Posted by neildubya on 4th July 2007
IO was another new name to me until I checked the Setters page here and found that he is also Nimrod and Enigmatist, which explained a lot. Unusual to see a preamble in a daily puzzle too; this one read “The “ones” are of a kind; their clues lack further definition”. They turned out to be artists; thematic clues are asterisked below.
| Across |
| 1,29 |
A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS - which links in with the “ones”. |
| 10 |
NOT,ER - the second but last one I filled in. “Observe” is defined in the Chambers online dictionary as “to examine and note” although I’m not completely convinced that an “observer” is a NOTER. |
| *11 |
DONATE,LL,O - “overhead” for O would give some people the heebie-jeebies… |
| 12 |
O in ROSTER - …as would “Empty duty list” here. We have to interpret this as “duty list” with “nothing” (”o”) in it. |
| *13 |
TIE,POLO |
| 16 |
AC,TRESSES |
| *19 |
R.E.M,BRAND,T - Wikipedia helpfully informs us that R.E.M is a stage of sleep “characterised by rapid eye movements” - that’ll be where they got the name from then. |
| *20 |
MO,NET |
| 22 |
EMI in SPED - very skewed syntax in this clue. It reads “Ran music organization, breaking part of foot” but we’re supposed to interpret it as “Music organization breaking ran part of foot”, which is obviously gibberish. My feeling is that this is a step too far - if you have to bend the syntax that much to get a better surface reading (which isn’t even particularly convincing) then surely it’s better to just write a different clue? It wouldn’t be so bad if the word was common but SEMIPED is not in the Concise OED or Chambers Online. |
| *25 |
V, R in EMEER |
| 27 |
(SO STAND UP)* - I guess this is SANDSPOUT as it’s the only thing that will fit but I can’t find the word defined anywhere online (it may well be in Chambers though). The surface reading (”Feature of Desert Storm, so stand-up wags“) is incomprehensible to me but maybe someone else would like to have a go at interpreting it? |
|
| Down |
| 2 |
PET,LEU in ROM - another kerrazy surface reading. |
| *3 |
TO,ROC (going up) - not an artist I’ve ever heard of but not too tricky wordplay. |
| *5 |
hidden in “modERN STyle”. |
| 6 |
(THE HAMLET)* - nice clue; best of the puzzle I think. |
| 7 |
hidden in “EuclideaN ALGOrithms” - NALGO is (or was) the National Association of Local Government Officers. |
| 8 |
S,(LOTS ON)* - STOLON(S) was new to me. I had S?O?O?S so it was either going to be SLOTONS or STOLONS and I went for the latter. |
| *9 |
INGRES(s) |
| 15 |
PA in PARIS,US (the last bit going up) - can’t remember how I knew PARI PASSU - probably from another crossword. “Romantic city” is a fairly obvious signpost for PARIS and “old man” is often PA. |
| 17 |
IT,IT (going up),VAT,ED - I knew TITIVATE was a word but didn’t know what it meant and it was a bit suprising to learn the meaning; feels like it should mean something else, although I’m not sure what. |
| *21 |
TURNER |
| *22 |
MUN(i)CH |
| 24 |
D,IOTA - another new one to me. Took a while to work out “a little” was IOTA. |
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by Colin Blackburn on 4th July 2007
A rushed puzzle today which is still unfinished. I have not worked out 18dn or 21ac, I suspect if I got either I’d get the other but I thought I’d get the post out of the way and worry out them later. A good puzzle from Dac with some nice anagrams, good cluing, a few contemporary references and even an &lit thrown in for good measure.
CD = cryptic def.
DD = double def.
