Comments on: Independent 8195 by Tees (Saturday Prize Puzzle 19 January 2013)

By: Ana

Ana — Fri, 10 May 2013 07:39:28 +0000

I must say puzzle game are superb. There are plenty reasons for voting this blog as interesting. The flashing device is excellent. The puzzle becomes fantastic because of the clues. I have enjoyed a lot.

By: flashling

flashling — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:27:49 +0000

Did wonder if there was more than MM and the going round the outside, still, thanks Tees, a darn sight easy than BanMan yesterday.

By: Tees

Tees — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 01:43:48 +0000

That grids must be fair is my rule Sil. To me, that generally means not cutting the thing in half or quarters (unless you’re theming to compensate), and not having unchtastic lights, so I don’t think this one goes against anything I’ve ever said about grids. The Nina phrase here has eleven letters, so something had to give, but why not! Disregard the perimetrical, and the grid is as square as they get despite any non-uniformity.

The Independent is generous indeed to its compilers, who are able to design grids to fit their needs, within reason (reason = Mike), and create stuff which, while slightly unco, is no less entertaining for solvers. I think that’s a really good thing!

Cheers
Tees.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:20:45 +0000

One more thing.
On various occasions and in various disguises, Tees has commented on grids – some being awful, some being very user-friendly.

But this grid – it is asymmetrical!
The Across words are placed rotationally symmetric (about 180 degrees). But the puzzle as a whole is not symmetrical.
I don’t think I have ever seen this before.
Don’t get me wrong, I cannot be bothered at all about it myself, but I thought the rule in Crosswordland is that grids must be symmetrical (for whatever reason).

So, Tees, any underlying thoughts?

By: mc_rapper67

mc_rapper67 — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 17:56:55 +0000

Hi All – thanks for the feedback – and thanks to Tees for stopping by to shed light on the nina thought process.

Interesting debate on my ‘niggles’ – I accept that ‘online’ could refer to more ‘traditional’ fishing, rather than phishing, but then why ‘attract customers‘?…surely ‘victims’?!

And if Collins has ‘green’ singular, I’ll take that, although my Chambers definitely has it as plural:

“n …(in pl) money, esp dollar bills; …(in pl) low-grade marijuana;”

By: Tees

Tees — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:30:44 +0000

Hello 15/2ers! Thanks to Mike for the blog, and to Kenmac (?) for the flashing device – that’s really cool!

The Nina, I suppose, can be regarded as something you either get or you don’t, though in calling MM the puzzle’s star (which definitely helped with the surface for that one!) I guess I have nudged a bit too far to justify it as a throw-away. But he was quite famous, wasn’t he? And that Song of Perimetry quite a big hit? Plus the asymmetry also a bit of a give-away that something else is going on? Curse of themers though: solvers don’t always care, or know, or care to know what’s been added in.

On clue niggles I think you’ve done ‘em all: FISHED as in ‘went fishing’ (rod & line), AMOEBIC = ‘due to parasites’ as in amoebic dysentery (tasteful), and GREEN as in its Collins Dictionary definitions.

So many thanks to all, and have a good rest of w/e.

Tees.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:46:06 +0000

I can’t say I enjoyed this one despite completing it. I didn’t understand a lot of the references and although I spotted the nina it didn’t mean anything to me.

By: Tramp

Tramp — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:32:31 +0000

Brilliant puzzle, excellent clues and loved the Nina! I’d never heard of DIE KINDER but got it from the wordplay.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:47:04 +0000

Certainly when I finally got 3dn (and I’d been working on the assumption is was some word meaning an F1 team, or the name of a team) I assumed it was a mistake for “phished”.

I did vaguely recall “Die Kinder”. Never saw it, but I remembered it mainly for a review in The Indie which started by saying that the review thought it was going to be a riposte to the Die Hard films. Never heard of “It Takes Two”.

For once, I noticed the Nina and even knew it was associated with Malcolm Mclaren.

25ac amused me.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:09:30 +0000

Thanks for the blog. I enjoyed this, for a while wondering about Buffy as a theme (from the nina), and also Victor Meldrew (Meldrew fitted instead of Mclaren and there were those references to TV shows). I can’t help thinking there may be more to the theme.

21d Re Green – The Jam definitely sang about “a pocketful of pretty green”, not greens, which would have been more Morrissey’s area by the sound of it. Can’t claim any expertise on the marijuana element, but virtually anything seems to be a synonym for it.

3d – the clue doesn’t need a link to phishing. The line in “online!” is a fishing line, surely?

14d – not sure here, but surely if they live in my gut they’re somehow benefiting from being there, aren’t they, and extracting some of my hard-earned energy/nutrition? I wonder where exactly the line between parasitism and symbiosis is drawn, if anywhere. Anyway amoebic dysentry as “dysentery caused by parasites” didn’t seem peculiar to me at the time.