Comments on: Guardian Quiptic N° 653, by Arachne

By: Donna

Donna — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:23:33 +0000

Dear PeterO,
Thank you for the welcome and additional information on “gee.” In American crosswords “gee” is sometimes clued as to have a horse turn right and “haw” is to have him turn left.

By: PeterO

PeterO — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:23:06 +0000

Donna – may I add my welcome to you. I have done a little digging on gee-gee, and the consensus seems to be much as I thought: gee-gee as a reduplication of gee, which hails from the expression “gee up” to urge a horse to go faster, and in turn from giddyup, or get ye up.

By: Donna

Donna — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:56:13 +0000

Dear Gaufrid,
Thank you for the welcome and the explanation of “GG.” I was looking up “G” not “Gee,” which is why I couldn’t find it! A few weeks ago I tried the Quiptic by Moley but instead of spelling the answer word to a clue “MEAGRE” I used the American spelling, “MEAGER!” It drove me crazy because I couldn’t complete the puzzle and I’d been doing pretty well up to that point! I really have to remember to put my British hat on when solving these puzzles. It’s been great fun, though. Tomorrow I get my weekly American cryptic fix from “The Nation” magazine which comes out every Thursday in the US. I do wish cryptics would catch on more here. Thanks again!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:33:37 +0000

Hi Donna
I think this is the first time you have posted a comment so welcome to 15².

To go from ‘horse’ to GG actually takes two steps if you are using Chambers which gives “gee-gee – a child’s word for a horse” and “gee – the seventh letter of the modern English alphabet (G or g)”.

By: Donna

Donna — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:58:42 +0000

This was such a delightful puzzle! Thank you, Arachne! I’m rather new to solving British cryptic crosswords and sometimes I have a little trouble with some of the expressions. Why is a horse called a “GG?” I have a Chambers Dictionary but couldn’t find it there. I loved the clue at 29 Across which I should have gotten the answer to but didn’t! When I just looked at it I really kicked myself! So clever! Anyway, thanks again from here in New Jersey!

By: Arachne

Arachne — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:19:37 +0000

Thanks (again) for comments, chaps. Just working on another Quip. so am particularly mindful of and grateful for your opinions. The Quiptic is particularly close to my heart and I particularly want to get it right, so your input is vital.

Toodlepip!
Arachne x

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:01:46 +0000

The class dummy had to cheat the last few and make heavy use of gadgets. Was it just me that had evidence that this was a tad tricky for a Quiptic? I refer the honourable lady/gentleman to the blog for 18, last sentence.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:56:06 +0000

I’ve never known Arachne be on anything other than best behaviour, Peter …

I did find bits of this tough for a Quiptic level puzzle, especially TEACHES and EXILE; but there were some lovely surface readings as well.

Thanks for the blog.

By: Arachne

Arachne — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:46:25 +0000

Many thanks, Peter, for the excellent blog. Calibration of Quips is ongoing, so your comments are really useful!

Thanks, too, to crypticsue for kind words.

Now back to CLR James to try to work out a subversive Trotskyite strategy, Windies for the use of.

Love & hugs,
Arachne x

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:58:29 +0000

Great fun as ever, thank you Arachne and Peter too.