Comments on: Independent 7927 by Punk

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:47:12 +0000

Sugar as an expletive reminded us of when our son was very young. One of us, Joyce, used it and the only way of stopping our son from copying was to list every sort of sugar you could think of everytime he said it!
We thought this was reasonably easy apart from miso soup. It was there somewhere in the sunconscious but not until we had all the checking letters.
Thanks NMS and Punk. A good start to the week.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:35:32 +0000

Got stuck on two clues, including 8/24. Went off and did something else for a couple of hours, came back and still couldn’t see it, so in desparation I did a word search, which threw up nothing. Then I saw it. And I’m a great fan of Japanese food.

Got enought cross letters for 4d to remember the gist of the phrase so I could solve the anagram.

I immediately thought at 6d that sugar rots your teeth, but couldn’t see where “damn” came into it.

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:59:50 +0000

Many thanks for the puzzle and the enlightening blog. I had to cheat to get GARDYLOO; certainly a warning I’d heard of, but had never realised that was how it’s spelt, being supposedly derived from the French gardez l’eau. I doubt I’d have got it anyway, but a very fair and amusing clue nonetheless. That left me with just the third letter of 9/24, which I finally twigged but it might have been easier if the two words had been adjacent, when SO-SO could perhaps have been easier to spot. Never heard of it, but again fair enough. Lots to like, and my favourite was perhaps 26. Or maybe 15. Possibly 6a, or even 6d – well, you get the idea.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:07:50 +0000

I too found this a tough one to finish and certainly needed to come here to see how three or four were parsed. GARDYLOO I vaguely remembered, but APPLE PIE I couldn’t see, nor ROUT; but I suppose both are gettable once you’ve got some crossing letters.

I think Paul A has it right with SUGAR. It’s an expletive that maiden aunts use instead of shit, and it also rots your teeth if ingested in sufficient quantities.

Thanks to Punk and to nms for the helpful blog (there is a tiny typo in 4/28 btw: we need the I as part of the anagram fodder to make it work).

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:49:17 +0000

I had the same experience as you, nmsindy, in that some of it was fairly easy, but then I struggled to finish – and could have kicked myself when I saw how simple some of the ones I struggled with were! And it was another of those crosswords where I couldn’t be bothered trying to unscramble the long anagram but got enough crossing letters to realise what the phrase was.
I agree with Lenny about the space bar – that was one of the clues that held me up.
Favourite clue? – GARDYLOO!

By: Lenny

Lenny — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:01:33 +0000

Thanks NMS I usually find Punk a bit harder than his brothers Paul and Mudd but he was in a friendly mood today. Some answers only needed the definition: Gardyloo, Styx and the so easy that it could not be correct Spades. Also, the long answer came relatively easily. Last one in was Whodunnit with its tricky Russian doll wordplay.

Otherwise, the usual witty, high-quality clueing from Punk. My only quibble is that the Space Bar is not a key, that’s why it’s called a bar.

By: Paul A

Paul A — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:08:19 +0000

6d – Could it be that sugar rots your teeth? Although Suralan is a funnier answer