Thumbs up or down?

Advance notice! Maskarade’s jumbo Easter offering will be published on Saturday 26 March, with the deadline for entries of Friday 1 April and the solution appearing on Monday 4 April.
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The main argument last month was provoked by a batch of Quick crosswords where the setter put in clues that involved anagrams of other solutions. Sometimes these also had a second defintions, as in ‘Sign on – 13 (anag) (6)’ for ENLIST, where the solution to 13 across was TINSEL; sometimes they did not, as in ‘6 (anag) (9)’ for BACTERIAL, where the solution to 6 down was CALIBRATE. The reaction, though not as feral as the current exchanges between Conservative Members of Parliament over last week’s budget, pulled no punches. It ranged from saying that it was fun to work on anagrams to saying that anagrams were a cheap, petty, lazy and intensely annoying way of producing Quick puzzles. The problem for the editor is that the engaging exchanges in the comment columns are dominated by a very small proportion of our large solvership and, by definition, may not reflect the views of the silent majority of solvers. So it would be very helpful to have a wider range of views for or against (or expressing indifference either way to) clues based on anagrams, either as a comment under this blog or in an email to me at crossword.editor@theguardian.com.
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Speaking of anagrams, from time to time the Crytpic crossword clues used to contain extremely long ones. Some will remember Araucaria’s ‘surprisingly chaste Lord Archer’ for THE OLD VICARAGE, GRANCHESTER, or Paul’s even longer classic that produced four lines from a Spike Milligan poem: THERE ARE HOLES IN THE SKY/WHERE THE RAIN GETS IN,/BUT THEY’RE EVER SO SMALL,/THAT’S WHY RAIN IS THIN.
The downside of their brilliance is that, if you can crack the clue, at one stroke you have got a large part of the puzzle. However, here is a long anagram right up in that class, which has been passed to me and which I offer to you as an early Easter holiday activity.
‘In one of the Bard’s best-thought-of tragedies our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten (anag) (2,2,2,3,2,2,4,2,3,8,7,3,6,2,3,4,2,6,3,5,3,6,2,10,6)’
The clue is not fully complete and I should be pleased if, having solved what is there, someone was able to take it further.
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And, speaking of the Quicks, the debate rumbles on inconclusively about whether they are dumbing down or getting harder. But, for those who find that any particular Quick is completed too quickly and need some way of filling a gap for family or other group, here is a suggestion that was sent to me by Felicity in the Isle of Man. You ask all those who want to play to write a story of 100 words or less, within whatever time limit you choose, that includes all the solution words of that day’s Quick puzzle. Felicity took Quick No 14,211 for 25 November last year and produced:
‘Electra, after one of the ambassador’s dances in Rotterdam, slumbered deeply. Her sycophant sister Tosca, always on the cadge, stole the signet ring, a shining exhibit on Electra’s finger, and, in a fit of peevishness , hid it in the urn of nutmeg … ’ (there was more, but you get the principle of this new game).
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You seem to have found the February Genius (No 152 by Enigmatist) quite tough. First in, by a distance was M1F, but not until 04:13. The next pair were Price at 07:45 and PSC in Australia at 07:58. After that there was no entry until 10:30. There were 20 entries on the first day and 237 by the deadline. Congratulations to Tim Francis from Bathampton, who is the winner of the February competition.
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