Comments on: Independent 8085 / Dac

By: allan_c

allan_c — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:31:48 +0000

A bit harder than usual for Dac, I thought, but maybe that was because I came to it late after a busy day. TONDI was new to me, too, and MITCHELL I only got because it couldn’t be anything else – shows my lack of knowledge in some areas of literature

A CARRY-OUT can also mean “off-sales” in a pub, especially in Scotland. It used to be (maybe still is, I’ve not been north of the border for some years) not unusual to be asked shortly before closing time if one wanted a carry-out. Unwary visitors sometimes mistook it for an offer of assistance leaving the premises if one had consumed too much!

Thanks to setter and blogger.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:48:52 +0000

Perhaps it was the late night G blog doing me in but I really struggled to complete this, no complaints (at least all the clues worked ) – just took a lot of effort. Cheers Duncan and DAC.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:43:19 +0000

Hi Duncan

We checked in late as per usual and first of all we couldn’t find the blog. It seems to have been filed under ‘uncategorised’ so took a bit of finding!

Still others have found it OK. We’d never come across 3d or 22d but the clueing was fair as we expected from Dac.

Thanks to you and Dac.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:44:59 +0000

Never really got going with this one – seemed a slog – but that’s more a criticism of me than anything else!

Tight as always from Dac – no surprises there!

Thanks both.

By: MikeC

MikeC — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:18:57 +0000

Thanks d and D. Enjoyable. TONDI very much my last one in. Had some vague recollection of the word tondo, somewhere in the “attic”, which helped.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:42:05 +0000

Yes, excellent, a shade on the easy side of average but nothing wrong with that – yes, the &lit touch in 1A was amusing, I guess that how Hollande would like to have people see it anyway. I’d never heard of TONDI either but it just had to be that from the wordplay and I did not mind learning a new word. Many thanks, Dac and Duncan.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:50:25 +0000

Couldn’t get an Indie today so did this online. Had to cheat to get “tondi” which I’d also never heard of. Certainly David Mitchell was the first author I thought of, but that could be because there was a review of a film of Cloud Atlas in the paper the other day.

By: rowland

rowland — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:08:24 +0000

“The solution built up gradually with each further pass through the acrosses and downs”. I guess others have a similar experience, Duncan! Sorry, I’m only pulling your leg, and I think this was up to the usual good standard of Dac puzzles. The FT today was quite similar in that respect, nicely-weighted, you might say.

Thanks for blog and puzzle both,
Rowly.

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:11:09 +0000

As yer average solver, I enjoyed this a lot, and in football parlance it was for me a puzzle of three halves with the east side coming together nicely, followed after a regroup by the SW corner, leaving me head scratching with the NW corner which needed the eureka moment. 1d was my last one in as I got hung up on trying to make blue=sad and incorporate red into the answer. Not come across Tondi before, but it had to be that from the clear clue.

Thanks Duncan and Dac.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:17:30 +0000

Thanks, Duncan.

Yes, you can usually rely on Dac to be theme-free, but this was entertaining in the usual style. A couple of less familiar words (TONDI was a new one for me). I liked HOLLANDE especially for its witty surface.

For the author, I just immediately thought of Margaret MITCHELL, but there are no doubt others. She was a bit of a one-trick pony, but Gone with the Wind was certainly a good trick.

Thanks to Dac as always.