Comments on: Guardian 24741 / Paul

By: Olex

Olex — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:53:44 +0000

In 18 across: could SOARA be how you “say” ROCKET (SOARER)? Is this a legitimate alternative way of reading the clue?

By: Neil

Neil — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:03:04 +0000

Ahah!

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:45:08 +0000

Neil, nothing cryptic, I was literally doing what I said, watching the racing on the TV and typing between jumps.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:21:43 +0000

Paul? He’sh my besht friend he ish. Until now.
I’m not given to confession but I failed on 4a, 21ac, 2dn, 4dn, 5dn (know what you mean Liz @#7), 9dn AND 14dn – and I feel SO ashamed.

So I’ve been “looking for loopholes” (W.C. Fields here recently; remember?).

It’s been a very distracting time around here since yesterday, what with one thing and another, and I’ve only found some two hours interrupted time or so to look at this crossword puzzle. No. I’m not one of those speed solvers. Give me a coupla weeks and I might get there. The only excuse (or loophole) I can find concerns 14 dn: “nothing wasted” is not a proper definition of SPARINGLY. Now, is it?

Thanks Paul (as ever), and the rest of you. I’ve let Paul down, my fellow bloggers down (I don’t even know if you’re ‘bloggers’ or ‘posters’, but you know who you are), but most of all, I’ve let my family down (by spending too much of my time looking at crossword puzzles).

P.S. Derek (#8) – you seem to be getting ever more cryptic. What’s with ‘hurdles’ please?

By: Kamintone

Kamintone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:28:55 +0000

One of our many stumbling blocks in this difficult but very satisfying crossword was 17ac – we thought it must be TITAN but couldn’t see the reason, since we both misread ‘overheard’ as ‘overhead’ …

By: Martin Searle

Martin Searle — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:01:53 +0000

Finished this yesterday after initial struggles. Good old Paul. Loved the ‘Life of Brian’ reference. Had a mental block on why it was ‘coral’. Always nice to know this site is here to find out.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:07:35 +0000

A struggle today, didn’t really get the bottom half, since I couldn’t fathom 22d, despite solving the similar clue recently.

Also had DISK for 1d, instead of TAPE – that didn’t help either. I blame the hot weather

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:15:21 +0000

1ac. Comes up in Bradfords cxw dictonary as tight and drunk. I still didn’t manage the clue without help, but the book helped some what.

By: Dagnabit

Dagnabit — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:13:30 +0000

I really appreciated the blog today, mhl, as there were more than the usual complement of answers I got but couldn’t for the life of me explain, or had explained incorrectly. I’m kicking myself for missing the Python reference: I’m old enough to have had to push past a line of religious protesters in order to see the film upon its first U.S. theatrical release!

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:53:57 +0000

Monica, tight is commonly used to mean drunk over here, which is why you see it in crosswords over there! Mind you, thinking about it in between hurdles (watching jump racing), it’s not heard as much as it used to be.