Comments for Fifteensquared

Comment on Independent 8299/Radian by Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:43:06 +0000

Hi Polly
As well as the book, there is: ” ‘M’ is for Moon Amongst Other Things” and “Another Moon Called Earth”.

Comment on Independent 8299/Radian by Polly

Polly — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:27:27 +0000

Looking at my (incomplete) collection of seventeen Stoppard plays I can’t see a single one with 10 across in the title, but Stoppard’s only novel is Lord Malquist and Mr Moon.

Comment on Independent 8299/Radian by Dormouse

Dormouse — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:20:02 +0000

Well, a theme I knew something about – seen several of these plays and once I got “The Real Thing” and “Jumpers” it wasn’t easy, but I did see daylight.

Nice misdirection if you know Stoppard in 24ac as Travesties is about Joyce writing Ulysses in Zurich and with a C as the fifth letter, I was about to enter it when I got 25dn.

Comment on Financial Times 14318 Gaff by Keeper

Keeper — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:16:45 +0000

[[Pic 4 is the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis, which once housed a wingless (APTERAL) statue of the goddess. The knives in Pic 9 are made of ZIRCONIA ceramic, as are the teeth in Pic 5 (which I think is what Muffyword intended).]]

Comment on Guardian 25,953 by Pasquale by stiofain

stiofain — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:11:21 +0000

I also thought EDWARD HEATH was very witty.

Comment on Guardian 25,953 by Pasquale by Giovanna

Giovanna — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:09:17 +0000

Thanks and congratulations, Pasquale and thanks to Uncle Yap, too.

I enjoyed the puzzle, which was full of good childhood memories: LADY’S MANTLE was a favourite spring flower, TINKER was fun (Not recommended with prune stones. 5 was the optimum number of stones in order to marry a rich man this year with silver and go to the wedding in a coach.)I also liked HAGIOLATRY, which I have seen used in a derogatory sense for over-praise of the current ‘favourite’ personality.

Like other, I didn’t spot the WHITECHAPEL ROAD anagram but worked it out anyway.

Enjoy your special time.

Giovanna x

Comment on Guardian 25,953 by Pasquale by Mitz

Mitz — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:50:02 +0000

For what it’s worth I thought the TED HEATH clue excellent. And I’m happy to say I’m too young to remember him being PM.

Comment on Guardian 25,953 by Pasquale by nametab

nametab — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:49:00 +0000

Many congratulations to Pasquale, and with thanks for decades of enjoyment.
Although I readily solved ‘Edward Heath’, and smugly biked past motorists queuing for petrol during the 3-day week, I agree with Tom Hutton that the definition was unduly obscure for today.
Solved ‘tinker’ but couldn’t parse it.
Thanks to UY.

Comment on Guardian 25,953 by Pasquale by Andy B

Andy B — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:38:11 +0000

I thought this was a very good puzzle, although I agree that solvers under a certain age might have struggled with the definition of EDWARD HEATH as ‘enforcer of energy saving’.

Like a lot of you I wasn’t able to fully parse TINKER so thanks to Don for the explanation. Post-solve I had to check that MIRA was a star as PILA also fits the wordplay but sounded far less likely.

I don’t agree that DIRHAM is overly difficult. ‘See’ as a diocese is standard crossword fare and with all the checkers in place Durham should have been fairly obvious, and the i/u replacement instruction in the clue was clear enough.

Comment on Financial Times 14318 Gaff by Keeper

Keeper — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:13:36 +0000

Thanks for the blog, scchua (and Gaff for an enjoyable challenge). Before I had any of the crossing letters, I thought 8a might be BRANDT, that being a close approximation to “Model T.”

(Along the lines of your comment about missed themes, you might want to take another look at 14312 Phssthpok.)

[[Pic 7 is Buckminster Fuller, for whom buckminsterfullerene, aka buckyball, was named. It is an important molecule in the field of NANOTECH. I'm quite familiar with it, as it was first synthesized by scientists at my alma mater, who were awarded the Nobel Prize while I was a student.]]