Comments on: Independent 7681/Quixote

By: superkiwigirl

superkiwigirl — Mon, 30 May 2011 21:20:49 +0000

Many thanks Pierre and Quixote.

Saved this up as an evening treat, and I wasn’t disappointed – this was a most entertaining puzzle, which I thought was full of great clues.

Perhaps I should say “… great clues once I had worked out all the parsings” because it took me a while to see how DENOUEMENT was arrived at once it was filled in, and also for the penny to drop with LANGUEDOC. This latter is especially embarrassing as I live near Toulouse on the border between the regions of Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon, which together comprise the old area of Occitanie. I had only to step outside of the front door and look at the nearest street sign!

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:08:42 +0000

Thank you pierre for mead, didn’t get that and of course Quixote.

By: lenny

lenny — Mon, 30 May 2011 14:29:24 +0000

Thanks for dropping by, Quixote, and for the rapid resolution of my query. Sorry about the walk. Same problem here in Solihull.

By: Quixote

Quixote — Mon, 30 May 2011 12:36:23 +0000

I concede that the enumeration should have been (6,3). I’d rather not be here but a very wet Oxford has put paid to walking plans today. Thanks for the blog.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 30 May 2011 11:10:55 +0000

Hi Lenny. I wondered too about the distinction between the language and the province in LANGUEDOC, but I think for the purposes of a crossword it just about works. Quixote often drops in to the blogs of his puzzles, so if he does today perhaps he’ll put us right if we’re missing something.

By: lenny

lenny — Mon, 30 May 2011 10:34:47 +0000

Thanks Pierre, this was an enjoyable and rather chewy offering from Quixote. There was some good misdirection and, at one stage, I was convinced that I was looking for obscure breeds of cows, ducks and dogs before I got the answers Demoralises, Nought and Languedoc.

I was a bit confused by Languedoc since it appears to me that the definition “an old French” must refer to the language not the province, in which case I would have expected Langue d’oc with the enumeration (6,3).

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 30 May 2011 09:19:42 +0000

Thank you, Eileen. G&S is not a strong point with me.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 30 May 2011 09:13:15 +0000

I mean ‘HMS Pinafore’ of course!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 30 May 2011 09:11:26 +0000

Thanks for a great blog, Pierre and Quixote for an entertaining puzzle.

I especially liked 20ac and 7 and 12dn.

16dn is a reference to ‘Poor little Buttercup’ in ‘The Pirates of Penzance’.

http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pinafore/web_opera/pin02.html