Posted by ilancaron on 28th January 2007
I had no idea that the mesmerizing 5 silver balls swinging back and forth on my desk was called a Newton’s cradle (17A).
Across
| 3 |
DAY TRIPPE,R – (pity padre)* followed by R (“original of rock’n’roll”). Hit single for them in 1965 I think. Never released on a proper album (other than anthologies etc.). Yes I remember. |
| 12 |
ROSE,O,LA – Our “girl” is ROSE and in France it’s LA “Parisienne”. |
| 14 |
SECRETARY BIRD – It can fly and it’s a PA (Personal Assistant) followed by rhyming slang for prison. |
| 17 |
NEWTON’S CRADLE – Five silver ball toy for your desk. Anagram well-hidden: I had to wait until I had all the crossing letters and then, on my way to the dictionary, realized it was simply (owls, entranced)*. Nice surface with “owls” and “cuckoo” conspiring together to mislead. |
| 24 |
RO(B)OT – I was misled by “in part of” which I assumed indicated containment but “to check” serves this role here. A, B, O and AB are all blood groups. |
| 25 |
ALMA MATER – I got the definition quickly: “school one attended”. The wordplay as I write this up: ALMA’s our “girl” now, a “friend” is a MATE and “close to Chester” is just R. Nice smooth surface. |
| 26 |
BEE(FEAT,E)RS – Again “in” misled me as the containment indicator when it’s actually “spiking”. |
| 27 |
POST – double definition |
Down
| 2 |
MOSE,S – some* followed by leader of Sect. |
| 4 |
A,L(A,B)AMA – Tibetan “monks” are LAMAs. I wonder how many there are in Alabama? |
| 6 |
INCENDIARY BOMB – pretty good double def &lit (or cryptic def &lit if you prefer). I read “Dresden” by Frederick Taylor this summer while there so this clue was quite on target. As it were. |
| 7 |
PIG-HEADED – “Napoleon” is often Orwell’s Animal Farm pig in cryptics. |
| 8 |
RA(R,IT)Y – Actually it’s “fish” (RAY) that is full of “River (Italian)” – thus “just the opposite”! Nice clue. |
| 9 |
WET ONES WHISTLE – “drink” is a verb here: (sweetish – new lot*). |
| 16 |
DEMO,C,RAT – Yes, a DEMOCRAT is a member of the Democratic Party (even if Bush calls it the Democrat Party). |
| 23 |
RETRO – Hidden in “TreasuRE TROve…”). Nice clue. |
Posted in Everyman | 2 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 27th January 2007
My first Azed. Definitely hard work: I invested at least 3 hours total. The vast majority of words I had to extract from Chambers. Azed’s saving grace is meticulous clueing – and, in the case of the unusual, almost verbatim definitions from The Big Red Book. The only words I unequivocally knew (more or less in the sense intended) were: NAPPY, LYSOL, GOLEM, PASCAL, MUSCAT, GATEAU, HULA, SALT, MARTYR. That left a lot of Chamber-trawling. The wordplay for MARTYR has me stymied, though Linxit below has a theory. I hope this is considered a relatively hard Azed…
Across
| 1 |
P(EARS)T – Spenserian “pierced” where “small part”=PT. And it’s what you do to your ears for “decoration”. |
| 11 |
AU(DITA QUERE)LA – (read quite)* in AULA which is Latin for “hall”. The anagram was clearly indicated (“roughly”) which was my way in. |
| 12 |
SCABI(OU)S – basics* contains OU (Scots for OK). It’s a kind of plant useful anecdotally for treating skin diseases. Again the anagram indicated clearly (“drunk”) . |
| 15 |
BACKLILT – bagpipe chanter thumbhole: answer as part of word play: it’s “heart of lenT LILies” BACkwards. |
| 16 |
A,R(BELL[e])A – Perfect case of being convinced I was right due to precise wordplay but didn’t know why ARABELLA was ‘easily treated’ – but, thanks to PeterB, discovered the “First names” appendix in Chambers and learnt that it’s from the Latin for ‘easily entreated’ (which isn’t quite the same thing actually). |
| 17 |
