Comments on: Independent 7828 by Klingsor

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:50:24 +0000

Thanks, Klingsor, and flashling. I found this about average in difficulty – some very pleasing surfaces in clues with subtle misdirection. My favourites were AT ONCE and TINTORETTO.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:22:12 +0000

11ac and 28ac look OK to me, so I guess the the online version must have been corrected by the time I attempted this.

I was stuck on 24dn, thanks flashling for enlightening me. I think it is a fair clue (and a good one!).

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:29:52 +0000

I managed to finish this over lunch time apart from 28 and 24. After a few minutes studying tonight, I finally thought of steely, although the word order didn’t seem to make sense. I’m glad to find out that (for once) it wasn’t entirely might fault that I couldn’t get the answer easily. I completely failed to notice the fed up in 24 and assumed that def referred to the slang word, which for some reason I thought meant “bad” when it actually means the opposite.

A nice puzzle but a shame about the two mistakes which made the ride a bit less smooth than it should have been.

By: Ian_J

Ian_J — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:22:33 +0000

Thanks very much flashling and other contributors. I’m new to Fifteensquared and love the fact that I can cheat a little if I get completely stuck. 11a Always looked like letting but I held out from entering it because I couldn’t work out why!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:25:32 +0000

Got there in the end despite clueing errors; as well I was doing the online version so I could check 11a and 28a. Mildly surprised only to find one musical reference (NONO) from Klingsor.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:02:08 +0000

Clarification to 11: I meant to say that I was pleased that my construction at 11ac was wrong, but thought the general point was worth airing.

Also, apologies for mistyping “Klingsor”.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:00:20 +0000

Thanks Klingsor for a puzzle that had a lot of good clues and flashling for the blog. For me 23dn was one of those clues that I stared at for some minutes (with E-O– already filled in) and then the solution hit me – very satisfying.

Thanks for the clarification on 28ac, for which I have nothing to add.

11ac: It was clear that LETTING was the answer. I managed to parse it as “about” = “a bout” = LEG, thinking in terms of multi-stage sporting contests. This has two problems: firstly the synonym is at best approximate, and second there is an unsignalled requirement to split a clue word. I have been reading Klingor’s (or Alberich’s) website following general discussion, and he makes a case for the acceptability of splitting a clue word, when the pronunciation is not changed. I still do not like this device, but at least I can see some sense behind it with that limitation.

24dn: I have to disagree with Thomas@5. I think asking us to convert “Bored” to “fed up” and then take the “up” as a reversal indicator, with only a question mark to hint that something strange is going on, is just asking too much for a weekday newspaper puzzle.

By: eimi

eimi — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:44:35 +0000

I’m the somebody that failed to notice the rewritten clue didn’t work, so apologies for that. I’m attempting to correct the online version at the moment.

By: Klingsor

Klingsor — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:08:05 +0000

I owe apologies here for sloppy work. During the editing process I corrected 28 to

Arch embodying support that’s firm (6)

but the original appears in the online version – I’m glad that at least the paper carries the correct one.

The original clue to 11a was

Becoming a landlord on acquiring tenant’s first money? (7)

It was an &lit – the def meant to imply that you don’t really start letting until you’ve received some wonga, and the wordplay exactly as Thomas99 parsed it. I was asked to look again at this and in the process of changing it I got it into what passes for my brain that I was clueing “on” as the container rather than “leg” (again Thomas99 is right here, though the leg/on/about connection wasn’t intentional). I guess that after resubmitting this clue nobody else noticed this either. Shame.

Apologies again – I hope you all enjoyed the bits I managed to get right!

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:56:27 +0000

Actually I’m now leaning towards Eileen’s explanation of 11a – adding “set” would make it a very good clue. Another misprint?