Comments on: The Guardian No 25,559 by Paul

By: davy

davy — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:17:20 +0000

Thanks for replying Tom Hutton. I don’t think it is right to abuse any crossword compiler and I have never given anything but praise to Rufus. What I was trying to say is that you dismiss Pink Floyd but you may never have listened to Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Saucerful of Secrets, Umma Gumma, Atom Heart Mother etal. Just a thought. Be careful with that axe Eugene.

By: Tom Hutton

Tom Hutton — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:48:31 +0000

In reply to Davy@51, is it all right for people to abuse Rufus but not Paul? As a regular cryptic crossword solver (two every day) I feel my opinion might carry a little legitimacy. I usually enjoy Paul but in general I don’t enjoy crosswords where the clues cross reference each other as much as those where they don’t. I don’t enjoy long anagrams as I find you very rarely have to work them out in order to put the answer in. I don’t admire Pink Floyd at all. (Other popular musicians do attract my admiration.) I am sorry if I have upset Davy who obviously admires the cut and thrust of total agreement.

By: jeff w

jeff w — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:29:49 +0000

De-lurking only to point out that all three PF songs are multi-parters / subdivided on their respective albums (uniquely, in that context). "Breathe" is reprised later on Dark Side Of The Moon, although it's more of a continuation than a reprise. "Shine On..." is a nine-part epic that was split in two and bookends the Wish You Were Here LP. And "Another Brick..." has three separate 'Parts' sprinkled through disc 1 of The Wall. This, to my mind, makes the crossword that much cleverer than if Paul had picked just three random PF tracks, but I'm sure that won't change the minds of the haters. I stumbled in the same two places as Stella: failed to spot the homophone in 25a and to parse 16d. Otherwise, I found this pretty straightforward. Thanks to blogger and setter.

By: wingate

wingate — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:47:51 +0000

I agree largely with Tom Hutton @ 49. If that makes me a troll too, then sorry but, pace Headteacher @ 43, I enjoyed Monday’s much more.

By: Davy

Davy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:42:05 +0000

Thanks Stella,

I knew that this crossword would divide opinions and I wasn’t going to comment but Tom Hutton’s comment at 49 I found annoying. Is he the fifteensquared troll ?. I usually find that people who make such sweeping statements, often know little about what they are criticising. It’s like people who say “I hate jazz or I hate country music”. When questioned it becomes apparent that they know absolutely nothing about what they hate.

As to the theme itself, from a PF perspective it was very well-known stuff but there again, it depends what you know. Personally, I’m not bothered what the theme is as I usually know a bit about most things.

Anyway, my favourite clues were ENIGMATIC and UNHELPFUL. Maybe there’s somebody out there who doesn’t know the song Help !. Thanks Paul.

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:00:07 +0000

Headteacher @ 43. Great crossword – yes: Monday’s bilge no!!

Giovanna

By: Tom Hutton

Tom Hutton — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:41:07 +0000

A tedious and convoluted crossword honouring a tedious and overblown band so I suppose that is fair enough.

By: amulk

amulk — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:22:47 +0000

Thanks to Paul and Stella. As with many others, I got Pink Floyd easily enough but had to resort to wikipedia to look up the song titles (although maybe I should have persevered and worked through the wordplay in the clues). Had to come here for explanations of 16 dn and 25 ac.

By: Gervase

Gervase — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:03:56 +0000

RCW @46: I’ll freely concede that most modern stencils are made of synthetic organic polymers, though 99% is perhaps a bit of an overestimate! But they can be made of paper, wood or metal (and could even be made of coal or keratin, if you had a mind to). It’s rather like defining ‘cup’ as ‘ceramic vessel’ – most cups are indeed ceramic, but not necessarily. Defining a class noun by means of an example of the class generally requires some indication that only an example is being used. Paul seems to have used ‘plastic’ to mislead us into thinking of credit cards. He could have made his clue completely fair simply by adding a question mark at the end. Unless my alternative explanation was in his mind (see comment 17), which seems a bit of a stretch.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:03:55 +0000

Thanks all
Sufficiently tricky for me (Sil). Still do not like themes (but wouldn’t mind a Bill Haley, thanks Robi) and long clues.
Since 23,21, 5, 8 never charted as single or LP and is therefore not in my reference books and I am not a PF fan I would classify that as ‘obscure’ (see previous MBs). I am not objecting and solved it via the cryptic but “a very famous lament” (Mitz) is going too far.
Favourites were Kimberley and (especially) hydroxide.
Stencils are made of anything solid? Coal? Keratin? I think 99% are plastic.