Comments on: Independent 7,793 / Phi – seeing stars?

By: eimi

eimi — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 10:56:10 +0000

re: 10, or any mention in the paper’s anniversary self-congratulation of the crossword. Apart from that, I say nothing. For now.

By: RatkojaRiku

RatkojaRiku — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 09:06:23 +0000

Thanks to Pelham Barton and Wanderer for highlighting a couple of glitches: had I had a bit more time to edit, I’d like to think that I would have spotted the howler concerning the dates; on the natioanlity, Royal (or Polish) Prussia, where Copernicus was born, was a province of Poland at that time, so of course, the nationality is Polish!

By: Quixote

Quixote — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:48:04 +0000

Yes — I did enjoy it AND I enjoyed being reminded of the 25th anniversary of the paper, which I joined a few months after it started.

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:52:09 +0000

I made the same mistake re OLBERS/OLWERS the only astronomer I didn’t know. Slightly surprised that was no Nina or other indicator to the fact that the Indy (and its crossword!)is 25 years old today.

As ever RR a fine blog sir.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:25:26 +0000

Thanks RatkojaRiku and Phi, I loved the theme being relatively unfamiliar with much of it, and thus having to rely on the wordplay. Although I am another OLWERS man. Hadn’t heard of KUIPER or TOMBAUGH but the wordplay was so clear they went in without a hitch.

Small point on your blog: COPERNICUS is up there with Pope John Paul II and Chopin in the pantheon of Polish heroes, and I don’t think many of his fellow citizens would be happy to see him called Prussian!

By: bracoman

bracoman — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:22:40 +0000

Thanks Phi for the excellent puzzle, and thanks to RatkojaRiku for the very clear blog. Martin Rees was a guest on Radio 3 this morning and as I was listening to him, I solved the relevant clue. Such serendipity!!

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:11:02 +0000

Thanks, RatkojaRiku. Great stuff from Phi, I thought. As others have mentioned, I was particularly impressed that everything was eminently gettable, even for those of us with very limited knowledge on the subject, to whom many of the astronomers were entirely unfamiliar.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:38:54 +0000

Thanks, Pelham – when you explain it like that, it’s obvious, but I was just reading it the wrong way round this morning.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:23:28 +0000

Thanks Phi for an excellent puzzle and RatkojaRiku for another great blog. Yes, Phi is a trained astronomer. I too managed to work out the astronomers I had not heard of from the wordplay, verifying after. Curiously I knew about Olbers purely because of a themed crossword (on his paradox). This was either in the Inquisitor series (or its predecessor) or else in the Enigmatic Variations series in the Sunday Tel and, purely from memory, I think the setter may have been Obtrox.

My favourites clues were BLUEBIRD, EMBLEM, DOMINOS with the whole theme being a nice idea too of course.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:05:39 +0000

Kathryn’s Dad @3 re 3dn:

I agree that some clues of this type are ambiguous. I would regard “Have faith taking a fresh start with ease” as allowing either BELIEVE or RELIEVE.

However, in this case, the fact that it says “when Rector takes over from Bishop” means to me that the word with R in must be the answer to be entered. Or maybe I just did not have to face the problem, having already solved 1ac.

The obvious analogy is with reversal clues. Leave the “- a” out of 7ac and that clue would be ambiguous. As it stands, the “revolutionary” must apply to the “observer”, so that the astronomer is the grid entry.