Comments on: Guardian 24,451 – Araucaria

By: Val

Val — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:42:50 +0000

Thanks, Beermagnet. It all makes sense now.

By: Epee Sharkey

Epee Sharkey — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:38:59 +0000

I believe Yggdrasil pronounces as IG – DRASS-ILL or maybe IG-DRESS-ILL for the original blog author (Uncle Yap), who is unclear how to pronounce it.

This was easier than recent Araucarias for me, got Emily first – that triggered the rest of the theme.

My one quibblet was 2 Dn – I figured out Impotence as the answer quickly enough, then spent ages trying to convince myself that it fitted the subsid (eventually realising 1000 P = £10. So the subsid is very clever, but…. does Inability really define as Impotence ? A very small quibble, I guess Powerless to change ….. would have made the whole thing too easy.

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:02:19 +0000

Val, I think both 28A and 5D work OK.
In 28A “second” is used to clue the letter B (second letter) and the measures are both ELLs. So the subsidiary part of the clue “is second among measures” gives ELL-IS-B-ELL
In 5D there is “with an” in the clue that gives us the full homophone:
Moody and irritable with an appeal to be signed when heard (7)
“Moody and irritable” is the def.
“with an” tells us to think of PETTISH-AN which sounds like “appeal to be signed when heard”

By: mhl

mhl — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:40:18 +0000

There was a nice bit of misdirection in 10 across, since the mention of “8′s” in the context of the Wagner-flavoured surface meaning led me to assume the 8 meant Yggdrasil rather than EIGHT

By: Val

Val — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:05:42 +0000

28a – this doesn’t quite work because it is ELLIS BELL, so only one S. I could see BELL as a measure because of its use as a measure of time in a nautical sense but that doesn’t account for the “second” in the clue.

5d – is it fair to have PETTISH as a homophone for petition when there is no indication of the word being shortened?

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:32:47 +0000

I agree, a very enjoyable Araucaria.

Yggdrasil is from Norse mythology, the tree of life, with a goat nibbling away in its branches, if I remember correctly.