Comments on: Guardian 25,875 – Tramp

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:03:02 +0000

Huw Powell@50, “commercial break” in this instance is a collective noun for several advertisements. There is nothing wrong with the clue.

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:50:53 +0000

Thanks to Uncle Yap and everyone for the blog, and to Tramp for the puzzle – a very interesting puzzle – and perhaps even more for stopping by and sharing.

Got a little frustrated when I kept running into “definitions” like “this” and “here” but of course… one has to hand it to the setter for the sheer number of &lit clues. Between my parsings and the explanations here, I was left with only one tiny quibble, at 19. “Ads” =/= “commercial break”. It is “commercial breaks”.

Couldn’t parse ROPER, loved BURGER KING, had to cheat via checked letters for REMBRANDT and kicked myself. I also had the “Back to the Future” moment with 6, having knocked out enough letters to try to figure out the second word, with my first guess being “destiny”. Pencilled in 1A in a similar fashion, didn’t look it up but my mind was full of those salad tossing machines they make…

COD of course, and perhaps COtM or even COtY was 26.

By: Tom Willis

Tom Willis — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:45:54 +0000

Just finished! Thanks Tramp, good fun as usual. Good to get ‘roper’ explained. ‘Salad dodger’ is the kind of clue that would feature in the crossword in Viz – anyone else do that one? (warning: it’s not for the faint-hearted).

By: Tramp

Tramp — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:40:27 +0000

bdg@47 yes — that’s what I meant. I thought it unusual that it had slipped through the checking process and that nobody had mentioned it on here.

By: bdg

bdg — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:44:21 +0000

re 44/45, but isn’t “device making” gadgetry?

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:19:07 +0000

I took this with me for entertainment on the journey to and from my quiz last night, and it was well worth it, proving to be an enjoyable challenge. I particularly liked 16d, for BICEPS. Thanks, Tramp.

By: Tramp

Tramp — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:04:12 +0000

Monkeypuzzler @44. It’s a good point — I’ve only just spotted that.

By: Monkeypuzzler

Monkeypuzzler — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:30:47 +0000

Oh, I know no-one will be reading this now, but surely “device” (singular) does not lead to “gadgetry” (plural) in 5d?

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:53:55 +0000

Hi Brendan

For the record, the reference to Orwell merely crossed my mind, but I parsed the answer a la UY. As you say, it is interesting that neither Eileen’s idea nor this one seem to have been consciously in Tramp’s mind. But then nor apparently was any mini-theme of over-indulgence, junk food, and the like. Perhaps, as you suggest, the sub-conscious writes its own stories, unknown to the conscious author.

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:47:45 +0000

Really enjoyable challenging crossword.

In my opinion Tramp was up to his usual standard.

All my comments have already been said!

But I too was astonished I hadn’t seen the rha for Mariah Carey. Thought it was some kind of anagram plus something I couldn’t parse.

Also never heard of Kerygma but the wordplay got me there.

Like Tupu I assumed the Eric in Numeric was some sort of reference to the Author of 1984 and my historical sense was is bad enough not to know the relevance of the date re the NUM! However Tramp didn’t mention it so perhaps it was subliminal!

I appear to be in the minority in parsing ROPER the instant I got REMBRANDT leading to the answer. It’s only “right and proper”!

Thanks to UY and Tramp.