Comments on: Financial Times 13,808 – Dante

By: Rufus

Rufus — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:45:42 +0000

Many thanks! I look forward to thanking you in person – possibly Derby in November? Best wishes! Rufus

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:45:34 +0000

Dear Rufus, maybe I am a bit critical at times, but I am also the last one to complain about the level of your crosswords. We all know that they are on the easy side, but more complex (and therefore perhaps more challenging) puzzles don’t necessarily give the average solver more pleasure.
As I said in my preamble (and on earlier occasions) it is the way you use the English language (so natural, nice surfaces and an abundant use of idiomatic expressions which I am not always familiar with) which helps me understand the English language even better than I already do.
I think (and my PinC fully agrees) that many of your clues are brilliant in all their simplicity.
I am more Anax than Rufus? That’s perhaps true when I try to set a crossword, but not when I am solving. I enjoy the elegant lightness of Rufus/Dante, Orlando/Cincinnus, Crux or Falcon just as much as the more tricky escapades of the Nimrods of this world.
I am therefore perfectly happy with blogging the FT’s Monday spot – I take these easier puzzles just as seriously as I would have done were I to blog, let’s say, a Saturday Indy.

As to 25ac, I thought of course that it had to be like that and I am eventually fine with it.
Many thanks for this crossword – and the previous ones and the, hopefully, many that are still to come!

By: Rufus

Rufus — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:01:00 +0000

Hi Sil. Thank you for another comprehensive blog.
Having seen the crossword you provided at the last Midland crossword get-together, I feel you should be blogging more complex puzzles than my simpler efforts – you are more Anax than Rufus, Dante, and it is more exceptional in that you are not using your first language..
Like the Guardian, I am asked by the FT to provide fairly straightforward puzzles for my Monday puzzles.
Anax and I agree that you should send your puzzles to crossword editors.
In defence of my clue for 25 across, the verb “correct” is the anagrind but is using the Imperative Mood of the verb; viz.: “Result of division”=definition; “not quite”=fodder; “correct”= put right (and that is an order!).
Best wishes! Rufus

By: Rishi

Rishi — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:55:44 +0000

Re 3d Untidy heap of discarded clothing

The anagram UNTIDY/NUDITY, like BEDROOM/BOREDOM, excites solvers when they see it first. Anyway, the question here is: is nudity the attribute (if that is the right word) of a person or of clothes that crept rustling to the floor? ‘Nudity’ describes the state of a person who has discarded clothes, I would think. Here Dante, like Keats’s Porphyro, seems to be gazing at “empty dress”.