Comments on: Independent 7676/Nimrod

By: Mustyx

Mustyx — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:17:07 +0000

As I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of themed crosswords, but I’d make an exception for one of my particular idols. Any chance of this puzzle appearing at some point in the future? Hope we don’t have to wait until he’s 75!

By: eimi

eimi — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:28:09 +0000

I am a big Dylan fan and I had prepared a grid in which all the Across answers were albums by His Bobness, but due to pressure of work I didn’t have much time to clue it, so I deferred to my Elgarian colleague.

By: Mustyx

Mustyx — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:05:40 +0000

ele at 11. ‘Palin’ appeared at 8ac. 8 is the clue to Octavo – a size of book made by folding each printed sheet into eight leaves (16pp)

By: ele

ele — Wed, 25 May 2011 09:11:11 +0000

A no-brainer then. I did wonder what the connection could be.

By: John H

John H — Tue, 24 May 2011 23:52:46 +0000

I am a Dylan fan, as it happens, ele. But he’s only 70.

The Reform Club was celebrating 175. And they gave me a free three-course lunch to help me celebrate with them!

Nimrod

By: ele

ele — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:51:24 +0000

Having half expected we might get a celebration of his Bobness’s 70th birthday, and seeing lots of multiword answers I was slightly disappointed to see the actual theme. Valet was the word that gave it away in 21ac. Thanks to John for explaining the wordplay to several answers, which I had to guess. Ribosome was no problem as it happens, but failed on heartless and adware. And despite flashling’s explanation, I still don’t get octavo. A fun crossword though, so thanks Nimrod – even if not a Dylan fan.

Hope you had a good evening in the pub.

By: quodlibet

quodlibet — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:17:31 +0000

5d is U(niversity) AL(abama) in VI(6) SAID (talked) with ‘about’ being the containment indicator

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:37:31 +0000

Richard Heald-
I hadn’t noticed that. Interesting. But Nimrod has also effectively joined the two halves again by having five multi-word answers which cross the border.

By: Richard Heald

Richard Heald — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:49:59 +0000

Surprised no-one’s yet pointed out that the top half of the grid is entirely disconnected from the bottom. Any thematic significance to this, I wonder?

By: caretman

caretman — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:48:33 +0000

I agree with flashling’s and Gaufrid’s parsings at 1 and 2. There were some excellent clues here and quite the challenge! At first run through the puzzle looked nearly unsolvable with the long theme answer and several related clues which were difficult to parse. I also eventually got the theme after getting the GHT in EIGHTY and thinking in terms of bets and traveling, and then much that had been confusing was revealed. I thought 9d was an excellent clue; I had penciled the answer in from the definition without understanding the wordplay, but after getting 17/8 could see the nice wordplay. Great stuff from Nimrod!