Comments for Listen With Others

Comment on Prize and Prize-winner by Dysart by shirleycurran

shirleycurran — Sun, 20 May 2012 07:16:00 +0000

Ah, thanks! I see that Dave Hennings was puzzled about the ANANA too.

Comment on Prize and Prize-winner by Dysart by Alan Connor

Alan Connor — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:11:16 +0000

“The star entertainer in the line-up could tell you how to get this fruit” — I take that star entertainer to be the TOP BANANA, a cryptic instruction to remove a B and get this ANANA. I was so sure that Norwegian Wood was going to be a SPRUCE and that DANCE DANCE DANCE would be a dance in triple time, a WALTZ. Wrong on both counts! I should also say that I loved being misdirected towards Prague.

Comment on Cuemasters by Tangram by shirleycurran

shirleycurran — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:20:45 +0000

Sorry, Terry, to complete the answer about BIASED – the Definition was ‘with heavy side’ – thus BIASED – and the wordplay, after the D had been used as a extra letter, was that game ‘BASE’ taking in an I, so BIASE. I think the difficulty came from the obscurity of that use of ‘Game’ for the BASE part of the clue.

Comment on Cuemasters by Tangram by shirleycurran

shirleycurran — Sun, 13 May 2012 00:02:13 +0000

Thank you, David – that was numpty slowness!

Comment on Cuemasters by Tangram by shirleycurran

shirleycurran — Sun, 13 May 2012 00:01:28 +0000

Yes, the wonderful Mrs Bradford gives BASE as a game (I gather that it was played ‘once’ in prisons). Of course, I (International) went into the word.
Yes, there was a Curmudgeon crossword in Crossword (the Crossword Club magazine) that had the liner hit an iceberg and sink, sending flotsam to the surface and leaving flags at half mast. Two weeks later, the IQ crossword was Sabre’s and he had the Carpathia as a potential source of help, the ship also sinking and flotsam also rising to the surface – a message hidden in extra letters in the clues. I have it on good authority that there was no collusion (smile!)

Comment on Cuemasters by Tangram by Terry Clarke

Terry Clarke — Sat, 12 May 2012 04:59:30 +0000

I had to use the * function of my iPhone Ch08 to get WELWITSCHIA, and that only because I knew by that time that there had to be a latent W. The same treatment of 22 Dn on IASE, using @ for consonant, produced BIASES but not BIASED – and if it had, how is BIASED the answer where ‘game’ is the definer? (I was pretty certain that the unched initial would be D or W: not very happy about ‘break with’ – what do you make of that, Shirley? I didn’t remember the moonlit door; I felt sure that the poem either was Yeats (why?) or had something to do with the SS Titanic. Googling didn’t help, as I felt certain that it wjl dbea moonlit MOOR! uyuk! so close and yet … BTW, has there been a Titanic x-word?

Comment on Cuemasters by Tangram by David Mansell

David Mansell — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:37:13 +0000

Hitler was appeased at Munich in 1938.

Comment on Ballad by Elgin by erwinch

erwinch — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:28:47 +0000

I do not now find Elgin's puzzles to be as formidable as they once were. Nevertheless, this was intriguing although perhaps with a weakness in that it could be solved correctly without ever finding the Kipling poem. Of course, you could not then be sure that you had solved it correctly. I had a question mark over one clue: Eac Maybe a gopher is caught by a river (5) cadee - C + A + DEE Under gopher, Chambers (11th) has burrowing animal, computer browser, biblical wood or waffle (as gofer²) but none of these would appear to fit cadee (caddie). Might this be a mistaken reference to gofer¹ and if so is it fair?

Comment on Listener 4185: Ballad by Elgin (or Are Scissors Really Necessary?) by Dave Hennings

Dave Hennings — Sun, 06 May 2012 09:23:30 +0000

Shirley

Thanks for your note of optimism! Only time will tell how I get marked, but I suspect that it will be the editors, rather than John, who will arbitrate.

I have to say, though, that I have always considered that the method of entry is just that … the method of entry. In this case, words go off one side of the grid and ‘reappear’ at the other. It has never implied to me anything about the physical structure of the grid, in this case that it is “supposed to be a cylinder”. That is why I felt it important to ‘mutilate’ the grid so that EARTH & SKY were represented correctly next to JUDGEMENT-SEAT in my submitted solution.

In hindsight, this was definitely a case of being far too clever for my own good. Some weeks, of course, that would pay dividends.

Dave.

Comment on Listener 4185: Ballad by Elgin (or Are Scissors Really Necessary?) by shirleycurran

shirleycurran — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:10:59 +0000

Dave, the grid clearly needed to be regarded as a cylinder in order for the device to work (it reminded me of Phi’s tectonic plates one) but the instruction that the extra line could be omitted seemed to resolve that issue. All the same, you have submitted a valid, symmetrical grid if you really have split it down the middle and, as you say, the instruction suggested that it was an optional, rather than a forbidden step.

Mr Green seems to be a very pragmatic marker – it will be interesting to see how he regards that entry. I would think that you could quite justly appeal should it not be marked correct.