Comments on: Independent 7690/Punk

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:42:30 +0000

As part of a double bill in our after-work session, we enjoyed this Punk very much. But, while it was much better clued than its Guardian counterpart today, it took us far less time.

Just like flashling we didn’t get FROST/NIXON [that is, the second part, mainly because I split 25ac up as 5-5 instead of 5/5] and ADOBE.
Quite refreshing to have no theme, but just good clues.
Thanks John for the blog, and even though you convinced yourself of the thinness of there being a possible theme, I must also say that of the solutions you mentioned, SYRACUSE (27ac), is not really Greek – it’s in/on Sicily …..

While a very easy clue like 25d (TEA) is rather good, the Awards of the Day go to: 9ac (FRANZ LISZT) for the imagery, 10/28 (WINE TASTER) for another great surface, 13d (GLASGOW KISS) and the ‘Mole as nun’ in TUNNELLER (8d).

Many thanks John and, er, John.

By: ele

ele — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:38:19 +0000

Thanks to John for the blog and to Punk for a good puzzle which helped while away a 2 hour journey to work this morning as my trains were kaput! I was stumped by 21ac which was the last one in, and got it wrong, as I thought it must be something to do with sidle with the s taken off which gave the not very satisfactory idle in. So thanks very much to Eileen for the real answer and explanation. Liked knitwear and Frost/Nixon.

By: caretman

caretman — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:22:58 +0000

Thanks, John, for the blog. I also didn’t see a theme despite the hint at one from 5d. I thought it was a mostly straightforward puzzle, and agree with Eileen about the parsing of 21a. FROST/NIXON was my last in mainly because I don’t catch many movies; for those who go to movies the enumeration alone may have been a giveaway.

With regard to 18a, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that IF AND WHEN originated in legal writing (e.g., contracts or wills). If action A is going to be predicated on action B occurring first, with the action B’s occurrence being uncertain, you probably couldn’t write simply ‘do action A when action B’, since that presumes something that may not occur. If you write ‘do action A if action B’, that doesn’t say when to do it; if action B occurs but the person obligated to do action A doesn’t do it, (s)he can claim that (s)he just hasn’t done it yet, and so is not in violation of the contract. So if you want action A to occur immediately after action B, you would probably have to write ‘do action A if and when action B’. Lots of apparently redundant legal expressions have arisen similarly, usually after someone has taken advantage of language loopholes to get out of what would seem to be the plain intention of a contract.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:11:46 +0000

Missed out on frost/nixon and adobe. Somewhere in my mind I knew adobe as a building material but it didn’t click, nor frost/nixon just about remember the film’s name but… got the frost but missing nix-on is annoying. Thanks John and Punk for the fun

By: walruss

walruss — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:44:42 +0000

Yes, this ‘false trail’ has anooyed me a bit, as I was expecting something more. Just because some of the inclusions are faintly obscure doesn’t make them Greek, I suppose?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:33:17 +0000

Thank you, John, for your explanations, a few of which I needed this morning. I thought this was a lot of fun, just about the right level of difficulty for me. GLASGOW KISS I got when I’d a few crossing letters; I think there are other regional variations as well. I liked KNITWEAR particularly.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:25:18 +0000

Thanks for the blog, John.

Like you I was puzzled by 21ac but the penny’s just dropped. It’s an anagram of [n]EEDING.