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A Saturday Prize Grauniad puzzle slot debut for Matilda?…
…and probably a first Matilda solve for me, as I tend not to have time to do the weekday puzzles. Looking back on this site, it seems Matilda cut her(?) teeth as a fairly prolific Quiptic setter, then moved on to the daily Cryptic stable, and has now ‘waltzed’ her well-earned way into the Prize slot!
There were a number (5) of linked clues, three of which seemed a bit self-deprecatory – EASY AS PIE, LIKE FALLING OFF A LOG, A PIECE OF CAKE…when this was anything but! True, all those linked clues helped with crossers, but I was stumped by APOTROPAIC, which I entered from wordplay and crossers, but had to check, as it was new to me!
PIFFLE, SUBPOENA and FAIRY STORY had me wondering if we were heading into Partygate/Johnson-land, but the only purveyor of nonsense here was EDWARD LEAR – a nice mix of real and fictional ‘world kings’!
I think my favourite must be the short-and-sweet 2D, with C-L-U-E as an alternate-letters hidden-word in CULTURE! This was closely followed by the bean soup ‘maker’ being SUBPOENAd at 14A…
I couldn’t find EX FACTO or ELANDS in my eChambers, but the online Collins has EX FACTO, and the online Merriam-Webster has ELANDS as a plural, as well as ELAND. (I think I still prefer ELAND, but needs must when the lights and the crossers require it!)
My thanks (and congrats, if indeed a debut) to Matilda, for an enjoyable solve, which then yielded even more enjoyment when dissected and deconstructed for the blog.
(I will be out spoiling a long walk tomorrow morning…I trust all is clear enough below, and I’m sure any queries/quibbles will be long sorted by the time I get to check on the comments…)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 8A | STALKING | Spattering on the hunt (8)
A ‘lift-and-separate’ – S + TALKING (pattering) |
| 9A | AS PIE | See 5 Down (2,3)
see 5D |
| 10A | LIKE (FALLING OFF A LOG) | & 24 & 26 Enjoy autumn fag, fooling around, nothing to it (4,7,3,1,3)
LIKE FALL (enjoy Autumn!) + ING OFF A LOG (anag, i.e. around, of FAG FOOLING) |
| 11A | FAIRY STORY | Loud right-winger touring revolutionary country in work of fiction (5,5)
F (forte, music, loud) + TORY (right-winger) around (touring) AIRY_S (Syria, revolutionary) |
| 12A | A PIECE (OF CAKE) | & 23 Each funny face OK for child’s play (1,5,2,4)
A PIECE (each) + OF CAKE (anag, i.e. funny, of FACE OK) |
| 14A | SUBPOENA | Summon bean soup maker (8)
anag, i.e. maker, of BEAN SOUP! |
| 16A | HAYWIRE | Festival conductor is out of control (7)
HAY (festival, Hay-on-Wye literary festival) + WIRE (conductor, of electricity) |
| 18A | EX FACTO | Play a part following old films beginning with Love Actually (2,5)
EX (old) + F (beginning of Films) + ACT (play a part), plus O (love, zero, score in e.g. tennis) [not in my eChambers, but in Collins online…] |
| 21A | BEGRUDGE | Feel resentful? Ask Barnaby! (8)
BEG (ask) + RUDGE (Barnaby Rudge, Dickens novel/character) |
| 23A | OF CAKE | See 12 (2,4)
see 12A |
| 24A | FALLING OFF | See 10 (7,3)
see 10A |
| 26A | A LOG | See 10 (1,3)
see 10A |
| 27A | DEANS | Studies involving a group of academics (5)
DE_NS (studies, hideaways) around (involving) A |
| 28A | DECAMPED | Indeed, political faction’s gone (8)
Another lift-and-separate! CAMP (political faction) in DE_ED = DECAMPED |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | ETHIOPIA | State of being half high during opiate abuse (8)
ET_OPIA (anag, i.e. abuse, of OPIATE) around HI( |
| 2D | CLUE | This is not even culture! (4)
odd letters, i.e. not even, of CuLtUrE! |
| 3D | PIFFLE | 11 and 24 initially surrounded by heap of rubbish (6)
