Comments on: Independent 8099 / Phi

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 19:26:18 +0000

Overcomplicating things a bit aren’t we? TINY parses as blogged, where TINNY shows no example of a repetition.

By: redddevil

redddevil — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 15:46:35 +0000

And maybe Messrs Best and Sellers could both have done with an ‘old’ in front of them given that they’re both dead!

By: NealH

NealH — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:03:53 +0000

Actually, re-reading the blog, that probably is what you meant. I was a bit hung up on the N being clued by “not”, which doesn’t make sense.

By: NealH

NealH — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:59:17 +0000

I don’t think 26 works as tinny minus one of the double N. The clue would then have to read “Underdeveloped, not resonant, not not seeing repetition”. I think it’s just saying there isn’t a repetition of any sort in tinny, so no double N. That was the clue that mainly held me up, as I couldn’t work it out and only got it from the definition.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:42:34 +0000

Paul B @10 re 11dn: The indication to remove only one I comes clearly enough from the length of the answer, but to my way of thinking “excluding capital of Ireland” can mean either “remove just one I” or “remove every I”, with the latter being the more natural reading.

More importantly to me, one should never apologise for a good pun.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:46:45 +0000

Didn’t start too badly but there were three clues at the end that gave me a problem. Finally got 20ac, which was enough to give me 13dn and 26ac.

Not only have I come across “palimpsest” in other contexts than crosswords, a couple of years ago I was at an SF awards ceremony and two separate nominated works in two different categories were titled “Palimpsest”. Unfortunately, the person reading out the nominations didn’t know how to pronounce it and kept stumbling over the word.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:18:31 +0000

I appreciate PB’s point, however all three of FEELiNG CRITIC*, FEELING CRiTIC* and FEELING CRITiC* do the trick: and since the indication is clearly that only one ‘i’ should be removed (‘capital of Ireland’), it seems to parse cryptic muster.

Sorry about that pun there.

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:49:51 +0000

Phi beat me at the end, I’ve only ever known it as Gnarl, still a pleasant runaround, thanks both.

By: yvains

yvains — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:53:20 +0000

Thanks, Phi, and Duncan particularly for the parsing of 14: I seem to have a permanent block about PER=a. I liked most the simplicity of 9 and 4.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:16:28 +0000

Thanks Phi for a crossword well up to your usual high standards and Duncan for a blog of which the same can be said.

Some thoughts about 11dn. The problem is how to indicate the removal of just one of three Is. To me, “excluding” carries overtones that suggest removing every occurrence of the letter. Replacing “excluding” by a word like “omitting” would spoil the surface. Perhaps the clue could have been turned round to read:

Excluding capital of Ireland, feeling critic errs here (6, 6)

Then we can remove the only I from “feeling” before linking with “critic” to make the anagram fodder. However, the surface is not as good, so on reflection I am happy to go with Phi’s clue as the best construction for the idea behind it.