Comments on: Guardian Cryptic 25579 Shed

By: Bob the Bolder

Bob the Bolder — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:18:45 +0000

Re 21d ….. I’m sure stoats and weasels aren’t the same ….. “a weasel is weasily distinguishable and a stoat is stoatally different” (trad)

By: David W

David W — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:14:18 +0000

Sorry. NW not NE!

By: David W

David W — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:13:31 +0000

5d was one of several in the NE which defeated me. I used to be able to construct answers (including words I didn’t know!) from the wordplay. Here I got no further than “Pasquale, perhaps” perhaps meaning “setter”, and even if I’d got from there to “Don” I’m sure I’d still not have got “sari”.

Am I just getting old, or is there a recent trend towards making the wordplay a puzzle to be solved after the answer itself has been obtained by guesswork, in the style of a quick crossword, from the definition and the crossing letters?

By: rrc

rrc — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:40:20 +0000

I brought this crossword upon my phone, and managed to do 91 fairly quickly. Unfortunately crosswords on phones are not really to my liking, but didnt manage to pick up the paper copy until late Friday evening, so ineffect saved this to Sunday. Really enjoyed it then.

By: nusquam

nusquam — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:59:15 +0000

I returned to see if the thread had gone quite cold. There appear to be some glowing embers. Your apology, scchua,is quite unnecessary. It’s nice to see your contribution, Shed, along with the quote from Marvell. I am quite happy with ‘reed’ as a non-count noun, even when it is growing (as in ‘There is a patch of reed by the bend in the river’), so I never had any sense that the Syrinx clue was inaccurate.

However, I have been thinking further about Ovid’s treatment of the myth. The Greek word of which Syrinx is a romanisation seems to mean only pipes, not reed, and at least in some instances syrinx (singular) is used to refer to a set of pipes. So the story is about how one girl turned into a set of pipes, a number of lengths of reed. It’s hard to envisage a singular individual turning into a bunch, and so I see Ovid’s vagueness about the process as artful.

He describes many other metamorphoses in careful detail. Of Arachne, for example, he says (VI 139-145):

‘As she went, Minerva sprinkled her with the sap of a sorceress herb. Arachne’s hair, touched by the potion, melted away, as did her nose and ears, and her head became minute, indeed her whole body was small. At her sides she had slender fingers instead of legs, and the rest was abdomen. But from this abdomen she excreted thread, and, spider now, continued with her former weaving trade.’

By: ernie

ernie — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:15:22 +0000

Excellent puzzle – hardest in top right. Thank you Shed and scchua.

By: scchua

scchua — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 08:13:07 +0000

Thanks for dropping by Shed, and for clarifying 24ac.

nusquam@22, apologies for not responding last night. You’re right about 14D. I put in the wrong code for the wordplay instruction, but should have caught it in previewing. Typo now corrected, thanks.

By: Shed

Shed — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 02:24:34 +0000

Thanks to everyone, especially sschua, but also to RCWhiting for getting me started. I’m relieved to see several people pointing out that you don’t need to understand the in-joke to solve the puzzle.

24ac was indeed meant to be a simple double-definition.

As to how many things Syrinx turned into in 22ac, I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Andrew Marvell’s ‘The Garden’: ‘And Pan did after Syrinx speed/ Not as a nymph, but for a reed’. If it’s good enough for Marvell, it’s good enough for me.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:07:37 +0000

For some reason (reasons that only I know (plus some others ), I am not as frequently around as I was in the past.
But when a crossword is as good as it was today, I am happy to add an exclamation mark to everything that’s already been said.
This was Shed at his very very best.

Also, good to see that Shed and I had something in common today (17ac) – but, true, again for reasons that only I know (plus some others ).

Thanks scchua.

By: FranTom Menace

FranTom Menace — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:51:58 +0000

Thoroughly beaten on a number here today! All incredibly clever though, and mostly gettable. We like Shed’s puzzles because of the unique and often really clever cluing, but we mustn’t have been in the right frame of mind. ‘Turn into reed’, I love that type of thing… so simple but perfectly fair. Such a shame we weren’t on it today.

Thanks Shed and Scchua, we promise to try harder next time!