Comments on: Financial Times 14,056 by Gozo

By: Jason Lofts

Jason Lofts — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:45:51 +0000

Not to mention

Endangered frog angers alcoholic sailors

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:34:22 +0000

Now you are entertaining me!

By: Jason Lofts

Jason Lofts — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:49:15 +0000

Well, Pete, what about:

Angered frogs casseroled in grain alcohol
OR
Frogs’ leader enraged Carolingian schools ?

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:15:46 +0000

Hmmm. Well it does work and is rather clever. But I’d prefer one without the “Leo (echo)”.

By: Jason Lofts

Jason Lofts — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:37:36 +0000

I have an even better anagram of François Hollande’s full name:

François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (born 12 August 1954, i.e. star sign Leo)

Frigging scandals and errors
A Leo … Leo (echo)

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 22:42:18 +0000

Thanks Pete, my point was that the definition should lead to an answer and the wordplay should lead to an answer, and those answers are the same. If one does not know the definition it should still be possible to work things out from the wordplay and get the correct answer. In this case to do so was impossible, since the wordplay alone led to at least two plausible answers.

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 10:12:49 +0000

Wil, Thank you for your concurrence of 2dn and 20ac.

I do not understand your comment about RACOMADOUR. I had to search to find ROCAMADOUR. It does not seem to be a well known place of pilgrimage but it is listed as one by Wikipedia. I did not come across a RACOMADOUR and a web search for that now turns up nothing.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Agree that 2dn and 20ac are wrong. No point in trying to justify them — they’re simply wrong and the crossword editor should jolly well have noticed.

Another way in which 20ac is no good, in my opinion but not evidently in that of anyone else since it hasn’t been mentioned, is that ‘even verbatim’ doesn’t give ebti; ‘evenly verbatim’ does.

Since that place of pilgrimage is so little known — it doesn’t seem to be in any reference books — it seems a bit unfair to me to set a clue that could equally well lead to RACOMADOUR. How on earth is one expected to know what the correct answer is?

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:32:49 +0000

So, no final Wise Words then?

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:54:20 +0000

Eileen, I think you are saying that the ‘its’ in 13ac makes the clue okay. In which case, I find myself in agreement with you. As I said at the beginning, this is one of my favourite clues anyway and now I retract my concern about it.