Independent 11,223 by Bluth

20 comments on “Independent 11,223 by Bluth”

1. Another lovely outing from Bluth. Spent too long on 28 thinking ‘bed’ = ‘hay’, as in ‘hit the hay’ but common (sense) eventually gave the parsing. Didn’t parse FULL MOON. I just thought it was some boxing technique I’d never heard of and left it at that. Drat!

   I particularly liked the play on words for RADIO.

2. I am posting this without reading the content as I cannot load today’s puzzle on any of my devices

3. The usual good fun from Bluth made very challenging in parts with some complex parsings.

   Notwithstanding Quirister’s explanation, the surface of 11a is meaningless. “Flyer” is not a verb according to both Chambers and Collins, but perhaps it is in America.

   I assumed that “hot” in 1a was a mistake and that the intended word was “dog” (“hund” in German). For the clue as explained by Q. to work doesn’t the “in” need to be “on”?

   CORYZA was a new word for me but readily derivable from the clue, and my top two of many ticked clues were FULL MOON and RADIO.

   Many thanks to Bluth and Quirister.

4. @Quirister I like “at the time of writing”

5. Lots of fun clues as always from Bluth. Favourites for me were the surfaces for PHEROMONE (nudge, nudge), LAGER LOUT and HOLIDAY, even if it was just a tiny bit yucky! Couldn’t parse the QU(O)IT bit of QUITTING.

   I saw 1d (which I presume you mean rather than 1a, RD @3) as H+UND+RED, with ‘in the Reichstag and’ = the word ‘and’ as used in the Reichstag = UND, as explained by Quirister, so the ‘in’ seems to work OK.

   Thanks to Bluth and Quirister

6. Loved this. Always plenty of smiles on show with this setter, today was no exception.
   AIRY FAIRY, ST IVES, FULL MOON, DRIFTERS & PHEROMONE were my picks. Great stuff.
   Many thanks indeed Bluth and Quirister.

7. Thanks, WordPlodder @5. That makes sense for 1d. I think I was too preoccupied with the German dog to see the wood from the trees.

8. In contrast to Eccles yesterday, this one started hard and became easier, with the exception that I couldn’t parse Pheromone. Like Rabbit Dave, I thought the clue for 11A was clumsy, but maybe Bluth will pop in to defend it. Great fun anyway, so thanks Bluth and Quirister.

9. I too thought FULL MOON was referring to some boxer dropping his pants in a show of aggression. I can vaguely remember being advised to show a bit of “common” as in common sense. Thanks to Bluth for the fun and to Quirister for the enlightenment.

10. Tough puzzle (I agree with Tatrasman, it got easier as I moved through it) but enjoyable as ususal from Bluth.
    Re flyer as a verb, I’ve certainly seen it in use, particularly with reference to acts promoting shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. As that’s Bluth’s professional background I wonder if it didn’t occur to him it wouldn’t be in the dictionaries.

11. That seems very possible, Sheepish@10, thanks. I thought 16d was one weird surface but that’s a minor quibble in a fun challenge of a crossword. Thanks to Bluth and Quirister both.

12. Thanks Bluth and Quirister.
    Tricky parsing for several ..Couldn’t parse FULL MOON.
    Likes
    – HEALTH INSURANCE, ST IVES, ELEMENT, DOLPHIN, NURSERY

13. Thanks both. Further to my earlier comment, i eventually got this to function on a fairly old iPhone, but today the Mac and newer iPad would not co-operate. Much to enjoy so worth the persistence – I had previously thought Narcs were the team (agents) and NARCO was the user/criminal. Also, in PHEROMONE which was either a DNK or a DNR (did not remember) I was held up on the ‘hero’ piece, which I would usually see as the character, not the actor

14. Thanks Quirister and thanks all.

    I’m surprised to see people querying ‘flyer’ as a verb – and equally surprised to see that it’s not in Collins or Chambers. Sheepish is right that it didn’t occur to me to look it up as it’s used so frequently in my day to day life. Anybody who’s ever been to the Edinburgh Fringe will recognise that usage (especially if they’ve performed there) as acts regularly spend several hours a day, flyering their shows.

    Examples of it being used in this way:
    https://lostintheatreland.co.uk/interview-rich-watkins-reclaiming-harry/
    “We had so little time to flyer the show beforehand, and lo and behold we had a full house!”

    https://fringereview.co.uk/review/brighton-fringe/2022/nathan-cassidy-observational/
    “We discovered that Nathan had not been able to flyer the show, so the audience was small and intimate.”

    https://warwick.ac.uk/insite/topic/teachinglearning/rootes/pastprojects/projects2017/titcombe_lottie_-_we_need_to_talk_about_bobby_off_eastenders.pdf
    “The principal responsibility would be to flyer the show, but also to manage Paperback’s social media accounts”

    I can attest that this has been a part of the everyday argot since the early 90s at least. I see that ‘leaflet’ is in the dictionary as both a noun and a verb and find it quite curious that ‘flyer’ doesn’t when the two seem interchangeable to me. Though, in theatrical circles, ‘flyer’ would be far more common.

15. Thanks Bluth and Quirister. I had the same favourites as you, Quirister. Particularly liked the T-Rex and the groom throwing the ring over the shed. Mostly breezed through it – lucky to be on Bluth’s wavelength, though a couple of bits of slightly convoluted parsing held me up. HUNDRED was my last in – foxed by the slightly Yoda-ish word order, but it’s all legit. Must say I like Rabbit Dave’s alternative version though – swap Hot for Dog in the clue and it works just as well, I reckon.

    Took me a while to twig flyer but I don’t have a problem with it. As Sheepish says, Bluth is a veteran of the Edinburgh fringe, where flyering is a common way of promoting one’s show., Works for me.

16. Unfortunately it does work, but it is a ghastly usage. I’m glad that so far the dictionaries seem to have blackballed it.

    Enjoyable puzzle nonetheless.

17. I see Bluth got a comment in while I was typing mine… I think his reasoning is sound.

    My only issue with it was that as soon as I see “flyer(s)” in a crossword clue, I’m accustomed to think of birds. Hence it took me a minute to make sense of the sentence. But once I did, I didn’t feel the need to check it in a dictionary.

18. Got held up on the top half but eventually finished.

    I had no trouble with flyer as a verb. At science fiction conventions, it’s not uncommon to flyer a room to advertise another convention or a new book.

19. Thanks Bluth for the best crossword of the day and to Quirister for the blog. PHEROMONE was a gem.

20. Me and various people of my age from Stoke have referred to football as ‘nogger’ since nappies but I’m aware that that in itself doesn’t render it part of the language. Extraordinary justification for a non-dictionary word. ‘Well me and other people use it’. Dear me.

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