Last Saturday’s Bannsider puzzle in the Indy
Posted by neildubya on 9th November 2007
I’ve written a blog for this but complete forgot to post it. Check back on Monday morning…
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Archive for November 9th, 2007
Guardian 24230/Brendan - literally challenged
Posted by linxit on 9th November 2007
I thought I’d made a mistake and printed out the TLS Crossword instead today! At least there were no unfinished quotations, and actually the only answer I wasn’t familiar with was 5dn. Amazing that every single answer belongs to the theme, without anything really obscure required.
Across
7 HI,A(WATH=what*)A - I was thinking Asian Indian until I got the W. Duh!
9 ALLEY,N - this is Edward Alleyn, 16th century actor.
10 GLYN - aptly hidden in “darinGLY Naughty”, Elinor Glyn invented the dreaded crossword cliché “It” = sex appeal.
11 KE(NIL)WORTH - (The work)* around NIL - nice &lit, as Kenilworth is a romantic novel.
12 P(o)INTER
14 L(ANGL(e))AND - William Langland, 14th century poet.
15 GATS,BY - stag rev.
17 B,R,ECHT - echt is German for authentic, Bertolt Brecht is the &lit- defined German playwright.
20 RABELAIS (base liar)*
22 STEELE - “steel” - Richard Steele, co-founder of The Spectator.
23 O(SCARWIL)DE - SCARWIL being (scrawl I)*
24 AMIS(s)
26 SA(LIN=nil rev)GER - JD Salinger, author of the brilliant Catcher in the Rye.
Down
1 FIELDING - cricket reference, and Henry Fielding, satirical novelist.
2 O(W)EN - W(ar) inside one* - Wilfred Owen, the WW1 poet.
3 STOKER - two meanings again - Bram Stoker, author of Dracula.
4 FAULKNER - (K Lear fun)*
5 ALTO(N) LOCKE - I guessed this from the wordplay and crossing letters in the end. Last one I put in. It’s a novel by Charles Kingsley.
6 LY(TT)ON - only* around TT (teetotaller). Lord Lytton, famous (among other things) for really starting a novel with “It was a dark and stormy night…”
8 ARNOLD (Landor*) - I assume this is Matthew Arnold.
13 TITLE,PAGES
16 B,RAN,WELL - Branwell was the less well-known brother of the Bronte sisters.
18 TULLIVER - Gulliver “initially altered”. Maggie Tulliver is the main character in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss.
21 AUSTEN - “Austin”, state capital of Texas.
22 S(TELL)A - “Stella“, real name Esther Johnson, was a friend of Jonathan Swift’s.
24,25A ANNA SEWELL - just a cryptic definition referring to Black Beauty, I think.
Posted in Guardian | 3 Comments »
Today’s FT/Bradman - placeholder for discussion
Posted by neildubya on 9th November 2007
As requested, this is an entry to allow people to discuss today’s FT puzzle.
Posted in FT | 7 Comments »
Independent 6573/Phi
Posted by neildubya on 9th November 2007
If it didn’t say “The Friday Crossword by Phi” in the paper, then the completed grid would give you a few clues as to who compiled it!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | (HELP IM)*,ON - the epistle to PHILEMON is an apparently undisputed work by St Paul. This was news to me but the clue was easy enough, especially with a couple of checking letters here and there. |
| 9 | HIL[-l] in PIP - I assume this is right as I can’t account for PIP, which must be connected to “aggrieved feeling” somehow. Full clue is “Man’s aggrieved feeling about endless inclination”. |
| 10 | HI in PAL |
| 11 | PORT<,HIES - it was this clue and 10A which led me to the PHI theme in the puzzle. |
| 12 | (HIS PLIGH[-t] POISON)* - PHILOSOPHISING. Two PHIs for the price of one. (Edit: thanks to nmsindy for pointing out a minor mistake, now corrected] |
| 16 | S,TIG,MA - TIG is another name for “tag” or “it” as we called it in my school. |
| 18 | (HOSPITAL IN P[-e]RTH)* - PHILANTHROPIST. |
| 20 | ALTO in DINE[-r] |
| 24 | COR,NEA[-r] - I loved the definition here: “something of a looker”. |