PI_LE (heap) around (surrounding) FF (initial letters of Fairy story – 11A – and Falling off – 24A) |
| 4D | AGAINST | Not for profit in promoting The Salvation Army at first (7)
A_ST (first letters of The Salvation Army, promoted) around GAIN (profit) |
| 5D | EASY (AS PIE) | & 9 Yes, a slippery snake that is no trouble to handle (4,2,3)
EASY (anag, i.e. slippery, of YES A) + AS_P (snake) + IE (id est, that is) |
| 6D | APOTROPAIC | Starts to advocate prevention of cancer, perhaps accepting a warding off of evil (10)
APO (starts to ‘Advocate Prevention Of’) + TROP_IC (Cancer, perhaps) around (accepting) A |
| 7D | NEURON | Poles pocketing coin in cell (6)
N_N (North, magnetic pole, twice) around (pocketing) EURO (coin) |
| 13D | EDWARD LEAR | One king after another getting a writer (6,4)
EDWARD (British king, of which there have been eight) + LEAR (a Shakespearean one!) |
| 15D | BOX (OFFICE) | & 23 Here are tickets for fight outside the rink (3,6)
BOX (fight) + OFFICE (if you are not at the ice rink, then you are OFF the ICE?!) |
| 17D | RED (NOSE) | & 25 Endorse movement for a day of fund-raising (3,4)
anag, i.e. movement, of ENDORSE |
| 19D | TAKEOVER | After part exchange, pass and gain control (8)
to pass can be to OVERTAKE, and then swapping the constituent parts you can get TAKEOVER! |
| 20D | SECONDS | More food in a short while (7)
double defn. – SECONDS can be an extra helping of food; and SECONDS can be short periods of time |
| 22D | ELANDS | Natives of the Sahel and South Africa? (6)
&lit-ish? – hidden word in ‘sahEL AND South’, with the whole clue providing the definition [A little e-research suggests that ELAND and ELANDS are both valid as plural] |
| 23D | OFFICE | See 15 (6)
see 15D |
| 25D | NOSE | See 17 (4)
see 17D |
| 26D | ARMY | Silly topless crowd (4)
( |
When there are some multiword clues covering more than one clue number I try to do them first (just as I do with very long clues) since they provide useful starting points – and often they are anagrams which helps.
Got EASY AS PIE straightaway because it just had to be ASP (snake) in the middle. Then got PIECE OF CAKE – and noted they were both part anagrams which are usually tricky but good to get.
Couldn’t get the longest one so tried 1d and 2d which gave me crosses for the first word and since I had already decided that FALL (autumn) had to be somewhere in the answer I got LIKE FALLING OFF A LOG (and it was also a part anagram). So lots of crosses to help with the rest.
Other favourites included: FAIRY STORY, EX FACTO, DECAMPED, AGAINST, BEGRUDGE
Thanks Matilda and mc_rapper67
I found this a challenge but very enjoyable. I needed a fair bit of help with words like APOTROPAIC but I got there in the end. Thank you Matilda, and MC for the blog. 2dn was also one my favourites – very clever I thought.
I remember enjoying this. I particularly liked all three long themed entries.
Had not heard of the hay festival, but that one couldn’t have been anything else, so I just shrugged and put it in. SUBPOENA took me embarrassingly long, since subpoenas in one form or another account for a large fraction of my job.
Someone eventually will quibble with the ELANDS clue that the word Africa is sitting there, sadly uncrossed by the hidden word, therefore doing nothing. But I’ll argue with those people in advance that the &lit is enough of an excuse to justify that technical flaw.
[I remember a Sunday New York Times puzzle from a long way back that was entitled Eland. It eventually turned out that you had to read that as E-Land; all of the theme entries had clues that deliberately misread an opening E on at least one word. Anyway, now I can’t see the word eland without seeing E-land.]
Cheers to Matilda on her debut in the toughie slot.
