Comments on: Independent 8025 / Dac

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:38:55 +0000

Understand the point you make at #4, Wil, re film vs book (I remember being surprised when AJ Cronin’s “Citadel” was described as a film).
BUT, if a work is a book and a film (the book usually came first!) it can be clued as either, perhaps based on which is better known, which the film just might be here – more people watch films than read books. I read the book and saw the film so remember it all – reading the book first

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:13:34 +0000

Started this late and had a bit of a struggle, not helped by getting 24ac wrong at first. I’d vaguely worked out how the clue was made up, already had the ‘l’ from “Kylie”, guessed there would be an -el-, -al- or -sel- there and saw that “Andalucia” would fit. It was only when I finally got 17dn much later that I rubbed it out and then was able to complete most of that corner.

Ended up doing an electronic search for 18ac and “loose-jointed” was the only word that fit, but I couldn’t see why. Similarly with 8dn, where I thought “hardtop” was a type of road surface and therefore something to do with road works. (I’m a non-driver.)

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:38:25 +0000

As usual of course Dac at his best — he’s always at his best so far as I can see. But why — and they often do it — do setters refer to the film when the film is only a version of the book (Room at the Top)? The book was written first and was a great success, and a very good film was made of it, but the main piece of creation in this case is surely the book. With something like ‘Psycho’, although that is indeed based on an original book, the film achieved such prominence that to refer to ‘Psycho’ as a film is what one would expect, but ‘Room at the Top’ is hardly in the same league as a film. I suppose the surface encourages it here.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:40:12 +0000

Yes, R for “response(in Christian liturgy)” is also in Collins 2009. In 7D, I think “Making” acts as a link between the wordplay and definition parts though in this case it is not positioned between them but nonetheless works logically in that way. Needed, as you say, also for the surface which would be pretty meaningless otherwise. Enjoyable puzzle, on the easier side of the Indy average – favourite SNITCH. Thanks Dac and B&J.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:01:19 +0000

Thanks Dac for an enjoyable puzzle and Bert and Joyce for the blog.

21ac: R for “response” is also in Collins 2000.

8dn: Minor quibble here. I think this clue would read better with “bypassing” instead of “will bypass”. As the clue stands, the last six words make a perfectly good cryptic indication in the form of a grammatical sentence. There is nothing wrong with that, nor is there anything wrong in itself with the use of “in” as a linking word, but to me it needs to be followed by a noun phrase, not a complete sentence.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:19:41 +0000

Thanks, both, for blogging. Have you emigrated permanently to Greece?

Those of us with work to do will have appreciated this straightforward but enjoyable Dac puzzle. All smoothly clued as usual, with LOOSE-JOINTED and CATALONIA my favourites today.

I parsed GREEK like you did. R is in the SOED for ‘response’, with a note that it’s ‘ecclesiastical’, so I guess it’s referring to a response from the congregation to an utterance from the priest.

And, er, what exactly are you trying to tell us in your explanation of 6dn? Fifteensquared is no place to share your dirty little secrets, you know …

Thanks to Dac as always.