Comments on: Independent 7906/Anax

By: John

John — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:03:55 +0000

Thanks everyone for the comments. Blog amended as appropriate I think. Still uncomfortable with 11ac.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:07:12 +0000

Oops! Sorry, John and thanks K’sD. That’s what comes of catching up on the previous day’s puzzle, which was blogged by B&J. A senior moment, maybe.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:52:31 +0000

We really are all on another planet today. I think you’ll find it was John’s blog, Allan!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:46:37 +0000

Anax seems to have stimulated us to exchanges worthy of Another Newspaper with his “starter clue” – which was almost my last in, too, Thomas99. First in was LEMUR, accompanied by a real groan. Thanks B&J for the blog – several answers needed explanation, not just ETYMOLOGY. Several raised a smile, though, especially DISPATCH RIDERS.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:07:34 +0000

Ha ha – the “starter clue” was literally my last in!

Many thanks for clearing that up Anax, and for dropping in. It was a great puzzle.

By: anax

anax — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:44:23 +0000

Hello friends – many thanks to John for the blog and to all for your comments.
I’ll have to be somewhat brief; in Italy at the moment, hampered by a laptop with a horrid keyboard layout (symbol keys all mis-labelled) so keeping typing to a minimum.
Yes, ETYMOLOGY is just a CD designed to mislead you into thinking of several words. The answer itself is an unfriendly bunch of letters so I just tried to play it straight and offer it as a starter clue. Didn’t quite work out that way apparently, but the solvability of CDs is guesswork anyway.
After a couple of cold days the weather’s lovely now, verging on warm, but – sad geek as I am – I can’t wait to get home to the big monitor and adult-sized keyboard.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:34:45 +0000

I liked 11a, the joke being that there’s no wordplay as such (in the sense of letters being moved around etc.) and no knowledge needed other than the most basic definition of “etymology” – “the origin of a word”/”where a word comes from”. Of course it took me a long time to realise that. It turned out you didn’t even have to know the etymology of “several” or of “separate”, or indeed of “etymology” (which I don’t). As Paul B says the definition is arguably not even cryptic; it simply says that a Latin word for ‘separate’ is an etymology, i.e. possible origin, of “several”, which may or may not be news to the solver. It certainly dragged me round the houses for long enough to qualify as a cryptic clue though, even if it’s a sort of double-bluff.

I’d still parse it “CD”, although some new category like “misleading definition” might be appropriate. I think someone’s already coined “elusive definition” which might do too.

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:34:07 +0000

A superb puzzle by Anax. Love 16A and all the two-dimensional clues.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:18:29 +0000

… ‘the CLUE amounts’ etc …

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:17:47 +0000

I don’t think there is anything else going on at 11A: Joe parsed it correctly (AFAICS) at #1, and K’s D, just for good measure, did it again at #7. But would anyone else agree that, although artfully constructed, the amounts to a straight definition?