Comments on: Independent 8,120 / Anax

By: tipnrun

tipnrun — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:31:49 +0000

Re 14D, and to avoid Dormouse at 7 getting into trouble, the “correct” title for the harstyle is “District Attorney”. The other other version is simply the popular name.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:27:09 +0000

Very good, but my word how tough. It’s my time on this sort of crossword that tells me it’s completely pointless going to the Times Solving Championship.

Had never heard of Nidaros but still got Trondheim as it was the only word that seemed to fit.

For 4dn I worked out LIE pretty quickly but wasn’t sure that it was right, for although it looks vaguely correct, I couldn’t and still can’t think of sentences where ‘lie’ can be replaced by ‘to be found’. It seems that ‘lies’ is equivalent to ‘is to be found’.

By: NealH

NealH — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:23:03 +0000

I don’t think I’d have bothered with this if it weren’t for getting the long anagram straight away. Even with that, it was still a real grind to finish. I thought some of the references were too obscure – oi for a type of punk and a medieval name for Trondheim was pushing the boat a bit too far for me. My pronunciation concentrates too much on the “eeple” sound of m-people ever to see it as a homophone of “mp pull”, but I have to admit grudgingly that it just about works. Like RR, my only knowledge of Heather Small is from Miranda and I didn’t know she was in that group, so that reference was rather lost on me – I thought it must be a group with just a couple of members.

By: RatkojaRiku

RatkojaRiku — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:58:01 +0000

Thanks to Ian SW3 for pointing out the typo in the solution to the long anagram, now corrected; and to Eileen, for spotting more references to setters (see blog intro)!

By: Trebor

Trebor — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:50:05 +0000

Like most others I got the long anagram with only a few checking letters in “scorned”, which of course helps a lot. Only missed one – “Horse Pistol” – a PB for an Anax!
Quality stuff.

By: anax

anax — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:16:40 +0000

Marvellous blog RR, and thanks to all (including any old dears) for your kind comments. Don’t worry – at 50 I feel like I’ve become something of an old dear myself; guess I’m just trying to get a feel for how comfortably the monicker fits.

A small confession; the long anagram had been sitting around for years. At the time I only set for The Times, where split answers aren’t used, so this one just languished. Glad to have finally got it out of my system.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:01:09 +0000

Hi allan_c @6

Of course, that’s what my comment was leading up to – and I was so carried away that I forgot it until immediately after I’d hit ‘Submit’! Then – rather than come back – I hoped that it was implicit and am relieved to see that it [sort of] was!

Hi B and J

That was really depressing news to wake up, to wasn’t it? I’ve been relying on my daily crosswords for ten years to fend off – what was it again? It’s a good job it’s my walking group tomorrow! – and I did have to grin at the OLD DEARS, having failed to fit in the usual OAP!

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:34:06 +0000

As OAP’s we weren’t too happy about being descibed as OLD DEARS in 9ac! As Joyce remarked 27 1a 26 6!!

Anyway, enough of our complaints – this was a really good work-out. It really woke up the grey matter and fended off dementia for a bit longer. However, given the news today about physical exercise being more effective than tricky crosswords, perhaps we were right going to the gym before we tacked this! Maybe we ought to try combining the two – can we access a water -proof version anywhere?

Thanks Anax, excellent clueing as usual and also thanks to RR for the blog.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:24:53 +0000

Tough. Got there in the end, with minimal help. Googled “Nidaros” as I’d never heard the term, and that told me all I needed to know. Having got “M People” from its crossing letters, I had to google that to find if it was really a valid answer. I think I’ve heard of Heather Small from references to her in the TV show Miranda.

Thanks for explaining 14dn. DA for a hairstyle was a new one for me, I think.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:58:53 +0000

“… SERENDIPITY, beause it’s one of my favourite words – and to think that the addition of two more letters yields SIDNEY POITIER! Spotting that kind of thing is part of Anax’s genius” (Eileen @5). You might say he has the gift of serendipity!

Certainly an educational experience today, what with Trondheim/Niðarós and Horse Pistol – and even that the plural of ‘glissando’ can be ‘glissandos’ as well as ‘glissandi’.

Thanks, Anax and RatkojaRiku