Comments on: Guardian Prize 25,861 / Araucaria

By: SuzeeMoon

SuzeeMoon — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:11:03 +0000

Tackled this one with friend and got there in the end but also didn’t get “head” bit of Sumburgh and dismissed “Tubman” as possibility until googled. Didn’t know I knew “stinko” until I said it – seems very Jeeves and Wooster!

ps Anyone else keep getting sum wrong when trying to post? The shame…

By: george

george — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:41:09 +0000

Thanks for this Eileen. I started it last week and then brought my print out to my Mum’s today. We eventually finished it. I had been saying leg of lamb (rib of beef etc) and it took her to see why! She also got ‘you, me and the gatepost’ which was where neighbours got together for a good natter apparently, but it was a new saying for me. She also guessed Sumburgh as my sister has flown there.
Took a long while to complete for us, but very satisfying.

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:32:14 +0000

Thanks, Araucaria and Eileen for blog and link to the Master!

Just got in but had to say how much I enjoyed solving it with a friend last weekend(not least because she knew SUMBURGH straight away!)
It had to be POULENC and I was reminded of the huge metal outline of a poule near Bourg-en-Bresse which always raises a smile on the as we head for Italy.

Glad you got an Araucaria to blog, Eileen.

Giovanna x

By: Vin

Vin — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:25:47 +0000

Thanks, Eileen, especially for the link to that wonderful photo. The only query for me was the NC of POULENC, but I’m still not sure what Araucaria intended. By the way, this was puzzle no. 25,861.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 18:53:47 +0000

I’m glad you saw it, muck. I hope you know that I’ve always been careful to add ©muck to any of my mentions of ‘Araubeticals’. All the best with the court case if you do make the OED or Chambers!

By: muck

muck — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 18:25:05 +0000

Thanks Eileen for your acknowledgement in the preamble.
Maybe my coinage will get in OED one day

By: chas

chas — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:35:52 +0000

Thanks to Eileen for the blog.

On 24a my first, very quick look, said 6-letter word ending in O meaning drunk must be BLOTTO which I entered in pencil. In due course I found a better word!

By: tupu

tupu — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:01:15 +0000

Thanks Eileen and Araucaria

An entertaining puzzle with typical surprises and predictable light touch. Like others I had to check Sumburgh (Musburgh sounded just as (un)likely)and I pondered over Poulench before coming to what seems to be the right conclusion.

I ticked 16,1, 21a.

By: Robi

Robi — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:27:56 +0000

Another very enjoyable offering from A.

Thanks Eileen for your lovely blog; 2d had me scratching my head and I enjoyed your parsing as much as the ‘official’ one.

SUMBURGH, TUBMAN and TORCELLO needed some Googling, but I got there in the end. I particularly liked the dog’s breakfast, GATEPOST and SAUDI ARABIA.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 08:41:22 +0000

Thanks, everyone, especially R_c_a_d [once again, I forgot that there's an annotated solution] for your contributions re 2dn. I must say that my first thought was the freNCh one [as NeilW says, it couldn't be more Araucarian!] but thought I’d better look for an alternative, so resorted to Chambers, to find an abbreviation I wasn’t familiar with, hence my ‘I think’. Well, at least it shows that I ‘do my own work’, even if I get it wrong.