Comments on: Independent 8149/Quixote

By: John

John — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:46:02 +0000

And now I look I see that it’s got me logged in as John, even though I never actually did log in. All very odd.

By: John

John — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:44:40 +0000

Well how did that happen? I thought one had to complete the Captcha.

By: John

John — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:43:57 +0000

10ac, 11ac, 12ac seem to be missing. Or is this my browser — at present I can’t see the Captcha. Perhaps it will arrive when I Preview Comment. No. Let’s try and Submit.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:36:17 +0000

Thanks to flashling and to Pelham for explaining PLUTO.

I always enjoy solving and blogging Quixote’s Monday puzzles, which I’d describe as ‘old-fashioned’ in a positive way: always clearly clued, good variety of devices, no smart-arse stuff (although I do like a bit of smart-arse on other days of the week) and theme-free. And I think jmac is right – the reason we don’t get many comments is that there’s not much to disagree with. Although I do hope lurkers find the blogs helpful, because I usually recommend the Monday puzzles to newer solvers.

By: jmac

jmac — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:07:36 +0000

Like NealH I also thought this was a bit trickier than normal for Quixote, although maybe my brain was just running slow. I suppose the reason Quixote’s puzzles don’t get that many comments is because they are always impeccably clued and being at the easier end of the Don’s spectrum there are not too many queries. Still as ever, a most enjoyable puzzle from Quixote, and thanks to Pierre.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:46:48 +0000

Well, my paper arrived as normal this morning, but I’ve only just managed to complete this, which is actually not bad going for me although Monday puzzles are sometimes quicker, so maybe others found this hard. As it happens, although I mostly needed no external help, I did accidentally read the comment about 21dn in the placeholder. I tried to ignore it, but it was enough to give me the answer.

By: NealH

NealH — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:57:07 +0000

Judging by the number of comments today, the Captcha has managed to kill even the small number of comments we normally get for a Quixote puzzle. Either that, or everyone is under water.

I found this surprisingly difficult for some reason, although I don’t think it was that much more difficult than usual. Small things like being used to Auntie being spelled with an i e rather than y and not being familiar with stroke as a noun seemed to put me off. Also, I couldn’t think of Kate Adie for the life of me.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:43:57 +0000

Hi Pierre. I had the same problem trying to load the crossword in the morning but could access it online at lunchtime. Thanks Quixote for an enjoyable puzzle and Pierre for the blog.

21dn: I had this the same way as explained by flashling on the placeholder comments. PLUTO is an acronym for Pipe Line Under The Ocean.