Comments on: Guardian 25,777 – Araucaria

By: rhotician

rhotician — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 22:52:55 +0000

Paul B @26 – Pull the other one. Or account for “jobbies” @25.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 01:44:47 +0000

Re PANDA, I immediately had to think of something that Paul once said somewhere (but I don’t where anymore – sorry).
That Araucaria on a particular occasion (perhaps it was his 80th birthday, but I may be wrong) turned up in a Fiat Panda.
For some, perhaps, a negative remark (as a Fiat Panda is/was more or less the smallest of cars), for others (including me) showing a no-nonsense kind of modesty that I very much appreciate.

BTW, very nice crossword.
Including the nowadays familiar (and accepted, but probably not (yet) by The Times) device in 19ac, ie splitting words.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 01:37:13 +0000

Btw apologies about ‘Shiting’ for ‘Whiting’ in the above. The two (W & S) are together on the keyboard, and I made a slip. No offence intended.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 01:28:54 +0000

Well, either having a ‘K’ (comment #11) makes 1ac easy, or the enumeration does. But would the substitution of ‘four words’ for (4,2,3,4) have made things all that much more difficult?

Obviously not. But the point is that this is a daily puzzle, not one of Shiting’s beloved tougher jobbies. So please, RCW, bark up the right tree – or come clean about your desire to irritate as much as possible regardless of such classification.

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:47:05 +0000

Totally off track and puerile so I apologise in advance.

The previous talk of Desperate Dan’s blowtorch shaving exploits reminds me of another episode of DD I read as a callow youth.

In this adventure Dan’s toenails were used to tip drills as they were harder than diamonds. I was puzzled then as to how they cut the said toenails to get them on the drills?

I’ve pondered on and off about this for the last 50 years. Anybody know the answer?

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:19:17 +0000

The disappointment with 1a expressed previously is another example of the weakness of enumeration. (4, 2, 3, 4) does in so many cases give away too much.

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:00:33 +0000

Nice puzzle from the Rev.

I too started with an immediate write in of 1ac and several other acrosses.

This led to a rather quick solve as Korky was then obvious leading to Dandy. Quick Google for the characters who came 20 years after my “subscription” ended.

Only held up by the FOND FAREWELLS as the E_L_ ending had convinced me I was looking for a French _ELLE word regarding The Scarlet Pimpernel etc.

Either brilliant misdirection or more stupidity on my part.

Either way good fun, though rather less than I prefer for a Friday.

Thanks to the two As.

By: Martin P

Martin P — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:18:36 +0000

I doubt if today’s kids will miss The Dandy.

However, if they’d had ‘em, they sure would miss spud guns, I think.

(Remember? Those .38 size “cartridge” shells, with which one would scoop a slug of potato, expelled from the breach, by the gases of percussion caps?)

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:39:32 +0000

Thanks, Araucaria and Andrew for a nostalgic puzzle. The Eagle was my favourite but I loved Desperate Dan, who is worth a comic all to himself!

Giovanna x

By: dtd

dtd — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:28:32 +0000

Synchronicity today re 15a. In the Times, the clue for 9a was “Copy expert breaking contract (9)”.