Comments on: Guardian 25,435 / Araucaria

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:19:30 +0000

@togo wrote:
Rosinante, Don Quixote’s mount in the book, was, despite its rider’s grand illusion, a donkey. Thus, the possessive indicates the answer is in ‘Don Quixote’, and also points to what our gentle knight in fact owned…………”

Sancho Panza rode a donkey, but Quixote himself rode a horse: I checked Google books.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:12:17 +0000

Apparently nobody so far (and starting from last Friday it is quite far …) seems to be bothered about the fact that LES PAYS BAS is the French name for The Netherlands. The French name. I mean: French.
Why didn’t Araucaria gave us a hint for that. We didn’t have a real problem to find the solution [even though, like others, we were tempted to enter 'low' etc.], but this is an English crossword, isn’t it?

Apart from that, we thought Araucaria was on Magnificent Form.
Delightful puzzle – and certainly much more rewarding than the one Eileen had to blog the next day.

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:23:07 +0000

We’ve just finished this. I say ‘finished’, but we actually gave up on 23d and 29a but felt as though we’d done the equivalent to climbing to the North Col on Everest…
The particular talent that A has is that you can find a clue absolutely unfathomable for hours – and when the penny finally drops wonder how on earth you didn’t spot it at once!
Though I don’t think I’d ever have got sCOLD….

By: Scouse Tim

Scouse Tim — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:24:54 +0000

Well done guys – I equated Holland with “low” as first word so completely stuck there. I will finish ione next week! Bed time.

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:46:11 +0000

Thanks, Araucaria and Gaufrid. Enjoyable as ever.

artoo@48, so did I and another thought was the politician!

Ox-eye daisy was my first in and my favourite.The flowers are such a cheerful sight on embankments up and down the country.

Giovanna

By: artoo

artoo — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:27:57 +0000

I thought the surface of 20ac referred to the Barry Manilow song?

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:08:57 +0000

As the young folks say apiarist “You are out of order”.

By: apiarist

apiarist — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:20:12 +0000

Gervase, I do see what you mean. I think the thing that irked me was the word “in” is in the clue when the word “inn” is in the answer ! Oh dear, I think I will have to go in and get some beers in at the inn !

By: Gervase

Gervase — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:09:03 +0000

apiarist: Isn’t the ‘in’ just a linker between the parts of the clue? You can find ‘smoked fish’ (the definition) IN ‘pub it’s cooler outside’ (the cryptic part). There are plenty of other linker words in the puzzle: eg ‘to’ in 15a, ‘gives’ in 7d, ‘bring’ in 13d, ‘making’ in 16d.

By: DavidW

DavidW — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:07:12 +0000

My thanks to all for explaining the ones that beat me! Mostly I admit they were fair do’s, but I must say I am unhappy with the lack of a signal that 7d was to be in French.