Comments on: Quiptic Nº 609 by Hectence

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:18:51 +0000

But Thomas99, then I would like to see “to cook” which unfortunately wouldn’t make much sense in the otherwise nice 13d.

That said, I know, a lot of setters do things like this, writing things down in the wrong order. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It has also to do with the punctuation in a clue. For me, here, the ‘cook’ example is one that doesn’t work (apart from the surface), but at the same time I do accept it [because sometimes they work and sometimes they don't]. Fair enough.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:39:26 +0000

If you don’t like “cook” in 13d as an imperative, it is possible to read it as 3rd person plural indicative too (cf, “leave the ingredients to cook for 30 mins” – presumably if you do then they “cook”, intransitively).

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:01:14 +0000

How strange. A tricky puzzle that wasn’t difficult, though I daresay our silent majority out there might baulk at the second part of that description.

I was amused by the description of it being an introduction to Araucaria. That implies an easy Araucaria, which is surely an oxymoron? Easier yes, easy no.

By: PeterO

PeterO — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:17:54 +0000

Sil
I had not dug out the handbag meaning before blogging (and, when I did, found the gem cutting and the moulding as meanings also new to me). It puts a new slant on the clue, but leaves the ‘say’ serving no obvious purpose. For LAVENDER, I was not sure what to do with ‘at’, hence the question mark. Your suggestion seems preferable. Of the questionable anagrinds, both ‘engineers’ and ‘cook’ founder on word order – not such a terrible crime.
Bryan
I, for one, would rather stare at a picture of marigolds the of rubber gloves. We seem to support inserted videos, though I have never tried it, so I might have gone with the fellow exploding a Marigold on his head. Or, thanks to Robi, a cartoon.
Robi
As I read it, the T in ADROIT would be as good as any of the other 25, except that it gives a meaningful result. If you were pushing it, you might say that it refers back to ‘cross’ doing double duty; see under TAU.

By: crosser

crosser — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:43:24 +0000

Thanks, PeterO. Maybe 20a would have been better as “Appointed as design engineer” with engineer being an imperative (see Kathryn’s Dad’s comment about “cook” in 13d).

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:14:44 +0000

Thanks Hectence; maybe a bit tricky in parts for a Quiptic. Nice blog PeterO. I thought 'engineers' in 20 was possibly OK as in: man, meccano set, engineers. Not sure I understand the 'T' in 9; is this any old letter or is there some significance in 'T?' I particularly liked the surfaces of the clues for DEARTH, LAVENDER and NOVELIST. For marigolds see here.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:30:25 +0000

Not completely sure what to think of this Quiptic.
At the end of the day, there were too many 1- and 2-letter building stones to my taste. With EMBRYO (25ac), EXPIRE (8d) and ADROIT (19d) as the ultimate examples.

PeterO, many thanks for the excellent personalised blog.
Probably, there is more to BAGUETTE (7ac) than just an ‘Araucarian’ liberty, as Oxford (ODE) gives us as its last meaning: “A slim, rectangular handbag with a short strap”.

In 4d (LAVENDER) I saw the END bit just as ‘last’, while the V of Victory was placed ‘at’ it.

Finally, I do agree with you about the use of ‘cook’ as an anagrind. As Kathryn’s Dad says it should be seen as an imperative, but, in my opinion, it has to come in front of the fodder to really make sense.
However, I know some setters do it like this ["doctor" is another one of those anagrinds with a similar 'problem'] and, btw, in my next Dante blog (on Thursday) I will come back to it.

Thanks to Hectence for an enjoyable puzzle.
One for which, however, I needed a tad too often a pair of scissors to cut the clues in too many small pieces.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:05:59 +0000

Many thanks PeterO & Hectence

This was a bit trickier than the usual Quiptic but none the worse for that.

Fortunately, I do speak German and French so even though I knew that Calvin Klein was a well-known Footballer (or something) I could still untangle 5d.

I hesitated about 1d MARIGOLD but, please Peter, why have you not also provided an image of the rubber gloves?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:36:03 +0000

Many thanks, Peter, for a fine blog.

I was a bit surprised to read the comment in your pre-amble, since I’d completed the puzzle without raising an eyebrow at any constructions, and enjoyed it. But on rereading the clues, I do see what you mean. Maybe KIPS and BAGUETTE are stretching it a bit; but in Hectence’s defence with the crossing letters in place the answers are pretty obvious, so then there might be a bit of head-scratching to work out the wordplay. Anyway, see what others think.

My favourites today were EXPIRE, STATIONARY (where I think ‘cook’ as an imperative works as the anagrind), TRESPASS and BAGUETTE. I agree with your parsing of RESCUE.