETTA, AUTOCUE, RAYLEIGH and EQUILATERAL.

Pity though, that in two consecutive clues (11,12etc) we had exactly the same anagram indicator. Very unlike Paul.

But a good puzzle overall.

By: Martin P

Martin P — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:32:14 +0000

Red face here as I work in the medium but got locked into “article” rather than “autocue”.
I liked “promiscuous” as anagram indicator, “all over the place” I suppose!
I made a few mistakes so thanks to all for the excellent explanations.

By: Abby

Abby — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:54:05 +0000

Technically, zombies aren’t living dead- they’re walking dead. Vampires are living dead. Zombies aren’t considered to have lives. Like people who’d make that distinction, I guess.

By: liz

liz — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:28:17 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Eileen. This must have been a little easier for a Paul because I managed to solve it on the tube, with no recourse to check buttons etc. My last was 13dn — the OI raised a smile!

I didn’t mind the ‘oxymoronic’ ones, but MINICAR as a word seems a little odd to me.

Never heard of RAYLEIGH but the cluing was impeccable (and funny).

By: tupu

tupu — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:19:57 +0000

Hi Eileen

Thanks. Its not the first time I’ve put things too elliptically.

I suspect I may be up a gum tree with oxymoron, but until I checked today, I had not realised its exact etymology and had thought the evocation of ‘moronic’ was just accidental. It seems it is a late Latin word coined from the two Greek roots ‘oxy’ (sharp) and ‘moros’ (dull, stupid, foolish). It does not apparently occur in Ancient Greek.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:40:23 +0000

Hi tupu @22

“With your reading, the ‘s = has’ moves it from the solution.”

I’m not sure what this means but please don’t worry about it. I was over-complicating things and imagining objections whare there weren’t any. Your reading @14 makes perfect sense.

By: Roger

Roger — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:33:01 +0000

Thanks Eileen. Agree with beermagnet that minicar is rather strange and wonder if it's another example of the gap/hyphen being lost in American English (ref. yesterday's discussion). Took the oxymorons for what they were and quite liked them (like fun run better, though !). Carrots @25 ... I did something similar with womb-letting as an (unexplainable) overlap of womble and letting (what a property company might be doing if there are rooms free/available). Then saw the anagram ... Stella @16, fear not. The wife's from Essex and is quite normal (in the non-'Essex' sort of way). And she had relatives in Rayleigh !