AROB,A – def is: “central Asian wheeled carriage”. Rev(a, bora), where bora is “strong NE wind in the upper Adriatic”. |
| 18 |
LYSOL – hidden in “PoorLY? SOLution…”. First answer spotted. |
| 20 |
GO,LEM - Kapek’s robot and LEM is Lunar Excursion Module – which I suppose is the “moon landing craft”. |
| 22 |
M(OT)US – Pacific reef islands: rev(sum) contains rev(to) |
| 25 |
ITCH(MIT)E – ethic* contains MIT: an American university with lots of smart people who handily lend themselves to crosswords. |
| 28 |
THREA,PIT – Scots “urged”. Heart* followed by PIT. I hazarded threaped at first but couldn’t quite make ped depressed. |
| 29 |
C(OLLA,TERAL)ITY – CITY (“financial centre”) contains OLLA (“pot”, Spanish) and later* (“converted”). “Collateral” occurred to me fairly early on, but I wasn’t familiar with COLLATERALITY until I scanned Chambers. |
| 30 |
HILAR[y] – Hilary term (Oxford) and anatomical opening. |
| 31 |
N,UTTER – NUTTER is also nutbutter which is a “spread”. My last clue. |
Down
| 1 |
PA,SCAL - Cool wordplay: PA is abbrev(PASCAL), i.e. “that” and SCAL[e] is a “graduated measure”, well, “nearly that”. |
| 2 |
EUCARYOTE – (you create)*. “Miscegenation” is a rather harsh anagrind! I wonder how many have EUCARYOTE in their immediately accessible vocabulary (other than biologists). |
| 3 |
RIB,A – “Architects as a group” steered me towards RIBA. Britorgs love to be associated with royalty thus R, and I suspected A for “architects”… |
| 4 |
STIPEL – (epistle[e])*. Another unfamiliar term. |
| 5 |
A,QUALE,[r]ATHER – fishskin leather (thank-you Chambers). Took me a long time to understand the wordplay: QUALE is Latin for quality and I like “somewhat” (RATHER) “deficient initially”. It occurred to me at about 1am last night in bed. Precise and misleading. |
| 6 |
MUS(CA)T – I actually knew (or guessed) all three components of this: the def MUSCAT, MUST (since musty is mouldy) and CA=abbrev(case) though I did have to confirm the latter in Chambers. |
| 7 |
NER(K)A – Being from the Pacific Northwest you’d think I’d know all the various types of salmon. Near* contains K (“end of hook”). |
| 8 |
A(R,I)L – I trusted my wordplay judgment but nonetheless checked Chambers that ARIL is indeed an appendage related to seeds. |
| 9 |
P(ETI)OLES – POLES (“rods”) contains tie*. Def is ‘stalk-like structure, esp. that of abdomen in wasps…’. |
| 13 |
AL(BERTIT)E – ALE (“beer”) contains (“spiked”) with bitter* (“fizzy”). Def is: pitch-black bitumen. |
| 14 |
M(AST C)ELL – MELL (“mix” in Scots indicated by “localized”) contains acts*. |
| 19 |
CHITTY – note (small chit) and ref. CHITTY CHITTY Bang Bang. |
| 20 |
G(ATE)AU – GAU is an old German district (also used by the Nazis). |
| 21 |
MARTYR – St. Andrew was a MARTYR. “Ultimate in cruelty”=Y but any offers for how this really works? Linxit below proposes that “cross” is T and Andrew MARR is the journalist. Not sure about this since this means that Andrew does double duty: definition and cryptic. |
| 22 |
MI(TC)H – mitch and wag: both can mean truant. Rev(him) contains rev(ct) |
| 23 |
S(M)EAR – “Small piece of Meissen”=M contained by SEAR (“scorch”). Def is “fine glaze of pottery”. “Small piece” felt redundant to me. |
| 26 |
HULA – haul (“drag”) with “a” moved to bottom. |
| 27 |
SALT – double meaning: SALT is stored in a saltcellar. And the other meaning is archaic (indicated by “vintage?”) for “expensive”. |
Posted in Azed | 7 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 27th January 2007
A bit easier than last week’s Nimrod I think but there were still a few I didn’t understand. I’m obviously not tuned in to the Nimrodian frequency at the moment but that didn’t stop me enjoying this.
