Comments on: Independent 7,920 by Nestor (Saturday Prize Puzzle 03/03/12)

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:21:51 +0000

Hi pennes! Re ones = jokes, Chambers defines one as a joke and we’ve noticed it used quite a few times in cryptics.
Thanks for all the comments everyone.

By: pennes

pennes — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:11:49 +0000

Yes Lenny I agree : nice to have a puzzle that does not require specialist knowledge. I didn’t really like “ones” equating to “jokes”. The connection is clear but they don’t seem synonymous

By: sidey

sidey — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:17:29 +0000

Bleeding edge was originally a printing term where the print goes beyond the limits of the paper as a full page magazine advert. Fusion power is bleeding edge because although theoretically possible it is beyond present technology. No profanity necessary.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:24:02 +0000

I enjoyed this, it’s nice to have a Saturday puzzle that does not require specialist knowledge. There were some tough clues though. Favourites included those for Certifiable and Short Fuse. Least favourite was Abbot. There’s a Greek word for a weak vowel sound as in ‘abit/abbot but I can never remember it.

I think the bleeding in bleeding edge is intended as an expletive because Newfangled is defined as superfluously, excessively or ostentatiously modern.

Last two in were Ibis where I almost invented the African bird Mbos and Spatter. Thanks to B&J for the wordplay on that one.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:49:16 +0000

A slow start but nothing too difficult here. I was uncertain at first whether 12a should be FAN or CAN – ‘cooler’ could have been either and it wasn’t immediately obvious which way the Celsius/Fahrenheit conversion was supposed to be taken. But looking at 7d and with DONOR at 15a it became pretty clear that ‘fang’ was going to be part of 7d, which settled the argument. Later, having got NEWFANGLED for 7d it took me ages to see how the clue worked.

Quite a few clues raised a smile – CERTIFIABLE, MAGIC MUSHROOMS and TUNBRIDGE WELLS among them.

Thanks, Nestor and B&J

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:11:02 +0000

Hmm, in my sarf London accent, ‘abit and abbot are indeed homophones, and I think this was the first clue I got.

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:43:11 +0000

Did this on the plane back to Gatwick from Aberdeen, was rather apprehensive seeing Nestor after his recent midweek showings but got through this relatively smoothly.

Not overly happy with 8a Abbot don’t care for forced homonyms but seems I got the right answer somehow.

Still thanks Nestor for the challenge and B&J for a fine blog.