Comments on: Guardian 25,749 / Brendan

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:43:38 +0000

I’m a bit late to the party, since I have slowly fallen behind the Grauniad’s schedule. I’m actually further behind than this puzzle, but last night I was in the mood for something a bit lighter and more whimsical than the last couple I had worked on, and noticed a Brendan marked “Monday” in my little stack and thought it would be nice to play with.

Got off to a slow start, with only a few answers in place by the time 26A had rendered my solving skills useless.

Picked it back up today, by now having forgotten that it was a Brendan. Waged some battle in the SW corner, with every answer except ASCENDER and SINFUL staying in pencil. Gradually metastasized across the grid, entering “BORDER” in pencil long before solving the clue, which had me checking occasionally for the Nina. For a while I thought USA might be a part of it…

Finally solved 11/22 completely, forgot to check for the Nina, and got a few more answers, when I saw CRO_US, to my great dismay. And ASTER was there, PEONY gave me SCENARIO and the wonderful SNAP, and there was a DAHLIA and an IRIS. I had to resort to using OneLook for the CS?R?A? word, after deciding that SOJOURNS simply *had* to be correct. A fair enough clue if a bit obscure, I just didn’t parse it to give me something to guess at and look up. Never heard of the island (9, not 10!), but the pencilled in answer held up so there was no need to research it.

Favorite clues were 20 with its lovely abuse of the theme and 5, but many others raised a smile.

Thanks for the blog, Eileen et. al.; and for the delightful traipse 25/13, and for dropping by, Brendan!

By: yvains

yvains — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 07:53:04 +0000

@Sarah

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 01:47:26 +0000

Thank you, Dave H and yvains. I understand what was being discussed now.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:47:42 +0000

Hi BillinAustin

Welcome to 15² – I still remember my own delight when I discovered it!

I hope we’ll hear more from you.

By: BillinAustin

BillinAustin — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:37:47 +0000

Thanks for the wonderful insights, all. I’ve been doing the Guardian cryptics for years here in the hinterlands of America. Only recently discovered Fifteensquared which has greatly added to my puzzle pleasure.

The term “Nina” was unknown to me until this puzzle’s blog. Another fun twist to the enjoyable world of cryptic puzzles.

By the way, I am the only person I know in this city who does these.

By: yvains

yvains — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:09:21 +0000

Sarah @33 – Just in case you mean, “What exactly is a nina?”, it’s basically a word or words (not being the answer(s) to a specific clue or clues), hidden somewhere in the completed grid (i.e. not necessarily always, as in this case, around the border). It takes its name from the habit of US caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, of hiding the name of his daughter, Nina, somewhere in each of the drawings he did after her birth. This page provides an excellent example: http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/10/what-is-nina.html

Other common terms are quite well explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptic_crossword

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:31:21 +0000

Hi Sarah @23

Just for the record, it’s never too late to query a blog or comment, as the day’s blooger gets an email of all comments on his/her blog.

To fill out the theme/nina completely, the answer to 11,22 is HERBACEOUS BORDER, which is what we have here, as stated in the clue.

By: Dave H

Dave H — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:17:43 +0000

Sarah,
I think everone else is now on today’s puzzle. The nina is the letters in the edge squares, starting at square 1, when read clockwise around the complete grid give the names of garden plants ie crocus, aster, peony, dahlia and iris and are part of the garden theme.
I never spot these damn things either!!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:25:35 +0000

Please enlighten an inexperienced solver. What IS the nina? Thanks.

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:06:21 +0000

Must agree CSARDAS is unlikely to be known by virtually the entire population (me included), I sympathise with Brendan (both of you!) but sometimes I guess nothing else will fit.

A great little puzzle otherwise, many thanks to Eileen and setter.