Comments on: Inquisitor 1209: The Calm Before The Storm by Samuel

By: Samuel

Samuel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:32:02 +0000

Thanks, Duncan, for the good write-up, and for the positive comments.

I’d like to say that the mousehole in the grid was thematic, but I never thought of that interpretation! Blame these poets who write lines with odd numbers of letters.

By: mc_rapper67

mc_rapper67 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:42:12 +0000

Lovely puzzle, very enjoyable solve – and great blog, Duncan.

I like the touch of that one black square – as a mouse-hole in the skirting board of the grid?!

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:29:29 +0000

A pleasant Christmas Eve stroll, started late, and polished off on Christmas Day. Getting the first line, and therefore the last as well, made matters much easier.

My troublesome two were the wordplay for EIGHTVO – I’d forgotten that O for “over” is only in the more recent editions of Chambers – and POTGUN (the CD-ROM would have helped me here). (By the way, the G in the wordplay for the latter comes from “group of”, not just “group”, making one fewer redundant words in the clues.)

Greetings of the season to Samuel, and to fellow bloggers.

By: duncanshiell

duncanshiell — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:25:21 +0000

John Lowe @ 2

Thanks for the information on the capital of Yemen.

Thanks also for pointing out the error in ANOA – I have corrected it now. I remember getting into a mess when typing, editing and proof reading that bit of parsing.

By: John Lowe

John Lowe — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:10:36 +0000

Sana or Sana’ is an old spelling for the capital of Yemen. (I have a good collection of old atlases and easily found this version in a 1988 edition…) Any version will be a transcription into the roman alphabet from the Arabic, and subject to change due to the currently popular way of transcribing. Sana’a is definitely the flavour of the moment.

You have dropped the O from the wrong position in Anoa in the explanation of the wordplay.

Thanks for the blog – a lot of work goes into making it so clear!

By: Hihoba

Hihoba — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:51:03 +0000

I agree, Duncan, a most enjoyable Christmas conceit. I had an almost identical solving experience to you, including the two most troublesome clues.
Thanks to Samuel for seasonal fun!