Comments on: Private Eye / Cyclops 485 – Xmas Special

By: littlerog

littlerog — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:43:43 +0000

In 2011 bought a copy of private eye and thoroughly enjoyed doing the puzzle, so much so that I have bought a copy each time it comes out. Had I been confronted with this puzzle I am not sure that would have been the consequence – Im afraid I didnt have any idea about the pseudo names

By: Mitz

Mitz — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:39:17 +0000

Thanks Cyclops and Bermagnet.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas offering this year – more indeed than Rev’s in the Grauniad, if that isn’t completely heretical. ‘Yves’ and ‘Hayley’ were shiny lights amongst the tinsel. Could really do with the £250 as well, but sadly no email as yet…

By: Pajodr

Pajodr — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:28:38 +0000

53/57 Snot rags – I took the wordplay to mean ‘snot rags’ is slang (a coarse name) for handkerchief, material you blow your nose on.

I too spent a pleasant morning leafing through the back issues.

By: sidey

sidey — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:29:08 +0000

The Ngram viewer is a wonder. And a great way to settle silly arguments. I won’t mention that changing the search to comprehensibility,incomprehensibility is interesting as that would be way off topic.

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:51:37 +0000

INCOMPREHENSIBLENESS (throughout history) I was sad to see the lack of appearance of incomprehensibleness in the 16 words of length 20 mentioned at least 100,000 times each in the Google books data [link] (97,565 distinct words, from 743,842,922,321 words). This despite the fact that incomprehensibleness is far more common than comprehensibleness throughout history, though this is hardly a modern phenomenon as shown here [link] Why I am mentioning this? Because I was led to Google's addictive Ngram viewer after reading this interesting article: [link - English Letter Frequencies] and I am trying to salve my conscience for the time lost by spreading the disease

By: Cyclops

Cyclops — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:32:13 +0000

Just like to say what a fantastic job you’ve done, beermagnet, in dredging up all the quotes that went with the pseudo names. Bravo!

In case there’s anyone who’s not picked up on the ‘Butler’ ref. in the FRANK LIMIDERE clue, this refers to Clark Gable’s character, Rhett Butler (in Gone With The Wind, of course)

By: sidey

sidey — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 12:39:41 +0000

Thanks for that beerm. I haven’t read the mag for ages so had missed the silly name thing. Never mind, the rest was still worth doing.