Comments on: Independent 7660 by Nimrod

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 05 May 2011 22:00:33 +0000

Night all, thanks for spotting the stuff that needed correcting. @scchua & crypticsue PLEASE don’t give Nimrod ideas about making them harder!

By: 4across

4across — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:35:05 +0000

oh, that was tough. shouldn’t 2d be expository ? [flashling says yes thanks for spotting that!]

By: bamberger

bamberger — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:57:01 +0000

Relieved to find out that Nimrod is a hard setter as I only got 21a & 16d.

It didn’t look too daunting with the hypenated answers but it required digging too deep for me e.g having to get the London murderer as Sweeny Todd still isn’t enough.

Not convinced that na, which I interpret as not applicable is the same as none .

At least I know what vocalic means now.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:14:23 +0000

Hi flashling, on second reading, re 19D SCANDAL, I think that SC (my initials too) is the symbol for Scandium, which was discovered from rare minerals from Scandinavia (hence its name). Scandinavium, amongst other things possibly, is a sports complex in Gotheberg.

By: caretman

caretman — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:09:32 +0000

I didn’t quite finish (well, not without cheating), as I couldn’t for the life of me parse 22 dn, so I’m glad to see how it worked (the first initialism isn’t common on this side of the water). 16 dn I think was a charade rather than a double definition, with “the workers” = HANDS and “on holiday” = OFF, leading to the definition of “don’t touch”. And thanks, flashling, for explaining 7 dn, it was clearly the right answer given the crossing letters and the nina but I could work it out only partially. A nicely challenging puzzle (nearly) solved in a couple of sessions around my evening dancing.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:38:54 +0000

Thanks to Gaufrid for clearing up 1d and Ian and Paul A for spotting the silly errors in the blog.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:25:51 +0000

Quite exceptionally good, I thought. Hard to pick a favourite in such an array of excellence but I loved MOTHERS-TO-BE (ERST is a word we don’t see enough of) and its linkage to LADIES-IN-WAITING. My last in was FIG-LEAF (I too was fixated on Anthony Eden and British politics in the 1950s). Thank you flashling and Nimrod, very tough and as good as they come.

By: Paul A

Paul A — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:23:40 +0000

9ac – It’s U and A switched

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:07:36 +0000

Yes, this was just a little easier than Nimrod has sometimes been (in recent times anyway), I thought. Was greatly helped by seeing WE FALL as a possibility in the bottom row and then noticing that the grid was not symmetrical in the normal way. My favourite clues were NINJA, LOW LIFE, and FIG-LEAF (the latter with great misdirection suggesting – to me anyway – the Suez crisis). Thanks, Nimrod and flashling.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:04:15 +0000

I thought this was absolutely brilliant. My favourite is probably 7d but they’re almost all special. Last in was ETCH – one of several extraordinary clues for short words. By the way my parsing for 22 was FA=None (sweet FA etc.) and NA=N+ONE. I often use “N/A” for Not Applicable but am never sure whether I’m really saying “None” or “Don’t Know”, or even “Mind your own business”. All three parsings for the clue seem fine to me.