Thanks Matilda and mc_rapper67
Liked STALKING (Roz calls this style of separation Playtex, I think.), EX FACTO (familiar with EX POST FACTO approvals, which are given retroactively but not heard of EX FACTO. A sample sentence from someone will be helpful), NEURON (not N and S but N and N!) and ELANDS.
ELANDS
Looks like they are more common in the countries south of the Sahel region. Experts will soon enlighten us.
With the long triplets this looked to out-Everyman Everyman, but none the worse for that. Some great clues. EX FACTO was probably my favourite for the surface (even though I’m not generally a fan on foreign words). Last to parse was SPATTERING. I thought splitting into a word and a non-word without indication was taking the ‘lift-and-separate’ a bit far but I guess I’ll get used to it if it becomes a thing. Thanks mc and Matilda.
A most enjoyable “easy”-ish puzzle for a relaxing Saturday, though I agree it was neither a piece of cake nor as easy as pie! I finished in one sitting but had trouble completing that NW corner. When I finally spotted it, I thought it was neat trick with 8a S-TALKING. My LOI was 2d CLUE, which took me forever to see, but like mc_rapper67 and Jaydee@2, it ended up being my favourite (I love it when setters play that little game referring to the puzzle itself with us)! 11a FAIRY STORY also got a big tick (cf. Fiona@1). APOTROPIC at 6d, while unfamiliar and one of the tough ones, was fairly clued. I hadn’t heard of the HAYWIRE Festival at 16a either, mrpenny@3, but it turned out to be one of those “fill in from the definition and crossers and then double-check online” solutions.
I got the “easy” linked clues but thought there might be an Edward Lear theme as well, though I couldn’t find one. Never mind, I read some interesting stuff about Edward Lear along the way. [We have been enjoying “The Owl and The Pussycat” with our granddaughter.]
Thanks very much to Matilda, who in my experience with the weeklies and now this Prize, is a great setter, and to mc_rapper67, who is a great blogger!
[I had to look up why you would be “spoiling a long walk”, mc_rapper, thinking it was a British colloquialism, and I’m embarrassed now that I’d never heard golf called that before.]
This is not good setting. ELANDS and EX FACTO are both easily avoided, and I really can’t see why the setter has allowed these into the puzzle. The same is true of APOTROPAIC, with a little juggling, and I can’t see that dropping it affects the rather weak theme. An unsatisfactory puzzle.
Oh so very close. I couldn’t parse HAYWIRE (not familiar with UK festivals) and so had WAYWARD instead as my guess. APOTROPAIC new to me, but easy to find from the crossers. 2D CLUE was a classic. I could wish that the clue for EDWARD LEAR had invoked nonsense, rather than the generic “a writer”, but that’s a quibble.
I’m not understanding what people object to about either EX FACTO or ELANDS.
Is it that: a) every solution must appear in Chambers; b) anything in Chambers can be used as a solution; c) some other permutation? (asking for a friend)
Thanks Matilda. Despite needing a word finder for DECAMPED, AGAINST, and APOTROPAIC I found this quite satisfying. My top picks included FAIRY STORY, A PIECE OF CAKE, BEGRUDGE, DEANS, ETHIOPIA, and CLUE (my COTD). I have a couple of questions — are nounal anagrinds like ‘maker’ in 14a acceptable and can ‘fall’ be clued as ‘autumn’ (in 10/24/26) without a US reference? I’m not complaining, just curious. Thanks mc_rapper67 for the blog.
Julie in Australia@7
I remember responding to a blogger (may be MC) once in a similar context: “Please don’t spoil your long walk by reading our comments. Enjoy your walk.” Or something along these lines.)
bodycheetah promptly corrected me and I recall that bit of education with thanks.
ats@10
While awaiting an expert’s response, you may read this:
My understanding: Chambers is considered the most authentic source as far as Crosswordostan is concerned. Collins is respected well. You rarely come across a solution that is not in either of these dictionaries.
Addendum to KVa@12 re: Chambers. Some answers are names of people or titles of songs or books or other such proper-named entities that are not expected to be in any dictionary.
