Comments on: Guardian 25,465 – Crucible

By: dunsscotus

dunsscotus — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:08:32 +0000

Hi Tupu and Tchekalinsky,

I too think that our ‘lights’ in this context are the white squares themselves. If this weren’t a common idiom where does the derived term ‘cross-lights’ come from?

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:05:58 +0000

Lots of fun, especially once the theme (which I thought might involve too much UK politics to crack) and 4,6 became apparent.

Minor quibbles… I was thrown by the “it’s” in 13; “not much warmth” in 5 seems a bit wrong, I wouldn’t want to touch one! Also I was happy with Tracy Spencer (a fictional character on a US soap opera!) to get me 2d!

Some very lovely constructions, I thought – it’s nice to see rarer tools used.

Thanks for the blog Andrew, and the delightful romp, Crucible!

By: tupu

tupu — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:01:44 +0000

Hi Sil
Thanks. OED says ‘Also used transf. to represent 1,000 (pounds, etc.), esp. of salaries offered in job advertisements’. I suppose 10k literally means 10 X 1000 (pounds etc), but there is surely a plural idea there if only because one never says ‘ks’. As you imply, however, it becomes a bit scholastic, and I only bothered about it because of your and Eileen’s discussion.

By: tupu

tupu — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:45:16 +0000

Hi Tchekalinsky

As noted earlier I failed to parse this clue properly. Collins defines ‘light’ as (inter alia) ‘the answer to a clue in a crossword’. I confess that I myself was not properly aware of this and thought of ‘lights’ as the white spaces in crossword puzzles where the answers go.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:44:22 +0000

Yes, tupu, I do understand that.
But the thing is, the dictionaries (I have) give:
m = million(s)
e = euro(s)
k = a thousand

That said, I cannot be bothered that much.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:40:43 +0000

Well, Eileen, thank you for coming back to this.
But when you take KS out of BANKS, you’re left with BAN.
‘Investing’ ES next wouldn’t give us BEANS, but BESAN or whatever. Moreover I am not convinced that ES = euros [at least Oxford tells me E = euro(s)]. Never seen ES on the mainland either.

And Tchekalinsky, good question.
Chambers gives as definition #15 (!!) for LIGHT: “A hint, clue or help towards understanding”. Maybe that’s it?

By: tupu

tupu — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:34:48 +0000

Hi Sil and Eileen

re25d
I did not see much of a problem here. In many contexts the plural of ‘thousand’ remains unchanged as ‘thousand’, e.g. it cost me 5 K, i.e. 5 thousand. We can also say ‘it cost me many K’ i.e. ‘many thousands’. Similarly ‘euro’ (official) and ‘euros’(vernacular) are used as the plural of ‘euro’. So I suppose you can pay your euro(s) and take your choice!

By: Tchekalinsky

Tchekalinsky — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:27:57 +0000

Why does “lights” mean “answers”?

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:13:47 +0000

For the second time today, two ‘spelling’ mistakes within a single comment!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:05:49 +0000

Hi Sil

Re 25dn: I took it as KS [thousamds] from BANKS and E as plural. Like you, I can’t be bothered to look it up, but I thnk it’s right.