Comments on: Independent 8167/Punk

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:41:17 +0000

Couldn’t call Walter Mitty to mind and sobriquet defeated me.

I enjoyed the crossword but too many of the surfaces for me just didn’t make any real sense.

I like definitions by example clues like fff pb? but it just doesn’t mean anything as a surface. You may as well write one plus two for THREE… It’s just a piece of mental arithmetic.

Still loads of fun though which is what is most important! Thanks both!

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:54:15 +0000

Well, it’s too late to be erudite!

An enjoyable solve. THORAX was the last one in – we did manage to solve it cryptically but it took a few moments to work out how it related to soldier.

Thanks Pierre and Punk!

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:26:25 +0000

Pierre @7: I will say that NITROUS OXIDE was my first thought as well on reading the clue at 10dn/27ac, but I cannot make it work. I would not put it past Punk to have noticed the enumeration and worded his clue carefully to make us think that way.

While I am back in:

Allan_c @5: It was SOBRIQUET that made me think it might be a pangram, and this may have helped me to get THORAX.

9ac: I took this more simply as HIM + A + homophone of LAYER, with “making” as a linking word. From an exteme purist perspective, “making” is only truly appropriate as a linking word if the wordplay comes first and the definition last, so I quite like Pierre’s parsing as an alternative.

24/14: Here I think that the letter U (clued as a natural abbreviation of universal) is not part of the anagram, but is inserted into the anagram – otherwise I cannot account for the word “in” in the clue.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:57:06 +0000

This blog is becoming a bit erudite all of a sudden, innit?

Just me with NITROUS OXIDE, then …

By: Aztobesed

Aztobesed — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:31:56 +0000

Alan_c @ 5

‘Adjacent metathesis’. Tricky for surfacing, mind

By: allan_c

allan_c — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:18:52 +0000

A nice offering from Punk, though with some weaknesses as others have pointed out. On 15dn I agree that false capitalisation is an acceptable device but omission of necessary capitals is not. Not particularly logical, but conventional.
And thinking of 3/4dn, the trouble with this type of clue is that Spooner’s name gives the game away at once – can anyone think of a way to clue a spoonerism (no capital, according to Chambers) without using the Reverend gentleman’s name?
Not a pangram, with F and J missing, but the presence of X and Z had me looking for one and helped me get SOBRIQUET.
Thanks, Pierre, for the blog.

By: Rowland

Rowland — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:23:36 +0000

Omission is the sin, as I understand it. That is the convention.

Cheers
Rowly.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:11:23 +0000

Correction to 2: “anyone has ever” (not “every”).

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:09:01 +0000

Thanks Punk for a puzzle with a lot to enjoy and Pierre for your detailed blog. For pangram spotters, we appear to have 24 different letters, but no J (unsurprising) or F (a bit more of a surprise). This makes me wonder if anyone has every deliberately produced a crossword to appear at this time of year using 25 different letters with no L.

11ac: This could be regarded as a partial “& lit”, with the whole clue providing the definition, but “Tribute” has no role in the wordplay. I would rather regard it as a standard clue, with “Tribute” on its own forming the definition, and then helpful wordplay.

17ac: The one thing I did not like about this clue was “9-n”. If that device is to be used at all, it really should be written “9n”.

15dn: I agree with Wanderer @1 that this is sufficient for a double definition. However, I really think it should have a capital P to conform with the standards for chemical symbols. Personally my preference is for completely correct capitalisation throughout, but I accept the widespread view that false capitals are acceptable. There appears to be much less acceptance for false omission of a capital.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:12:51 +0000

This one made me smile throughout — and I quite agree with you Pierre, that’s definitely an important part of a puzzle for me. Many favourites here but SHAVING CREAM, THIMBLE and HUMAN RIGHTS stood out. Thanks for explaining THORAX, which I parsed from the wordplay without understanding the definition. I also appreciated NEONATAL as a nod to the new arrival, so congratulations to the Punk household.

My take on ‘fff pb?’ is probably nonsense but I read it as: fff = not just Very Loud, but, more specifically, Very Loud Music, of which HEAVY METAL is an example; and pb is not just a metal, but the proverbial HEAVY METAL.

Many thanks to Punk and Pierre.