Posted by ilancaron on 16th November 2007
A few manly answers: TESTOSTERONE (which figured in a Times puzzle today or yesterday as well), and an ARTILLERYMAN wearing an EPAULETTE. I did this in fits and starts throughout the day so I don’t really have a “first impression” that colored my reaction. I seem to recall thinking that the clues were fair and some of the wordplay clever.
Across
| 1 |
STA(T,IS)TIC - lies, damned lies and… |
| 6 |
MISER - need to separate “nit” from “picker” and then remove “nit” from “minister” to produce MISER who is indeed a “picker over expenditure”. |
| 9 |
STRAP=rev(parts) |
| 10 |
DAM,NATION - I like this though I suspect I’ve seen it before. |
| 11 |
MEAD,OWL,ARK - great explanation from Shirley in the notes below! |
| 12 |
S,TOW - 7D is SPITTOON. |
| 14 |
T(ESTOSTER)ONE - our first manly clue: “rosettes” in TONE. |
| 21 |
STOP=rev(pots) |
| 22 |
RED S,NAPPER - it’s a fish (”scaled one”) and I guess RED is the color of Liverpool (when foot is applied to ball) and according to the online COED a NAPPER is “a person’s head” (informal). |
| 25 |
C(ANT,A,L)OUP - quite a COUP for me to solve this. |
| 26 |
S(WOO)N - “ig” in “sign” is replaced by WOO (for court). |
| 27 |
E(GYP)T - but doesn’t GYP derive from EGYPT anyway? (ET’s our movie). |
| 28 |
EPAULETTE - cryptic def: our third manly def. |
Down
| 3 |
IMP(ROPER)LY |
| 4 |
TI,LAD=revi(lad,it) |
| 5 |
CAMERA-SHY - kind of a cryptic def I guess since a RED SNAPPER that’s light could I supposed be a camera. |
| 6 |
M(O)AN |
| 7 |
SPITTOON - (points to)* with a slightly cryptic def (”one holding gob”). |
| 8 |
RENO,W(N)ED |
| 13 |
MET,AT,ARS[en]AL - remove two points from Arsenal (”Gunners”) where MET AT is “satisfied by” and you end up breaking what David Beckham et al need to play football. |
| 15 |
THE,REF,O,R,[gam]E |
| 16 |
MASS,AC(R)E - clever apparent overlap of wordplay and def: MASS is our “service”, our “winner” is an ACE and the whole thing is (well, almost) “overwhelming”. |
| 19 |
SP,ROUT - “Odds” is SP (Starting Price). |
| 24 |
FAST - two meanings. |
Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »
Posted by John on 16th November 2007
Solving time : 35 minutes. As he does every week, Phi manages to produce a crossword that is full of clever stuff with which it’s apparently almost impossible to find fault.
| Across |
| 1 |
MOP IS H[esitate]. |
| 4 |
STOP PAR D[rama]. |
| 10 |
(LATE)* I SURE, def. “Under pressure? By no means”. |
| 11 |
2 defs. |
| 12 |
(MUM)* in SONS. |
| 13 |
RE D(H)EAD, ref. “The Red-Headed League“, a Sherlock Holmes story. |
| 14 |
FUN GI I think. Presumably “two internal portions” refers to two letters. The definition is “mushrooms?” |
| 15 |
IN DUST(R)Y. Not sure about “much-used” for “in”. |
| 18 |
O RIG IN A L. Why the exclam? Perfectly nice, but not especially remarkable, and marginally amusing perhaps, but … |
| 20 |
NORMA[l]. One of the crossword setter’s favourite operas. |
| 25 |
(SUN ALE)* H. |
| 27 |
D in (WITH STAG)*. Def. “near people”. Good clue. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
M(EATS)A FE. |
| 2 |
PULL MAN[y]. |
| 3 |
R in (JINKS I GO)*. I had to check what skijoring was, although I had vaguely heard of it. |
| 5 |
(REFUGE TAILORED)*. |
| 7 |
A MATE(U)R. Good def., referring to the basic meaning of “amateur”. |
| 8 |
DI(RN)D L. I’ve never heard of a dirndl except in crosswords. |
| 9 |
(ANTI MOST QUERIES)* minus I. Lovely &lit. |
| 16 |
