Comments on: Guardian Cryptic 25755 Rufus

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 01:48:48 +0000

Late to the game, the ugly grid Rufus appears to be addicted to combined with 7 DDs and 2 CDs – which cannot be “proved” by the solver in the normal manner – tends to make me enjoy his puzzles far less than the wittier clues and gentle anagrams should.

I still don’t get the PI in STUPID. OK, Chambers clarifies it. A link would have been nice for an obscure term.

Was left with STUPID and RABBIT in pencil, Chambers has confirmed both. Maybe in British English (sorry) these terms are more common. And 15d and 24a were blank until I thought “VEILS”! Yes, that might be what this cryptic definition refers to. Then taking P?R?E?A? to OneLook suggested PARMESAN. Oh. Probably the worst clue in the puzzle.

It’s hard appreciating the wit when the ones one found hard didn’t elicit a smile when finding how they worked, and they were the last 1/4 of the puzzle. It makes one forget the wit and wisdom that might have been stumbled upon previously.

Lark was weak, very weak, ruined by the attempt for yet another “surface” (“adventure bird” would have made sense as a clue, but not as a surface).

I am in the “became” camp @ 1. It doesn’t wreck the surface and is more accurate for a supposedly easy puzzle.

Let me see, working back, what did I like? 4 and 13. 17 was a good DD. 20 was witty.

So thanks to scchua and all for the blog, and Rufus for what, indeed, you are supposed to provide. But can you please retire this grid, Sir?

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:48:37 +0000

rho @22
I think PB often writes in a style which politicians refer to as ‘deniability’.

By: Robi

Robi — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:39:56 +0000

[[Nice one, although a bit obscure, perhaps.]]

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 23:28:43 +0000

[[Robi@24. #2 and 4 were in a Whitbread commercial cf. http://johnjbowen.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/when-tv-adverts-were-fun-whitbread-abdul-the-bulbul-emir/
based on the poem Abdul ABulbul Amir(alternateive spelling of EMIR) cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Abulbul_Amir ]].

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 22:54:39 +0000

Optician, I don’t know what you mean when you say you don’t know what I mean. What DO you mean?

By: Robi

Robi — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:25:52 +0000

[[Sorry, can't get this one.]]

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:00:20 +0000

rho @21
How great is the importance of (value of) owning a copy of Chambers when solving these crosswords?

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 03:26:35 +0000

scchua @2: I think you mean “I have become acquainted with/met her”.

John A @18: “I don’t really see the issue with “become” in 1d”. I think you do really. You just don’t agree with those who don’t “see” that it is a valid misdirection.

Thomas99 @20: “is an exact synonym of”. I think you mean “is loosely synonymous with”.

Misdirection makes a clue more difficult to parse and therefore, in theory, more difficult to solve. In this case those posting here (and in the other place) who “failed to parse this clue” seem to have had little difficulty solving it. The misdirection, though valid, was only partially successful, unless it was Rufus’ intention to annoy solvers by misleading them to conclude, wrongly, that the clue was yet another mistake and should have read “became”.

Paul B @19: I don’t know what you mean.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 02:58:29 +0000

RCW @16: ‘importance of’='value of’. I can’t think of a sentence in which “importance of” and “value” can be interchangeable.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:58:09 +0000

I agree with John Appleton, scchua, Paul B and anyone else who realises there is nothing at all wrong with 1d. “Met” (past participle) is an exact synonym of “become acquainted with” (also past participle). As John Appleton says, anyone trying to use the present tense, as in the surface, has been successfully misdirected. After so many failed to parse this clue I shall treat the complaints that Rufus is too easy with even more scepticism.