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Archive for July 29th, 2007

Private Eye/Cyclops 344 - Pepti-what?

Posted by beermagnet on 29th July 2007

beermagnet.

Gordon Brown gets more of a work-out this time in the early clues, as “leader” and is often useful to suggest one of the short “brown” colours, tan, dun, etc.
I might not have all answers right …
Even ignoring 6D I found this trickier than some recent Eye puzzles, though I did write-in a few on the first pass to get going.
The Eye Crossword is noted for its references to people in the clues, so 7D’s mention of Marian and Robin had me thinking of George Galloway’s Marian appeal, and Robin Cook, before considering Mr and Mrs Hood.
But no sign of Jeffrey Archer! This can’t last long surely.

Across
1 ECONOMY - Cryptic. For some reason I needed all the crossing letters to see this
5 UP,SWELL
10 Leader S hip - GB as “leader”
11/21 DEAD DUCK - Cold and unfeeling. Nothing
12 SCREEN - C and R “brought in” SEEN
13 TAIL WIND - Dog. Flatulence. First solved clue
14 SNOW - N for Neutral inside Sow. Ref. John Snow - Now not a newscaster but a presenter I suggest - but still best known as a newscaster
16 CHOCOHOLIC - Belgian chocs - what other Belgian would you gobble?    It is now clear this is CHOCAHOLIC, and that this was the root of my Pepti-trouble.  Spelled with an “A” looks wrong to me.  Chocaholic and chocoholic are alternate and equal spellings according to Chambers so who am I to argue. That checking “O” was a pain.
18 HOMOPHOBIA - Ho House M Masculine O Nothing Phobia Aversion. Here not the Royal family’s Queen.
22 (PENAL ACT)*
24 S,PROGS - Terrors as in “little terrors” a.k.a. dustbin-lids, rug-rats,ankle-biters, etc.
26 EMMA - M monsieur twice in EA abbrev. of “each”
27 Banana’s kin. I liked this one
28 Hidden in clintONS TAG Even
29 (XP Hoses)* Plastic as anagrind. Not a very well hidden anagram
 
Down
2 C R (SCENE)* DO - This may be a climax in common parlance, but musically itis the building up in volume towards the climax rather than the climax itself. Nevermind
3 (E.G. DUN)< Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more
4 M,OR,(NO)<,I,C
6 PEPTICO - In the end I slapped this in, justifying it with: PEP,(OCT)< with I inside. If this is correct it is not a “bedroom activity” I have ever come across. I have probably led a far too sheltered life.   Thanks to comments from Fletch and Mick I now realise what is going on.  With a final letter “A” the answer is PAPRIKA, the month APRil and the bedroom activity an innocent kip. I blame my hiatus hernia for getting peppy.
7 WIDOWHOOD - Cryptic. Had me wondering if Marian was another beau of Robin Cook besides Gaynor
8 L,EARN
9 SHIT FOR BRAINS - Classic Eye Cryptic
15 WOODCRAFT - A “chips” is a carpenter. Ref. Victoria Wood; C Caught; Aftbehind.
17 (NOTICING O)* A while before I realised this clue was an anagram despite oft-used ”pissed” as anagrind
19 HANDBAG - Worker. Sack. No doubt Thatcher did “handbag” a few in hertime.
20 ABle seaman (SCENE)*
23 L Lord ((g)NOME)<
25 R from “labouR’s last” (KISS)*

Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 3 Comments »

Observer Azed 1834: Overlaps

Posted by jetdoc on 29th July 2007

jetdoc.

This was lots of fun — high-quality clues, as ever, from Azed, with a nice twist to make it even more interesting.

Each across clue was for two overlapping words — one was clued normally; the other was defined normally, but the cryptic indication gave only the portion minus the two overlapping letters. For the across clues, I have listed the answers first in the order they appear in the grid, then described them in the order they are clued.