TS@11: I’m pretty sure that Fall for Autumn originated in East Anglia, so yes.
I think any word can be used as an anagrind if it can be fitted in the role.
I didn’t find this hard going until the end, when I slowed right down.
Thanks both.
Tony Santucci @11, I grew up in deepest darkest Dorset, in the southwest of England, where fall and sidewalk were local dialect words. There’s evidence that some of the American uses come from old English regional dialects.
I was surprised to see someone comment in the week that they still had a few to go on this. I usually find that I’m on Matilda’s wavelength – the fastest I’ve ever solved a Quiptic was one she set – and I think this was the fastest I’ve ever solved a Prize. I had to check APOTROPAIC was right, having built it from the clue, but I really did find it as EASY AS PIE or FALLING OFF A LOG.
Thank you to Matilda and mc_rapper667.
Thank you MC.
Good to see Matilda in the Prize slot. I too liked EX FACTO even though I hadn’t heard it before. Love Actually was clever.
I don’t mind nounal anagrinds, but I still can’t make sense of ‘bean soup maker’ in SUBPOENA.
SUBPOENA
Applying a reverse logic it seems to work (or doesn’t it?):
SUBPOENA makes ‘bean soup’—->(a) bean soup maker.
Thanks for the blog, I was pleased that the clues with several parts were all in the right order for solving. EX FACTO and APATROPAIC fairly obscure but the word play was clear and the latter was a Down clue guiding us on the position of the A .
Mr Penney@3 for ELANDS I agree that Africa is fine and needed for the definition , but it prevents the &Lit.
This puzzle should really have warned us at the start about using L*v# A@T##l*Y in 18Ac .
Shanne@15: that would have been me taking forever to finish Matilda: my fault not hers, and in retrospect I don’t know why apart from needing a wordfinder for APOTROPAIC. I was surprised too, as I enjoy Matilda and was pleased to find her in the Prize slot. I got the “easy” multi-word clues fairly quickly, but all the wheels fell off with about half a dozen to go.
Some of the holdouts were FAIRY STORY, S-TALKING (Philistine is fond of that trick:I’ll have to remember that Matilda does it too) and it took a long time to realise that there weren’t two different poles in NEURON. None of them that difficult in retrospect; just me being obtuse (feeling like that is the mark of an enjoyable tussle).The last of all, and the star of the show, was CLUE, which is going on the all-time favourites list. Looking forward to the next Matilda Prize.
Very enjoyable. I particularly liked the thematic phrases, and most of all CLUE. I needed a friend, though, to tell me how STALKING worked.
Thanks to Matilda and mc_rapper67.
Good crossword, mostly finished in a short time, but had to revisit it for the last few; LOI was CLUE which it took ages to see for some reason.
If talking zoologically about ELANDS as species, surely one would use the ‘s’ form of plural – ‘there are two elands: the Common Eland and the Giant Eland’. Also I think if there is a specific number of animals one might tend to use the ‘s’ form – ‘he kept two elands as pets’ vs. ‘he saw a herd of eland’?
Thanks Matilda and mc_rapper67.
I really liked this puzzle. Sub poena a real favourite.
I didn’t know apotropaic – and a week after learning the word it seems I have already forgotten it as I read it in the blog intro and there was zero recognition.
Thanks Setter and Blogger
Thanks mc_rapper67. For the third week in a row it was that NW corner that held out to the end and I thought STALKING and CLUE were outstanding. I can only identify with the comments which already have been made.
ah, ok KVA@17. SUBPOENA/SUMMON (the) bean soup maker. I got that for a fleeting moment when I read the blog, then lost it again. It just won’t stick for some reason. As you say it works in reverse.
