Comments on: Guardian 25,353 / Rufus

By: Carrots

Carrots — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:50:44 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid & Rufus…a tad more testing from the latter today I think.

STUMP = confuse seems stretching it a bit. SKIP = spring is tenuous.

COAST & SKEWER I really enjoyed.

By: chas

chas — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:31:57 +0000

Thanks to RCWhiting: as soon as I saw your comment I remembered it.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:23:42 +0000

Thanks for replying, Gaufrid @6. And yes I can accept government and state as synonymous in the example you give.

When I objected, I was thinking along the lines of a sentence such as: “During his time as head of government, Silvio Berlusconi has undermined the dignity of the Italian state,” in which case they are very different concepts!

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:18:27 +0000

Thanks all
A very welcome change from Rufus. Although I found 75% straightforward there were a few which extended my entertainment by an hour or so (26ac, 22ac,22d). I considered ‘joint’ to be reefer or knee etc but not meat!
My criticisms would be the same as wanderer’s so I won’t repeat them.
I think ‘Glamis’ is the other thane.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:10:41 +0000

Hi Wanderer @2
I agree that, in 25ac, AVERSE is perhaps closer to ‘not keen’ than ADVERSE but the latter does mean ‘opposed to’ so I let it pass.

State and Government are synonymous for example ‘State funded’ or ‘Government funded’.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:07:59 +0000

Many thanks Gaufrid and Rufus

I considered this to be a tad harder than our usual Monday Rufus but none the worse for that.

I wasn’t sure about RILL which certainly failed to give me a thrill.

By: tupu

tupu — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:03:30 +0000

Many thanks Gaufrid and also Rufus

Fairly typical Rufus with quite a lot of lateral thinking required. His definitions can be hard to fathom e.g in 22d which turns out to be cryptic rather than double. Similarly with 26a.

25a was also hard until I realised that ‘bill’ can be a verb as well e.g .’ he was billed as the star of the show’.

3d (where e = ‘final piece’) was also hard to parse at first.

Enjoyed 9a, 14a, 17a, 27a.

By: chas

chas — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:00:36 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid for the blog.
Smack the hand of the person who ought to have done it.

I thought the clue for 8a was weak: catch (as in catch out) would have been a perfectly good answer. As it was I had catch until I got 5d!

I liked 9a: usually Northern Ireland is a pointer to the letters ‘NI’ – I have never seen Ireland used as anagram fodder. Well done Rufus.

I’m glad that 3d wanted Thane rather than a specific one. I remember Thane of Cawdor but there was another thane as well and I cannot remember his name.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:45:59 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid, and of course to Rufus for the mainly enjoyable puzzle. I don’t really understand ADVERTISE, since “is not keen” suggests to me AVERSE rather than ADVERSE (to say nothing of the raised “it”). And government report = STATE? How does this work? Is Rufus suggesting that a government and a state are somehow the same? Baffling. But I enjoyed SUBALTERN, AMBITION and many others.

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:44:02 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid for stepping in. Fairly straightforward, although I wondered about ‘it’ in 25.

I liked LIONS and SKEWER.