Comments on: Independent 7705 by Quixote

By: ele

ele — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:13:30 +0000

Thanks to Quixote for a nice start to the week. Liked House of Cards and Das Rheingold (once I’d remembered that Germans did opera too). Thanks to NealH for the correct parsing of 17d. I got canasta but did get caught out by the defunct country, which I could only see as Canaan without its end (died out?).

By: lenny

lenny — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:33:42 +0000

I could have been a judge but I didn’t have the Latin. I see from Chambers that the suffix –an means “indicating relationship or similarity” from the Latin ending ianus. So “wormy” could only be annelidan. On the other hand –on comes from the Greek odontos and seems only to apply to animals that have big teeth, as KD indicates. So now I know how to distinguish my relationships from my big teeth.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:10:58 +0000

It always fascinates/amuses me what folk find easy/hard in puzzles. One man’s meat and all that. ANNELIDAN was one I got early on, because I knew Annelid was related to worms (think ‘annular’ for ‘rings’, which is what our friends in the soil have). But ANNELIDON sounds like a new species of dinosaur, so when The Don needs a new pseudonym for a seriously scary puzzle, then that could be an option.

By: lenny

lenny — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:32:27 +0000

This was fairly straightforward except that, as is usual in the Don’s puzzles, there were three words new to me. Elastomer and Buskin were readily gettable from the wordplay but there was quite a choice of names for the worm. In deference to the setter, I went for Annelidon. Maybe I am the only person in the world who has never heard of an Annelidan.

By: Quixote

Quixote — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:32:19 +0000

I am surprised that Das Rheingold is ‘difficult’! Perhaps you’ll get a themed puzzle with Spice Girls hits tomorrow?

By: walruss

walruss — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:40:29 +0000

Too many difficult words in this one. Some good clues here and thre, but I found it inconsistent. ‘Das Rheingold’ would have been COD but for that problem.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:12:49 +0000

Thank you, Neal.

I enjoyed this Quixote but did find it a bit more tricksy than the Monday Independents he has set so far. I liked RUBBISHY, and think ‘in storage’ is okay as a container indicator. Also appreciated CANASTA and IRON HORSE.

Quixote seems to try to get at least a couple of science-based answers into his puzzles, which I also appreciate – ANNELIDAN and ELASTOMER were today’s examples.

It took me a very large tad over five minutes.

By: Quixote

Quixote — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:09:24 +0000

This puzzle was my first attempt at one for the recent US/UK showdown, but it was deemed too difficult for the Americans. I was hoping to produce one that would take Messrs Biddlecombe and Goodliffe a tad over five minutes!

By: scchua

scchua — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 07:19:57 +0000

Thanks NealH and Quixote for another fairly easy puzzle.

Liked 18A BRONCHI, 14A CENTRE FORWARD, and 4A HOUSE OF CARDS. Last in was 1A RUBBISHY, and I guess “in storage” may be read alternatively as “stored in”, giving “jewel, black one shut up stored in”, with a significant comma after “jewel”.