Comments on: Guardian Quiptic 667 Arachne

By: John Appleton

John Appleton — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:00:55 +0000

There’s a nice little misdirection in 27 – “feasts regularly” can also yield “fat”. That one had me wrong-footed for a while.

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:26:46 +0000

Yes all jolly fine, thank you all.

Minor point, but I think the A is missing from the explanation of 11.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:42:07 +0000

Thanks for the blog. Just “quiptic” enough, I thought, but probably at the harder end of the scale, for some of the clues anyway. I think there is a slight error in the parsing of 20d. I did it your way at the time but wasn’t comfortable with it – “puts on the internet” ends up having to be “post” rather than “posts”. But I actually think it’s “One puts on the internet” as the queen might say it, meaning “I put on the internet”, i.e “I post” – no need for Roman numerals. With that parsing it’s a very good clue, and an introduction for the new solver to Arachne-style wit.

By: scchua

scchua — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:07:29 +0000

Great of you to drop in, Arachne, x and all. Was glad to have had you drawn out of the hat, so to speak, today.

By: Arachne

Arachne — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:40:47 +0000

Just a flying visit whilst I’m on my tea break from holiday grandmaternal duties to say a big thank you to Scchua for an excellent and entertaining blog – it made me laugh on a miserable, grey Manchester day. Thanks again x

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:36:39 +0000

Although Arachne sets a slightly tougher Quiptic than some, they are still eminently solveable with all the usual fun one associates with her puzzles. Thanks to her and scchua too.

By: scchua

scchua — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:36:08 +0000

[[That was fast, Robi. Right on all, and, to boot, an extra link for James Coco which I hadn't thought of. Well done!]]

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:46:26 +0000

Usual clever Arachne puzzle; as you say, maybe a bit more difficult than some.

I particularly liked SHUDDER and ELABORATE. I didn’t know the OPERA and thought of Colin DE(x)TER who wrote the Morse series.

[[ 1. is, I think, a representation of the nursery rhyme 'Jack be NIMBLE.'
2. is, of course, Sophia Loren, who appeared with James Coco (4) in 'Man of La Mancha' about Don Quixote, who was a {pretend} knight-ERRANT
3. is a reference to ping pong diplomacy, which was the exchange of table tennis players between the United States and China in the early 1970s. The event paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon.
4. is James Coco {see 2 above} who might also be an example of PUDGINESS and appeared in 'The Dumplings.']]