Comments on: Guardian 25738 – Shed

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:01:06 +0000

From your page ref. xxii I assume you are using the 11th ed.
Interestingly on pg xvi section 7 of the latest it actually spells out the point. “….strict alphabetical order may be waived in order to list the most commonly used form first.”

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:42:45 +0000

Not rude at all – a little slow perhaps?
When examining B-L-A-I-E for my last to solve the correct word did not come to me because ‘baulk’ does not fit.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:06:12 +0000

RCW @34
I was afraid someone would make such an observation.
Not long after making my post I found on pg xxii the example of “alternative forms” – boult or bolt. Opening at random and flicking around I soon found lots more. I assume you found ravin etc the same way.

I’m still keen to understand how Chambers treats alternative forms but I’ll keep the investigation private. Thanks for not subjecting my second sentence – “In fact … ” – to close scrutiny.

My curiosity was aroused by
yourself @12 – “I have always spelled ‘baulk’ but Chambers gives ‘balk’ first.” and
Giovanna @27 – “although [Chambers] gives balk first.”

Without wishing to be rude – so what?

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 22:01:33 +0000

Re 26 such indication is freely available and has been for megayonks. Some compilers even use it!

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:49:19 +0000

rho @31
“Chambers gives balk first because it precedes baulk alphabetically”.
Are you sure? See: pg 1296 ravin, raven, ravine and passim.

By: Gervase

Gervase — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:52:27 +0000

Hi tupu: Thanks for correcting my mangling of Chomsky!

Shed: Thanks for dropping by – and for showing that setters are human after all. As are solvers, of course – many of us failed to notice the infelicity. Great puzzle, nevertheless!

By: Robi

Robi — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:50:01 +0000

Shed @30; thanks for dropping by; great minds think alike……..

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:28:59 +0000

Chambers gives balk first because it precedes baulk alphabetically. In fact by combining and cross-referencing the two it seems to me to imply that baulk is more common. Had I ever needed to write the word I would have used baulk, having seen it more often. But I must have seen balk somewhere.

Nevertheless BALKANISE was also my last. And for what it’s worth I also missed the misanagram.

By: Shed

Shed — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:51:03 +0000

Humble egg-faced apologies to all for 1dn and thanks for being so kind about it. I am in fact just about to contact the editor suggesting precisely Robi @14′s rewrite (which I’d thought of independently) for the archive. I take the point about a megabyte being a unit of memory rather than memory itself, but ‘distance’ for ‘mile’ is pretty standard and I think this falls into the same grey area.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:44:15 +0000

On second thoughts I suppose a BYTE is memory; still not convinced MEGABYTE is, though.