Comments on: Independent 6709 by Nimrod

By: DUNCE

DUNCE — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:55:17 +0000

Thanks for explaining 18d, Nmsindy. Have to admit, I still dont really get 26a though. By the way, regarding 30a, I suppose Nimrod knows that “horse” in Chambers can be a stretch of barren country between mineral lodes, so the end of a horse could be marked by, say, silver/gold mines. I toyed with “end” for almost the entire crossword, until I read the clue properly.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:08:44 +0000

18 down EC = City (of London) UP = train (to London). Getting the funny ha-ha and funny peculiar idea into the puzzle was good. Tail of the = last letter of thE GG = horse. I did like that one, as mentioned in the blog.

By: Graham T

Graham T — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:51:07 +0000

16d In whose musical universe are (were) A-Ha a “rock” group? No more than pop, surely.

By: DUNCE

DUNCE — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:46:39 +0000

More than a little funny, you guys seemed to have problems where I had none, but yes the puzzle was tough. How about “H(ard)+ a-ha! (Take on Meee lala) makes funny-haha. What the devil is the parsing in 18d though. Like so many of these, I got the answer without really understanding the fine details. As for that pidgeon one, what was the deal with “satire”? It was a 50-50 choice “squab” or “squ?b”. I just got lucky. Oh, the tail of the horse…Gee-Gee, right?

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:22:31 +0000

17a L’Escargot was a much-fancied runner, so not that one. Must simply be a snail joke, though escargot are a particular variety much fancied by chefs.

19a suppose the other 50% are earthwomen!

26a the difficult bit about this one is getting what ‘champed’ means in the crosswording context. A champ is a bite, so think pac-man?

30a eggs and pineapples are bombs, especially in Bradford.

16d h+a-ha as described. ‘Funny ha-ha’, not ‘funny peculiar’.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:35:07 +0000

was utterly defeated by this too and had to resort to the Reveal button more than ever before and because of that the enjoyment was sadly lost.

17A how does “unfancied runner” define ESCARGOT? Is this a speciic term in racing or just a jokey reference to the fact that a snail would be very slow?
30A How does “mine” indicate EGG? Is this in the “bomb” sense of the word mine? One online dictionary indicates that an EGG is a slang term for a aerial bomb, but then a mine is not an aerial bomb??
8/3/24/7D/23 I thought that this was made all the more difficult by the fact that it’s just a lyric (albeit probably a well known one) rather than a song title. This was such a Catch 22 clue. So much depended on 3D that you really had to get this to stand much of a chance and, because it was such a huge anagram, it was hard to get far without any checking letters. In the end I gave up altogether.

I also didn’t understand 26A so thanks for the explanation Neil.

By: neildubya

neildubya — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:23:31 +0000

19a - I think this an anagram of “three man”.

26a - SQUIB (satirical criticism) with the I (”pie’s filling”) replaced by A (”champed by one”). I think. Not sure though.

16d - A-HA were a Norwegian rock group from the 80s (If I had access to Youtube I’d post a link to their classic video for “Take on Me” - perhaps someone else can do the honours?)

I enjoyed this but it was a bit of a struggle at first. I knew there was an Elton John single that mentioned something being “a little bit funny” but basically had to guess the rest from checking letters. Getting all the FUNNY clues got easier as I saw how they worked.