| 25 | CAY< in HINT,H - filled this on the basis of clue=HINT so I had to look up why CAY is “island”. Turns out it’s another spelling of “key”. |
| Down | |
| 3 | INST,EP - INST for “current month” is always worth making a mental note of. Biazarrely, I read the enumeration for this as (4,2) rather than (2,4) which held me up for a while. |
| 4 | U,PTO - this is something I’ve not seen before: “do read further” for PTO (Please Turn Over). |
| 6 | KIL[-l]ER,G - KILLER for “decisive fact” occurred to me straight away but KILERG just didn’t look like a word. Eventually I filled it in, but only because I couldn’t think of anything else to fit it. |
| 8 | (EMAILS)* in ATM< - MELISMATA was new to me and I nearly went for MILESMATA. It’s a musical term meaning “an ornamental phrase of several notes sung to one syllable of text”. |
| 14 | (E IN A TRIAL)* - INTER ALIA. |
| 17 | SOLU[-tion] in (BEAT)* |
| 18 | H in GO,ZIP (going up) - PHIZOG is a shortening of “physiognomy”. |
| 23 | PHIZ - “fizz”. PHIZ was Hablot Knight Browne. |
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Beelzebub 924/Phi (28-10-07)
Posted by neildubya on 9th November 2007
Apologies for the longer than expected break in blogging these puzzles - normal service should be resumed from now on.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SUBS,TANTIV[-i]ES - a “tantivy” is a hunting cry (took me a while to think beyond “tally ho”) which I somehow knew, probably from an Azed puzzle. I still don’t really get why the definition is “more mundane words”. SUBSTANTIVES are nouns or words that function like nouns. Maybe they’re mundane because they don’t describe actions or qualities like verbs and adjectives? |
| 12 | ALA in HELL |
| 13 | AIRDRAWN - puzzled by this one. I think it’s right, as it’s the word used to describe the imaginary dagger that Macbeth sees but I can’t work out the wordplay: “State of indecision blocking Macbeth’s strength - Shakespeare’s visonary”. |
| 15 | UTTER? - not sure about this either. Full clue: “Anti-mine device? Tip of pin should be avoided” |
| 16 | FAY in PERS - which must be another spelling of “parfay”. |
| 17 | RIG in TS - “stuffs old” is the definition here, indicating an archaic word. |
| 19 | ED in (A HARP)* - PHAEDRA is a cantata for mezzo-soprano and Britten’s last work. |
| 23 | hidden in “upstaGED DAncer” |
| 28 | GRID,(LINE)* - interesting clue this as it contains a sort-of-indirect anagram: “Network of lines, with one awry, in greyish colour”. The indirect bit being “with one [ie, line] awry”. |
| 29 | DON in MISE |
| 30 | NOR,I - filled this in straight away as I must have remembered if from another puzzle somewhere. |
| 31 | (MEDIA MONITOR)* - IMMODERATION. Very apt surface reading and anagram. |
| Down | |
| 1 | ST[-r]APPING - one of the clues that held me up. I filled in “stopping” as I thought (hoped) that “stropping” might mean “thrashing”. |
| 2 | U,RITES |
| 3 | SE DEFENDENDO - can’t work out the wordplay here: “After assault, son needed to limit excellent legal justification”. If “son needed” is anagram fodder, that leaves EFE and I can’t see where that might come from. |
| 4 | AIR,ARRET< - I filled in TERRARIA from the definition and then had to check that ARRET could mean “decision”. |
| 5 | BAHA[-i] (going up) - AHAB was, of course, the captain in Moby Dick and BAHAI is a religion founded in Iran and “teaching the essential worth of all religions, the unity of all races, and the equality of the sexes”. |
| 7 | R in (MEANT LITTLE)* - ILLTREATMENT. |
| 8 | VAS,TID[-e],IT,Y - VAS, in anatomy, is a vessel or duct. |
| 14 | GRUNDY,IS,M - “fast liver” is, I think, a reference to the poem “Solomon Grundy”, which goes:
Solomon Grundy, |
| 18 | SAF[-e],RAN,I,N |
| 21 | R in SCENE |
| 27 | VIER - which is the German word for “four”. Someone who vies (contends) might be a VIE-R |
Posted in Beelzebub | 7 Comments »