Across
1 STATIST : STARETS — A statist is a politician: *(sits) (‘feverishly’ is the anagram indicator) with TAT (= rubbish) inside. A starets (in Russia) is a holy man, a religious teacher or spiritual adviser. The cryptic indication is for ARETS: ‘aret’ is an old word meaning ‘entrust, commit, assign, allot, adjudge or award’.
9 TAMASHA : HADITH — A tamasha is a show. The indication is for TAMAS: an extract from GuaTAMA Should. The Hadith is ‘the body of traditions about Mohammed, supplementary to the Koran’. ADIT = passage, in HH = very hard (of pencils).
11 ABIDDEN : ENAMOUR — ENAMOUR = charm: *(Roman EU). ABIDDEN is an old past participle for ‘abide’ meaning ‘tolerate’. The indication is for ABIDD: AD = notice (advertisement), about BID = price offer.
15 DECIMAL : ALTERED — ‘decimal fraction‘: ‘iced’ backwards (after returning); MAL = sickness. ALTERED = changed. The indication is for TERED: *(tree) (tree that’s withered), followed by D = died.
16 REATE : TEATIME — Teatime, in some people’s world, is mid-afternoon: ‘ita’ (the miriti palm) backwards; in [the River] Teme, which rises in mid-Wales and joins the River Severn south of Worcester. REATE is the water-crowfoot (of the Ranunculus genus). The indication is for REA: R = right, beside EA = a dialect word for river.
18 REALTOR : ORLES — A realtor is an American estate agent. The indication is for REALT = *(later). An orle is a term from heraldry, meaning ‘a number of small charges set as a border’: its plural is contained in fOR LESsees.
21 DESPISE : SEATTLE — Seattle (often regarded as the birthplace of grunge music, no less) has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, and Tully’s. The indication is for ATTLE: TT = teetotal, held in ALE = beer. DESPISE = scorn: ’sips’ backwards, inside (‘bottled in’) DEE = a euphemism for damn.
25 ROUNDLE : LEANING — LEANING = penchant. The indication is for ANING: AN = one, with *(gin). A roundle is, among other things, a ladder rung: Oundle (a public school), following R = rule.
26 FRACAS : ASSIEGE — ‘Invest’ can mean ‘besiege’ in a military context, and ASSIEGE is an old word meaning the same: ASS = fool, IE = that is, about EG = for example. A fracas is a heated dispute. The indication is for FRAC: FR = frequently, with AC = account, both ‘short’, or abbreviated.
27 DIALIST : STOCKED — A DIALIST is a maker of dials, or faces: ‘laid’ reversed (‘set back’); *(it’s). STOCKED = supplied. The indication is for OCKED = *(decko).
Down
1 STANDARDBRED — A breed of horses used for racing in the US: STAND = stall; *(drab); RED = colour.
2 TABRERE — Spenser used ‘tabrere’ to mean ‘a person who beats the tabor’: TAB = drug (short for ‘tablet’); RE RE = ‘concerning’ twice.
3 TADDIE — A pollywog is a tadpole, called a ‘taddie’ in Australia: TAD = a little; DIE = cube.
4 SHEBAT — The fifth month in the Jewish calendar: *(he’s), on BAT. I can’t find a definition of ‘bat’ meaning ‘large vessel’, though.
5 TANA — A mainly terrestrial tree shrew (Lyonogale tana) of Sumatra and Borneo: first letters of (heads for) ‘tree avoiding naga’s attack’.
6 RIMAE — Plural of ‘rima’, the gap between vocal cords and arytaenoid cartilages: *(me air).
7 THUD — T, with ’hound’ minus ‘on’. Thuds are often described as being dull.
8 STRIDELEGGED — A Scottish word meaning ‘astride’: *(Lester did E GG). Nice horse-racing allusion.
10 TOURISTY — *(Troy utis). Having experienced Cambridge during the tourist season, I sympathise with those in Oxford who feel under siege at times.
12 DOMATIA — Plural of ’domatium’, a plant structure that harbours mites or other symbiotic organisms: DO MAT = clean rug; A1 (ideal) reversed.
13 ECRASEUR — A surgical instrument in the form of a wire or chain loop which cuts as it tightens: *(cure), with RASE = slash, internally.
14 ATALAYA — A watchtower: TA (volunteers, Territorial Army), LAY (were positioned), in AA, a type of scoriaceous volcanic rock.
17 MELANGE — A medley: *(gleeman). ‘Gleeman’ is a old word meaning ‘minstrel’.
19 REGEST — A register (Milton): EG = as (which can mean ‘for instance’), in REST.
20 ETHNIC — Often loosely used (though not with my approval) to mean ‘foreign’. N = little new, in ETHIC = an attitude, often used in the term ‘work ethic’.
22 PENAL — N in PEAL = toll (double meaning).
23 SOFI — SO = well placed (as in ‘just so’), ‘if’ reversed (‘rising uncertainty’).
24 ALAS — Double meaning — ‘unfortunately’ and ‘Alas.’ (Alaska, where Anchorage is). Anchorage has been put at the beginning, to legitimise the capital letter. I’m sure I worked out where ‘expansion section’ came in, but I didn’t make a note and I’m afraid I can’t remember.

