Comments on: Guardian 25,847 – Gordius

By: jackkt

jackkt — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:11:17 +0000

HOPELESS also fits 27ac defines the clue perfectly in my view.

By: Dewey

Dewey — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 02:06:37 +0000

Increasingly out and about also means you are home less. And stock means unaltered like a stock car or a “neat” cocktail.

very nice puzzle.

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 23:05:27 +0000

Oops … apologies for not previewing – noisy, crowded train and an iPhone wasn’t conducive to readable English.

By: chas

chas — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:35:21 +0000

Brendan @26: your point about the crossword editor reading the thing before publishing reminds me of a recent incident. Some time within the last year a grid was used which had a number of instances of two successive unchecked letters. Several years ago the then crossword editor wrote against a crossword “This is the last time we use a grid with two or more unchecked letters”

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:33:12 +0000

Thanks Gordius and manehi

I found this one of the best from Gordius and had no issues with any if the clues – in fact there is quite a bit of depth to them. Having said that, a lack of care on my part drew an error with MINERAL at 1a .

To me HOMELESS has an implicit definition (and perhaps a social comment from the setter) in the sense explained by tupu@20 – and in that sense is one of the better clues.

Thought the similar devices used in 15, 6d and 24d where we needed to take away letters from another word that needed to be solved were clever and quite fair. Was lucky to have a Brit colleague sitting near me to introduce DELIA SMITH to me for 24.

Originally had AREA (are -a) in at 25 which made getting HOMELESS as my last in that bit harder.

Liked it a lot, despite being wrong with 1a.

By: plotinus3

plotinus3 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:20:09 +0000

Perhaps Gordius should get out more. And be home less.

By: MDatta

MDatta — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:53:03 +0000

27 poor effort. Must do better, Gordius

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:50:34 +0000

Quite enjoyed this though one or two clues, as mentioned by previous posters, are a little dodgy.

Last in was HOMELESS.

NeilW @14 You seem to be assuming that the editor actually reads these crosswords before publishing them? I’m not so sure after recent, and not so recent, events?

Thanks to Manehi & Gordius

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:16:30 +0000

tupu and robi
But it doesn’t say THOSE increasingly out and about. Which is exactly my point.
However, as I said @15, I quite liked it.

By: gerardus

gerardus — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:05:23 +0000

Re 7dn. the online urban dictionary gives for ‘filth’:
British terminology for “the police” or “cops” or “police officer”, etc related to law enforcers.
So does the definition imply that the police are always suspicious (since they are involved in crime detection), or is there some other abstruse meaning?