Thanks, mc_rrapper, and Matilda. A enjoyable puzzle that I found easy to start, with the longer phrases coming out quite quickly, but slow to finish. Although I thought STALKING fitted the hunting part of 8ac, and I had the L from CLUE (yes, very neat!) and the I and G at the end, but I couldn’t see the wordplay at all. Once I realised ETHIOPIA was a state and I wasn’t looking for a state of being, I was convinced about STALKING and then the penny dropped. My LOI, I’m afraid was NEURON – I was sure the poles must be N and S, and it was only after I’d checked that SEURON wasn’t a type of cell ((look, cells are not my field, OK?) that the answer hit me. Fun, though – even APOTROPIC, which I will not remember, but which was fairly clued.
Started quickly and thought we were in for another quiptic from Mathilda but things got chewier towards the finale and ultimately had an unprecedented five double-ticks with LOI STALKING the pick of the bunch
I’ve never seen Love Actually – have I missed anything?
Cheers MC&M
18a – EX FACTO – Had heard of de facto and ex post facto, but not this. Only Collins https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ex-facto has it as ‘American English’, and gives no citations.
Liked the wordplay, though. “Lift-and-separate” the film “Love Actually” to get the “O” and the definition.
Broadly agree with mc_rapper’s blog. Enjoyable puzzle overall. It took me a while to finish the top third. LOI was CLUE, so that gets top mark for misleading me for so long. PIFFLE was also nice once I got 11ac.
Ats@10. I particularly dislike it when some setters rely on bad usages of English found in Chambers dictionary. It should not be regarded as the final source. I don’t use it myself.
Bodycheetah@26 you are very lucky. The puzzle should have had a warning- This crossword contains a phrase likely to strike fear into the heart of anyone with taste.
Just imagine the film Notting Hill but even worse.
My online Chambers does have ELANDS. I liked the bean soup maker. I felt this was another example of a setter at a different level of difficulty from what we have come to expect.
[Many thanks Roz – I’ve somehow avoided Notting Hill too. I did have the misfortune to see Mamma Mia, which felt like the cinematic equivalent of a black hole]
Quite tough and very enjoyable.
New for me: EX FACTO, APOTROPAIC.
Favourites: STALKING, HAYWIRE (loi).
I did not parse 19d TAKEOVER.
Thanks, both.
If you have the Sahel Eland and the South African Eland, referring to both are they then Elands ?
Also, surprised no comments about soup: “worse than pea?” no!
Not much to add to what has already been said apart from tripping up several times with reading too many words for the definition (three not two in 4d for example) and missing the delightful lift and separate in 1a.
As for Chambers vs Collins, I think only Chambers has A Joke in it if you look up the definition of the eclair but I’m sure that is well-known to this audience.
Thank you to Matilda and mc_rapper667
Surely “takeover” is a noun. To gain control is to “take over” – perhaps I’m
wrong but that is my instinctive reaction and I put off entering ‘takeover’ until
the bitter end…
LOL Wellcidered @ 33.. Loved the low grade soup, not?! Made me laugh.
I was intrigued by your story of being at the bottom of a well. Hope you’ve made a full recovery.
Think there may be an encyphered message in the perimeter saying something like “I am having this – it’s *****’s idea”. Could be just a coincidence.
[ BC@31 the only thing about Notting Hill to be grateful for is that they did not dare to have an all-white carnival. Managed to luckily miss Mamma Mia, I did see a trailer once and I was ill for a week ]
Roz@29 and bodycheetah@26 – we quite like the film Love Actually, actually. Sure, it’s not highbrow but sometimes with all the depressing news in the world you need a cheesy feel-good romcom.
STALKING and CLUE were our last solutions, and favourites. For some reason we parsed STALKING as TALK (patter) in SING, so a slightly different approach but the same result.
The two clues identified as “lift-and-separate” (in the evolved sense of that term) are of different kinds: “indeed” embeds an instruction, while “spattering” is an example of what I call ‘the Philistine device’ (after the eponymous setter given to it).
2dn, CLUE: what a great find! Surely been done before, though?
6dn, APOTROPAIC: I knew this word, because it’s a favourite of a friend of mine who blogs and uses it whenever he gets a chance.
19dn, TAKEOVER: didn’t understand the wordplay, but biffed it. However, if the def is “gain control”, it should be (4,4), ie verbal, to match.
