Comments on: Guardian 24,349 (Sat 29 Mar)/Paul - Que? Serah, Serah?

By: Peter J

Peter J — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:16:07 +0000

Thank you very much Rightback, you lived up to your name beautifully and got back to me right away. That puzzled me for quite a while, but thanks to you I now have two more abbreviations to work with in the future. It’s a long old struggle this crossword game!

By: rightback

rightback — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:00:00 +0000

You’re halfway there: ’suffering’ is an adjective here, rather than a noun, so gives ‘in pain’ (not just ‘pain’). ‘Men’ = ‘chessmen’ = ‘castles’, and ’s’ is an abbreviation for ’son’. So we get CASTLES + (S inside IN PAIN).

By: Peter J

Peter J — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:47:46 +0000

I really enjoyed this crossword, some wonderful clues. But I had trouble with one of the across clues in the bottom half of the puzzle. Did anyone else get ‘Castles in Spain’, and if so could you explain the wordplay for me please. I think the clue was ‘Men suffering about son’s unrealistic dreams’, and I accept that ‘castles in spain’ signifies unrealistic dreams, and that ‘pain’ at the end probably accounts for the suffering. But otherwise I am just a bit confused!

Thanks for your help.

By: Comfy Settee

Comfy Settee — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:52:32 +0000

Thanks Muck
CS

By: rightback

rightback — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:54:45 +0000

Ah, Italiano. Thanks John.

By: muck

muck — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:20:49 +0000

Sorry, the full URL is

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX/Guardian%20Talk/Crosswords/

By: muck

muck — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:12:33 +0000

Dear Comfy Settee

You are commenting in the wrong place.

Try http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords

Then “Todays Crossword Mark III”

By: Comfy Settee

Comfy Settee — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:54:24 +0000

I just finished today’s weekend cryptic by Araucaria - was it just me, or was it disappointingly pointless? Seemed to be 90% handle-turning…

I realise this is a blog for last week’s one, I think I just neeed to get it off my chest. I feel better now.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:55:38 +0000

Just a minute, how could I have though HARSH was any sort of anagram of SARAH? Oops, d’oh, etc.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:47:28 +0000

I also had SARAH for 16D, though I now can’t remember how I justified it to myself: possibly an indirect anagram of HARSH? But John Ridge’s explanation looks very plausible - we don’t need ‘che sarà, sarà’ as a phrase, just the fact that “sarà” means “will be” (though it’s slightly more obscure than the norm for foreign words and phrases).

“Laughter is the best medicine” is (or was) the title of a long-running item in Reader’s Digest, featuring jokes sent in by readers.