Comments on: Independent 7,745 / Phi

By: Phi

Phi — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:52:59 +0000

Eimi did query the ‘current home’ definition, and received my experience of being beached in a canal boat during a holiday by the pound’s emptying overnight (it might have been the Llangollen, come to think of it). They do have currents.

By: superkiwigirl

superkiwigirl — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:47:00 +0000

Hi Richard Palmer,

Unfortunately I didn’t do geography at school, but I wonder if you are correct? I can see that a canal in the sense of an “inland waterway” wouldn’t be affected by a tidal current, but what about those canals (such as the Suez and Panama) directly affected by not just one but two “seas”?

I’d be interested to know if these too “don’t have a current”.

By: sidey

sidey — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:44:32 +0000

canals unlike rivers do not have a current

The Llangollen canal and the Gloucester & Sharpness canal both have measurable slopes. There are others.

By: Richard Palmer

Richard Palmer — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:32:22 +0000

I found this harder than usual for Phi but got there in the end.

One niggle: regarding the definition of “canal boat” as “current home”, canals unlike rivers do not have a current.

By: caretman

caretman — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:59:33 +0000

I too had WOLF initially in 12a, among my very last in, but then decided that C.N.F was an unlikely set of letters for the first word in 6d. Changing WOLF to FOWL finally allowed me to put in 6d, my last in.

As with others here, I had not encountered TAG QUESTION or BIRTWISTLE before but the wordplays were straightforward and I could later confirm them online. In general I made fairly steady progress on this one. My favorite clue was 7/8d.

Thanks, RatkojaRiku for the blog, and thanks, Phi, for the puzzle.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:31:40 +0000

Many thanks, RatkojaRiku, for the so so comprehensive blog. Rather unusual puzzle for me in that I made very good progress and then got completely stuck for quite a while with about 4 clues to go. It turned out that my biggest problem was that my guess of WOLF in 12 across was wrong. When I finally got CANAL BOAT I was able to finish tho had to look up the composer who I’d not heard of or did not remember. Another excellent, brilliantly clued puzzle, thanks, Phi.

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:25:34 +0000

Thanks for the puzzle and the excellent blog. Like others, I was not familiar with TAG QUESTION, although the need for such a phrase is obvious, innit? I couldn’t complete the SW corner; all I had to work with were the crossing letters from 16d. I think PARIAH might have been the breakthrough, but I didn’t get it from the clue. Shame really, as I missed out on ROOTLE, which is such a great word!

By: superkiwigirl

superkiwigirl — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:42:03 +0000

I really look forward to Phi’s puzzles on a Friday – they never fail to please, being full of good clues and smooth surfaces.

Favorites here included CANAL BOAT, BIRTWISTLE, and TRAP DOOR (like NealH I was held up for a while in the SW corner until the penny dropped with PARIAH).

Thanks, RatkojaRiku, for an excellent blog and in particular for the explanation of TAG QUESTION (thanks, too, KD for your amplification). I imagine that quite a few of those adding comments today will have been unfamiliar with this phrase.

By: NealH

NealH — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:58:57 +0000

This fitted quite nicely into my lunchtime solving session. The bottom left corner gave me a few problems – the connected clues in 22 and 23 meant you didn’t have a lot of letters to work with in 24 and 26 until you got it. However, I eventually got pariah and the rest fell into place. Tag Question was my favourite clue – it’s not a phrase I’d heard before but it seems obvious now that there should be a name for such a thing.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 08:20:12 +0000

Good blog, RatkojaRiku, for which thanks.

And a good puzzle too, which fell steadily. I liked TAG QUESTION as well. Some learners of English as a second language find these difficult, since you have to remember what form the question took: isn’t it? wasn’t he? wouldn’t you? and so on. French is much easier: ‘n’est-ce pas’ works for everything. I was reading recently that among young people from the British Asian community particularly, ‘innit’ has become an equivalent, so you’ll hear things like ‘We’re going out tonight, innit?’ or ‘He’s a bit of a looker, innit?’

I think ‘total’ for ‘wreck’ exists in British English as well. ‘He’s totalled his new car.’