Comments on: Cyclops 483: BRIEFS encounter

By: lemming

lemming — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:03:54 +0000

May I put in a word of appreciation for 12/13ac. There’s something nicely elegant about an indirect reference to an anagram indicator that’s contained within the solution. I’ve tried to find whether that kind of clue has any particular name but the best I’ve come across is “novelty clue”, which is just a ragbag category that includes memorables such as HIJKLMNO.

And 23ac gets a plaudit from me too. But you’ll get no more praise from me this year. I don’t want to get a reputation as a soft-headed southerner.

By: John King

John King — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:42:17 +0000

I thought this one was a toughie. I had four stubborn clues including the 11A one.

Oh, and if you like seeing some funny things in the Twittersphere then this round of of the funniest 100 tweeters of 2012 had me chuckling: http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2012/12/07/the-100-funniest-people-on-twitter-2012/

@ChribHibble The best thing about alcohol hand gel in hospitals isn’t the hygiene, but that everyone walks around like they’re hatching a dastardly plan.

@thesimonevans ”Hello, Schrodinger’s cattery, how may I help you?” “Oh, we left Pebbles with you, just ringing up to ask if he’s OK?” ‘Yes and no.”

By: John Appleton

John Appleton — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:49:11 +0000

11 was last in for me and I’d had the same parsing as Jetdoc. But I’d agree that Pandean’s makes more sense.

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:49:54 +0000

I’ll go with that, Pandean. Yes, we were both somewhat mystified, but your interpretation seems to work. Thanks!

By: Pandean

Pandean — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:47:02 +0000

Thanks for the blog jetdoc – and thanks too for this week’s funnies, well worth the visit.

I was interested to see you too (two?) were also a bit stumped by 11ac. I eventually came up with NEG + OT + I + ATE, where NEG is short for NEGATIVE (“brief denial”), OT is as you had it (“Tony half doing a U-turn”), I is “one” and ATE is “put away”. The definition is then just “Arrange”.