Comments on: Guardian 25,501 / Puck

By: ernie

ernie — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:30:15 +0000

Thank you Eileen and Puck. Got there eventually (mid-day Sunday) without fully understanding one or two (12a 17a 27a). Good fun. Another Stevenage fan (Mitz @ 17): also thought ‘open top’ meant the ‘o’ in ‘top’(MarionH @ 22.

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:26:48 +0000

Lots of fun in this one! I found it solved in bits and pieces all over the grid, and I even think my last four words in went into separate quadrants.

Thanks for the blog, Eileen, and thanks to Puck for the lovely workout and for dropping by to comment!

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:56:57 +0000

Thanks for your comments Gervase @27 (hope you find this … sorry for the late reply). I agree with what you say regarding the use of {‘s = has} in standard English but I sometimes wonder what happens to the rulebook on entering Crosswordland !

A pity Puck didn’t offer his thoughts …

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:36:07 +0000

Thanks Eileen.

Gervase @27 – you have a good point there. You have convinced me even if no-one else believes you.

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:28:42 +0000

Thanks, Puck for dropping in and Eileen for the blog, which was much needed this time.

Belated thanks to Stella for yesterday’s link to Bo, the famous White House dog – problems with connecting to this site earlier.

Giovanna x

By: Gervase

Gervase — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:03:48 +0000

Puck: Thanks a lot for dropping by – and for answering my question! Great crossword.

Roger (if you’re still there): Yes, that is my point. ‘Has’ is only usually contracted to ‘apostrophe s’ when it is an auxiliary verb, followed by a past participle (‘he’s answered my question’), and not when is means ‘owns’. In standard English we wouldn’t contract ‘Roger has a child’ to ‘Roger’s a child’ because it would be misinterpreted as ‘Roger IS a child’. (Instead, you could say Roger’s GOT a child’, which avoids the ambiguity. And ‘I’ve a child’ is acceptable, because the verb ending is different, so it doesn’t clash with ‘I’m a child’). But I do seem to be a lone voice on this one!

By: Martin P

Martin P — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:16:31 +0000

I always smiled at the “Shepherdess’s Madnesses” and similar apparent constructions in French. However, they do at least sign their no-through roads “without issue”, and in French, rather than “arse of bag” in English, as would be symmetrical.

A good solid work-through with gentle humour though, I thought.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:55:03 +0000

The NW corner being more difficult was based on such a ridiculously small,non random sample as to be not worthy of consideration.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:48:15 +0000

Hi Puck – thanks so much for dropping in. I hope you realise how chuffed we bloggers and commenters are when you setters do so.

I’ll come clean now and admit that the ‘supply’ thing came to me literally just as I typed the blog – and subsequent comments made me reconsider – so I’m really glad to know that that was your intention.

[I only mentioned your previous puzzle in order to point up how much more I enjoyed this one. I don't remember the details, because it wasn't my blog. That was the only one of yours that has [slightly] disappointed.]

Many thanks again for the puzzle – it was lots of fun!

By: Puck

Puck — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:12:07 +0000

Thanks for the blog Eileen, and to others for comments.

Gervase@12: In 14ac I intended ‘supply’ as supple-y, as per Eileen.

RCWhiting@15 & Mitz@17: I don’t write clues in any particular order – it depends on the puzzle.

Eileen: I decided to censor myself at 12ac, so it wasn ‘t down to the editor this time. And unfortunately I missed your lovely idea of cross-referencing 8d and 19dn (TeePee/TWiddle). Glad to hear you enjoyed the puzzle this time. I do agree that my last one didn’t quite hit the spot. I had to re-do almost half of it after the editor spotted that I had used an invalid phrase for one of the long answers. In the redoing I managed to lose the most playful clues and end up with a puzzle that felt contrived because it had lost its original spark. In hindsight I would’ve been better off scrapping it and starting again – which I’ll bear in mind if it happens again.