Comments on: Independent 8185 / Radian

By: allan_c

allan_c — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:42:33 +0000

Thanks, Polly, for that explanation. That little ‘ès’ has always puzzled me; I couldn’t quite see how it meant art(s), since the usual word is the same as in English, found, for example in ‘Musée des Arts et Métiers’.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:10:43 +0000

An interesting challenge today. We completed it despite not being able to parse 9ac and 27ac. We were too lazy to search for 9ac and thought about The Wee Frees but didn’t bother looking for that either! So thanks to Duncan for spending the time doing so!

Thanks to Radian!

By: Polly

Polly — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:51:55 +0000

Duncan and Raich are right. The ‘ès’ in French degrees is in fact a contraction of ‘en les’ (in the); hence ‘licencié ès lettres’ is a literature graduate.

By: Raich

Raich — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:35:47 +0000

My guess re ES is that Duncan is right – a bit of a crossword staple from way way back. tu es = thou art so es = (French) Art.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:31:20 +0000

I parsed 8ac slightly differently, taking ‘es’ to refer to art (or arts) as a noun, from the French ‘Licence ès lettres’, the quivalent of a BA or in some cases MA degree. Those of us old enough to remember 1ac may also remember learning French from a textbook whose author’s name had the qualifications ‘MA, L ès l’ appended.

Thanks, Radian and Duncan.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:05:57 +0000

Splendid fun which ticked all the right boxes for me.

26a: Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leader of the 19C New England transcendentalist movement, of which Thoreau was a noted follower, making this a fine &lit.

Many thanks to Radian and Duncan.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:48:22 +0000

Great fun indeed – just too young to remember 1a but I certainly remember the chilblains from 27a. Thanks to Radian and Duncan too.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:59:51 +0000

Fine puzzle, fine blog – thanks to both.

Bit of a tour of the second half of the 20th century here, which was fun – no particular knowledge required (except maybe for APOSTLE, which I couldn’t fathom). Since the names of the spies were in the clues that gave you a good hint about what was going on. My kind of theme.

A number of clever anagrams today.

By: MikeC

MikeC — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:35:30 +0000

Thanks duncanshiell and Radian. French “tu es” is indeed the equivalent of “thou art”, I believe. Needed your help with parsing 13d. INRO was new to me but is probably a crossword standby (like etui?). Fun puzzle.