SING (blab), LET ON (tell tales). The def., cunningly disguised, is “One”. |
| 17 |
MACH 1 S MO. |
| 21 |
READ A PT. If one is to be very pedantic, “readapt” presumably means not “modify” but “modify again”. |
| 22 |
D(ROWS)E[n]. |
| 24 |
TOP IC[e]. |
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 16th November 2007
| Across |
| 1 |
RUM,GUM,(IN TOP)* - RUMGUMPTION can mean common sense or native wit. I’d heard of plain old “gumption” (which can mean the same thing) but thought it only meant nerve or courage. |
| 11 |
(SURE LIUM)* - I assumed that “half of mycelium” would be MYCE so I didn’t get very far with this until I had a few letters in place. |
| 12 |
R in (SELECT BRAI[-n]S)* - CEREBRALISTS. |
| 19 |
[-d]INNER BAR - I think this is right but I don’t understand all of the wordplay. The full clue is “Lawyers missing start to meal: amusing incident”. The INNER BAR is the Queen’s (or King’s) counsel. |
| 27 |
FLAM in A,E - FLAM can mean lie (”fancy”) or deception. |
| 28 |
WED in SEN - SEN is State Enrolled Nurse. |
| 29 |
JOE-MILLER,IS,M - which is apparently the practice of re-telling old jokes. Nice &lit clue too, with a pun on corn: “One beloved handler of corn is beginning to manifest this”. |
| 30 |
LIES< in ORLE - ORSEILLE. An ORLE is (in Webster’s comma-heavy definition) “A bearing, in the form of a fillet, round the shield, within, but at some distance from, the border”. One of the tougher clues in the puzzle for me, given that I didn’t know ORLE or the answer word. |
| 32 |
MARROW,BONES - an informal term for the knees. MARROW can mean a variety of things: spouse, helpmate, co-worker, companion or close friend, all of which were new to me. Not sure about BONES for “pinches” though. Is this is in Chambers (which I don’t have to hand right now)? |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
URENA - I liked this; the full clue is “Mallow plant encountered in Nature repeatedly.” So URENA is hidden “NatURE NAture” |
| 6 |
T in RAF in PALLS - another good clue with a nice surface reading. |
| 8 |
GEM,TUN< - for non-footie fans, a NUTMEG is when you play the ball through an opponent’s legs. |
| 9 |
OS,SE[-t]TERS - an OSSETER is a species of sturgeon. |
| 13 |
SOL,IF,I,DIAN - DIAN was the only bit I wasn’t sure of her. Is it another spelling of Diana (the Roman goddess of hunting)? |
| 15 |
BARE,L in ALL,O - an ALBARELLO is “a majolica jar of the 15th and 16th centuries, cylindrical with a waist slightly narrower than the ends, used in Spain and Italy for keeping dry drugs” |
| 17 |
I in JOCK in JIG - JICKAJOG. I found this tough to parse and really needed the four consecutive checked letters at KAJO. |
| 25 |
WE in BED< - very nearly filled in TWERP as I had the W filled in. |
Posted in Beelzebub | No Comments »
Posted by Hihoba on 16th November 2007
Reasonably easy theme to spot, the title referring to the colours of the rainbow arch (Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain). Most clues quite straightforward, but a bit muddling was the use of INDIGO both as the missing colour and as part of the blue sequence.
The colour triads were:
pillarbox red arrows
mock orange stick
crome yellow card (Crome Yellow is Aldous Huxley’s first novel)
village green goddess
indigo blue riband
shrinking violet Carson (Violet Carson OBE played Ena Sharples in Coronation Street)
The clues with superfluous words producing the rainbow mnemonic were all across clues 7,11,16,19,27,31 and 34. The extra words are indicated in square brackets [] below.
