Dt 30,088

[yungadin]

6 Down : " Little dash, perhaps, that could give spice to man eating fish. "
Answer ; "punctuation mark " . I got the answer from the across letters but have no idea about spice , man or eating fish ?

[bobbinwales]

man-eating fish would have a dash in it

[yungadin]

Still can't see the man-eating fish or what the spice is .

[bobbinwales]

a dash spices up 'man eating fish ' (me eating sardines) to 'man-eating fish'- like a man-eating whale or man-eating shark

[yungadin]

Still quite beyond me ! Why should you imagine " me eating sardines " . It isn't an anagram of anything in the clue . Could be " I eat tuna " which at least has some of the letters in the answer ??

[bobbinwales]

ah well seems clear to me.....me eating sardines or you eating tuna are just examples of a man eating fish. Which is diffrent to what a man-eating fish means

[yungadin]

Why are we supposed to find a "man-eating fish" which is nearly always a shark in puzzles ? How does that give us the word " punctuation " or the word "mark " ? Has the compiler decided to make everyone solve the across clues and then , like me , see what makes the full answer ? If so the Editor is going to hear from me .

[bobbinwales]

I think we must be at cross puposes.
Maybe your overthinking it.
The clue allready refers to 'man eating fish'.... them words can be spiced-up by adding a dash/punctuation mark to make it mean something very diffrent- 'man-eating fish'
If your not connviced let me know what the Telegraph Editor says