Comments on: Independent 7747 by Anarche

By: John

John — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:44:34 +0000

Sorry, I see I’m logged in, so I’m the same person as commented at 17.

By: John

John — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:43:39 +0000

Yes OK Paul B, you’re right: a life of ease is a life of not working so I rather uncomfortably accept it. But I stand by my comment about 9ac and like Allan_C’s suggestion at 20.

By: Arachne

Arachne — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:43:20 +0000

9ac st (=dismissed) dismissed, c (dismissed): c (st)upidity. I still think this construction works, but as ever cricket is a divisive subject!
Sil, if you ever come to the mean streets of this manor you will easily (sorry) hear people referring to Es, plural. A single one wouldn’t do the trick in these parts, I fear…
Thanks again to everyone for your comments.
Love and hugs,
Arachne/Anarche

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:38:07 +0000

Re 9ac (which I got without fully understanding till I read the blog), imho the clue would have been better with the insertion of ‘from’ to read ‘dismissed, dismissed, dismissed from foolishness and greed’. Then the sense would have been plainer as ‘c (=caught, i.e. dismissed) dismissed (i.e removed) st (= stumped, i.e. dismissed) from foolishness…’ And it would still have stumped (sorry!) not a few solvers.

But overall a challenging but not too difficult Monday solve. Thanks, Anarche.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:03:16 +0000

Wil, first this: “… but there were two things I didn’t like, which supported me in my suspicion that he is a thinly-disguised version of the one who sets in Another Place …”.
Anarche is indeed “one who sets in Another Place”, but making a logical connection with “things I didn’t like” isn’t really fair on her cq appropriate.
Yes, ‘her’ – Arachne is a woman.

Your point re 9ac is one I tried to make clear in comment #4.
I fully agree with you on this.
I had my doubts about EASE too, but for another reason. We all know E = drug in Crosswordland, but nobody talks about Es (plural). However, EASE for ‘not working’ is, in my opinion, OK. Chambers gives ‘rest from work’ and the Americans are quite sure it can also be “freedom from activity (work, strain or responsibility)”.

Despite some critical remarks, I thought, all in all, this crossword was a Treat.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:54:37 +0000

A life of ‘ease’ is or could be a life of ‘not working’. The other one’s only just a leetle beet ellipsis innit?

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:31:04 +0000

Everyone has been very kind to Anarche. Fair enough, because it was a good puzzle. But there were two things I didn’t like, which supported me in my suspicion that he is a thinly-disguised version of the one who sets in Another Place:

In 9ac it really isn’t good enough to have ‘dismissed, dismissed foolishness’ to mean ‘dismissed is dismissed from foolishness’, and in 8dn to equate ‘not working’ with ‘ease’ is no good at all. They’re different parts of speech.

Or perhaps I’m missing something. Very likely.

By: Arachne

Arachne — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:55:34 +0000

Superkiwigirl: many thanks for your maternal empathy re Bennetts: the daughter I married off today is called Lydia and deo gratias considerably less trouble than her namesake!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:19:16 +0000

No. There is another …

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:56:11 +0000

I meant to ask earlier, and perhaps nms can give us an idea, but this is the first Indy crossword set by a female compiler since …?