Comments on: Independent 7978/Punk

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:52:45 +0000

I thought this was great fun, although it did take quite a time!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:51:07 +0000

30 minutes, flashling? – this was an ‘overnight’ one for me. I twigged straightaway that the two long answers were a ‘Doctor, doctor’ joke but couldn’t think which one, there are so many of them. I’d actually forgotten the ‘curtains’ one. Talking of which……

Doctor, doctor, I keep forgetting things!
When did this trouble start?
What trouble?

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 11 May 2012 00:19:20 +0000

Getting the joke filled in a lot of the grid, but still very tricky in places, quite shocked john didn’t know or spot the rather old joke, I suspect the Dr Who/McCoy/StarTrek was quite deliberate.

Thanks John/PunK for helping me waste 30 mins or so.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:02:32 +0000

Well, I enjoyed this more than Tuesday’s, getting enough answers to get the long phrases (which I did know). I immediately thought of Dr “Bones” McCoy for 20ac but I’m a bit of a Trekkie. Needed some electronic help towards the end. Certainly wouldn’t have got 23ac without it.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:22:41 +0000

Enjoyable reading tonight – so glad we logged on! Can we have more Doctor, Doctor jokes please?
Thanks Richard @ 2 for explaining 23ac. Really enjoyed the surface reading to 6d – great clue!
Our first thoughts were that the long interconnected clues were going to spoil things but in the end it was an enjoyable solve, saved by the standard of the rest of the clues.

Thanks John and Punk.

Finally….
Doctor, Doctor Can I have a second opinion please?
Yes, certainly. Come back tomorrow.

By: helen btamall

helen btamall — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:41:27 +0000

4down: LITTLE OWL is DoctorDolittle minus party(do). The doctor doctor joke is a well known one!

By: John

John — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:02:05 +0000

Thanks everyone. Yes I completely forgot about 1dn, which as already said is I b{u}r{y} in (Lett i), and I also missed the 8 8 at the start of the first clue — actually I didn’t at first but later, when it came to parsing them I did. And yes, 6dn is I realise not an &lit. — I was being lulled by Azed into calling anything with an &littish quality an &lit.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:49:15 +0000

Mr A Writinghawk talks about looking before leaping, it seems, which I feel is an extremely good point to make.

Rorshach is right – that’s not an &lit.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:15:25 +0000

6dn is not an &lit. It’s &littish but not an &lit – the clue is ‘male condition’ and the rest of the clue elucidates it.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:39:45 +0000

It also reminded me of another old quip “Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined”.