Comments on: Independent 7888 / Tees

By: Tees

Tees — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:56:53 +0000

One meaning of ‘wear’ is ‘to accept’. HTH.

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:26:26 +0000

I finished this apart from banderole, which I had to find with a wordsearch – I didn’t know the word and there were just too many ways of interpreting the clue. I didn’t follow hesitates or extras. The Jagger clue was quite amusing, although it seemed like a bit of a liberty since no-one actually wears a paternity suit. However, I suppose if you interpret wear in the sense of endure or tolerate, it just about works.

By: eimi

eimi — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:52:49 +0000

Apologies to solvers and Tees for the dead tree gremlin. I’ve got to the bottom of the mystery – yesterday’s first Down clue began “2 Phone system of” which somehow got stuck in in front of Tees’s clue which began with 1.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:18:46 +0000

@tees #8 Err yes it does and it’s also numbered 2 (not 1 in my paper) which made it doubly confusing. Couldn’t see why hesitates, very nicely misled. Thanks all even Duncan who seems hell bent on putting us other bloggers to shame

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:15:55 +0000

We were puzzled about 28a as well. We wondered whether it had anything to do with inserting er twice into hesitates which gave you iterates at the end and rubbish at the beginning!
We were also fooled by 5d – never heard of Okayama and were trying to fit vaguely and wrongly remembered Japanese cities in which started Ok rather than Okay! We live and learn.
Thanks to Duncan and Tees.

By: Tees

Tees — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:50:01 +0000

Really? That would be quite confusing!

By: Paul A

Paul A — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:16:05 +0000

The dead tree version (yes I know), has an extra line at the beginning of 2d
‘Phone systems of 1′ then Body in space….
Had me thinking maybe Comet is a telecoms provider to the Spanish gentry. Or maybe not

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:10:28 +0000

Thanks Tees for a challenging crossword and Duncan for the detailed blog. I enjoyed 28ac once I had worked it out, but favourite clue must be 11/19.

Tiny grumble about 1ac, which I think would read better as “… to go to the French …”.

By: Tees

Tees — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:51:01 +0000

Hi Duncan – sorry about the queer old dean! And many thanks for your fantastic blogging – the best in town? – which reveals the trickery in such detail, and in such style.

One small point: at 23D ‘English’ is the (crosswordese for) E, plus the first letter in ‘squabbled’.

Cheers all.

By: duncanshiell

duncanshiell — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:58:09 +0000

Thanks to Jolly Swagman and Gaufrid at 2 and 3 – I suspected it was going to be simple, but I enjoyed myself down some obscure alleys.