Comments on: Guardian 25,546 – Araucaria

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:57:53 +0000

Dylan Thomas perhaps……… (see Mitz @24)

By: slipstream

slipstream — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:49:52 +0000

Valentine @23, John @27:

DYLAN is hidden in shaDY LANe.

Bob Zimmerman changed his name to Bob Dylan in honor of Thomas Dylan . . . the “Bob for Thomas” is a reference to the incomplete name change.

By: Davy

Davy — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:34:33 +0000

Thanks UY,

I totally agree with your assessment of this puzzle and definitely thought it was the most enjoyable A. for a while. I also completed it without aids which is very rare. I didn’t know UTRILLO but put it in anyway because it fitted the clue and sounded right. I couldn’t parse SACRE BLEU but BARCELONA confirmed that the answer was correct – as I knew it was anyway. The long anagram soon revealed itself when HUMAN was a possibility for the fourth word.

Favourite clues were EDICT (so simple), GO FAR (raised a smile), SLANG, UKRAINIAN, EASTER EGG (loved ERE GG) and BIODIESEL (good anagram).

Great stuff Arry.

By: chas

chas — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:11:11 +0000

Mitz @31: certainly I know of the constellation Orion the Hunter – that’s how I was able to fill in the answer.
Now you have reminded me of café noir etc I do now remember that noir means black

By: Gervase

Gervase — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:08:11 +0000

Thanks, UY.

Good example of late period Araucaria. I had a bit of trouble with the perimetric answers, which were amongst my last entries; RHOMBUS gave me 1a and 26a and I needed all the crossing letters to get 8,9.

I’m no great lepidopterist, and I didn’t check the butterfly reference to 3a, but SACRE BLEU was obvious from the ‘French surprise’, confirmed by the partial anagram for 16a. I presumed that SLANG was an old past tense of ‘sling’ (by analogy with sing, sang, sung – the ablaut pattern of English strong verbs has wandered a bit over the centuries). Last in was IRONS: I missed the nautical reference and thought it was just a rather weak cd.

Favourite was 15a for its multiple layered construction of three definitions and a most unlikely anagram.

By: Mitz

Mitz — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:16:29 +0000

chas @30: Noir is a common enough expression (as in film noir, cafe noir and pinot noir for example) and although obviously French in derivation can be found in English dictionaries, meaning black. And surely most people have heard of Orion the Hunter. I thought it was the easiest clue in the puzzle.

By: chas

chas — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:06:30 +0000

To robi @16: my question was about clue 12. Your answer quoted from clue 13.
My question on 12 remains: how were we supposed to know that a French word was required?

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:57:13 +0000

Thanks all.
Perhaps the rather nonsensical form of 3d is appropriate since ‘Shady Lane’ is such a song.It even contains the expression ‘a whiter shade of trash’ which recalls perhaps the greatest ever nonsense lyrics.
I enjoyed this one, Araucaria at near his best.
Last in ‘obviation’ followed by ‘viola’. Latter was just about remembered as an example of WS’s much over-used transgender ploys.

By: Mitz

Mitz — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:56:34 +0000

John @27: I agree. Does look like a clear case of classic Grauniad.

By: John

John — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:33:23 +0000

Is there possibly a misprint in 3dn?
I don’t get “Bob for Thomas from Shady Lane” whereas “Bob or Thomas” provides a smooth surface.