Listener 4223 Two Names By Verbascum

[Ruthrobin]

A Happy New Year to all. What a pleasant and gentle start to the year! The theme appeared early and we have thoroughly enjoyed this. We haven't quite finished but progress is regular and speedy.

[contendo]

Phew! Finally got there. For those still struggling with the misprints, you have to look very carefully for some of them - in fact I'm still two short.

[tenflags]

Nice thought Cruncher.. I diverted myself for a moment with a cryptic representation that arguably met definition and preamble as well as the debate alluded to above before returning to the simpler.

As you say maybe new year jitters and last weeks debate have made us all peer harder into shadows.

[tilbee]

In the interest of finally joining the renowned Friday club, but more importantly giving myself more time to do other activities over the weekend, I have finallly been tempted to join the Times crossword club. However when I go to the relevant web site I am offered mutiple options for Times subscription (Digital, Classic or even Ultimate (!)). Any advice out there on which I would need to get the Listener of a Friday and even the daily Times cyrptic ?

[trux]

Delayed at Thiefrow, so extra time to start this one. Less than an hour later, grid is all but full. Nice, neat clues but not so tough. Though I will have to wait till I get back to finish endgame off, advance thanks to Verbascum for keeping me happily entertained during my delay.HNY 2 1 & all on AB.

[borealis]

Great preamble, and some interesting new knowledge. A good start to 2013. Loved the real existence of the "spurious and misleading" example!

[BlackHugh]

tilbee - note that the times crossword club is not the same as the times news subscription (which gives the options you have listed). The crossword club is at https://www.crosswordclub.co.uk (My subscription was £24.99 last year).

[BlackHugh]

sorry meant to add: that certainly gives access to the Listener at 4pm on Fridays and the daily cryptic (plus a whole lot more).

[tilbee]

Thanks BlackHugh, this site currently redirects you to the paper itself (for new memberships) with the options detailed above. However, looking in more detail (bottom right) there is a note that they are not currently able to accept new members whilst they update their site. Looks like I still need to wait for my Saturday supermarket visit for now.

[jumperjudy]

Well I thought as its a new year I'ld give it a go, and this was a very welcome, gentle starter. Such a clever way of connecting two very different people. Like others I seem to be a few letters short, but I'm sure a final PDM is waiting.

Black Hugh, like Tilbee I'm confined to a paper version. Can you enter from the online version, or do you still have to buy the paper? - I have probably futile hopes of updating my 2003 copy, although this puzzle it came in handy :)

[Ruthrobin]

Jumperjudy, you can enter from the on-line version. Some of us have to as we live overseas and cannot count on getting to a Times outlet on a Saturday. For us that involves driving to another country and hoping the airport there has copies left. You have to shrink the on-line version to make it roughly the same size as the newspaper one.

[jumperjudy]

Thanks Ruthrobin, when the website is taking members again, I'll sign up, but don't expect to see me in the Friday club for quite a while...

[olichant]

It was all going so smoothly, but I just have no idea what the misprints are getting at (apart from maybe two of them) and I'm pretty sure I have them all. That aside, a neat idea, I thought (well, so far). Happy New Year to everyone.

[olichant]

Ach, der Groschen ist gefallen - I had, of course, missed a misprint. I would never have guessed it from incomplete letters and without the assistance of google. But it made me smile.

[jim360]

For a long time when I was looking at the misprints I had a gap in the first word so that it looked like something else entirely, and I was totally off the mark with what was going on in this puzzle for a long time. Probably its main strength, that it takes a while before you see what's going on. Other listeners can have their main PDM very early - this one came only when I had everything entered bar B and 36a.

[AndrewG-S]

Of no particular relevance to this crossword which I thought was fun, I just stumbled across the following limerick which I thought was quite amusing.
There once was an X from place B, Who satisfied predicate P, The X did thing A, In a specified way, Resulting in circumstance C

[contendo]

For the last few weeks a few people have been divulging answers to Listener crosswords on the Crosswordsolver site. I don't know whether they realise that they're breaking a long-standing convention and are insulting setters who may have spent hundreds of hours devising these crosswords. They may know but just don't care which would be a great shame. I'm not registered on the site and it's not entirely clear how you do register, but if any of you are registered perhaps a polite comment would be in order.

[emcee]

I wasn't aware of this site, contendo. I've just been on to have a look and frankly I'm quite sickened at what has been given away in just 7 posts. I think a polite word would help if someone out there is a member.

[olichant]

I see that someone (not me, despite the similar name) tried to make the point in a very measured way a few weeks ago - obviously to no avail. I think it is a very great shame.

[Cruncher]

I've just seen that too and was rather shocked. I did notice a tag for "Aristophanes" who I think contributes here from time to time. Perhaps he could damp things down a bit.

The other possibility is of course to get on the site and post all sorts of (3,7s). That appeals quite a bit

[TheBear69]

Regarding crosswordsolver:

I think it would be extremely hard to come up with convincing 3,7s...However the site seems very hard to search so if one posted a lot of aticles/queries about other puzzles, the Listener query would get buried to the 3rd or 4th page pretty quickly.

Those posts are distressing...they do not bother with subtle hints - those are outright answers...