Comments on: Guardian 25,523 – Arachne

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:37:18 +0000

I know this is a late post (it’s delayed down in the antipodes) but fail to see how this is a pangram and don’t even know what a DOUBLE pangram is.
I thought a crossword pangram used every letter of the alphabet – for the first letter of the answer. This one had numerous duplicates and missed quite a few.
Can someone explain?

By: ChrisChunders

ChrisChunders — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:18:36 +0000

Sorry for this late post, but I was just passing while looking at the blog on the most recent Guardian Prize (Paul’s NYEve one).

I enjoyed most of this puzzle and thought it was all in the bag until I downloaded the pdf for the next day and an unfamiliar answer at 27d caught my eye. So I checked my solution and lo and behold, 27d was wrong. I remembered not liking this one and sticking in a provisional answer ‘test’ to be checked later, and forgetting to check it (perhaps they’re right about 45 and memory loss).
Any hoo, reviewing 27d in the light of what’s been said on the blog, I have to say I found this a loose clueing. I’ve always heard this phrase as either ‘…couldn’t give a monkey’s…’ expanded to ‘…couldn’t give a monkey’s (cuss)…’ or ‘…couldn’t give a toss…’ . I suppose the toss does stand for monkey’s but it’s all a bit ok if you know what she means. Not really a classic two routes to the solution, and I feel a spoiling of an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
But I only say this because I do give a toss, so please no harsh comments!

By: nic@60

nic@60 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:02:31 +0000

Thanks Alan and K’s D for the explanation. I will look out for pangrams in the future.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:53:34 +0000

Yes K’s D, there was a triple pangram in the Indy last year. There’s one in today’s FT ‘n’ all, and how nice it is to see that alphabets haven’t yet been affected by all the cu(*)ts.

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:11:38 +0000

Thanks, Arachne and Andrew.

I came late to this and didn’t find it at all easy but ultimately enjoyable once it was solved! The hidden words were well hidden, too!Alexander the Great got me under way.

Happy New Year to all of you.

Giovanna xx

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:42:50 +0000

No need for improvement, Alan, that’s exactly what a pangram is (and welcome to nic@60). A double pangram is an unusual feat from a setter and normally involves some less than common words, so well done to Arachne for managing it without that. If memory serves, there was a triple pangram in the Indy last year.

By: Alan Moore

Alan Moore — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:20:40 +0000

nic@60 @24
I think a pangram is where all the letters of the alphabet are in the crossword, so a double pangram would have all the letters twice. An example of a pangram sentence is “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. I hope someone else can improve on this explanation.
By the way I thoroughly enjoyed the crossword, so thanks to Arachne for setting it and to Andrew for explaining all the bits I failed to understand.

By: nic@60

nic@60 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:11:29 +0000

And a typo for my first post! Not my day.

By: nic@60

nic@60 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:52:17 +0000

This if my first time wrting a comment though I check in everyday and enjoy verifying answers, which I confess don’t always come easily to me! However, could anyone explain what a ‘pangram’ is (never mind a ‘double’ one)? Many thanks.

By: morpheus

morpheus — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:59:10 +0000

Excellent work Arachne. Nice to have a crossword which is hard but fair.