Comments on: Guardian 25,534 – Philistine

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:11:35 +0000

Hi Paul and Sil

As noted earlier, the apostrophe is a long-standing convention for marking what RCW calls ‘awkward’ plurals. It is also but not only a possessive indicator.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:59:15 +0000

Sorry, Paul, don’t get this (but as you know I’m a bloody foreigner ).
The plural of (grade E) is Es, so the surface should have read Es and not E’s.
Clear to me, indeed wrong.
But because Egghead = E, both Es and E’s can lead to EGGHEADS.
Am I right (in constructions we do not look at apostrophes)?
That’s why I wrote that, cryptically speaking, it’s OK.
This is a different discussion from the one we had a while ago, which was about the surface being fine while the cryptic construction was not acceptable (incidentally, also triggered by a Philistine puzzle).
Here I think the construction is fine, while the surface is not what it should be.
Correct if I’m wrong.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:16:02 +0000

No, it IS indeed wrong: the apostrophe IS incorrect.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:50:27 +0000

But apart from the fact that E’s should indeed have been Es [in the (excellent) surface, that is - cryptically speaking, it's not wrong], this was IMO a splendid crossword.
BTW, this Eggheads thing is very Paulian. I am sure, would Paul have done this, we all would have jumped for joy. The same with PSST, I guess.
Paul B, I hope your “It’s a bit of a mess all round really” only applies to the E-thing [and who's to blame? the setter? yes, perhaps, but who's the next in line?].
I’ll stick to my verdict that there’s something really good about Philistine.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:16:30 +0000

Eggheads is hardly dated – it is the title of a popular early evening quiz show on BBC2 TV which has been running for years.

Paul, reminds me of examples like ‘court-martials’ or ‘courts-martial’ ie letter a’s or letters a.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:04:03 +0000

Just say ‘how many letters A in a paragraph’. If you really want to say it.

‘Clever ones get E’s is wrong’, pure and simple: E is the head of egg in this sense, and Es are heads of egg. Well, that what is meant, anyway. It’s a bit of a mess all round really.

By: NeilW

NeilW — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:14:36 +0000

Hi, charmonium. Welcome to the blog and crossword land!

As pointed out in the blog comments, Uncle Yap was slightly out in his explanation, which is probably the source of your confusion. The definition is “Clever ones” and the cryptic part is “get E’s.” The letter E is the “head” letter of the word “egg,” thus EGGHEADS are “E’s.” EGGHEADS is a rather dated word for clever people – presumably because they are characterised as having excessively large brains!

Hope that helps!

By: charmonium

charmonium — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:37:31 +0000

I’m new to crosswords and almost finished this one Just needed my dad’s help with 15 and 19. I still don’t really understand how 15 worked, could anyone explain it in a bit more detail?

I liked 10 alot, I assumed “bridgetown” was a reference to the famous song “Sur le pont d’Avignon”.

By: darkstarcrashes

darkstarcrashes — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:26:11 +0000

Derek@35 – one gets the impression from these blog entries that some folk are casting for faults in the clouds of delusion

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:15:32 +0000

Philistine is going from strength to strength.
His first ever puzzle, some time ago, had too many too obvious definitions (and was therefore over too soon). And while today one or two of us still have that feeling, I can only say: this was marvellous.
The cluing is really top-notch. Good spread of devices, good surfaces. And sometimes just that little extra which makes Philistine stand out from the crowd.
For me (and I am happy to say: for us) he has entered the Guardian Top 5.
One of the most enjoyable crosswords I/we recently tackled.

16ac was our last entry, even though I had seen this anagram before (Rufus? Dante?). It was the only clue that, in our opinion, felt somewhat uncomfortable because of the use of both “The” and “be”. But it is just nitpicking.

Needing a pair of scissors to cut words in two, has really become one of the “new” devices during the last couple of years. Today, Philistine made his contribution, in 23ac. But I think he went one step further than others. I cannot remember having seen a clue in which one of the pieces of the word that had to be split, was the definition. Normally, it is fodder/indicator.

Another nice little twist, probably unintended, can be found in 4d (ANALYST). ‘Shrink’ is originally a US slang word, so seeing ‘makes us shrink’ in the clue was much appreciated.

Wonderful stuff from Philistine.
A jewel in the crown.