Independent 12,184 by Italicus

8 comments on “Independent 12,184 by Italicus”

1. 

   KVa

   #1 - Mon 27th Oct 25, 07:44

   
   

   My faves: AWESTRUCK, CREASE, OMELETTES, KICK-START and TALKING-TO.

   Thanks Italicus and moh.

2. 

   PostMark

   #2 - Mon 27th Oct 25, 08:12

   
   

   I agree with our blogger. It was nice to see the pangram gradually emerge: for once the J was not an early signal of one but a later confirmation. The surfaces are indeed nice and everything felt fair during the solve. Nice job.

   AWESTRUCK, CRIB, OUTFALLS, TROUSERS and TILDE my faves today.

   Thanks both

3. 

   sofamore

   #3 - Mon 27th Oct 25, 09:50

   
   

   My tops are TROUSERS for the charade and the surface, OBLONG for the ‘devious’ L-shape and the bong, and MINDSET for ‘is bothered’. I was beaten by ETHERISE being too keen to extend the def to include ‘pressure’, as intended by the setter. ‘Devious’ again. Fully concur with the blog’s intro. Bravo MOH and Italicus.

4. 

   AP

   #4 - Mon 27th Oct 25, 13:08

   
   

   A lovely smooth puzzle, with too many good surfaces to list! If pushed, I’d nominate AWESTRUCK, DIABOLIC, RELENT and TROUSERS – and I also enjoyed the devices highlighted by sofamore@3.

   Italicus was generous/cautious with CREASE… I think simply “Clothes line.” would work and be more devilish to solve!

   Thanks both

5. 

   Petert

   #5 - Mon 27th Oct 25, 14:08

   
   

   I second all four comments. I turned apatite into orthoclase by putting in an ill thought ‘espouse’ for EMBRACE.

6. 

   ilippu

   #6 - Mon 27th Oct 25, 16:11

   
   

   Thanks Italicus and moh.

   Enjoyed this.

   Am I the only one stuck on parsing 21a having entered ETHERIZE, thinking PRIZE for treasure had something to do with it?
   When I could not make it work, went back to the drawing board, anchored E, T and then found cHERISh.

7. 

   Coloradan

   #7 - Mon 27th Oct 25, 16:54

   
   

   I went there as well ilippu@6. I always think of my fellow Yank’s etherized upon a table. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Thanks Italicus and MOH (I’ll now be on the lookout for your hardness rating in a sound-alike clue ☺)

8. 

   Alphalpha

   #8 - Tue 28th Oct 25, 20:45

   
   

   Great fun from both puzzle and blog so tvmX2.

   if think = 0 then alpha = reveal = parse
   else reveal

   is my attempt to tell my approach to this puzzle so there were quite a few reveals (and one unparsed). I subsequently found myself leaning backwards with my specs on the end of my nose distancing myself as much as possible from ETHERISE – and that was reading the blog. A smidge too far for me.

   Great surfaces for a pangram. I would go to see the movie pitched by ‘Weird, upper-class childminder steals redcoat’s heart…’

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