Comments on: Guardian 25,535 / Enigmatist

By: Husky

Husky — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:47:28 +0000

Andy @30 – repeated misspelling is the best excuse for including “saki” in the dictionary. That’s how many words get in there. Dictionaries are records of usage, not correctness.

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:32:43 +0000

Hi Giovanna and PaulB

I think it is Lindisfarne that is more usually known as Holy Island.

As I noted @29 I missed the parsing of this answer. Apart from getting the island wrong I was looking for some reversal of intermittent letters of Christians to surround it rather than the more literal idea of regular Xtian pilgrimage to Iona whose monastery was founded by St Columba in the late 6th century.

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:52:27 +0000

Thanks, Enigmatist and Gaufrid for some fun in the late evening.

Nice to be reminded of Pomfret cakes!

Paul B @ 33, Iona is also known as Holy Island, which is an old established place of pilgrimage for Christians.

Giovanna

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:15:11 +0000

Stella
You tutched a nurve there, I think.

By: andy smith

andy smith — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:14:15 +0000

Stella @32 – hahaha – But the nature of the onlin interfce is that typing errors occur and yes I should be more careful to double check posts before sending them… You will note however that I didn’t msspell misspelled further along in the sentence, so unless you attribute me to some Shaksprian flexibility wrt to splling you can probly assume that I know how to spll the wrd.

And in any event, some misspelt wittering by me at the back end of a blog is on a different order to a crossword published in the apaer.

As far as the sake/saki thing is concerned it grated with me – like spelling ka-ra-o-ke karaoki – but the (misspelt) alternative is in Chambers so it isn’t a hanging offence, just not quite right, IMO.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:13:49 +0000

Don’t understand the Iona ‘Christians regularly’ bit. Anyone?

By: Stella Heath

Stella Heath — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:58:50 +0000

Sorry, Andy@30, but I find it a lttle less forgivable to misspell “misspelling” than a Japanese word which, though I’m sympathetic to the ‘phonetic’ nature of the language, few, if any of us can distinguish.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:08:32 +0000

Thanks all
A great challenge which I am not sure whether I actually passed. I got the theme early and remember the book quite well but not the word ‘genuine’, hence 4d and 10ac only came out after I had read Gaufrid’s preamble.
I also do not usually like long multi-clue anagrams but this was so good that I was happy to unravel them.
Let’s have more puzzles like this, preferably not transgressing the fold!

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:58:13 +0000

TY Gaufrid for the blog.

I have already whinged on the Guardian thread about the mispelling of ‘Saki’ for ‘Sake’. Just because the word is repeatedly misspelled in the West shouldn’t be an excuse to sanctify it in the dictionary. Japanese is phonetic with an unambiguous roman transliteration and sa-ke is the word for rice wine. sa-ki is something different.

A very nice, tricky, elegant crossword, but it would have been improved IMO by choosing an accurate double defn for 24d, as opposed to an inaccurate triple defn. Karaoki anyone?

By: tupu

tupu — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:49:00 +0000

Many thanks Gaufrid and Enigmatist

I spent a bit of time on this this morning and then came back to it mid-afternoon and rather tired. I recognised the book but not the subtitle which I had to work out for myself from the clues.

The puzzle was hard but entertaining and rewarding with some fun clues. I missed the rhyming subtlety of 16d and Sarah’s point @23. I also failed to parse paranoiac (having guessed it from the clue and crossing letters. I tried to do something with Aran which led me up proverbial Goose Creek).

Lots of good clues.