Comments on: Guardian 25,769 / Brendan

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 00:19:15 +0000

Not to worry Matt.
I think it is more juvenile stalking but I am very old and quite unaffected.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:17:51 +0000

Ah.

With the ‘sh’-ing I thought it was a reference to Winston Churchill.

Looking again, are you sure? Mr Whiting had already given his (complimentary) opinion on this puzzle. Is this something to do with the wars of Rufus?

I’m keen not to fuel the flames, but it seems to me like troll-feeding. I’m just trying to work out who the troll is in this case.

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 02:04:06 +0000

I suppose there was a theme of sorts here that would have helped – but I didn’t manage to solve enough clues to expose it. Oh well.

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 01:58:55 +0000

Awful grid, stopped caring. Got the SW. Don’t care about the rest

By: samui pete

samui pete — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:55:26 +0000

Paul is referring to rcw

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:40:28 +0000

Mr B,

I’m not sure who you’re referring to, but I get the impression that you’re biting your tongue on a matter that bothers you. I worry that there’s a risk that any number of people mistakenly think that you’re talking about them.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:57:28 +0000

Indeed. But why hasn’t the puzzle been slated by an idiot for being ‘self-indulgent’?

Shurely having a ghosht theme, or shimilar devishe, ish yet another exshample of the pointlesh games that compilersh play to satishfy themshelves and their egos rather than justly cater to the needsh of an absholute jerk or two.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:57:43 +0000

In a Brendan puzzle, one knows, there’s always something going on. He seems to be No-no-notorious for that [courtesy of Duran Duran, and PB ]
Most of the time it is signposted in the clues, today it wasn’t.

So, we started solving this puzzle in the usual way.
It was quite easy, but when we spotted ENLIST/TINSEL/LISTEN the penny dropped, raising the Brendan-smile. Having already TRIPLES and ??????M (in 19ac), the penny dropped even more.

Some down clues were still quite testing (6d, 16d), so it wasn’t what some people call “Monday fare”.

The good thing about Brendan’s crosswords is the playfulness of his approach of what some call a theme, but which often is just a ‘ghost theme’.
In that sense, reading the preamble, I am completely with you, Eileen.

Brendan is not a setter for those who want a stiff challenge, but he is absolutely unique.

Most enjoyable.

By: Gervase

Gervase — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:02:08 +0000

Mitz @30: I’ve quoted that comment from Humpty Dumpty on this blog myself. I’m sure he must have been a crossword compiler.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:44:38 +0000

And Durand-Durand?

I’m kind, you see. I do disambiguation.