Comments on: Guardian 25,584 – Gordius

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 02:31:12 +0000

Count me in the “extra S in 17d” crowd. Oh well. A nice wide range of cluing, and a steady solve, each new word eventually resulting in another. Had to verify ECLOGUE and NATTIER of course.

Thanks for the puzzle, Gordius, and the blog, manehi!

By: pennes

pennes — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:29:40 +0000

the first Gordius I’ve attempted, which turned out to be easier than I thought on first run through. I got stuck at south east as I thought the writer was probably william Styron , who wrote Sophie’s Choice; ( the name has probably stuck as it is a bit unusual). I had nattier to fit but was on the lines that it must be an anagram of either painter or smarter.

By: mikeh

mikeh — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:00:12 +0000

RCWhiting
Thanks. I can see how that works now. As a relative novice it is not one i’ve seen before. It works well as misdirection.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:29:50 +0000

bat
A few more double unwrappings would be welcome hereabouts. Some of these clues do not have even one unwrapping.
As Mark says @15,’safety’ is just a definition.

mikeh
Fruit is used quite often as an anagram indicator, I suppose its attraction is the scope for misdirection.
It needs to be considered in a metaphorical sense,like ‘the fruit of ones labours’. It’s what you get out of something,what it yields.
So here,’gets ripe’ yields ‘prestige’.

By: bat020

bat020 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:11:25 +0000

15a ECLOGUE was the last one in for me. Thought it was rather ungainly: “return” -> “GO back” -> “OG” involves a double unwrapping, whereas “CLUE” is just there as is.

By: Robi

Robi — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:34:11 +0000

Thanks Gordius and manehi.

Not that easy for me. ECLOGUE (the cryptic ‘go back’ was so easy to spot [RCW] that I missed it!) and NATTIER (as artist) unknown by me. Re 17d, I suppose that you could say that a vine is one of many climbers, if you wanted to be generous. Like mikeh @18, I was surprised by fruit as an anagrind, if that is what is going on. I originally thought that the answer was going to end in ‘lime.’

I did like the EAVESDROP clue. Once I got the -k-e at the end of 27, I thought the answer was going to be ‘pondokkie’ (a type of hut!)

By: chas

chas — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:09:28 +0000

Silly me! I have looked again at the clue and I now see the extra ‘direction’ just as tupu pointed out

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:26:38 +0000

Hi chas
Yes but where does the ‘to find direction’ come in then?

By: chas

chas — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:15:38 +0000

Thanks to manehi for the blog. I needed you to explain why I had the right answer for EMOTIVE.

I am going to differ about 17d.
Climbers=VINES with WAS about it gives WAVINESS exactly.

By: mikeh

mikeh — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:42:59 +0000

RE 4 dn

Is ‘fruit’ really an anagram indicator?