22dn, ELANDS: my own superficial research suggests they don’t live in the Sahel, so fails as an &lit, I think. If that’s the case, maybe ‘animals’ or similar would have been better than “natives”?
mrpenney@3: Hay (capitalised). It’s a place, not a celebration of dried grasses!
An enjoyable puzzle by Matilda as usual. LOI or rather LOparsed was 1a. It took a while to spot the lift and separate, possibly because I’m familiar with “sales patter” and “sales talk” as phrases but I haven’t come across “sales pattering” or “sales talking”. The pattering of raindrops and tiny feet is rather different.
Thanks to Matilda and mc_rapper67
Thanks Matilda and Mr_c. Resorted to cheating to get the last couple. I couldn’t get DECEASED out of my head, and I really should have got BARMY ARMY! I wondered about that too, MJ @35.
For me, the Prize puzzle can sometimes be rather an ordeal, with clues where I’m grimly thinking “I’ll get this beggar if it’s the last thing I flaming do!”. So it was a real pleasure to see Matilda’s name.
I was amused at the easy-peasy multiple answers – not that I found this puzzle easy – and also liked FAIRY STORY, EDWARD LEAR, DECAMPED, TAKEOVER – and the delightful CLUE.
And then I went and fell at the final hurdle, bunging in an unparseable and incorrect EX PARTE. Hey ho.
Many thanks to Matilda and mc_rapper67 (hope the golf was fun!)
Like Bodycheetah @ 26, I also haven’t seen Love Emetically, nor Notting Hill (which should hang its head in shame for its depiction of that place) nor the egregious Mamma Mia. I have never regretted this.
I thought the TAKEOVER was – TAKE (as the “part” of the give and take of an particular exchange) – and OVER as a type of pass (after the TAKE), meaning gain control
I mean part exchange not particular exchange
And I managed this in a morning, and thoroughly enjoyed it, failed on the APOTROPAIC. Neurons took a while but I got there with the crossers in the end (too much time looking for types of pole or coins as in cents/penny/d ) etc.
really pleased when begrudge popped into my head. Didn’t have to use check button very much at all.
Eland are beautiful animals – I have family in Southern Africa. Tasty too!
I was very pleased to complete this (and even more pleased to complete today’s Brummie) as I usually need some help from the [cheat] check button.
A largely enjoyable experience, for the reasons pointed out by the vast majority of posters.
Frankie@37, can you elucidate, please?
Thanks for all the comments and feedback so far – much appreciated, as usual…
I think the original quote was ‘a good walk spoiled’, but either way, my long walk was most enjoyable, as I only hit the ball 83 times…equalling my best ever scores, and just spoiled at the end with a 7 on a par 4…coulda-shoulda-woulda… In the early days of mobile phones, you would have been de-bagged and defenestrated for using one on the course or in the clubhouse, but these days they are as ubiquitous as they are elsewhere, being used for keeping score, GPS course maps and shot distances, etc., so a little comment-monitoring was enjoyed along with the golf…
Back to the matter in hand – this seems to have been well received, apart from by the last plantagenet at #8, and EX FACTO and ELANDS seem to have caused the most consternation, not just with him…
I spent the first 10 years or so of my life in various southern African countries, so I must have seen a few eland – not sure I ever tasted one though, as per QuietEars at #45! I vaguely remember them being quite large, so the idea of keeping two as pets, as per beaulieu at #21, rather stretches the imagination!
ats at #10 and others – re. reference material: Some puzzles – mainly the thematic barred EV/IQ/Listener series – explicitly refer to a version of Chambers (aka the BRB, or Big Red Book), and even mention any exceptions. For a broadsheet cryptic, while there is no explicit reference, the convention is usually Chambers, then Collins – for names/places/proper nouns, and then it is fair game – Merriam-Webster, and a whole host of internet references…
keiths at #25 – the ‘of being’ in the clue for 1D ETHIOPIA seemed a little excessive in linkage terms, but I either forgot to mention it or glossed over it!
mj @ 35 and others – yes, TAKEOVER as a noun means the acquiring of control – so maybe the ‘gain’ needs to be a link word, otherwise gain control should be 4,4, TAKE OVER…
@48 eland are indeed majestic animals, very large antelope with spiralled horns – and you definitely wouldn’t keep two elands as pets!
