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uncle_w

7th August 2017, 00:07
Please ignore my last post. Think I have the answer (Scottish hut). Cheers!
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dryden

7th August 2017, 02:09
I'm not convinced by explanations given so far for settling the choice between the two arrangements of thick lines to which Beepy referred earlier. Now I've prepared images of both, his second solution, in which two lines are 25% shorter looks more authentic to me. I cannot find a particular picture that matches this one so I assume it's generic, in which case the line arrangements are arbitrary.
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izzet

7th August 2017, 11:37
I've solved everything, found the relevant colour pointers, understood the nature of the theme but still don't understand how to add "four thick lines'' to demarcate the squares in the appropriate way - it seems somewhat arbitrary where exactly to put the lines unless I'm missing something.
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dryden

7th August 2017, 12:37
One horizontal line must stretch right across the grid line to demarcate the upper border of the yellow square and the lower border of the red. A vertical line must stretch right across the grid to demarcate the right border of the blue square and the left border of the red square. The other two lines could cover the whole grid or stop short as soon as they have completed the enclosure of the yellow and blue squares.

Two justifications for all four lines to be the same length have been offered: one, that it 'seems sensible' and two, that "in accordance with the thematic name" indicates the lines should be the same length as the name. Both choices ''seem sensible" to me, and the second justification seems pretty far-fetched, because it's not a natural reading of the preamble.

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dryden

7th August 2017, 16:56
Nobody else apart from an aforementioned poster seems bothered by this ambiguity, Izzet. Perhaps they've seen something we haven't. Of the two solving friends with whom I have been in touch, one has opted for one solution and the other for the other. Coin-tossing time?
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izzet

7th August 2017, 19:43
Many thanks, Dryden, for your helpful observations. On balance, I think the full length option seems the better one to follow as it seems more typical of the work of the person whose work is being celebrated - but it would have been helpful if the preamble had properly eliminated the residual ambiguity!
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grid

8th August 2017, 08:53
Have been staring at this for last few days
I have 4 8 eight letter answers and 2 6 letter answers for square three
Ive guessed the theme and the colours, but cant place the squares
Having read the thread so far, still stuck
I have ortolan as one of my seven letters, what is the other?
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dryden

8th August 2017, 08:54
There are examples of both, but the full-length examples do seem to predominate. The ambiguity could have been resolved by the insertion of 'identical' or 'equal-length' before 'lines' in the preamble.

Surely the marker will have to accept both alternatives. I don't see how one can be marked wrong.
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meursault

8th August 2017, 11:22
Grid, you have all but one of the Square 3 8-letter answers. Just because I presumed that the setter would try to confuse us with the numbering of the squares, I guessed that words for Square 3 would go at the top left. This isn't quite right, but it got me started. Enter the 4th answer (8 letters) into the cells on row 6. The rest should begin to fit into that. Ortolan goes into the cells on row 3 (the other 7 letter answer is Bluecap)

Dryden, I'm inclined to agree. It doesn't really matter. One of the things which stands out about 'Composition II in Red, Blue & Yellow' is that the thickest black lines go down each side of the canvas. Just to confuse things even more...
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dryden

8th August 2017, 14:04
There are no thick black lines either side of the canvas in the examples of 'Composition II in Red, Blue & Yellow' that I have looked at. It just looks that way on a Google search page.

The most appropriate image for a pattern of four thick lines stretching across the grid is 'Composition B (No. 2) with Red'. Apart from a fifth thinner line on the extreme left, the arrangement of lines is almost identical to the Listener grid with four identical lines.
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