Comments on: Guardian 25,308 / Tramp

By: Ste

Ste — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:39:00 +0000

Superb puzzle. Inspired me to make this, my one and only contribution here. Thanks, Tramp, for the Eureka moments connecting up the references (which eventually I got)
My main hurdle was ‘ratification’. I thought Basil was ‘in’ the ratatouille not the episode. Once Tbilisi fell, the bottom left-hand corner slotted into place.
Looking forward to seeing more, Tramp.

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:02:12 +0000

Hi Eileen, nice to hear back from you! I always post so late to these things I never really expect feedback, but since I was only a day behind (and posted a fifty thousand word essay) I suspected I might see something.

I was surprised indeed that noone caught that “I”.

To my ear, “Lucy” is pronounced (or sung?) Lucee, while “lucid” is pronounced, well, lucid (or loose-id) – a short i sound. A minor quibble considering. It might even be one of those regional accent things.

And I enjoyed the surfeit of long clues, it was almost a theme of the puzzle, in a sense. Looking forward to your next blog!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:01:29 +0000

Hi Huw Powell

“Also I don’t think anyone mentioned this at 26:

“LIMITING: M[cCartney] + IT [sex] in LING [Heather]” needs the “one” to make the third I”

You’re absolutely right, Huw – how on earth did I get away with that for so long?

“One tiny quibble: “Lucy” does not sound like the LUCI in LUCID.”

I’m afraid I have to disagree there. I’ve said both over to myself a number of times and they don’t sound different to me.

I’m not expecting anyone still to be out there but I just want to add something to the ‘brevity is wit’ debate. I almost did so last night but decided against it.

I know that the ‘ideal’ average length of clue for a puzzle is supposed to be something like 5.5 words and I’m a great admirer of say, Rufus’ two-word double definitions, but, for me, this was a totally different kind of puzzle, refreshingly so from a new compiler. The clues were, certainly, longer than the norm but, still, I didn’t detect any superfluous words [which is not always the case with shorter clues]. Regular readers will know that I love story-telling clues and this puzzle had them in abundance. I’m just sorry that I missed some of the nuances. I still think that the inclusion of ‘Duck’s off’ in 5dn was masterly.

I’m really looking forward to more Tramp puzzles, especialy since he seems to be a setter who is prepared to engage in discussion.

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:17:23 +0000

Wow, what a puzzle. I stared at it a bit last night, realizing that without 1/25 I would be sunk – though at least it was a clear construction, so I could brute force it if necessary. Looking at the themed clues made it worse, since they were all over the map. Filled in a few of the easier clues and put it aside. I even had “BASIL?” written next to the clue at 21d!

Today I was mulling it over, and somehow a combination of some of the words in the themed clues, the letters in 1/25, knowing there would be a TY in it, made the solution pop into my brain.

Now, I have seen FT many random times over the years here on American public TV, but not recently, and knew no episode titles. Still I hoped to not have to do the obvious thing and look up the show on Wikipedia, as I suspected that would make things too easy to be any fun.

In the end I managed to fill in every square correctly, with a little help from OneLook (picking RATIFICATION out of the possibilities, and a couple-three others). The explanation for 16 got by me, thanks Eileen, that was a brilliant clue! TBILISI came slowly because I kept refusing to use the “TB” for some time.

Which leads to a quick response to Martin @19, regarding “SI” – as I vaguely recall, Miguel was just as likely to say “si” as “que?” in response to Basil – often a series of sis would be followed by one que?, showing that he actually understood nothing of what Basil said.

I am quite impressed with the working in of all the titles, which I did not notice, of course.

The longer clues did not bother me, although I often find them harder to work out, especially now that I see why some of them happened.

One tiny quibble: “Lucy” does not sound like the LUCI in LUCID. For a while I had an unexplained LURID in there, since it fit “explicit” so well. I had rather hoped for some other Beatles song girl’s name, homophoned and followed by ICE, but it was not to be.

Also I don’t think anyone mentioned this at 26:

“LIMITING: M[cCartney] + IT [sex] in LING [Heather]” needs the “one” to make the third I:

“LIMITING: I [one] [piece of] M[cCartney] + IT [sex] in LING [Heather]”

Sorry for the long list of random comments, but this puzzle made me want to take a short holiday in a poorly-run hotel…

Thanks for the grand outing, Tramp, and the well-done blog, Eileen!

By: blaise

blaise — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:04:20 +0000

Thanks Tramp. Hope to see more of you in the future. I thought the long clues were an interesting change and made the parsing more fun and challenging. The only downside, for me who likes to work on a printed copy, was getting a second page with nothing but the Guardian’s copyright notice.

And, after 90 minutes earlier in the evening, I didn’t miss Barcelona at all…

By: molonglo

molonglo — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:52:52 +0000

Thanks and welcome Tramp for your opener, a tour de force. 16 across especially brilliant. Thanks also to Eileen for a brilliant blog.

By: caretman

caretman — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:32:28 +0000

If the theme had been “Yes Minister” or “The EastEnders” I would have been in trouble, but this was a series I knew making it eminently solvable. On 18ac as I first started to parse it, I thought “‘Introduction to the builders’ could signal TB. Oh, that can’t be it, *nothing* starts with TB.” Until with another crossing letter or two I realised that indeed something *does* start with TB. And with 11dn, for the longest time I was trying to make the answer be something that Basil was in one of the episodes, even at one point trying to find a 12-letter word meaning ‘rat’, until finally the pin dropped.

Oh, and I kept looking for a “He’s from Barcelona” somewhere in the grid. I figured surely Tramp would fit that in somehow given everything else he managed to put in.

By: Mick H

Mick H — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:32:00 +0000

Very enjoyable puzzle – congratulations Tramp. I agree the small point size was a pain, but probably preferable to slashing the clues – I’m not sure I’ve seen the Guardian do this before.
As for the single-letter indicators, I find they creep in a lot when you’re compiling thematic puzzles, as they help you to stick to the theme. But if people get fed up with too many, it’s just a matter of striking the right balance I suppose.

By: Paul (not Paul)

Paul (not Paul) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:26:10 +0000

Great fun! I didn’t complete. Like a few others I failed on the Tripoli/Tblisi dilemma and consequently couldn’t manage ratification.

As has been said earlier, brevity is the soul of wit and as a rule we would all prefer sharper clueing but that shouldn’t take away from a puzzle full of style and originality. Keep it up.

I too wondered if the Lady was a Tramp (#36-#38) but it seems not.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:21:42 +0000

As I’ve said before, I’m a relative newbie to properly attempting these, and it goes down as an enjoyable (and completed!!) crossword. Thanks, Tramp