Comments on: Independent 7756 by Tees

By: kloot

kloot — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:18:29 +0000

This puzzle was really clever and ranks as one of my favourite of the year so far!!

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:06:53 +0000

Absolutely brilliant, and a pleasure to solve. Well done indeed!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:00:46 +0000

Not just a triple pangram, but seven answers have a double letter and another nine a repeated letter – and some have two repeated letters. Congratulations, Tees!

By: Tees

Tees — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:05:43 +0000

Pleasure. Thanks for yr blog Flash, and to all for comments.

As y’all have observed, the game was about somehow getting the triple pangram in without filling the grid with words that nobody stands a chance of knowing. As to the feat itself, as far as I know the Indy is the first British newspaper to publish one of these as a daily cryptic puzzle.

It may interest some of you to know that, as a result of the setting, re-setting and editing processes, you were spared VOGUER (an 80s dancer), STAIN’D (a Spenserian/ Shakespearian usage), APOLONKA (a Polish village with a population of 40), and YERVE (a Finnish island with a population of one gnu). To name but a few.

Cheers, PB.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:34:08 +0000

Well Paul B turned up but thank you a great effort Tees, suppose I’ve heard the phrase Sod this lark for a game of soldiers.

By: sidey

sidey — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:03:54 +0000

Lark is a [dated] colloquialism for one’s line of business, or a particular job. “S*d this lark” often heard on building sites.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:31:33 +0000

This was a tremendous achievement. A real pity Mike Laws is not still around because I know he studied the possibilities of pangrams v closely. Not sure if there was every a triple one before. As others have said, the puzzle was still quite solvable with easyish wordplay for the less familiar words and even these were not too obscure, tho that meaning of CLICKER was new to me. The puzzle did not take me longer than normal No problem with ‘lark’, I’d remembered that usage. Thanks for explaining APPENDAGES, I did not get than PPE part. Favourite clues EXIT, ARROWHEADS. Many thanks, flashling and Tees. BTW, I read MOB-HANDED as Mafia (mob), given (handed) with the rest being the definition ie thus etc (in large numbers).

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:00:45 +0000

http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?query=lark&title=21st

MOB=Mafia, HANDED=given. Rest is def, running with the ball somewhat.

HOE is meant to be house minus us, the human race, man.

By: superkiwigirl

superkiwigirl — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:42:48 +0000

I don’t want to push the point too far, K’sD, because I might be going off on the wrong tack.

I see, however, that Dictionary.com lists the following amongst its entries for the word “caper” : Collins World English Dictionary , noun (5) “Austral. for a job or occupation (informal)”. This is surely the basis of my earlier thoughts about the word “lark” but maybe it’s not an expression to have made its way to Europe?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:46:00 +0000

I did somehow know ROOINEKS, and it’s an interesting derivation. It’s Afrikaans for ‘red necks’, indicating that the original British settlers with their fair skins would suffer from sunburnt necks. And it made me think of the American term ‘rednecks’, which I think is a derogatory term for people from the south.

Thanks for finding me my medication for today, superkiwigirl. I’ll go and put the Ian Dury album on in a bit. Still don’t understand SKYLARK though.