| Across |
| 10 |
CHECK - what you say in chess when your opponent’s king can be taken. |
| 11 |
(TOWN)* in DR<, END - the surface reading of this clue was pretty good, considering the complexity of all of the wordplay elements. |
| 12 |
DUO - not sure how this works. I’m guessing that “couple playing” is the definition. |
| 13 |
OP in(SORTS MORE)* - never come across this before, or “freebooter” in fact. I got it by establishing that it had to be something-trooper. |
| 17 |
STRIKING THROUGH - very cleverly hidden definition of (I think) “impressive over, the reverse of character forming?” as it cons you into thinking that “over” is related to cricket. |
| 20 |
(EX)PENSIVENESS - I had this filled in but have literally only just worked this out. “First wife not given” is EX missing. |
| 25 |
hidden in “noT AS SOuthey” |
| |
| Down |
| 3 |
(MONK IS O)* - from Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha” (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/song-03.html) apparently. This was the last one I filled in and I had N?K?M?S so it was just a case of guessing where the vowels went. NIKOMOS and NOKIMOS were both very tempting so in the end I googled all three to see which one it was. I like to call this “research” rather than plain old cheating. |
| 5 |
NEW,ST,HEAT(ER)* - another new one to me but I guessed that the Birmingham reference had to be something to do with Birmingham New St station and NEWS THEATRE seemed plausible enough. |
| 6 |
R in INTO,IT - more cleverness here. INTO and IT (SA = Sex Appeal) are bordering R(uns). |
| 8 |
ORDER OF THE BOOT - don’t really know why though. There’s something going on with “Beth too” but the rest is a mystery. |
| 9 |
(SUCH A DO AIR TYPE)* - seemed to take forever to parse this clever anagram. Is it a real &lit though? I’ll say no but others may disagree. |
| 16 |
(ELSE A QUID)* |
| 18 |
(IN SHARK)* |
| 21 |
AU in URN (going up) |
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
Posted by rightback on 27th January 2007
Solving time: 20:01. One mistake (2dn) so the last 3 of those minutes were wasted!
I know the Guardian allows its setters much more licence than most publications (and that some setters are allowed more than others), and I know Araucaria is a veteran and has a big fan club and is rather an acquired taste, but I’m afraid I didn’t think much to this puzzle at all. Some of the clues are really poor and there are too few good, or even sound, clues to redress the balance. Bizarre and implausible surface readings are a normal feature of Araucaria’s clues, but several of these were barely English, while a number of the cryptic readings have either completely extraneous words or incorrect grammar. An ambiguity in 23dn didn’t help matters either.
On the other hand, I didn’t not enjoy the puzzle while solving, and I learnt some new words. And I think 1ac/8dn is a pretty good clue: once again the initial capital trick fooled me.
* = anagram.
