Comments on: Everyman No. 3379 (3rd July)

By: Robi

Robi — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:23:25 +0000

Thanks Everyman and Lorraine.

Re agency=hand, my Oxford Thesaurus gives: ‘regional policy was introduced through the agency of the Board of Trade.’ I guess one could substitute ‘hand’ for this sense.

I would have thought that VICTOR LUDORUM was a common enough expression for a crossword of this type.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:46:29 +0000

Thanks, Nick, IT’s clear!
Of course, when IT’s in a dictionary, IT’s fine.
But I also wanted to understand in what kind of context IT is used for Italy (as normally Italy=I – think car). Probably, the example that I gave in my own post provides an answer to that question.

As to Agency/Hand.
Chambers gives ‘instrumentality’ as one of the definitions for both Agency and Hand.
Maybe that helps? [but don't ask me about the context ... ]

By: The Trafites

The Trafites — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:36:28 +0000

Sil van den Hoek, ‘IT’ is listed in Collins as ‘Italian, Italy’.

I am still not sure about 1ac though, ‘hand’='agency’

Nick

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:17:03 +0000

Thanks Lorraine, and Everyman for another fine Sunday puzzle.

When I looked at the crossword again, I noticed that I put a question mark to 15ac (BEAT IT) – because of IT=Italy.
I always thought (confirmed by Chambers): I=Italy and IT=Italian.
Perhaps IT=Italy may be justified by the country code for Italian websites: .it ?

Anyone out there with a useful opinion on this?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:51:39 +0000

And no doubt a good deal more difficult to clue, crosser!

By: crosser

crosser — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:27:47 +0000

David Travis @4
I went to a grammar school but knew the expression VICTOR LUDORUM. However, as Kathryn’s Dad says, Latin was taught in those far-off days (thank goodness). And let’s be fair, KD, it would be difficult to fit VICTRIX LUDORUM into the space!

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:17:04 +0000

Thank you Lorraine, Everyman and Rishi for the links.

Enjoyed solving this one as always, and particularly liked PALERMO and LIED for their smooth surfaces.

I can sympathise a bit with David about VICTOR LUDORUM, since I guess it’s one of those phrases that you know or don’t know. I didn’t go to public school either, but the award was given at my common or garden school sports day every year (however, Latin was compulsory in those days). I’m not surprised that Everyman went for the male version, rather than VICTRIX LUDORUM, which was given to the top sportswoman.

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:58:19 +0000

Obviously I was on song for this because I didn’t have any hold ups. Strange isn’t it -some weeks the blogger (who is far far better at this game than I am and perhaps ever will be) says its straightforward and I’ve really struggled even with aids and other weeks the blogger says it was a bit hard in places and I didn’t have any problems.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:46:26 +0000

David

I am afraid elephants are no longer that popular in India.

With increasing deforestation, these animals, which don’t have enough food in their habitat, wander into farmlands on the edge of jungles and destroy crops. They also enter towns and cause great havoc. Recently, two pachyderms strayed into no less a town than Mysore and roamed freely through its streets and compounds for some three hours before they were tranquillised: on TV we saw horrific clips of one of them trampling an unwary human to death.

By: Davy

Davy — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:34:17 +0000

Thanks Lorraine,

Lots of good clues as always but I thought that the parsing behind DOLORES was pretty vague to say the least.

David

I’d never heard of Victor Ludorum either but was led quite easily to the answer by the crystal clear clue. Just a quick check on Google to confirm. Incidentally, I failed my 11+.

Favourite clues were V L, PERUSAL, ACUTE, PALERMO and LOIRE which had a brilliant surface and is my clue of the puzzle.

Thanks Everyman.