Issue 60½ (December 2007) Solutions
The solutions for Issue 60½ are now available.
4 Responses to “Issue 60½ (December 2007) Solutions”
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The solutions for Issue 60½ are now available.
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January 12th, 2008 at 12:35 am
I didn`t send in any solutions to Magpie 60 and a half, but spent an enjoyable time with the puzzles. I`m still not convinced, though, by the blank grid that was required for Gareth`s “Gut Reaction”
Having solved all the clues, and having found the relevant quotation, my “gut reaction” was to submit the final grid with the letters of “Technical Details” missing…just to show I could do the job required…only the “technical details” were missing.
Did any solvers do just that?
January 13th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I didn’t, but only after scratching my head about how to proceed.
After erasing checked letters as instructed, we were left with only the letters of TECHNICAL DETAILS in the grid, so what to do next? It was a case (as per usual) of trying to see the setter’s intention. On reflection it seemed that the intention was to have us reproduce Pauli’s little joke: we were to send a ‘canvas’ with the technical details missing just as he had done, except for ‘painting’ substitute ‘crossword’.
Your approach (which I also considered) seemed to fit instructions in a literal / logical way i.e. only ‘TECHNICAL DETAILS’ were missing from the grid you submitted. Except that we had already been told to erase other letters. So starting from there (with only TECHNICAL DETAILS in the grid), it seemed more likely that we were to copy Pauli. His name (cf. signature) under the ‘painting’ seemed to confim the setter’s intention.
That’s thematic crosswords - one gets these dilemmas from time to time where there is apparently more than one plausible solution. When I’ve complained about this sort of thing in the past to John Green (having had a Listener entry marked wrong), the advice has always been to try to pre-empt / understand the setter’s intention, which is all that matters in the end (whatever one’s logic says).
January 13th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
All except two people who submitted a solution submitted in line with the setter’s intention (exactly as Teyrnon has it), which is reassuring, from my point of view. The two both chose ALBRECHT DURER (who he?) as the name under the grid, each with different artwork.
Part of the reason for the submission grid being just an empty frame (which might have been overlooked by a non-submitter) was to help resolve any grid-filling dilemmas.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
As one of the two who got it wrong, here was my thinking…
I solved the grid OK, got TECHNICAL DETAILS left, and tried to think of an artist who would fit (8,5).
Durer came to me fairly quickly, as I had recently seen his famous etching Melencolia I, which has a lot of technical detail in it (and kind of fits with the puzzle title “Gut Reaction”). I drew the magic square from the top right corner in the blank grid space, guessing that any detail from it would do.