| Across |
| 1 |
INTERNATIONAL (= test) + BACCA (”backer”) + LAUREATE (= (Andrew) Motion) - this took me quite a few crossing letters; spotting it straight away from the definition, as I’m sure some solvers would have, might have halved my time, given the position of the answer (first row and first column). |
| 10 |
AU + XI + (L for d)IARY - the first ‘for’ in the clue is superfluous and unjustifiable. |
| 11/12 |
HALF-A-CROWN; (FOR CAL)* in HAWN (= Goldie) - the grammar in this clue is wrong, ‘turn’ can be an instruction to jumble letters but not in the middle of a phrase like this (“…about turn for Cal”). The surface is poor as well, unless I have missed that ‘Cal’ refers to a specific person. |
| 13 |
[apo]THEC[ary] + RUN + CH - the definition is worded accurately but renders the surface reading meaningless. |
| 14 |
LAIR + AGE - a place where cattle are housed in a cattle market. Again, ‘for’ is superfluous in this clue. |
| 16 |
FLIPPER (double definition) |
| 18 |
[nehr]U + PAND[it] + U.P. - Wikipedia confirms that Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister (1947-64) was known as ‘Pandit‘ and that U.P. is a common abbreviation for the Indian state of Utter Pradesh. |
| 20 |
DIES NON; (NOSE)* in DIN (= row) - a day on which judges don’t sit, literally ‘not a day’. I didn’t know the phrase but it was clear from the clue by analogy with (e.g.) sine die or Verdi’s magnificent Dies Irae. |
| 21 |
EASY MONEY - which can mean money borrowed at a low rate of interest, or simply money made easily, i.e. ‘money for old rope’. |
| 23/24 |
S(TEAM)TRAIN |
| 25 |
AGONISTES; AGO + rev. of SIN + rev. of SET - an epithet meaning ‘the struggler’. This was a new word to me, but the wordplay was fairly unambiguous, despite the superfluous ‘when’. The clue refers to John Milton’s Samson Agonistes. |
| 26/9dn |
A ROLLING STONE GATHERS NO MOSS; (SO LONG SINGER AS HORMONAL TEST)* - after a very slow start this was a breakthrough clue for me, solved via Mick (Jagger) and confirmed by Kate (Moss). The surface here is a little better, but the clue lacks a definition and an anagram indicator. |
| Down |
| 2 |
NUX VOMICA; (MCVXI (= 1116) O)* inside NUA[nced] -I didn’t know this stimulant and spent a few minutes trying to unravel this clue at the end. I thought 1116 might break down into (11 = XI) and (16 = XVI) so went for ‘nux iovixa’. But ’semi’ can’t sensibly mean ‘the first 3 letters of a 7-letter word’, and what the surface reading means is anyone’s guess. |
| 3 |
[cart]EL LEN[ding] - easy but inelegant, given the superfluous ‘money’. |
| 4 |
N + A + ART + JE - one of the better clues, and a word (meaning a type of small orange) I learnt from a recent Sunday Times Mephisto. |
| 5 |
THYSELF; (FELT SHY)* - Alexander Pope wrote: “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man”. |
| 6 |
OT (rev. of ‘to’) + HER[b] + WISE (= sage) |
| 15 |
AB (= a seamanship rating) + DOMINA (= Latin for ‘mistress) + L[augh] - ‘Latin’ can mean ‘an inhabitant of ancient Latium’, so this ‘for’ can be considered not superfluous; this is a better clue, I can accept ‘laugh starts’ = ‘L’ as a normal Guardianism. |
| 17 |
PIN + KERTON (”curtain”) - ‘eye’ as in ‘private eye’, after the American detective Allan Pinkerton. The question mark just about excuses the problem with stress in the homophone. |
| 19 |
P + UN(JAB)I |
| 20 |
DAYLONG; [p]YLON in DAG (= ‘gad’ about) |
| 22 |
ST (= saint) AIR - ‘takes’ does not seem to work as a link word and the wordplay (’sacred melody’) is very stretched. |
| 23 |
SHIFT or SKIRT - unless there is a theme I have missed, which I doubt given the perimeter entries, either answer is perfectly justifiable. ‘Skirt’ can mean ‘move’ as in ’skirt around the town’, and a ’shift’ can mean ‘a women’s undergarment, smock, chemise or slip’ or ‘a loose dress’. Poor editing, especially in a prize puzzle. If I had to guess, I’d probably go with ’shift’, which is slightly better for ’something to wear’ than ’skirt’ is for ‘move’. |
Posted in Guardian | 2 Comments »
Posted by rightback on 26th January 2007
Solving time: 6:37
Welcome relief after a half-hour struggle with Scorpion yesterday: I much preferred this to the last Phi puzzle I blogged (6288). The antipodean flavour to the top left (OTAGO and HAKA) was rather less welcome, given England’s latest humiliation this morning.