[mc_rapper67 @48, QuietEars @49: Have we seen a clue yet using “eland musk”? It would be sure to raise a smile as well as a homophone debate!]
Most enjoyable. My favourites were the L&S SPATTERING and TAKEOVER, and the beautiful little CLUE.
APOTROPAIC is a lovely word, which I knew and actually use occasionally (unlike SPATTERING and EX FACTO, which I don’t remember ever uttering). It is a good way to describe carrying an umbrella when the weather doesn’t seem too bad….
Thanks to S&B
19d was an excellent clue, but as mc noted @48, the enumeration should have been 4,4.
I started ticking the clues I especially liked, but stopped when I realized that I was ticking every clue.
Matilda is one of my favourite setters, along with her partner Goliath/Philistine. To have a visit from both of them on the same weekend (Goliath in the FT) is a special treat.
Thanks, Matilda and mc for the fun.
Roz@18&29, I enjoyed Love Actually, once I realized that Richard Curtis, ashamed of his success with Four Weddings in Notting Hill, decided to make a parody of his own work. Try it again and see if you agree.
I do not remember Love Actually but it happened to come up in conversation a few days ago and my wife assured me I hated it
A lot has been covered, but here is my take. I do not understand how we are supposed to know to separate a word with no indicators. I spotted indeed & thought it unfair, but not stalking. At the time I did not see any problem with ELANDS or EX FACTO, but did think TAKEOVER should be 2 words.
I also enjoyed the puzzle. Favorites have been covered and as this post is getting long I will not list them.
Thanks Matilda and mc-rapper67
Cellomaniac@52 if I watched it again I would have to cut out my own eyeballs and stuff them in my ears. Richard Curtis himself is ashamed of it and Notting Hill which does not show a single black face in that area of London.
At least this puzzle does not contain any elementary mistakes.
Thanks for your responses KVa@12, Dr. W@13 and JohnJB@28.
Thanks both.
Very late to the fray but needed to register my appreciation of a fine puzzle EX post FACTO. And mainly because of my enjoyment of SECONDS – admittedly a (much reviled) dd but I enjoy those perhaps more than any other device. Perhaps a cue for “please Sir, can we have some more”?
[And I might have held my peace but for the imperative to comment on the ‘long walk spoiled’ ((c) Mark Twain (I think)) and to offer that (and I am thinking here of the advice that the appropriate handicap for an amateur golfer is 9 – any more and the golf is being neglected; any less and the day job is being neglected) perhaps mc_rapper67 will find a causal link between ‘a little comment-monitoring’ and that triple? (Although in fairness a(n) 83 including a triple is not a bad day out….)]
Martyn at # 53 – not sure how to answer your plea…we just are expected to! The best analogy I can give is the old joke that goes: ‘I’m on a seafood diet…I see food, I eat it…’ I see a clue, I solve it…I don’t worry too much about what type of clue it is…are there any crossers? have I seen something similar before? Is it an anagram?…etc. So in the case of ‘spattering’, the crossers and definition suggested STALKING, which I reverse-parsed as S-PATTERING…move on… If I am in speed-solving mode then I often don’t worry too much about reverse-parsing or checking the anagram too closely if something fits crossers and definition… `Indeed/in deed’ is another familiar old chestnut… I guess it is just a case of experience and osmosis of the setter’s tricks…and they seem to get more devious as the years go by!
Alphalpha at #56 – thanks for your golfing pep-talk…I can only dream of 9-ness…just breaking through the 18 barrier…and the day-job currently trumps the golfing, but I am hoping to redress that balance in the next few years (;+>)
MC – there have been 11 Kings of England called ‘Edward’. Don’t believe ‘Norman propaganda’ that the Hammer of the Scots was the first-of-that-name!