Independent on Sunday 1,507 by Hoskins

19 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,507 by Hoskins”

1. Never heard of SHEEPLE-dont want to again

2. Didn’t know NEARSHORE as a single word and had never heard of SHEEPLE. Not my favourite word but interesting to hear it’s been around since the 1940’s and originated from Britain.

   I liked the “hidden” def. for UNIT, the wordplay for MERCURIAL and the reminder of the past in URIAH HEEP.

   Thanks to Hoskins for a pleasant Sunday afternoon solve and to PeeDee

3. Pleased to see that I wasn’t alone in not knowing SHEEPLE or NEARSHORE.

   COME OFF IT made me laugh out loud!

   Thanks to Harry and to PeeDee for the blog.

4. Fun stuff as ever from Hoskins, for which thanks.  Do continue to make us laugh!

   Surprised to see SHEEPLE isn’t as well known as I’d assumed.  But I was also wrong in my assumption that it was a relatively new word so was interested to learn from WordPlodder that it isn’t.

   Thanks again to Hoskins and also to PeeDee.

5. Thanks to PeeDee and Hoskins

   I can’t think of a situation where QUESTION would mean INTERROGATION.

6. Dansar @5, interrogation (like enquiry) is still a noun synonym of question, even if you’re unlikely to use it as a synonym in speech. A question is an interrogatory phrase.

7. Blorange – wouldn’t the nounal equivalent of INTERROGATION be QUESTIONING?  Interrogation is the act of questioning rather than being a question.

8. PeeDee @7

   Under ‘interrogation’ Chambers has “a question put” and its second definition for ‘question’ is “an interrogation”. Collins gives “a question or query” as a definition for ‘interrogation’.

9. Gaufrid and Blorenge – That’s not a way I have ever thought of the word before, live and learn!

10. I think phrases such as “the theory needs to be subjected to question/interrogation” works for me, although I prefer ‘questioning’.

11. As my nearest and dearest do not seem to have applied due diligence to the study of my Christmas list I remain bereft of Chambers, however, my Shorter Oxford (1993), and Collins online do appear to give QUESTION and INTERROGATION as synonyms. I imagine that this is in a fairly specialised context and neither deigns to give examples. In the case of Collins, their thesaurus gives QUESTION as a synonym for INTERROGATION, but does not give INTERROGATION as a synonym for QUESTION.

    I still can’t think of a sentence where one might replace the other but perhaps that is a failure of imagination.

12. This crossword tried too hard, in my book.

13. A lot of interesting clues here, thanks Hoskins, enjoyed as always.

    I particularly enjoyed 9a, but thought it would be better without the first two words.

    Loved “tucks into hot dog”

    Great stuff, and wthanks peedee.

14. Sorry, but after the last two encounters with Hoskins we decided to follow crypticsue’s example and didn’t bother solving this.  Instead we found a delightful Julius from the FT (16045) just before Christmas for our Sunday amusement.

15. allan_c @ 14: why bother commenting on a puzzle you haven’t solved? I’m curious.

16. Well, it had to end up like this, I assume.

    But what’s the point of writing a comment to say you didn’t do this crossword, putting it in the bin straightaway.

    This crossword had perhaps even more ‘bad taste’ surfaces than the previous one for the Independent.

    [Harry’s puzzles for the FT and the Sunday Times are totally different, which some solvers do not seem to understand]

    This puzzle, did I like it? Yes but I found it harder than usual too.

    If one ignores these, for some, ‘inappropriate’ surfaces, one will see a setter who writes clues that are adventurous, precise and smiling.

    In the past, I often said that, in whatever situation, I am always on the setter’s side – and today I am once more!

    Many thanks to PeeDee (who seems to be everywhere nowadays) & Hoskins.

    [ps, that Julius puzzle was indeed a nice one, Allan]

17. @Simon, this is the reason, explained by Bob:

    They’re selling postcards of the hanging, they’re painting the passports brown
    The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town
    Here comes the blind commissioner, they’ve got him in a trance
    One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants
    And the riot squad they’re restless, they need somewhere to go
    As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row

    Cinderella, she seems so easy, “It takes one to know one, ” she smiles
    And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style
    And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning. “You Belong to Me I Believe”
    And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place, my friend, you’d better leave”
    And the only sound that’s left after the ambulances go
    Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row

    Now the moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide
    The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside
    All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame
    Everybody is making love or else expecting rain
    And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing, he’s getting ready for the show
    He’s going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row

    Ophelia, she’s ‘neath the window for her I feel so afraid
    On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid
    To her, death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest
    Her profession’s her religion, her sin is her lifelessness
    And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah’s great rainbow
    She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row

    Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk
    Passed this way an hour ago with his friend, a jealous monk
    Now he looked so immaculately frightful as he bummed a cigarette
    And he when off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet
    You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago
    For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row

    Dr. Filth, he keeps his world inside of a leather cup
    But all his sexless patients, they’re trying to blow it up
    Now his nurse, some local loser, she’s in charge of the cyanide hole
    And she also keeps the cards that read, “Have Mercy on His Soul”
    They all play on the penny whistles, you can hear them blow
    If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row

    Across the street they’ve nailed the curtains, they’re getting ready for the feast
    The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest
    They are spoon feeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured
    Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words
    And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls, “Get outta here if you don’t know”
    Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row”

    At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
    Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
    Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
    Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
    Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
    Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row

    Praise be to Nero’s Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn
    Everybody’s shouting, “Which side are you on?!”
    And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain’s tower
    While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers
    Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow
    And nobody has to think too much about Desolation Row

    Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke
    When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke
    All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
    I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
    Right now, I can’t read too good, don’t send me no more letters no
    Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row

18. Hoskins, seeing you back here is the single upside of those sorry few comments.

    All I can add is that sometimes being boycotted is an honour.

19. Harry – Thanks for dropping by but I’m sure that comment, ever so slightly, just nudges into off-topic territory.

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