Comments on: Guardian Cryptic N° 25,627 by Arachne

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:47:46 +0000

Thanks Arachne and PeterO.
Excellent crossword as most others have quoted – a shame that I waited so long to get to it!!! Needed help with parsing of 5 and 1,22,4 – I had a homonym for ‘knee cap’ in as my effort . The latter is brilliant and became my clue of the day. A few new words with 7, 12, 24 and 25 when not a Vitamin B!!
Great work…

By: Labcastrian Bluenose

Labcastrian Bluenose — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:13:46 +0000

Very good and clever puzzle.I will keep an eye out for Arache’s puzzles in future

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:56:45 +0000

Good stuff of course but no surprises there.

If there is a quibble it would be in 12dn using an anagram for a word which you’re unlikely to be able to work out cold unless you are read up in South Asian peace politics…

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:21:56 +0000

Yes, indeed, great puzzle.
Some easy starters [1,22,4 (purely from the enumeration) and, for example, 19d (easy, but a clever surface)] that paved the way.

Talking about surfaces. I know Arachne finds them very very important, but today it led to some very very long clues. I have no problem with that at all (perhaps some editors do) – I only wanted to mention it.
I also know that Arachne doesn’t have that much affinity with pop music, but see: here they are, ELO and A-Ha.

TOLERANCE and APARTHEID are placed symmetrically in the grid, as a kind of counterparts.
If that’s deliberate, then Full Marks to Arachne.
APARTHEID is a Dutch word and many of my compatriots are ashamed of that.
The other Dutch reference (2d) is also not very positive …..

We had never heard of SATYAGRAHA (which was PinC’s option, I would have gone for TASYAGRAHA (sounds more Indian) – so, she won ).
Thank you, PeterO, for the blog which explained AB OVO [we knew it had to be it, but couldn't get around the explanation].
ANEURIN, the name of a Welshman? Whoa, named after Vitamin B?

Clue of the Day, for me, by far, 18ac: BRRR.
But as my PinC said, you won’t see that in The Times.
Indeed, therefore my Clue of the Day.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:48:02 +0000

Wolfie, very possibly!

By: Gervase

Gervase — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:01:52 +0000

Nigel @32: What you describe is a burqa, not a niqab!

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:57:25 +0000

Little I can add to the above comments, but just wanted to pass on my thanks to Arachne for a most enjoyable crossword.

Kathryn’s Dad – I still have my copy of ‘Protest and Survive’ too. I wonder if we were on the same marches?

Thanks Peter O for your blog. I missed the nicab/niqab homophone.

By: Nigel

Nigel — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:59:00 +0000

nicab = niqab. Full body cover worn by some Muslim women.

By: gm4hqf

gm4hqf — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:57:09 +0000

Thanks PeterO and Arachne.

The spider lady always traps me but I thought that I had cracked this one only to find I couldn’t work out 24a AB OVO.

There is always the next time.

By: Gervase

Gervase — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:28:35 +0000

scchua @28: The homophone ‘niqab’ = NICAB is inexact in several ways. Not only is the second vowel of a different quality, but the Arabic letter transliterated as ‘q’ is different from that represented in Roman script as ‘k’ (or a hard c). The Arabic ‘q’ is articulated at the back of the throat, whereas the ‘k’ is much further forward. English speakers often make fun of the Japanese difficulty in distinguishing ‘r’ and ‘l’. Arabic speakers must be similarly amused by our trouble with ‘k’ and ‘q’, which in English are allophones of the same consonant: the initial sound of ‘cool’ is close to ‘q’, whereas the initial sound of ‘keep’ is more like the Arabic ‘k’.

However, it’s a great clue!