| Across |
| 7 |
AU + TO(GEN)Y. [Richard] |
| 8 |
F + Philip ROTH |
| 10 |
GAT for rod/gun round N(ew) |
| 11 |
REAR - double meaning. [of] |
| 12 |
Bob DYLAN – hidden |
| 13 |
(r)ACHE – R(omeo) from phonetic alphabet removed |
| 16 |
P(l)OY + I – A word I’d never heard of and didn’t believe could exist until I looked it up – such an unusual vowel combination! [York] |
| 17 |
SOON round W(eak) |
| 18 |
RAN (smuggled) + SACK (wine) |
| 19 |
PERAEON - one pear* Another unlikely word with lots of vowels together! [Gave] |
| 23 |
King LEAR + NED |
| 25 |
AN + TIC |
| 27 |
MEN+G is a couple. [battle] |
| 29 |
Y(o)U + CA |
| 30 |
SALEM witch trials, males* |
| 31 |
BE (take place) + MA. [in] |
| 32 |
(v)ERSE |
| 33 |
O + RANT |
| 34 |
Not such a hot clue. DIET is not Tied up!, + ETIC (cite backwards). [vain] |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
RUB+(t)YING |
| 2 |
MORA (delay) + Y |
| 3 |
E.G. + GNOG (gong reversed) |
| 4 |
VENA + TOR |
| 5 |
L(och) + YTHE – they* |
| 6 |
(m)ET AL |
| 8 |
FRES(h) + NO play |
| 9 |
CLODPATE = cod plate with L moved up |
| 14 |
CAR + A DOC |
| 15 |
A bit rude this one! HO(ARSE for butt)LY |
| 20 |
ENCYST – sent* round Cy |
| 21 |
ECTASES – case set* |
| 22 |
TON(EM)IC |
| 14 |
AS+SETS |
| 26 |
SUED+E |
| 27 |
M(AM)ET – American Dramatist |
| 28 |
BERG = most of grebe reversed |
Posted in Inquisitor | No Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 16th November 2007
I’d be interested to know how everyone else got on with this as I found it very easy - solved in just over 11 minutes, far and away my quickest ever time for a Nestor puzzle. Lots of fun though, as we’ve come to expect, and some very subtle and deceptive wordplay to be found. I missed a lot of it while I was solving (which is probably why it got finished so quickly) so it was good to have the opportunity to look at it again while I was writing this up.
| Across |
| 1 |
(RUST)*,TONES,STUFF - STRUT ONE’S STUFF. |
| 10 |
IN,SIP,I’D |
| 11/12 |
PP in (HER FAIRY TALE’VE)* - HAPPILY EVER AFTER. Excellent clue. |
| 13 |
COR in AN - “oak’s fruit” does give the game away somewhat but then it’s quite easy to miss the “put something in AN” wordplay so that adds a bit of difficulty. |
| 14 |
ABS,(TEN)* |
| 15 |
MP in HURRAH (rev) - I would have got this a lot quicker if “boo” hadn’t lodged itself in my mind for “disapproving outburst”, which then proved difficult to shake off. |
| 18 |
NEED,REBA[-te] (rev) - another good one, with a smooth-as-silk surface. |
| 23 |
PIN in AG - I liked this too. Ag is the chemical symbol for silver so “silver-plated” works as an container. |
| 25 |
(MYXO[C for V]IRUS)* - Superb clue. Misleading definition (”Ferry crew” - Bryan Ferry is/was the lead singer of ROXY MUSIC), very convincing surface reading and a neat trick to indicate swapping the V with a C (”twentyfold increase” - think Roman numerals and multiplication). Hats off! |
| 26 |
IN HAL[-f],OR - an OR is an Operating Room. [Edit: as beermagnet points out in the comments, this should be INHALER]. |
| 27 |
hidden reversed in “espiONAGE ROw” |
| 28 |
OST,RICH,FEAT,HER - I liked the definition “might end up in boa”. “East German woman” is a hard phrase to break up too. |
| |
| Down |
| 3 |
PL,ANNE in UND |
| 4 |
OD[-e],DI[-t]TY |
| 5 |
HERE in ET AL - this and the previous 2 clues I filled in from the definition and crossing letters. They’re all good clues but I really liked this one: “This place is choking and others airy”. |
| 6 |
hidden in “whoSE PIAno” |
| 8 |
(TINY HALF COFFEE)* - FLY IN THE FACE OF. |
| 9 |
(DAMP OCEAN AIR IS)* - CINEMA PARADISO. Another one solved without really working out the wordplay, although this is one of the more straightforward ones. |
| 16 |
(BUM)* in RECENT |
| 19 |
PITH in E,ET |
| 21 |
U,P[-o]STAGE |
| 22 |
EX,PO’S,E - “Royal Mail closures” is EX P[ost] O[office]S |
| 24 |
LOG<,GI - never heard of him but easy wordplay and checking letters left no doubt. |
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »