Comments on: Guardian 25,857 – Qaos

By: Otherstuff

Otherstuff — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:59:08 +0000

Dear Qaos,
I think it is so nice when the setter drops in, so I thank you for the puzzle and for dropping by and responding to the comments. I am by no means a regular here.
Just a tyro, I found quite a few of the crossers quite accessible but the completion of it very much tougher, though not impossible. A crossword that stirs up quite a bit of debate is in my opinion a good thing. That said I have reservations about using live persons in crosswords. Though I just about remember Jessica Alba from Dark Angel, google does bring up Jessica Ennis first and Alba is difficult to find

By: Martin P

Martin P — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:54:55 +0000

For 5d I toyed with Parker as in Charlie, “Bird”, but settled on Turkey. However, I parsed it as that famous republican Brutus rising, winged, albeit assymetrically.

Pretty enjoyable though, I thought.

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:43:23 +0000

Well I loved it. Not easy but neither was it too difficult.

Last in was STADIA.

It appears to be a contentious one reading the comments but I cant see why?

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:29:17 +0000

G is not an abbreviation for golf. Golf is code for G. That’s why Chambers has all of them under the word rather than the letter.

By: PeterM

PeterM — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:00:20 +0000

There must have been something about the NE corner, as I too had great difficulty with it, though I’d got 10ac straight away. At 5d seemed to need a bird PER???, but PERNIS does’t parse, while I couldn’t see how 6d worked at all, so thanks for explanation.

By: John Qbass

John Qbass — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:13:23 +0000

Can I add “Lyrical Ballads” to the theme? It’s the title of Coleridge and Wordsworth’s joint volume of verse.

By: JFord

JFord — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:54:49 +0000

Don’t know about there, but here (US) sticklers would say that “fishes” refers to a varied selection of species, as in “the market has many fishes on display and on a good day sells many fish.”

By: Qaos

Qaos — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:44:50 +0000

Thanks everyone for the comments – always appreciated!

For a change, I decided to telegraph the ghost theme a little more for this puzzle. The other thematic elements from “The Rime of the 7 19″ were 1d 18, 10, 13, 16d 26, 2 and 20. I did consider putting in references to Fleetwood Mac and that classic Monty Python sketch with John Cleese as an usherette, but thought that might have been overdoing things.

Spoonerisms are often have a bit of a Marmite flavour to them, but I quite like adding the odd one for cluing variety. All part of the fun!

Best wishes,

Qaos

By: NeilW

NeilW — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:26:00 +0000

Hey, HKColin, welcome back! Since we are almost in the same time zone, more so now, I’ve missed your contributions. (Although your comments were always a little more incisive than mine!) There aren’t many of us.

By: Trailman

Trailman — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:09:22 +0000

Feeling a right TURKEY today for in desperation at 5d I thrust in TERCEL which is a bird although not that big (fast though). Had spotted that ‘wings off essential’ could have been the final EL and there was an R for Republican. Well, it was good enough for me at the time.