* = anagram
< = reversal
| Across |
| 1 |
JOHN DOE — JOHN+DO+(fortun)E — the only questionable definition for me. John Doe is a name used in US court cases for an unnamed male or a name used in detective fiction for an unamed corpse. I’m not sure that it is specifically an average American, especially since half the US population are female and Jane Doe refers to that half. Still, I liked CAN = john and I got it. |
| 9 |
TARANTINO — TAR(r)ANT+IN+O — Chris Tarrant is a UK TV presenter. He’s famous these days for presenting “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” but many of my generation will know him as the presenter of “Tiswas”. |
| 11 |
EMERGE — EG+REME< — engineers is often RE (Royal Engineers) but occasionally it is REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers). |
| 12 |
STUDYING — STU+DYING — Nice use of the film title Stuart Little (about a mouse apparently) to get Stu. |
| 14 |
CHELSEA TRACTOR — (TH+ACCELERATORS)* — this is current slang for large expensive urban 4×4 cars often found clogging up the streets of Chelsea. |
| 16 |
THE HISTORY BOYS — HE in THIS TORY BOY’S — re the Alan Bennett play. |
| 20 |
CHARADES — (SCARE HAD)* — I spent too long trying to fit CARD into the answer. |
| 23 |
SINAI — SIN+A1 — the A1 runs from London to Edinburgh. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
HORSESHOE MAGNET — CD — the classic comedy magnet much loved but usually mishandled by Wile E Coyote. |
| 3 |
DONEGAL — ONE in D+GAL? — I’m not sure about this one. Is D short for drag or have I got the word play wrong? |
| 5 |
GHOST STORY — HOST’S + T(otally) in GORY — very nice word play providing an enhanced definition. |
| 7 |
CHEMISTRY MASTER — (MY CHRISTMAS TREE)* — stinks is apparently schoolboy slang for a science teacher. I clearly went to the wrong sort of school as this term was new to me. |
| 8 |
SLOGGERS — S+LOGGERS — no betters in the grid! |
| 13 |
SETTLE DOWN — SETTLE+DOWN — Settle is a beautiful North Riding market town. |
| 15 |
STOCKS UP — STOCK+SUP |
| 19 |
PETREL — PET+RE+L — I didn’t see the RE=on at first and so tried to find a five letter dog. |
| 22 |
ITEM — IT + ‘EM &lit — very nice. |
Posted in Independent | 8 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 4th July 2007
No wordplay quibbles but there are a couple of loose definitions that dictionaries probably support but felt a bit unsatisfying while solving (see 15A, 17A, 21D). Two across anagrams got me started here rather quickly.
Across
| 11 |
UP TO N,O, GOOD – Somehow I knew that West Ham play at UPTON “park”. |
| 12 |
MORSE,L – ref. “Inspector” MORSE and L really is a “learner driver”. |
| 14 |
ST,ILETTO=toilet* |
| 15 |
TR(END)Y – def is “with it” and I think END for “Waterloo” which I suppose is literally accurate since it’s a terminus. |
| 17 |
SE(AL[l])ED – SEED for “family” seems a little liberal. |
| 20 |
HALL,O,WED |
| 22 |
CO,WARD – as in, “don’t be such a baby!” |
| 24 |
DISH – hidden &lit in “fooD IS Hot” |
| 26 |
SAFE SEAT – (see a fast)*. “banker” here is not a river, nor someone who works in a bank but… something you can bank on, i.e. count on, i.e. safe. |
Down
| 1 |
JACK,BOOT – my parents still embarrass me by calling the trunk the BOOT (in Portland, OR). |
| 3 |
ANNUAL – double def |
| 4 |
DOWNSIDE – (dies, snow)*. Quite a drawback indeed to die with snow all around (as Scott probably noted). |
| 5 |
LONG,FELLOW – ref. the American poet Henry LONGFELLOW. |
| 6 |
ESCORT – corset*: anag &lit |
| 8 |
ARTIST – traits*: turns out that GBS actually wrote in “Man and Superman”: “The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.” My mother is an artist and, growing up, she had a large sign on the fridge door proclaiming: “Housework is the enemy of the artist!” |
| 18 |
DORIS DAY – (Dry? I, soda)* |
| 21 |
AV,O,WED – “Open” is the (somewhat loose) definition and AV is “authorized version” (of the Bible). WED shows up again (also in 20A) as “hitched”, i.e. married. |
| 24 |
DASH – two meanings both quite different and the surface is well-constructed: “Tear drop” |
Posted in Guardian | 3 Comments »