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Archive for May 6th, 2007

Genius 46/Brummie - “having one too many”

Posted by loonapick on 6th May 2007

loonapick.

This was the least challenging Genius for a while, but it was an enjoyable solve, nonetheless. Once you solved the across clues, you were left with a fairly straightforward anagram, and the down clues weren’t overly difficult.

The “extraneous” word in each clue is in bold letters below.

ACROSS

1 B(oleyn)-ITCHY - OFF

4 KESTREL - hidden in “disliKES TRELlis” - GARDEN

9 DEAUVILLE - (alive duel)* - ultra-fashionable French resort - AFTER

10 R.A.-DIX - a base number in mathematics - the Dix referred to is Otto Dix (1891-1961), a German expressionist painter - NUCLEAR

11 org. + AN - ORIGINATED

12 INCUMBENT - (NBC minute)* - ONE

13 EX(PLO)IT - (lop)* in EXIT (”way out”) - HEAD

15 PUP-ATE - NEGLECTING

17 INGEST - homophone of IN JEST - INSECT

19 STIR((Ridge)UP - MCKINLEY

22 STAGE DOOR - (Dorset ago)* - YEARS

24 ACT ON - ETHNIC

26 PIG-G(a)Y - AGRICULTURISTS

27 A-MP(h)-LIFIER ((flier I)*) - TURBO

28 NO ENTRY - (one)*-N-TRY - VEHICLE

29 ANTHEM - (the man)* - NEW So, taking the first letter of each extra word and rearranging them, we get the phrase “HAVING ONE TOO MANY“, which can be inserted at 3dn and 18dn.

The best of the DOWN clues:

1 BEDSORE - nice use of two different meanings of “lie”

4 KNEECAP - double definition

5 SCRIM - “Mass crime” with the letters of the word “same” removed

6 RED SETTER - homophone of “read” and Paul the Guardian crossword setter

8 PL(I)ANT

16 PLICATION - (in coal pit)*

20 PANGRAM - a sentence with all the letters of the aplhabet in it.

21 US OPEN - (up nose)*

25 T-HIGH - “half a lap” is inspired

 

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Everyman 3161/slipped on cargoship?

Posted by ilancaron on 6th May 2007

ilancaron.

Solving time: pretty quickly except for one clue

I went through this at a pretty good clip but I’m still befuddled by the wordplay for 5D (CARGOSHIP) : I suspect I’ve completely missed the boat. At it were. (Now corrected thanks to Stilt).

Across

4 BECK,ON=rev(no=small number) – a BECK is a (probably Scots) stream.
9 SPE(C)TATOR – C in (a protest)*.
10 F(O)UND – “reverse” is a (financial) FUND in this case, i.e. doesn’t indicate reversal.
11 RUSSIAN ROULETTE – Clever cryptic def for the game which has exactly “a round”.
14 HAT(CHE)T – our perennial revolutionary CHE in that*.
16 BIG DEAL – two meanings
19 MONTGOMERY C,LIFT – Ref. MONTGOMERY, Alabama.
23 D,I’S,TEMPER – turns out DISTEMPER is a “viral disease” in cats…
25 NURSE – bit of a surprise to learn that there’s a NURSE shark.

Down

1 G,ASTRIC=(scar – it)* - note how the trailing possessive “’s” isn’t used in the fodder which is valid since could be read as “scar it – is ugly” with “is ugly” being the anagrind.
3 EX,TRIC[k],AT,E – I saw the answer well before I worked out the wordplay: “end of sentencE” is just E.
4 BAT,ON – rev(tab=check).
5 CAR(GOSH,I)P – not sure about this: with C?R?O?H?P not much else occurs to me: “Fish around my island for vessel”. I can’t find a dictionary though that supports de-hyphenating CARGO-SHIP. As for wordplay I see: COS the “island”, HIP for “in”, anagram of GAR for “fish”. But I don’t see how to put it all together. Stilt below points out that it’s CAR(GOSH,I)P — where GOSH is exclamatory “my!”.  So much for Greek islands and anagrammed fish.
7 HUNT-THE-SLIPPER – double/cryptic def for what was needed to win Cinderella’s hand. It’s also a children’s party game.
8 AD,VENT – def is “appearance” and I think that “is good for” is just a link phrase?
15 TRUNCHEO=(once hurt)*,N – TRUNCHEON is Brit billy-club.
16 BUMPER – two meanings: “unusually large” as in BUMPER crop e.g.
18 ASTARTE – hidden in “feAST, ARTEmis”. Good apposite surface: ASTARTE is a fertility goddess (aka Ishtar).
21 [c]RUSTY

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