Comments on: Independent 7823 / Radian

By: duncanshiell

duncanshiell — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 08:04:25 +0000

pedant @ 23

Ah! – now I see what you mean – I can’t distinguish between ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ – Sorry!

By: duncanshiell

duncanshiell — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 08:01:11 +0000

pedant @ 23 Perhaps I shouldn't believe everything I read on the internet. Persephone PERSEPHONE was the goddess queen of the underworld, wife of the god Haides. HAIDES (Aides, Aidoneus, or Hades) was the King of the Underworld, the god of death and the dead.

By: eimi

eimi — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:47:34 +0000

… and as for the glittery poppies on Strictly Come Dancing: obscene. From the blood and mud of the trenches to a shiny fashion accessory.

Very clever puzzle.

By: lucy

lucy — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 13:08:28 +0000

Lenny, could not agree more. Apparently some women presenters have been wearing bejewelled poppies … ‘respectful but fashionable’ is probably what they would have said. Truly appalling.

By: pedant

pedant — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:29:55 +0000

23 A – of course Persephone was not the “husband of Hades”

By: Lenny

Lenny — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:22:12 +0000

My grandfather was gassed in WW1. Fortunately this crossword was rather easy and I finished it without noticing the theme. I am appalled at the way that marketing men have taken over Armistice Day so that it has become equivalent to Mothers’ day, Valentine’s day and Hallowe’en. I also regret the fact that the wearing of poppies has helped to justify current military misadventures. I happened to be solving this crossword at 11am this morning in my doctor’s surgery. While everyone else stood to attention I solved 1 Across and dedicated it to my Grandfather’s memory. Sorry to be so heavy but days like this make me feel very angry.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:17:11 +0000

Wil @17 re 16dn: Chambers 2008 gives "object-glass" among the meanings of objective as a noun, and then "the lens or combination of lenses at the end next to the object" as a meaning of object-glass.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:03:52 +0000

Excellent crossword and blog. Very clever to get all those words in with O, N and E in them somewhere.

My only slight doubt was the equating of lens and objective in 16dn. Surely the objective is the thing that’s being photographed, not part of the camera?

And I felt that I was possibly missing something: OK it’s 11.11.11 and ONE features in the special answers as well as O, N and E in them all, but is it just a jamboree of ones?

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:44:40 +0000

Not much more to add really other than thanks Duncan for the covering of my slot today, was much appreciated, it was as expected a busy day and I’d still be typing it up now.

By: duncanshiell

duncanshiell — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:47:43 +0000

schua @ 13

Thanks for pointing out the occurrence of O N and E in all the entries. I certainly hadn’t sapotted that. The nearest I got was thinking to myself there were a lot of Os in the unchecked letters, but just dismissing it because ONE was in a lot of entries.