h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was doing the crossword today, and came up with a solution, hairdo*, which reminded me of one of my rimickles in A1086770 (no. 15):

The young Marcel Proust
Was often seduced
By a scent or a song or a hairdo
And À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
He therefore produced

And the icy realisation struck: I had committed the crime of a homphone rhyme. The rule in rhyming is that the portion from the last accented syllable after the consonant that begins it (the syllable) must sound the same, but that consonant must differ in the two lines.

If you have a last accented syllable with the same starting consonant, what you get is what the French call "rime riche", which they enjoy mightily, but it sets the teeth of an anglophone on edge.

A friend of mine once sent me a poem of scores of lines he had written all in rimes riches. Things like "bet/abet", "light/delight", "can/Cannes"--you get the message. I was a wreck.

Anyway, I realised I'd have to change either "seduced" or "produced" if I am to sleep tonight. So I got into "Edit Entry" and edited for all I was worth, but when I hit "Preview" the Entry title had changed to "GuideML Error" and the thing was all in text with tags, not in GuideML.

So I took care not to save it and went off to make a

I thought I might make it work in Pliny (normally I stick to Brunel). Fortunately it did.

So now the rimickle reads

Monsieur Marcel Proust
Got a memory boost
From a little French bun (not the hairdo)
And À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
He therefore produced

Little things please the simple

*The clue was "Type of picture about Tone with old French twist".

Tough clue!

Ximenean pedants (of which there are hundreds) would insist that it indicated that French Twist was an example of the definition, not the definition itself.

I have had that problem with the "<" and the ">". I recently wrote a journal in Goo, with no markup, just a post like this and many others, and when I looked at it later on the "More journals" page, the brackets had appeared all over the place. They're not there in Pliny, which I use elsewhere. At least I don't think so.

Thanks for explaining that phenomenon. Reading that Rimickle out loud, it does sound as though there's something wrong, but I couldn't have defined it. My English A level didn't stretch to such niceties.

If you're editing anything complicated, though, sich as a table, you're better keeping away from the Pliny editor.

Icy, I do the Irish Times crossword which is pretty terrible, but we get the paper and I do it because it's there. It's full of sloppy clues: 'Type of picture' meaning HD is typical, and 'French twist' for hairdo is actually one of the better ones.

Gnomon, I'd better consult you if I want to do more editing. I got the impression from my attempt that it is no longer possible to edit in Brunel at all.

I haven't tried the Irish Times crossword. The worst crimes against cluemanship are inconsistency and poor surface readings (That clue wasn't good, unlike your Rimickle, which is excellent)

Thank you

Last week the Irish Times gave this clue: Attractive periodical on the web for single clubs. The solution is clearly ***N**** but the n is contradicted by the crossing words, which required *A*E*T*C. The solution was printed as 'majestic' which was entirely unrelated to the clue. Homer nodded. D'oh!

I suspect a predictive text related editing error.

Dreadful clue! ‘For single’ is the part that grates most with me.

Yes, pathetic. 'Single' indicated I, and club C. The setter keeps a blog explaining all the clues, which goes up the evening after printing. They did publish an apology (in the blog, not in the paper).

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/thecrosaireblog/2018/01/17/crosaire-no-16542-by-crossheir-wednesday-january-17-2018/

I woke up last night with another icy realisation: my rimickle on Debussy has an Edward Lear-style non-rhyme. "Another" rhyming with "another". Hard to find a fix ("brother" can't really be wrenched in) but I've gotta try.

It's number 34 and it now reads:
Debussy's another—
La Mère was his mother—
She called him a mischievous boy.
He started a Daphnis and Chloe;
But couldn't be buther.

No, that was bad. Now it goes:

Debussy's another—
La Mère was his mother—
She called him a mischievous boy.
He started a Daphnis and Chloe
But didn't get further.

At least it should. The edit doesn't seem to stick. I'm getting a message "Illegal use of ampersand at a link further down
<LINK h2g2="F63419?thread=120392&skip=826" POPUP="1">'Each Post a Limerick'
Can this be retrieved?

Hi Recumbentman

Try replacing the link with 'Each Post a Limerick' and see if that works - good luck!

Hi R.

Try replacing the & by &amp;

If you can't see what I typed, look at it in one of the old skins - such as Classic, Alabaster or Brunel. I think the newer system hides these ampersands.

I can see that G and I'll try it. I've tried the editors' suggestion and it clears the error message but doesn't achieve the skip. I'm away from home (on the Kenmare Riviera) and editing on my phone is tricky so I'll try again when I'm back in the smoke.

Finally tried Gnomon's advice, and surprise, surprise, no surprise, it works!

I've redone the whole thing (I woke up and worked it out in the middle of the night):

Debussy's another—
La Mère was his mother—
Tempestuous, languid and brooding.
He painted her portrait, including
Storm, splashes and shudder

(Well nobody's perfect)

Revised again. Now it reads

Debussy's another—
La Mère was his mother—
Magnificent, changeable, brooding;
He noted her bearing, including
Surge, sparkle, and shudder


I think this has gone from one of the weakest to one of the better ones. If you accept a dodgy rhyme.