Comments on: Independent 7746 by Anax (Saturday Prize Puzzle 13 August 2011)

By: flashling

flashling — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:01:08 +0000

Been away, great stuff from Anax, tres bien. Merci beaucoup!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:17:54 +0000

Many thanks, mc_rapper67, for the blog and Anax for an excellent puzzle. Tough as one expects from Anax and so v satisfying to finish and v appropriate as Saturday fare. French words/phrases that are familiar in England are a relatively small number so v impressive to fit so many of them into a puzzle. Bravo!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 01:29:37 +0000

Put the cat amongst the mushrooms has he? Lemon curry?

I would like to add, following a hard night’s work at the Boom Boom club, that our £ sign is an abbreviation for Libra. On the other hand, our pound weight sign LB is an abbreviation for … well, Libra.

Southampton 1 Millwall 0.

By: Norman L in France

Norman L in France — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:49:12 +0000

Apollygies, Polo
I hadn’t seen your post at #3

By: mc_rapper67

mc_rapper67 — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:17:13 +0000

Oops – he has already, the coup de grace(!) – and thanks for the minor correction from PeterO – my oversight.

En coquille de noix (in a nutshell) – Toute suite. Fin. Au revoir!

By: mc_rapper67

mc_rapper67 — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:08:24 +0000

Or indeed – the suggestions from Polly and Norman L at #3 and #8 respectively – sorry to overlook you:

REGA (fancy gear) + L (sovereign, 1 pound sterling) + IA (Iowa, state).

Wheels within wheels – the beauty of the cryptic clue – maybe Anax will drop by and put us all out of our misery/suspense…

By: PeterO

PeterO — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:27:43 +0000

Thank you Mc_rapper for providing the wordplay in the several cases where I could not; and to Anax for what, despite that, was a very entertaining puzzle. With clues like 5D and 9D who is to cavil?
On very minor cavil with the blog: in 11A, the V is versus, against, not very.

By: anax

anax — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:24:56 +0000

Greetings all, and many thanks to mc_rapper for an exquisite blog.

*GEAR + L(sovereign) + IA(Iowa – state) it was. An unusual choice for L but the sovereign was indeed the ‘pound’ (as in L,S,D) until 1914. I’d have used an alternative but this version allowed for the &lit.

I tried to restrict the Gallic inclusions to those that have been adopted into English but it wasn’t always possible – DEMELE appeared through slightly gritted teeth but SOED acknowledges it; I appreciate jmac’s additional concerns over MAILLOT and PASSEMENTERIE but I can honestly say I had heard of these, and because most people are cleverer than me I just went for it.

Love to all.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:22:33 +0000

I have a feeling of (what is wrongly called) déja vu about this crossword. Some months ago in the thread to one blog someone complained about foreign words in Indy crosswords and, if I remember rightly, someone else – it might even have been Anax – said we might one day find a crossword full of them.

Merci, Anax for an ingenious puzzle and mc_rapper67 for explaining the parsing of several clues that I solved without understanding, particularly 4a.

Meilleurs voeux.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:18:41 +0000

Thanks mc_rapper67

I would have thought that the correct parsing of 19dn, as Polly indicated @3, is:

*(GEAR) L (sovereign {pound}) IA (state {Iowa}) &Lit