Comments on: Independent 7666/Phi

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 06:13:03 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid! I’m one of a group in my office who try to come up with clues for a word that one of us has chosen — then we each vote for the clue we like best. This week’s word is “pipsqueak”. Of course, I won’t try to pass off this brilliancy as my own!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:49:11 +0000

Hi Mark
This is a rather old puzzle, but fortunately I still have it. The clue for 3dn was:

“Minor character’s defeat, just by a narrow margin (9)”

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:43:02 +0000

Can someone post the clue for 3D, PIPSQUEAK, please?

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Fri, 13 May 2011 21:40:55 +0000

Thank you Phi for answering my question on double pangrams @10. If a double pangram is easier than a perimeter message or a set of linked answers, then I marvel even more than before I posted my earlier question!

By: Phi

Phi — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:11:39 +0000

Do setters sit down intending to do a double pangram? Not sure I can remember clearly, but I think I did in this case – easier than thinking up a perimeter message or a set of linked answers.

I do try to make clues to the rarer words easier – usually hiddens if at all possible, and both UMAMI and NESKI fitted that bill. There was a flurry of interest in UMAMI a few years ago as it was deemed an addition to salt, sweet, sour and bitter as one of the set of distinct tastes. I thought than that ‘salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami’ was unlikely to catch on.

JAGS was unfortunate, but I was familiar with both meanings, and thought others would be too.

By: redddevil

redddevil — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:57:05 +0000

I too hadn’t heard that use of jags despite many years of ‘spreeing’. Didn’t spot the double pangram either so failed on that one.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 13 May 2011 07:23:46 +0000

“…something nasty lined up for Friday 13th!”

Uh-oh – it’s a Nimrod!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 13 May 2011 07:06:53 +0000

Phi bumped from Friday yet again! Suggests there’s something nasty lined up for Friday 13th!

And pangrams on two successive days – the second a double – wow!

By: lenny

lenny — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:56:29 +0000

I had Jars, as in “have a few jars” and rhyming slang for cars. After I finished I thought what a pity, if Phi had just managed to fit in another G he would have had a double pangram. Ho-hum.

By: caretman

caretman — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:01:08 +0000

I’m surprised at the number of people who seemed unfamiliar with the word ‘jag’. Maybe it’s a pondian thing, since that word is common here in the states. It is also used with the meaning of an uncontrollable bout, such as a jag of laughter or of crying.

This puzzle was the first time I had encountered ‘inamorato’, although I have seen ‘inamorata’ in the wild many times (where ‘many’ = ‘more than a couple’). Is that the experience of the people here as well. And if so, any speculation on why the female form would appear more frequently?