Comments on: Independent 7,721 / Phi

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:53:20 +0000

Yesh, but don’t shtart with Laphroaig – leave it ’til the end.

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:02:32 +0000

I’ve been having a quick Google and from a few sources it seems rye whiskey (with an E) is common in the US (as an alternative to Bourbon), but rye wouldn’t appear in a whisky (without an E) from Scotland, where a nip is of course a commonly used term, along with dram. So the difference in spelling appears to tie in with the use of rye and nip. Clever stuff. For further intellectual research, there’s a site called whiskipedia.org (I kid not), or purely in the interests of science, of course, practical research into the differences could be time well shpent.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:20:20 +0000

Get to one of our get-togethers, scchua, and you’re on … but Phi is always very precise with his clueing, so I’m sure there’s some reason for the different spellings.

By: scchua

scchua — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:46:57 +0000

Hi K’sD@4, I’ll have a single malt, thank you!

By: caretman

caretman — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:49:07 +0000

Thanks, RatkojaRiku. In my case, Ms Granger went in straightaway since I tried to think of who would be a set of three fairly well-known people all graduating right now (I doubted Phi was writing a puzzle themed around the graduation of perhaps his daughter and two of her classmates) and after deciding it wasn’t some group of royals came up with the Harry Potter books. The rest was pretty straightforward although I didn’t understand the wordplay for SNAPE (I’m not familiar with the card game) so much thanks for explaining that. I was pleased to solve LAGER LOUT from the wordplay since it was another unfamiliar term, so I particularly liked that one. I agree that 25d was a fun clue that I initially got from the crossing letters and then figured out how it worked. All in all a fun puzzle from Phi!

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:30:59 +0000

Thanks RatkojaRiku, didn’t get the 2-1 device in Par so thanks for that, the 3 Graduates were last in as I’m not a Harry Potter fan, having not read any of the books and only seen half of one film but the blanket media coverage meant I knew the names. Otherwise a faily gentle puzzle from Phi.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:29:18 +0000

I didn’t spot the different spellings, scchua. I had kind of assumed that whiskey was the US spelling (but you drink bourbon, I guess), because I got the YESTERYEAR clue from remembering the lyrics to ‘American Pie’ by Don McLean:

Them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singing this’ll be the day that I die …

Whiskey is the Irish spelling as far as I know.

By: scchua

scchua — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:50:23 +0000

Thanks RatkojaRiku and Phi for another nice puzzle.

I was like K’sD in getting Harry as the first, immediately followed by the other two. Favourites were 24A TRANSPOSITIONAL, 28 YESTERYEAR and 16D LAGER LOUT. For a moment, I thought the different spellings of whiskey/whisky in 26A/21D in the online version were going to be of significance, but looks not.

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:31:49 +0000

Thanks for the puzzle and the blog.
CHIFFONIER went straight in, but the rest of my first pass left me staring at an awful lot of white space, and I had no idea what the clue for 9ac was telling me (measuring jugs perhaps?) However, RON WEASLEY dropped out from the anagram, and after a few moments of complete bafflement the penny dropped with the reference in 9ac. I’m not up to date with the latest at Hogwarts, so I’m not aware of any graduation, but if that fearful oik Weasley made it then the tiresome swot Granger was a shoo-in, and Precious Potter was bound to have passed. I missed the connection with SNAPE, so thanks for pointing that out.
Last in was PAEAN, which was a new one for me and one where the clue only made sense after I’d convinced myself the word was correct; a clever clue, though. 25d might have given me a problem if it wasn’t for yesterday’s golf lesson from Radian.
I liked TIER for no particular reason.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:21:12 +0000

Thank you, RatkojaRiku, for an exemplary blog – needed you today to explain CLOSING DATE and PAR (which has earned its corn as a solution in the Indy over the past 48 hours).

I’m guessing that this was timed to co-incide with the national launch of the last Harry Potter film today (in the UK, anyway) – Kathryn’s brother has reserved tickets for this afternoon. It was on the easy side once you’d guessed the theme: for me the way in was to get ANGLO-IRISH, see HARRY, and then off you go (if you’re familiar with the graduates, of course).

ECOTOURIST and the cleverly done LAGER LOUT were ones I liked today. And your mention of Instant Whip gave me an A la Recherche du Temps Perdu experience from my childhood – but a rather sickly one, unfortunately …

Thanks to Phi for a fun puzzle. I’ll show it to Kathryn’s brother when he gets back and see if he’s impressed.