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Everyman 3173 - (22 Jul)/JJ

Posted by ilancaron on 29th July 2007

ilancaron.

My Scots theory I think has more evidence in the form of Everyman also being Ascot in the Spectator. This week, JJ is Jeremiah Johnson and admirably the two J’s are checked. Some literary and musical refs as well: Conrad, Satie, Jonson, Auden, Hitchcock — none of whom are Scots though.

Across

1 MEANS WELL – The wordplay is MEAN, SWELL where MEAN is “excellent” as in: “he has a MEAN serve” – probably more of an Americanism though.
6 BALSA – it’s a South American tree indeed – not sure about a “good deal of resin” yet… unless it refers to the fact that BALSA while technically a hardwood is actually a softwood (“deal”) and produces “resin” (?).
10 TURN, ROUND – wordplay is: TURN for “go” and ROUND for “stage” (as in a tournament).
11 JEREMIAH, JOHN’S,ON – needed all the crossing letters I could get and even then had to wiki-check that JEREMIAH JOHNSON is a 1970’s (Robert Redford) film.
14 MULL,AHS=has* - took me a while to get from MULL (our Scots island!) to something that means (Islamic in this case) a plural of “teacher”.
18 BO(MB)AST – note that Brit doctors can be any of: DR, MO, MB, MD.
19 FAMOUS LAST WORDS – clever cryptic def and my first clue: “Memorable remarks made on the way out?”
21 WIS[e],CONS,IN – American states all have a nickname and the Badger State is WISCONSIN – turns out having to do with the fact that early settlers were miners who actually lived in the mines. Unions probably wouldn’t allow that nowadays.
22 ALIBI – (Bail? I)* — nice consistent surface.
27 NOTORI=(noir too)*,US – another film which qualifies as an anag &lit since it was indeed complicated, American and the genre was noir.

Down

1 MARI(JUAN)A
2 ADDER – it’s a “snake” – not sure about the wordplay though it might be ADDER[wort] but I don’t see how “make off” removes “wort” from adderwort which is a “plant”.
3 STOP ME AND BUY ONE – (about – ‘Spend money’)* — good apposite anag fodder.
5 LORD, J,I,M – ref. Conrad’s novel.
6 BARTHOMOLEW, FAIR – Bart’s our boy and ref. Jonson’s play.
7 LOUIS(IAN)A – another US state.
8 A,U,DEN
13 ALA(R,MIST)S – “suppressing” is quite a good containment indicator since it means “holds down” which is appropriate since it’s a down clue.
15 SAT(IS,F)IE,S – def is “meets” but my wordplay interpretation depends on IS being abbrev of “island” or the IVR for Iceland: “Meets French composer touring island with fine son”.  Ref. Erik SATIE.
17 NI(LSSO)N – loss* in inn*. Ref. Birgit NILSSON (soprano).
18 BASINET – (Beast in)*.
20 RHINO – two meanings: the second a frequent cryptic (African) currency (“lolly” is Brit swag).

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