Spoilers for Friday 18th September 2009

[John Bosley]

Thanks, Jim. Silly me. Sorry to mislead.

[Kirk Bevins]

I got 134. 12 maxes - I missed BAHADURS (SUDARIA), PROFILER (didn't risk it) and MEADOWS/DISAVOW/MIAOWED (MOVIES).

This sounds like a bit of a piss take. I only posted what I did since I was asked to.

[Kai Laddiman]

I got 134. 12 maxes - I missed BAHADURS (SUDARIA), PROFILER (didn't risk it) and MEADOWS/DISAVOW/MIAOWED (MOVIES).

This sounds like a bit of a piss take. I only posted what I did since I was asked to.

Only messin' with ya Kirky

[Sue Sanders]

The Q and the U are coming out together alot lately ...can that have been 'helped' in some way??? I prefer it, I must say.

Yes, a naked Q tends to be rather disappointing, especially because y'average contestant is unlikely to spot any of the tiny handful of Q-no-U words, although it occasionally adds to the cuteness as in round 8 here. Damian has said before that he had considered making QU a combined tile (as in Boggle) but that adds some odd complications with word lengths (i.e. you could get a 10). I guess it wouldn't be that hard to bias the C and V piles so that Q and U were at about the right depths to coincide, but I would guess it's probably a coincidence, because the pseudo-shuffling process is not that pseudo.

That's interesting. I wonder if you could argue that Q/U on the same tile is a unit that counts as one letter so it's inclusion can still result as nothing more than a 9 letter word (though of coursethen, the Q could NOT be used in a Q-no-U word) I seem to recall from my dim and distant school days that in Spanish, the double L that gives the eyo sound in Mallorca was classed as one letter with its own section in the dictionary.

[Charlie Reams]

That's interesting. I wonder if you could argue that Q/U on the same tile is a unit that counts as one letter so it's inclusion can still result as nothing more than a 9 letter word (though of coursethen, the Q could NOT be used in a Q-no-U word) I seem to recall from my dim and distant school days that in Spanish, the double L that gives the eyo sound in Mallorca was classed as one letter with its own section in the dictionary.

I think you end up with weirdness either way; I'd certainly be puzzled as a new viewer if I saw QUIVER declared as a 5, even if Q and U were on the same tile. The LL in Spanish, like IJ in Dutch, is universally considered as a single character which just happens to look like two other characters, so that audience wouldn't find it so puzzling.

[Sue Sanders]

That's interesting. I wonder if you could argue that Q/U on the same tile is a unit that counts as one letter so it's inclusion can still result as nothing more than a 9 letter word (though of coursethen, the Q could NOT be used in a Q-no-U word) I seem to recall from my dim and distant school days that in Spanish, the double L that gives the eyo sound in Mallorca was classed as one letter with its own section in the dictionary.

I think you end up with weirdness either way; I'd certainly be puzzled as a new viewer if I saw QUIVER declared as a 5, even if Q and U were on the same tile. The LL in Spanish, like IJ in Dutch, is universally considered as a single character which just happens to look like two other characters, so that audience wouldn't find it so puzzling.

Yeah, you're right actually - its a non starter. Ho hum.

[Phil Reynolds]

I seem to recall from my dim and distant school days that in Spanish, the double L that gives the eyo sound in Mallorca was classed as one letter with its own section in the dictionary.

The LL in Spanish, like IJ in Dutch, is universally considered as a single character which just happens to look like two other characters

Or, closer to home, the characters LL, DD, CH etc. in Welsh.

[Ray Folwell]

Or, closer to home, the characters LL, DD, CH etc. in Welsh.

Do they have Welsh Countdown on S4C ?

[Matt Morrison]

Enjoyed Jo Brand a lot more than last time round. A lot more than most other DCers of late in fact. Made up words were slightly less annoying (and as MW said, it's a game in itself trying to work out what it's going to be from the description), and her pre-advert chats were actually pretty funny, and got me chuckling in a couple of spots. Thumbs up.

[Derek Hazell]

Enjoyed Jo Brand a lot more than last time round. A lot more than most other DCers of late in fact. Made up words were slightly less annoying (and as MW said, it's a game in itself trying to work out what it's going to be from the description), and her pre-advert chats were actually pretty funny, and got me chuckling in a couple of spots. Thumbs up.

IAWTP. I enjoyed her a lot more than usual too. Perversely I think her very noticeable don't-care-attitude this time actually made me care more.