Comments on: Independent 7876 by Nimrod

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:42:42 +0000

Well, you seem to have drawn the short straw here again flashling!
We only solved about 7 clues last night before leaving it to finish this morning. It involved a lot of ‘cheating’ but once you had the answer you could work backwards through the devilishly convoluted clues. The hardest daily crossword for a long time. Our joint sigh on seeing it was Nimrod at 10:00 pm was well- founded!
Anyway thanks Nimrod, that’s one of the reasons we prefer the Indie. The lesson to be learnt is check the setter every Thursday and start earlier!
Thanks flashling.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:57:05 +0000

I agree with sidey about ERK – the term applies specifically to ground crew.

I was going to quibble about EXACERBATE which to me means to make a bad situation worse, but I see that Chambers does give provoke as a secondary meaning.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:16:38 +0000

@Ian W #6 so it is, too brain dead after this to check for a pangram. I suppose that qwerty keyboard was a good indictor of it and Nimrod considered it would be a thankless task…

By: Querulous

Querulous — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:40:52 +0000

Re 24, I think a tieback usually refers to curtains rather than hair.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:50:27 +0000

A particularly wicked Nimrod today. Took me several sessions of muttering and penny dropping (the biggest d’oh moment came with 4d). Thanks to him for the brain stretching and to flashling for the blog – if it had been me reviewing it, people would be waiting a very long time!

By: sidey

sidey — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:59:42 +0000

An Erk, the lowest of the low in the RAF is no more likely to be a flier than the average package tourist.

Other than that, interesting.

By: Ian W.

Ian W. — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:54:22 +0000

It’s a pangram, of course, but a beast of a puzzle.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:11:54 +0000

We probably shouldn’t, er, look too deeply into 9d, but I suppose when the trouser/body relationship is like that, the 9d is shown (i.e. displayed) “up” while the waistband is shown “down”?

I agree with Paul B re 17a – thanks=ta, although I see the other approach is conceivable too (Azed wouldn’t allow T=thank though, I imagine). I like those reversed clues, when I can solve them that is.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:01:13 +0000

13D thank you Thomas!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:00:30 +0000

Hello Flash.

17A is A plus (thankless) taSK = ASK.

4D=CD, as you suspect. Such things are attention seekers, which flutter (or are at least an aid to fluttering), and they do this seeking and fluttering ‘not really’, since they are not real.

6D is not sneaky!

9D just a CD? ‘Shows up’ has me wondering a bit, but I think it’s just a question of one’s vantage point (ground level) in noticing the terrible crevice (up on the scaffolding).

13D is NERO OM in THROS, but it beats me: somehow ‘short animated’ must equal THROS, I think! I hate it when that happens.

Brilliant stuff.