Independent 11,708 by Phi

13 comments on “Independent 11,708 by Phi”

1. Rats! Despite Phi giving the heads up that there would be a theme today, I didn’t see it. Not really a Star Wars fan but, nevertheless, I have seen all the films. Appropriately LAST was my loi. Tried to parse “vast” = “great” for a while. Guessed FL must be an abbreviation for “flourished” but didn’t think it seemed very likely. Live and learn.

2. I didn’t see the theme either – loved the first Star Wars film when it came out, haven’t really got into any of the following films. Slow solve, but all in and parsed, other than assuming FL had to mean flourished.

   Thank you to Phi and Quirister.

3. Apologies for this not being specifically about today’s puzzle.

   Is anyone else having persistent problems with the Indy puzzles? I keep getting a ! mark and no explanation other than the web page being titled “sorry”.

   Sometimes a reboot gets it going. Sometimes it takes until the following day to let me in. Using a Samsung tablet and Samsung’s browser. The page is accessible through Firefox, but the puzzle formatting is unusable. Accessible using Chrome, but the formatting is hit or miss, which is why I try to use the Samsung browser.

   It also moans every now and again that it thimks I have an Ad Blocker, which I don’t. Sometimes refresh gets past this, more often it results in the “sorry” page.

   Again, profuse apologies for this being off topic for today’s puzzle.

   Pete

4. I’m in the same boat as Hovis and Shanne: I didn’t follow the Star Wars franchise after the first two movies and was completely unaware they had changed the title of the original. So, although I looked – and did wonder whether PHANTOM might have been in a theme of sorts – there were two few straws at which I could clutch.

   I found it a tricky puzzle in which to get a foothold. The first pass through revealed fewer than I would like though the second did get most of the job done. EVERYDAY was LOI and resisted for ages: having got EVER at the beginning, I was looking for a word like ‘ready’ or ‘lasting’ or some such for the second half, rather than thinking the first half might be READY.

   Quirister – Phi has found a sneaky definition of ‘man’ for his PEDIMENTS clue: from Chambers, 13 A cairn or rock pillar. I’m thinking Old Man of Storr on Skye or the Old Man of Hoy. Tough. I did rather like your ‘pillars of society’.

   Faves today inc MCCOY, CLOTH, RETURN, AMANUENSIS, PHARMACIST, NEATEN and CLONES.

   Thanks Phi and Quirister

5. Didn’t spot the theme, but that’s not in the least bit unusual. After the last couple of days I was just glad to get to the end of the puzzle unscathed.

   I parsed MCCOY as Silvester from the fictional Dr. Who, but Leonard is clearly the intended answer.

   Didn’t parse NEATENED which was only entered from the def. and crossers, the same goes for PUPPETEER. I don’t think it matters how long I do these crosswords for I won’t twig the little synonyms and intricacies needed to fully parse all clues. But I’m happy enough getting to the end with the confetti on the app to tell me I’ve guessed right.

   Thanks for the Phriday fun and to Quirister for filling me in.

6. The theme should have waited till May the fourth… But that’s a Saturday, not a Φriday. Thought, as Quirister, of pillars of the establishment – Conservative ministers, men of the cloth, peers, lawyers &c., then looked up man on oed.com:
   ‘…VI. Extended uses…VI.27. 1800– In Cumbria: a cairn marking a summit or prominent point of a mountain (now chiefly in local names for particular mountain or rock features, as Low Man, High Man). More generally: a prominent mass of rock forming part of a mountain.’ Citation:
   ‘1897 Then to the right comes the actual Pillar Rock, the ‘High Man’. O. G. Jones, Rock-climbing 243′
   But, of course, “It’s in Chambers”, too. And other “Old Men” are available, (cf. PostMark@4)
   Thanks Φ&Q — (Greek letters work now – Thanks Admin)

7. [“ANYONE FOR TENNIS?” – from Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days – (Monty Python, really)]

8. Quite a rapid solve for me, though (as per) I didn’t twig the theme. Despite knowing the subject, you could probably have stuck JEDI and SKYWALKER in there without any guarantees I’d spot it. FLEUR-DE-LIS was the only entry to give me much trouble, as I had lots of ideas of how to parse the (obviously correct) answer, but none would stick. In the end, I think I was unlikely ever to come up with FL or DELISH.

   Really liked TAP-IN, MCCOY, CLOTH, AMANUENSIS and FLIPPANT

   Thank you Phi and Quirister

9. I only ever watched the original Star Wars film and resented the way it turned Hollywood around. At the time they were moving into adult movies and it turned all the studios around and into computer themed games. I quite enjoyed it as a film, but one was enough. So as you’ve probably guessed, I didn’t see the theme.

10. I don’t do the Indy crossword very often, but it frequently tells me to disable my(nonexistent) and blocker. I just close it and reopen.

11. I’m a huge Star Wars fan but didn’t notice the theme.

    Really enjoyed this puzzle. Got Puppeteer but couldn’t quite work out how from the clue. Favourite clue was Anyone for tennis.

    Thanks Phi and Quirister

12. I think the interesting thing I found from working on this puzzle was that ANYONE FOR TENNIS is said to have been popularised by Humphrey Bogart in his days as a juvenile lead on the US stage.
    I did once take the ferry to the Shetlands and the Old Man of Hoy is very impressive.
    Haven’t seen the first three of the nine myself!

13. Thanks for the reply nicbach@10. That used to work for me too. This time the only cure was deleting all cookies.

    Strangely I missed the theme as per usual. I’m not a big fan, but the first movie appeared when I was in 6th form, so just the right age for it. I now prefer the Family Guy versions. True to the original story and onky 40 mins each. Better for my attention

    Oh yeah. Span.

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