Comments on: Guardian Prize No 25,466 by Araucaria

By: crosser

crosser — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:17:34 +0000

Thank you tupu @23.
I withdraw my objection to the use of “boy” in the clue for 11a.

By: Stella Heath

Stella Heath — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:23:39 +0000

The Indy’s page is still messing around!

By: Stella Heath

Stella Heath — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:18:05 +0000

Roger.

I’d forgotten to mention “tu d’or”

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:39:39 +0000

One often meets interesting people in Araucaria puzzles and today it was Charlotte cutting bread and butter. Thanks for the introduction, sir. Also rather liked the you are golden TUDOR. I agree with Robi that 26a wouldn't make much sense without the plural and at the end of the day, RACON is still a lot of racoons. Since 18d doesn't seem to have appeared as an answer before are we allowed to say WERTHER's original ?

By: tupu

tupu — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:16:53 +0000

It appears that cyan is also a boy’s name, if a rare one.

http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Cyan

By: Davy

Davy — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:15:12 +0000

Thanks bridgesong,

A very enjoyable puzzle which I had hoped might be an A to Z, as he hasn’t done one for what seems like ages. As I managed to complete this on the Sunday, it must have been on the easier side.

Just to set the mind of ‘stumped’ at rest, I’d never heard of PRIMROSE LEAGUE either but just fiddled around with the ‘more lies’ anagram in the middle and taking into account the crossing letters, I guessed the expression. It was only afterwards that I saw PRAGUE in the answer. So it is possible to get an answer without knowing a word or words. Similarly, I didn’t know the quote or the lovers. I worked out the quote from the wordplay which is a rarity for this type of clue. Usually with Araucaria, I guess the answer and don’t bother trying to work out the wordplay if it involves a lot of complexity.

Favourite clue was probably MANDARIN ORANGE which made me laugh. Thanks Arry and let’s have an A to Z sooner rather than later.

By: tupu

tupu — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:30:07 +0000

Thanks bridgesong and Araucaria

I quite liked this one, though I had to check ‘bread and butter letter’.

I eventually plumped for cyan after toying with ‘sigh’ ideas. I also wondered about ‘agape’ as ‘love’ but only briefly.

I particularly liked 13a, 26a (I agree with crosser @10 re rac(c)oon(s), 27a, 20d.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:05:33 +0000

CYAN and SCION are listed in Collins as having the same sound, though the latter also attracts a variant.

By: chas

chas — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:33:21 +0000

Thanks to bridgesong for the blog. You explained 19a for me: I have heard of The Great Wen but forgot it just when I needed it

In the physics of light there is a colour triangle which had red, blue and green at the corners then white in the middle where they all meet. The middle points of the sides are yellow between red and green, magenta between red and blue and cyan between blue and green.
I therefore think of cyan as green-blue so it never occurred to me to use it for just blue – as required for 11a.

By: bridgesong

bridgesong — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:53:33 +0000

Thanks, all for your comments. I’m kicking myself over “cyan”, which just didn’t occur to me. I agree with Stella @15 that the reference is to the Gainsborough painting. I also realise that I should have explained that Nora in MANDARIN ORANGE is a reference to Nora Batty, a character in the long-running BBC TV series “Last of the Summer Wine”. I’m not sure that I knew that a Collins was a thank-you letter, but the quote I give above (at 1 Across) may help to explain how the term was derived.