Comments on: Guardian 25,687 / Araucaria

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:05:06 +0000

Hi AlexCrewe

Apparently not: how did you parse it?

By: AlexCrewe

AlexCrewe — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:23:08 +0000

Didn’t anyone else get NITWIT for 22a?

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 10:25:27 +0000

That’s wisdom.

Rev revving on all cylinders in the stand-out down clues. Really excellent stuff!

By: JollySwagman

JollySwagman — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 03:23:25 +0000

Re “for” as an embed indicator.

I’m having fish for dinner.

Ie my dinner will include fish – not consist exclusively of it.

Plus of course good setters drop indicators when they’re too obvious (eg especially foreign words – doubly especially French or Latin) so it could equally be treated as an unindicated embed with “for” in its regular role as a linkword.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:51:41 +0000

Thanks Sil

Agreed on all counts!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:11:45 +0000

Yes, Eileen, I mean the dodgy ‘for’, which we only accept because we know that Araucaria just does things like this if he ‘needs to’. In this case, for the Fiddler on the Roof surface.
I do not want to start another long discussion (like in yesterday’s Gordius) but my main problem with the clue is that usually “A for B” means that A leads to the answer B. But here B’s the fodder which really doesn’t work for me at all. Moreover, ‘for’ is not really an appropriate hidden solution indicator (unlike perhaps ‘from’ or ‘of’, to name some neighbours).
It’s a poor clue in an otherwise very fine crossword.

And Redshank? (re @29).
Indeed, fantastic crossword that all admirers of Crucible (and Radian at another place) should really take a look at!

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:02:01 +0000

Dave
You are completely right. For example today, I immediately knew 13d ended with forks which was a big help, even though the pitch came later.And,of course, the 21,24 and 26ac confirmed my guess.
Sometimes just ‘knowing’ a first or last letter can be a great help.
I suspect this is something tyros do not always appreciate, you don’t need a complete solution to advance the whole thing.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:37:14 +0000

Hi Sil

Re NERO: I presume you mean the dodgy ‘for’?

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:33:02 +0000

Thanks, Eileen; I always come late to this on a Friday because of grandson babysitting.

I, too, had 8a straight away, and 9, though I was a bit doubtful about it, and whilst I thought of RAIL on first read through I wasn’t at all sure; nor with 10a ISLAND (no one has mentioned it but I assume it refers to a traffic island?). However I cracked the theme at 2 down, when -T—, with a putative A from ISLAND, gave me STEAM which quickly confirmed RAIL; strange how the smallest bits of clues can be great aids.

18a ANIMADVERT. I was convinced we had this not so long ago, but a quick search reveals Andrew blogged Arachne on May 15, 2009 (where it was ANIMADVERSION); but Andrew was convinced we had seen it shortly before that. I do seem to recall there was a good bit of discussion about it.

Thanks for explanation of 1d – in my haste I wrote the answer in and forgot to parse it, which I wouldn’t have managed anyway.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:23:25 +0000

Calling [rather late in the day] Crucible fans!

Crucible’s alter ego Redshank has an excellent FT puzzle today: http://media.ft.com/cms/6e8e65a6-bf9f-11e1-bb88-00144feabdc0.pdf