Comments on: Everyman No. 3363 (13th March)

By: Roger

Roger — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:16:13 +0000

My first crack at an Everyman for many years and, sad to say, only really as a stepping stone to Rufusday … but ’twas worth it.
Also thought of ‘better’ in terms of a soft touch (Mpc @5) and rather liked silo at 16d (where I assume your ‘?’ Lorraine implies the challenging “Well ?” … as in “So, what are going to do about it ?”). Seems a little overcast in the NW/SE !

By: Robi

Robi — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:10:27 +0000

Davy@8 and KD@9; thanks, I get the sense now (at last!)

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:22:54 +0000

Hi Robi. Appreciate your similar thinking, but I’m still not convinced. Perhaps Everyman will drop in to say where he was coming from with that one. The definition is ‘way in’ (entry) for a cat, so the surface and clue work perfectly for me if you accept ‘ginger’ as a cat.

By: Davy

Davy — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:51:06 +0000

Final word on 4a. Just to expand the clue a little: Way in (cat flap) which ginger has used. Nothing wrong with this I would suggest. I was also amused by its construction.

By: Robi

Robi — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:26:01 +0000

Interesting puzzle, as ever, from Everyman.

Thanks Lorraine for the good blog. I think the ‘touch’ might be in the sense given by KD@2. I found a book entitled the touch system for better golf. With 20, I parsed it as soldiers=MEN and soldiers=RE with TA stuck inside, but no doubt your explanation is just as good.

TOGGERY is in ODE as: ‘(informal, humorous)clothes.’ Didn’t have a particular problem with ginger=CAT, although the clue seems rather clumsy as ginger is not used in a CATFLAP – however, I guess it was worded that way to provide a better surface.

By: Stella Heath

Stella Heath — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 11:15:42 +0000

Thanks Trafites.

I think, as Megparsec suggests, Ginger is a sort of “typical” cat’s name, as Fido or Rover might be for a dog.

Regarding ‘touch’, it might be as in ‘to touch something up’, meaning to improve it.

In my book, 19d is practically an &lit .

My last in was ‘toggery’, which I’d never heard of, but found in Google as the name of a chain or franchise, presumably from ‘togs’.

By: Megaparsec

Megaparsec — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:24:53 +0000

A ‘better’ from a bookie’s point of view could be seen as an easy ‘touch’. And ginger seems to be an acceptable generic cat name, lack of capital forgiveable for the good surface reading.

By: Dad'sLad

Dad'sLad — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:21:48 +0000

Thanks Lorraine.

I thought “ginger” for CAT was ok and therefore enjoyed the clue. 5d seems a bit clumsy unless I’m missing something, which is entirely possible. I initially assumed we were supposed to ignore “club” and read it as “Better golf, hopefully” to get the meaning of the phrase. On reflection I think it is an allusion to the club selection you make before a shot. So by touching – selecting – a wood rather than, say, an iron you are hoping for a better result from having chosen a better – or more appropriate – club. But it’s still a bit tenuous even at that.

By: Richard Heald

Richard Heald — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 08:04:04 +0000

According to Chambers Thesaurus, ‘touch’ is synonymous with ‘better’ in the verbal sense of ‘to equal’ (as in M C Hammer’s “U can’t touch this”, I suppose) but I wouldn’t call them exact synonyms – according to Chambers, ‘touch’ means “to equal, rival or compare with” whereas ‘better’ means “to surpass, do better than”.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:48:37 +0000

Thank you, Lorraine. Some clever clueing here – I particularly liked ARIES and THEME for their surfaces. I think we can assume that ‘ginger tom’ is the thinking behind CAT FLAP; it just about works for me. I’m less sure of TOUCH WOOD. A ‘touch’ player in a number of sports is one who is very precise in their shots or control, but it’s a bit of a stretch to equate that to ‘better’.

Good puzzle overall.