Comments on: Guardian 25,355 – Paul

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:34:09 +0000

A fun ride this puzzle was! I actually finished it, with some aids and confirmations of fishy words I’d never heard of, and a final Aha! late in the game.

First off, having noticed the cricketer clue, I knew I was going to be researching at some point, so I gave myself an early “bye” to use aids. The grid slowly yielded one answer at a time over many hours of effort, with many requiring some sort of research. I was proud to have built MASCARPONE, for instance, but had to look it up. Once I had 3 checks in 19, I used OneLook to find the cricketer and some nice checks for my empty NW corner.

Eventually, I hit the point where I thought I was done, and came here, skimmed the blog so quickly I didn’t notice my one wrong answer, read the comments, then ran an errand, ironically to buy some fish for my tank.

I had put MUDBASS in for 1 – using “back” to get the B and ASS = schmuck. But, as I was driving, it kept nagging me – mud bass is two words, not one. I didn’t like how I got my B based on parsing the clue, either, especially everything else in this puzzle, however cruel, parsed perfectly once understood. Then I got home and was looking the puzzle over again prior to leaving a comment here, and started to type out one saying MUDBASS was wrong… then thought to scroll up and see what Andrew had written. At this point the puzzle had become far too topical for the universe to have a flat topology, in fact my corner had turned into a triple-twisted Moebius strip…

So much entertainment!

Thanks for the romp, Paul, even though the theme was “superficial” (oh, on that, I don’t like themes that must be “cracked” to do the puzzle, but upon the cracking, they become easy to finish) it was still nice to see, and thanks for the blog, Andrew, and thanks to everyone else for the commentary.

By: otter

otter — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:39:31 +0000

Sil, re FERRIC for ‘iron’ – it didn’t trouble me, because I think ‘ferric’ and ‘iron’ can be interchangeable in some chemical compounds, eg (example plucked out of the air, or out of the deepest recesses of what passes for my memory) iron chloride can be known as ferric chloride. (If that example isn’t correct, there may be another which is.)

Anyway, I imagined that it’s this equivalence which Paul was thinking of.

By: FranTom Menace

FranTom Menace — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:19:02 +0000

Vince B – I believe PI relates to pious. I had to think about this too, it’s one I’ve not seen for a while and had forgotten it myself!

By: Vince B

Vince B — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:27:02 +0000

I suspect that changing the name to 'cif' wasn't about pronunciation, but about orthography: some european languages just don't have the letter J (e.g. Italian), so the word 'cif' can be used without appearing too foreign to any market. P.S. How does 6d work then; in what sense can you substitute PI or possibly IP for good?

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:49:22 +0000

Thanks for the blog and the many informative comments. I didn’t finish the puzzle but enjoyed the theme. I’d like to share a little experience with you regarding 12a. I immediately saw the anagram of Algiers (without the A), puzzled over it for a long time then decided to ask Mr. Chamber for help. One of the 3 suggestions was GLIRES and a quick search provided http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/roman/fetch-recipe.php?rid=roman-glires

Anyone for lunch?

By: Speckled Jim

Speckled Jim — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:53:46 +0000

To elaborate on the Wikipedia article from a chemistry teacher’s point of view, the anode is where the electrons flow from in a cell; the cathode is where they flow to.

When the cell is an electrolytic cell (that is, an external power source is used to effect a chemical change), the power source pulls electrons from the anode towards the cathode, making the anode positive. However, in an electrochemical cell (that is, where there is no external power source and the chemicals in the cell provide the current), electrons are produced at the anode, making it negative (relative to the cathode).

Hope that helps?!

By: crosser

crosser — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 05:57:07 +0000

Stella @11, if you see this.
I don’t think the Spanish pronunciation of the letter J has anything to do with the name Cif because I live in France and that is its name here, too. Presumably, the “European” market uses that spelling. I was surprised on a visit to the UK to see that it’s now Cif there, too.

By: tupu

tupu — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:47:07 +0000

Thanks Andrew for a very good blog and Paul for a fairly difficult puzzle

I finished this in dribs and drabs in the course of an unusually busy day and evening.
I was not much inspired by the ‘theme’, though it was well exploited in 23a and 25a.

In fairness to the setter, I might well have liked it more on another, less demanding day.

By: FranTom Menace

FranTom Menace — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:37:39 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Andrew.
I managed to do better than normal for a Paul, I often get stuck on half way through and need Fran’s help! Only three got the better of me, the Dickens reference (I really should read more Dickens), and ‘toccata’, which I was convinced was ‘Toscana’ after first rejecting ‘Toscata’. This then threw me for 21a.

Overall I’m guessing it was an easier Paul given how well I did with no assistance.

My one grumble has to be with 18d, I think it was a poor clue. Change of heart to what? This is the sort of grumble I normally only have with Araucaria. For me it was clear. Change of heart (AN) in opera (TOSCA) = TOSCANA. I’m really not one for woolly clues where a letter’s changed without any idea what it should be changed to. See also ‘some of’ where it’s two letters at random from a seven letter word. Even if I’d known Toccata I’d not have been happy with the answer.

Despite that one clue I really enjoyed today’s puzzle with all its fishiness! My favourites were 6d and 21d.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:17:18 +0000

Sil
Have you got the recipe for your lunch?