AZED No 2379

8 comments on “AZED No 2379”

1. Thorough job, Bridgesong. Thanks for bringing me ‘Comfort.’ Never heard of him – thought it must be a new verb usage not in my old C. I agree about ‘leaving’  in clue for MIDSEA. Reminded me of putting into Bastia harbour in a squall – my first view of it as it used to be, now spoilt by flats built there since.

2. It’s sad to read at this latish hour (coming up to 6 p.m.) that there are ‘No Comments’ yet on the puzzle and on Bridgesong’s careful and scholarly process of (despite the obstacles referred to) blogging – so here is a big thank-you, and some comments.

   It’s always a pleasure to encounter a cricket reference, as happens quite often: here, 22D.

   And it makes a nice change NOT to encounter a Scots dialect word, clued either by ‘Scots ‘or a cognate word, or by ‘in Elgin’ or ‘in Pitlochry’ or wherever – there were three such in a recent puzzle, and there may have been more in some other weeks (?). I thought initially that there was a Scots item at 18a, but Dee turned out to mean just the letter D… very neat. I don’t mind Scots words, far from it, Scotland being my motherland, but please not too many,

   Evidently there was, on this first (sad) tabloid Observer day, a technical online problem of a not-unfamiliar, not-unpredictable kind. It’s in a way reassuring that there is a similar problem in the hard-copy paper, which I fetch every morning from the corner shop (opening at 7, not 6, on Sundays). Today’s is clearly a ‘plain’ Azed, announced clearly as such, but the instructions for sending apply to the write-a-clue monthly version, giving the Oxford address not the London one. So at least it’s the same old fallible Guardian/Observer as in the distant Berliner epoch.

   Thanks again to Bridgesong and of course to Azed himself, rising above all the changes and confusions.

3. BS was ahead of me by one minute… but at least there are now three comments and, who knows, between us we may flush out more

4. Thanks to Azed – as ever – and Bridgesong. I have been doing Azed for over a year now and enjoy him more and more, usually completing after an almighty struggle.

   This was slightly easier than usual.

   quenbarrow – 8dn is Scottish, albeit familiar. I too was searching for a Scottish bait at 18a and enjoyed it all the more when it turned out to be Devon.

   I wish there were more comments too, so I will try and be more assiduous in the future.

5. Thanks, all for your comments.  It is a bit disheartening to get no replies at all, especially when posting the blog was as difficult as this one proved to be.  Still, must mean I got most of the parsing right!

   Qenbarrow, you’re right about the incorrect instructions in the printed edition, but somebody must have spotted the error because the online version and (strangely) the pdf are both correct.  I agree it made something of a change for Jock not to put in an appearance.

    

6. A mostly straightforward Azed once more. One or two where the wordplay eluded me, in particular 27d, so thanks for the blog – despite the best efforts of the Guardian website, it would appear.

7. Thank you Bridgesong and Azed.
   I needed your help to parse MINUS and left STE?LE with an I and forgot to go back to it!
   Chizes, as Molesworth would say. (In fact I’m going to get one of my wealthier students to supply my
   missing Chambers to avoid the same fate in the future.)

8. It’s not relevant to 2379 but someone might have been misled by the rubric to 2380- it was, of course, the first Sunday one. On “ordinary” Sundays the prizes ar for a lucky dip from solutions sent to AZED No 2,380, The Observer, 90 York Way, LONDON, N1 9GU.

   Presumably any sent to Azed’s Box Number will be returned to the Observer to be included in the draw. Poor Azed- he has had some odd things happen to his masterpieces!

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