Comments on: Independent 7879/Quixote

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:37:53 +0000

Nah, cd&d. The first half of this is a fanciful definition, since an ice pack, being just the thing for certain injuries, offers anything but what we mean by ‘cold comfort’. After that, in the definition-for-real, you say the wording seems a bit weird: however, soothing is a noun as well as an adjective, so I’m happy.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:29:13 +0000

Good crossword as usual, but I’m uncomfortable with 1dn. The clue seems rather odd and it looks as if there is a mistake there, for it doesn’t really make sense — in any case it is in rather ungrammatical English. And if it’s a dd then it’s a bit feeble and I feel sure that Quixote is doing something that nobody has noticed, for how else do you explain the tortuous wording? But what?

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:30:28 +0000

Glad it wasn’t just me that struggled with 16a the only word I could see on the train that fitted was oyster! Otherwise it was fine thought 5d was OK-ish but get-able. Cheers Q/Pierre.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:20:58 +0000

Thanks, Pelham, that’s how I meant to explain LINSEED.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:04:24 +0000

I really liked the two quotation ones – both a bit &littish – Mark Antony is the comparatively “demure reasoner” in the play, I suppose, and I hadn’t thought of Nelson shrieking sadly, but it’s certainly imaginable.

I also found 16a the hardest, but a good clue too. I enjoyed 5 as well. An enjoyable and stimulating solve overall, with a handful of really memorable ones.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:44:43 +0000

Thanks Quixote for an enjoyable puzzle and Pierre for the blog.

I found this a fairly easy solve until I got to 16ac, which I could not see at all, and unfortunately there were other words that would fit the space.

2dn: I read this as N in (DIESEL)*, with “running out” as the anagram indicator and “getting stuck” as an insertion indicator.

By: mhl

mhl — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:14:06 +0000

Thanks for the post, Pierre, and thanks to Quixote for an excellent puzzle.

I’m slightly surprised that people found this trickier than normal – I normally find Quixote’s puzzles difficult, so I was very happy to get all but two here (BOÖTES and OUSTED) in a reasonable amount of time. I didn’t know the constellation and for OUSTED I was thrown by the definition neither reaching the end nor the the beginning of the clue, which (while completely fair) is relatively rare…

By: NealH

NealH — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:55:48 +0000

I thought 5 and 16 were quite tricky. I took me a long time to see that the “character at the head of Society” was just referring to the S and not a coded way of saying a word for character after an S. With 16, I got the idea for the clue but was trying to find a word where I could just swap the first and last letters rather than the two halves.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:48:16 +0000

I am pleased to see that it wasn’t just me and that Pierre found Quixote trickier than normal. Some very nice clues in there so thank you to Quixote and Pierre too.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:02:56 +0000

Thank you, Pierre, for the usual entertaining blog and Quixote for the usual enjoyable and educational puzzle: I wasn’t familiar with that Scottish island or the sticky berry.

I enjoyed the ‘stepping on the gas’ clues and also liked LEND ME YOUR EARS and KISS ME HARDY.