Comments on: Independent 7830 / Punk – Saturday Prize Puzzle 19 November 2011

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:53:10 +0000

Sorry, Lenny, you posted while I was still reading and typing.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:51:13 +0000

Duncan and crypticsue, don’t worry too much about 2d. Chambers notates ‘ecdysiast’ as “facetious”. It comes from ‘ecdysis’, referring among other things to a snake sloughing its skin.

A nice straightforward puzzle with some typical Punk/Paul touches in the clueing. And thanks, Duncan, for the comprehensive blog.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:39:02 +0000

Thanks Duncan. I also thought that this was Punk in his most accessible mode. 1a was my last in as I needed all the checkers to get this variant on the pantomime villain’s interjection. I see that Chambers lists Fee-faw-fum ahead of the (to us) better known Fee-fi-fo-fum.

I have been waiting for years to see Ecdysiast clued by a professional, ever since I stumbled across the word in my dictionary. For anyone who has not met it, it is a facetious formation from Ecdysis, meaning the act of casting of the skin in reptiles. I tried to clue it myself once and was attracted by the fact that Asset is contained within it. My paltry effort was “Bungled DIY caught asset stripper”.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:38:14 +0000

I too enjoy a Paul puzzle and it is nice from time to time when he is straightward even if I did struglle with the alternative to fee-fi-fo-fum and like Duncan, my sheltered lifestyle didn’t help with 2d!

By: alicehooper

alicehooper — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 06:44:33 +0000

Thank you for this. I always enjoy Paul and I agree it was one of his more straightforward. I read 1 down as search to find time being the same as to search for age.