Beginners’ tips of the day: ‘city’ = EC (or NY, LA, Ur), ‘ready’ = money of some kind, ‘pawn’ = HOCK.
| Across |
| 7 |
OT + AGO - New Zealand’s second largest region, behind Canterbury, and home to Dunedin. |
| 8 |
EMOTIONAL; (I’M NOT ALONE - N[ame])* |
| 10 |
FR + AUGHT - the abbreviation fr. for ‘frequently’ is in Chambers but rarely seen in daily crosswords (I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed in The Times) so this clue may have proven trickier for those without (e.g.) Listener experience. |
| 11 |
T + RIG + AMY - my last entry but it should have come much faster. Reminds me of a splendid limerick which goes something like this:
There once was an old man of Lyme
Who lived with three wives at a time
When asked “Why a third?”
He replied, “One’s absurd!
And bigamy, Sir, is a crime.” |
| 12 |
TECHNICAL HITCH - ‘marriage of convenience’ arguably merits a question mark. See also 14dn. |
| 17 |
AIR(TIM)E |
| 19 |
ACROSS THE BOARD - a justified question mark, which I think is an acknowledgement that chessmen can also move down the board etc. |
| 23 |
CO(MIC)AL - according to Collins here (sense 14), a nut can mean a small piece of coal. Good clue, ‘prop for standup’ is subtle. |
| 24 |
CA(LIB)RE |
| 26 |
BARRICADE; (A CIDER)* by BAR (= pub) |
| Down |
| 2 |
DOUGH (= money = ready) + NUT - see 14dn. |
| 3 |
HECTIC; HE (= man) + rev. of IT inside CC (= ‘about’ repeated) |
| 5 |
BIKIN[g] + I - ‘well-known’ is slightly superfluous but I suppose might give reasurrance to a solver that he probably does know the name. According to Wikipedia, Bikini Island is famous both for the nuclear tests carried out there and for having given the name to the bikini swimsuit, which was introduced in 1946 at a time when the island was in the news. |
| 6 |
AN(TAR + C)TIC + A |
| 7 |
OFF(STAG)E[r] |
| 9 |
[p]LAYS |
| 13 |
CINE-CAMERA - EC (= City) in (AMERICAN)* - I initially thought this was an anagram of ‘in American’ and wrote in ‘mini-camera’ before spotting that it didn’t quite work. |
| 14 |
DEAD (= not excited) + HEAT (= intense activity) - watch out for Phi clues like this, several double word phrases in his recent puzzles have had wordplay consisting of the two individual parts. This is a perfectly sound clue, because both parts are clued by the wordplay in a different sense of the word to that in the definition. Other examples today include 2dn and 12ac. |
| 16 |
CASELOAD - (A SOLE)* in CAD |
| 17 |
RABELAIS; IS after (ARABLE)* - François Rabelais was a 16th Century French writer whose name it seems I have finally learnt to spell. |
| 20 |
ORC + HID - an orc is one of these. |
| 21 |
HOCKEY; HOCK (= to pawn, as in pawnbroking) + rev. of YE - ‘promoted’ doesn’t work for me as a reversal indicator, even in a down clue. What’s been promoted is the ‘E’ of ‘YE’, not the whole word. You could argue that ‘promote’ means ‘raised up’ which is a valid reversal indicator, but that seems too indirect for me. |
| 22 |
S (= is) + CAB - ‘is’ for ‘S’ is another Listenerism rarely seen in the dailies. |
| 25 |
B (= British) + [c]REW - tricky wordplay to fathom, as ‘British’ could also be ‘BR’. |
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
