walking & talking all over again

Hurrah, I got one (18D).

Here endeth the fleeting pride.

Posted by: Anyhoo at July 2, 2009 10:32 PM

Nice work. Just 27 to go ;-)

Posted by: matt at July 3, 2009 12:01 AM

You know you're evil, right?

Haven't got 3 down (well, I have options).
Have an answer to 7A but there's too much of an echo of 1A for it to be right [unless you're not as exacting as I've assumed you to be] (and I can only decrypt the first part of the clue, though that fits) and it buggers 4D.
Have a similar one or the other situation for 8D & 13A.
The answer to 16 feels weak (possibly because I can make it match the middle of the clue but not really either end).
And some of the clues don't make sense but the answers feel right (though I've just back-formed another and am now shocked to find you used the same shorthand twice).

And apparently it helps if one knows which plant Canola is made from.

So not quite there yet.

Posted by: Anyhoo at July 3, 2009 7:02 PM

I prefer to think of it as moral ambiguity.

I doubt you've got 4D wrong, and I can't see any 7A/1A echoes, so I'd guess against that answer. You ought to be certain about 8D. I'm puzzled by your matching problem with 16D -- it's a relatively straight-up clue.

As for duplicate shorthand, it's likely. I can see one such immediately -- arguably it's just idiomatic, but who am I kidding? I'm not sure I ever promised quality, though...

Posted by: matt at July 3, 2009 9:57 PM

Blast, just got 16D. Can't see the intention for the trees.

8D I am fairly certain of (especially given the setter), it's just that it only allows one word (that I can find) for the second part of 13A and it's not one I can connect to a common phrase (except a LOTR specific use) or with the clue that's supposed to have spawned it. So leaves me wondering if I really can't spell or have a whole chain of mistakes.

If 4D is right then that puts an F third to last in a long word which doesn't seem right. The similarity between 1A and a plausible 7A is the middle syllable/word.

As for not promising quality, your track record belies you.

Edit: 4D, I was using a different synonym. Makes sense now. Which means the same-in-the-middle answer to 7A is probably right and so by the power of cheating (a computer somewhere) means 3D is a word I've never heard of (but now know how to pronounce).

So it's only 13A left making a nonsense of everything with a phrase Google can only find 5 instances of.

Hmm. When do you publish the answers?

Posted by: Anyhoo at July 4, 2009 12:05 AM

Google shows "about 72,000,000" hits for 13A, so I suspect something is amiss there. But the rest sound right -- and I am slapping my forehead at not picking the echo even after you pointed me straight at it. Evidently my mind is going.

On reflection, I'll hazard a guess as to what your problem is with 13A -- it's 12D. The answer to that one is very obscure. I'd suggest rechecking the anagram.

I'll post the answers when I get around to one of the following: (i) constructing a PDF of them, which is needlessly fiddly in Illustrator; (ii) writing a piece of software to do it for me, which will take centuries; (iii) scanning in the pencil-on-graph-paper original. Just now the last seems most likely, but it is not going to happen this weekend.

In the meantime, thanks for playing along. I didn't really think anyone would.

Posted by: matt at July 4, 2009 12:46 AM

Actually, scratch that. I just realised that I've already written some software that could, with a little fudging, produce an adequate answers grid, albeit not as a PDF. Get it here.

Posted by: matt at July 4, 2009 1:10 AM

12D: Yep, I went for the vaguely dyslexic looks-about-right version; I just assumed you were being bitchy.

I'm now wondering what you must have thought about the given the setter comment above, because I had the wrong answer for 8D (it's amazing what misused Latin will do).

So I think I'm done now.

Finished!
Guess who doesn't have a printer.

And now to check I'm right.

Posted by: Anyhoo at July 4, 2009 1:02 PM