Comments on: Guardian No 25,320 by Brendan

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:36:30 +0000

Only just finished this ! A testament to its toughness (for us, anyway) and its entertainment – we couldn’t leave it!

By: arfanarf

arfanarf — Fri, 13 May 2011 06:06:50 +0000

I think there might be another problem with magnolia. But this time its the explanation of the solution. [MA [GNOL] I] A, uses the whole of ‘I am’ [IAM] not I’m [IM]. Probably just a typo.

By: Martin H

Martin H — Thu, 12 May 2011 23:06:15 +0000

Excellent crossword. Cunning and witty throughout, with a nice device woven in. (A slight quibble at ‘holding’ in 1 and 11 – it seemed surplus to requirements in each)

And no theme!

We’ve had some enjoyable quickly solved puzzles this week, and this more demanding solve came just at the right time. Well set and well edited – and a nice commentary, thanks PeterO.

By: PeterO

PeterO — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:18:52 +0000

We are back on the air, with a different Magnolia picture, not in Kew Gardens, but it looks like a soulangeana also, and it shows its non-shrubbiness equally well.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:04:22 +0000

Wolfie: It is rather late to reply, for which I apologise.

I appreciate your concern, but I still believe that you are overreacting. ‘Sapz’ and ‘mong’ are words that have no connotation other than the very highly pejorative. ‘Crazy’ and ‘nutter’, on the other hand, are colloquially used to mean simply ‘eccentric’, without any such intense animus.

Personally, I do not believe that we should taboo words simply because they can be very highly offensive in certain contexts provided that they have more innocent connotations in others. ‘Left-footer’ is unremarkable if referring to a sportsman, but offensive (or at least intended to be so) if used to refer to a Roman Catholic.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:47:11 +0000

I appreciate the various comments about using “nutter”. If I had thought about it, I would have found an alternative. The fact that we don’t think about it is itself highly significant. I tend to use the Concise Oxford, which has become quite responsible about labelling usages as derogatory or offensive, as a rough guide. It describes “nutter” as “informal”.

I hate the term “politically correct”. I take this to be a matter of respect for others.

By: rrc

rrc — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:41:00 +0000

there appears to be no explanations for the answers today is there a problem I ask my self

By: PeterO

PeterO — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:35:35 +0000

I do not know what is wrong with wrong with the Magnolia picture, and my latest attempt to correct the problem has somehow caused the entire blog to vanish. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:25:14 +0000

BTW, my PinC got that idea for ACRONYMS because it is an anagram of MANY CROS(swords), which was in the clues.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:22:03 +0000

Another cracker from Brendan which we found a lot harder to complete than some of his recent puzzles.
As for some reason we nearly always do, we started in the SE, where ‘Nutter’ was my first entry [and one that didn't offend me - I am a liberal person and I do care for the ones at the wrong end of our society, but I am not thát sensitive as Wolfie (perhaps, wrongly so)].

We had ENIGMA and TETRAD (a clever clue!) very early on and knowing from 13ac that there must be something going on here, I spotted MATE but found it not interesting enough at that stage.
How right I was though, and after unravelling 13ac, I immediately had to think of the ‘broken bones’ puzzle – just like Eileen.
After which some missing solutions like RONDEAUX, INDABA and ?OCO fell very quickly in place.

My PinC’s last entry [I won this time, ] was PIERCE (16d), which I thought was another very fine clue.

Other winners: LAYOUT (6ac), LONELINESS (12ac) [took a while to understand that one], ANAGRAMS (14d) [which also took some time as my PinC opted for ACRONYMS at first] and HECTIC (19d).

Thanks, PeterO, you really like the word ‘envelope’, don’t you?

And many thanks Brendan for this great crossword.