Comments on: Guardian 25,768 – Shed

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:40:18 +0000

rho,I get the general tenor of your reply.
However,I don’t think making the solution easier to find (if it does) is an advantage.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:52:18 +0000

The “advantage” is obvious from posts you get here. Solvers who spot the pangram get pleasure, both from spotting it, and pointing it out to those who don’t. The same applies to many Ninas. Personally I couldn’t care less.

Except on one occasion. In a Times puzzle full of intractable clues I eventually noticed that, from one or two answers like QUIZZED, that there might be a double pangram. Looking for a missing J and K did help. I have to admit that I enjoyed and respected that.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:54:19 +0000

Tell me one advantage a pangram provides for the solver.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:47:53 +0000

We ‘are self-indulgent’, ‘faff about’ and produce ‘sloppy clues’ when we deliver our pangrams.

What’s not to like about good old RCW?

By: Shed

Shed — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:12:02 +0000

In my case at least, pangrams are a hoop I sometimes make myself jump through. They aren’t particularly difficult to produce – as Brendan (not that one) says, most puzzles have most of the alphabet in them anyway, but getting X, Z, Q, J and K in can be a bit tricky. I hope the discipline gets me to clue words I might not otherwise have thought of. But it certainly isn’t an excuse for sloppy clueing, and if I’ve been guilty of that I’d be glad to be told where.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:24:32 +0000

Brendan, I think they are a self-indulgence for compilers rather than adding to the solver’s challenge.
Perhaps,sometimes, faffing about with a pangram leads to sloppy clues.

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:59:54 +0000

Phew. 90 minutes slog in my case. But enjoyable.

Must have spent 10 minutes with the MILQUETOAST anagram even though I had several letters in place! Didn’t think I had met this before but on looking it up became unsure. (That’s the beauty of age. You can’t remember if you’ve forgot!!!)

Am I missing something here? (Very possible!) How can you spot a PANGRAM? I can see that if the grid MUST contain all letters of the alphabet then this might help towards the end. But surely most grids contain nearly all the 26 when nearly solved?

Thanks to UY and Shed.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:56:05 +0000

DL
Thanks for concern but I do not own a printer.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:44:43 +0000

Hi Derek,

Perhaps people are heeding your request.

By: WBE

WBE — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:03:37 +0000

I outclevered myself on 6d: Kingfisher-ER>Kingfish>Huey Long>longboat>long.