Comments on: Guardian Cryptic N° 25,440 by Paul

By: nick

nick — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:53:54 +0000

hippo definitely refers to the hippocampus, which is one of the grey matter areas of the brain. I was thinking it was a hippocampus reference but didn’t get there.

By: sheffield hatter

sheffield hatter — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 23:26:19 +0000

PeterO @ 24.

I tested the links before posting, when they worked fine.

And they still work for me – four different images of quite clearly non-grey hippopotami. Oh well, back to the drawing board…

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:14:47 +0000

Having worked out the ‘greasier’ bit I then confused myself by entering Germaine and was stuck in the SE corner

By: PeterO

PeterO — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:29:01 +0000

Sheffield Hatter @22 – An interesting point; unfortunately, your image links do not work. They all lead to Google Images home. Looking up the hippopotamus gives a profusion of images, with an unsurprising tendency to focus on the gaping maw, but showing a range of colours. The underbelly seems to be generally pinkish (the clue does say ‘part of hippo’), pink lights about the face, and the back grey with a red cast, which apparently originates from a secreted sunscreen rather than the skin pigment. On the whole, I do not think grey is too far from the mark,

Tony Davis @23 – Thanks for pointing out the error, and the explanatory link. The article does end:
However, it[i.e. restauranteur]‘s becoming more common and may even eventually take over.
So I’m ahead of the curve. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

By: Tony Davis

Tony Davis — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:42:05 +0000

We were hindered in our progress through this fascinating puzzle by guessing (from crossing letters B, U and E) BAUDELAIRE for 7dn. Then a fourth letter ruled this out, and BLUMENTHAL immediately came to mind. Unfortunately we were not sure what his first name was, or whether he was a writer or fashion designer … Ultimately, guessing BACON AND EGG put us on the right track, but our brains were so benumbed by the struggle that we failed to get SHRINK even though I’d spotted the possible homophone.

Thank you for your hard work and paistaking analysis, PeterO, but I must point out that there’s no ‘n’ in ‘restaurateur’ (for a detailed explanation of why this is so, see http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-res2.htm).

By: sheffield hatter

sheffield hatter — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:57:48 +0000

Although the clue for 25, 2 was easily solvable (a grey area is one that lacks clear distinction, so "woolly" in the same sense as woolly thinking), I don't think grey is the correct colour for a hippopotamus. Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

By: PeterO

PeterO — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:45:06 +0000

NeilW @1 – I had wondered in passing how the ‘ordered’ in 8D was justified.; now I know. Thank you.

Mononglo @2 – Until the last minute, I was thinking along the same lines as you for 1A, and was uncertain how I could express it tactfully.

Caretman @4 – Even though 1A was the last I solved satisfactorily, the answer was clear enough from the definition and checking letters. Like you, 28A was the last I entered. I should book well in advance if you do want to go to The Fat Duck.

Gervase @6 – Evidently you got 4/3, no problem, but looking back, I think I might have pointed out, for those unfamiliar with the slang, that PORRIDGE is ‘time’ as a prison sentence.

Cinculus @7 – Welcome, and keep up the good work.

Sil @20 – I agree with your accolade for 21/7, and for the crossword as a whole.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:46:40 +0000

Although most of the comments above reflect a positive feeling about this crossword, they do (mostly) not really go beyond something that feels like lukewarm.
Which I/we found rather surprising.
We thought this was a very cleverly constructed Paul puzzle with many surfaces typical for this great setter.

While we couldn’t be bothered by the long anagram of 18,19,9 (not a great fan of this device), it wasn’t very hard for us to complile a Top 5 of Best Clues.
The positions at 2-5 were (in random order) taken by 22ac (the amusing ‘per pet’ find), 29ac (nice use of ‘by the way’), 28ac (great homophone construction) and 26ac (brilliant description of ‘toe’).
The Palm d’Or, however, goes to the quintessential 21,7.
As PeterO says, &Lit-ish. We think Paul put a lot of thought in this clue to get the result right.

And PeterO, since I’ve mentioned your name: many thanks for your fantastic blog!
And, of course, many thanks to Paul too for one of his better contributions to Crosswordland [which may sound like many are not so good, but that's not what I meant to say ].

By: Stella Heath

Stella Heath — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:15:53 +0000

Hi Giovanna@14, it seems you’re right, it’s now a foundation.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:21:49 +0000

Strange – BEN HUR was one of my first to go in, but that then led me to think we were looking for the author or director. I knew neither and had no means to check as was on my inward journey, so progress was slow initially.

gm4hqf, I also considered RANGE ROVER, RANGE RIDER, for 14d. “hurried off to grab first of guns” is RANG so it seemed very plausible.

Enjoyable again.