Comments on: Guardian 25,666 Brummie

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 08:23:54 +0000

Thanks Brummie and UY,

Found this quite a challenge taking a couple of sittings to get it out and needed a bit of reference help (especially with TSUTSUMU and HOSPITIA) to get over the line. Hadn’t heard of Sooty as a finger puppet before but had heard of the former Hindu practice before and was able to solve from the latter part of the clue.

GRID was last in strangely enough after looking back to see how straightforward it really was!

By: rhotician

rhotician — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:16:20 +0000

RCW @28: Quite.

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 19:19:02 +0000

Late I know, but in Brummie’s defence I should point out that the wordplay for 21ac does not imply a homophone. Had the clue started ‘Articulated puppet etc.’ it would have indicated a homophone. But the clue was ‘BADLY articulated puppet…’. Badly articulated’ means ‘mispronounced’ so it is pretty obvious that what the setter had in mind was an indicator of a partial or false homophone – you would need to mispronounce ‘SOOTY’ to make it sound like ‘SUTTEE’. Perfectly good clue in my opinion – as far as the parsing goes.

By: Abhay

Abhay — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:10:56 +0000

Regardless of whether one finds 21dn offensive, the clue is wrong: the word sounds nothing like “sooty”. The u is pronounced as in “but”.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:22:53 +0000

Chambers gives line-out (hyphen included).

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:30:51 +0000

Just because I was not in the least offended by ‘suttee’ does not mean that I found it funny.
That is because I come to a crossword not seeking,or expecting, that any of my emotions will be affected. In the context of a crossword words are very limited with distinct meanings as given in the dictionary.
Their function is to puzzle- this they did here very successfully.
Brummie should be protected from over-sentimentalised and inappropriate reactions.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:48:57 +0000

carneddi @21: I can find no such reference in The Laws. Under definitions in Law 19, for instance, it says “The purpose of the lineout is to restart play after…”, and is consistent throughout. No reference to “Line Out” anywhere.

This does mean, however, that 23/4 should be (8) rather than (4-4).

By: Mrs.T

Mrs.T — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:44:14 +0000

@ Eileen

I`m in total agreement re 21 – it`s the inapproprate `humour` which shocks and offends.
Surprised that anyone could laugh at this, Brummie.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:03:09 +0000

Having taken a vow of silence over Gordius’s lapses, I didn’t comment earlier in the day but, following earlier comments, I’d like to register my distaste at 21dn: I agree with ToniL @7 about both halves of the clue – but my discomfort is rather more than vague.

As I said this morning, very disappointing for Brummie.

By: Trailman

Trailman — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:18:31 +0000

Started this late morning, quickly left it largely unsolved, came back to it 20 mins ago and found it went quickly. Like others, found 21d poor taste, plus the homophone didn’t work for me: the first syllable is a very different vowel sound. At least with 2d I now know where the annoying modern trend for gift wrapping comes from.