Comments on: Guardian Quiptic 600/Orlando

By: stiofain

stiofain — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:49:25 +0000

Bit too tough for a quiptic I agree. Can I get genetically modified with this Japanese gene? It would save me a fortune

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:00:24 +0000

Before the blog goes cold, Robi, I’ll just add that (in my limited experience) crossword setters, bloggers and commenters have the allele that codes for the ability to process copious amounts of alcohol without adverse consequences.

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:07:22 +0000

Pierre - well, if you insist. I did know about the different alcohol dehydrogenases, which you can check out here. The real question, however, is whether the differences can be explained by beer consumption and the concommitant effects on the gene pool.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:57:33 +0000

Caretman at no 13: I’m glad it wasn’t just me too! With my definition of 1 Across and your parsing of it, we’d have made a good pair this morning (or my morning, anyway).

Robi at no 14, one of the things I like about 225 is that you get to learn stuff. I don’t think your theory about the different tolerance to alcohol between Europeans and people from Asia is an urban myth: I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that the two populations have a different genetic make-up in that regard. Something to do with alcohol dehydrogenase, if I remember well. If one of our scientifically literate commenters (or indeed, lurkers) is still awake, perhaps they’ll fill us in.

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:32:01 +0000

I thought that the beer at lunchtime might have affected my solving, but see that others thought this difficult – not suitable for a Quiptic and trickier than the other Orlando cryptic. Good conspiracy theory that the editor mixed them up!

Thanks Pierre for a good blog – I liked your TREE SHREW link. That reminds me of the theory (urban myth?) that Europeans have, in general, a greater alcohol tolerance than the Japanese because the former (including children and especially the British) use to drink beer, as water was pretty polluted in the Middle Ages. The latter boiled their water to drink tea instead, thus not preserving the genes for degrading alcohol.

By: caretman

caretman — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:44:48 +0000

Well, I’m glad it wasn’t just me. This was certainly difficult for a Quiptic, much more so than the Cryptic, so I’m in the crowd that think the Grauniad mixed the two up. Thanks, Pierre, for the blog and explaining the FINGAL clue to me; I could work out the wordplay but the definition stumped me and googling didn’t help.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:07:51 +0000

Bryan @9 – I also wondered whether an admin error had put the Quiptic as the Cryptic and vice versa.

Thought this was pretty hard for a Quiptic and I would go further than Quixote’s comment about defining “shed” as a fellow setter. I don’t think it’s right in the Cryptic where it smacks of “not-one-of-the-in-crowd-ism” (a well known ism), let alone in the Quiptic where I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen a Shed puzzle.

Before I found this site, I never paid a moment’s attention to the setter’s name, let alone remembered them the next day (it simply didn’t occur to me that there might be different styles of crossword – I thought the editor would homogenise all setters with the only variation being “easy” “medium” or “hard” crosswords). I think therefore that this device is not only unfair on those who don’t do the cryptic, it’s unfair on those who don’t realise that the names are remotely of interest.

I’ll get off the soap box now.

Thanks for the Xword and blog though. I did enjoy the challenge (just challenging enough).

By: Tokyocolin

Tokyocolin — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:51:57 +0000

Thanks Pierre for an entertaining blog. The puzzle was also a pleasure to solve but it took me longer than the Saturday Prize and I will never again suggest that a newbie Cryptic solver tackle the Quiptic. If it is to be the toughest Guardian puzzle of the week it needs a new name.

By: Stella Heath

Stella Heath — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:14:57 +0000

HI sschua@8. Yes, I forgot to mention my enjoyment of the excellent “Father Brown Mysteries”, which generally put a slightly religious twist on the outcome of the murders he unravelled.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:01:02 +0000

Merci Beaucoup Pierre and Many Thanks Orlando

This was certainly trickier than today’s Cryptic. Maybe The Grauniad got ‘em mixed up?

As an Accountant, I do accept your apologies because I’ve never counted Beans.

Happily, I managed it without any help which is how I prefer to do them.