Comments on: Guardian 25,479 – Rufus

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:01:29 +0000

And I probably spelled Michelangelo’s name… yup. Oops, I should have listened to Firefox.

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:21 +0000

RCW re “Kiss”, I’d argue that his “Thinker” and Michaelangelo’s “David” are more likely “most famous sculptures”. But you do make a good point. I would argue that, say, having assembled the answer via the cryptic tools, it should raise a smile to notice that it is also an &lit clue. Or vice versa.

By: Davy

Davy — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:36:02 +0000

Thanks for the replies – I was joking about the smelt by the way.

Yes Dave, I too was fixated on sin but never came up with the simple ‘crime’. Memory loss springs to mind.

I agree RCW that RODIN was indeed an easy answer but I think that Rufus was just having a bit of fun with Ron and Di and the whole clue.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:03:45 +0000

Davy @16
You could equally say that “He sculpted man embracing girl” was a clear definition, since Rodin’s Kiss is probably the most famous sculpture of all time.
That whole clue could have appeared in a non-cryptic crossword without causing a single murmur of surprise; and is therefore out of place here.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:43:53 +0000

Davy @ 15. I managed to finish the Xword today, but as usual the last few clues took some time.

I too had doubts about BRING and it was nearly the last in. I could only think of something like “bring Fred to me here”, but it isn’t very convincing.

13a being a CD I was not very keen on it; sometimes I find CDs obvious and then not usually of much interest; or, as here, not so obvious, but still leaving me unsatisfied. Likewise 11d, though once I had the checking letters it was clear what the answer should be.

CRIME also took me a long time – I couldn’t get SIN out of my mind.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:11:11 +0000

Showing my age, Eileen, but I would have known what you were talking about.

By: Davy

Davy — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:00:30 +0000

Forgot to say, the clue for RODIN is not &lit as there is a clear definition in ‘He sculpted’. I await the verdict of Paul B.

By: Davy

Davy — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:53:04 +0000

Thanks Andrew,

To the bloggers, Rufus is always a gentle stroll or plain sailing but he’s never like that to me. I failed completely in the north east section. Does that make me dim ?. I nearly always finish Araucaria but rarely Rufus. There is so little information to work on in the clues.

In 8a, I thought the answer was BRING but why does bring=conduct ?.

In 13a, I thought this was a charade but it turned out to be cryptic. Why is it so obvious that the answer to “Hold a show trial” is REHEARSE ?.

In 11d, “It became you”, I was thinking of foetus or ovum or something like that. Is THOU so obvious ?.

I should have got SMELT as smelt and chips is a common order at the chip shop
and also CRIMEA but I couldn’t think of a simple word for misdeed. So murder and extortion are just misdeeds. That’s quite reassuring.

I did read the interview with Rufus and it was very interesting.

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:41:28 +0000

Sigh, don’t know why, but I failed miserably on this one. Maybe I’m just not in the mood today because looking at the blog I should have got the lot. Oh well.

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:34:08 +0000

Thanks Andrew. I rather thought that STUMPS were what wooden legs were attached to and not the legs themselves, so read 3d more in cricketing terms {wicket = ‘wooden legs’ = stumps}.
A pity ‘for’ is in both fodder and answer at 19, otherwise no probs. Thanks Rufus.