Comments on: Independent 8049 / Dac

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:56:58 +0000

In the end, 6ac and 7dn defeated me.

I wonder if 18ac refers to Lindsay Anderson or Wes Anderson, director of The Royal Tenenbaums among others, and probably better known today.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:42:39 +0000

Does ‘know-how’ = talent? I’m not sure I would assimilate the two?

Apart from that – the standard Dac smoothness and fairness.

Thanks both!

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:35:42 +0000

Thanks, both.

Lovely midweek puzzle from Dac. Plenty of elegant clueing as always; I too liked BETROTHAL and thought SQUAT was fine with the question mark at the end of the clue.

Thanks to the setter too.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:56:01 +0000

Many thanks, B&J, for the blog – thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Dac. Favourite clues, Bonaparte and bethrothal. No problem here with SQUAT with the definition a little cryptic (as indicated by the “?”, I thought) tho a wordplay element is provided also to help the solver.

By: rowland

rowland — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:25:02 +0000

I would imagine the question-mark is there to allow some width in the meaning of house-sit. I really felt it was okay. Also, it’s got to be QU with A in SAT, for the simplest parsing I can see! ‘House’ would definitely not be an containing indicator for me.

Many thanks to smoothy Dac, and to Bert & Joyce for their great blog. The nostalgic stuff was…. interesting?

Rowly.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 10:48:17 +0000

Thanks, Al Dente. As you say, other good ones in there too. For anyone else interested, go to http://www.bikwil.com/Vintage18/Quirky-Quotes.html – and there are links to more.

By: Al Dente

Al Dente — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 10:25:15 +0000

Hi allan_c. It was Denis Norden. Reference BIKWIL: quintessential quirky quotes,issue 18 March 2000; schwa puns. Other good ones in there too.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:54:25 +0000

It’s Wednesday and Dac, so I expected some lovely smooth surfaces and wasn’t disappointed – for example 8a, 6d, 15d and 21d.
14a reminded me of a comment by Frank Muir or Denis Norden (I can’t recall which) to the effect that a hi-hat is like the poetry of Mallarmé – one cymbal piled on top of another (think homophone).
Thanks, Dac and B&J.

By: Ian SW3

Ian SW3 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:11:50 +0000

I took “house” to indicate inclusion (i.e., rendering the rather poetic word order more normally, “day to house question a = sit”)

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:03:49 +0000

Ian SW3 @ 1 it’s the inclusion of ‘house’ within the definition that we were worried about.

Al Dente @2 we were slightly concerned about how the ‘younger gran’ may feel about being called ‘old’ until we checked with Chambers. As to eating Spanish fleas – we’re not sure what nationality the ants are at Nomu that are being eaten at the moment in London but we think we’d prefer to stick to a vegetarian option!