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Archive for January 8th, 2008

Independent 6623/Virgilius

Posted by John on 8th January 2008

John.
Across
1 LATIN AMERICAN - (certain animal)*. This suggests the theme - all the across answers are Latin words, many of which have an American connection. I think this is all.
9 CAPITOL - (topical)*. It used to be a Roman temple but now it’s a US government building. Virgilius (unlike Azed) has the view that nounal anagram indicators are OK (I rather agree with him), and takes advantage of this here.
11 ABSCISSAE - (CIA bases)*. Cunningly concealed noun, when one was expecting a verb. An abscissa is the x co-ordinate (see here).
12 CO rev. TAD I think. An octad is a collection of eight, but how nine is connected with the Supreme Court I’m not sure.
14 E PLURIBUS UNUM, a motto that appears on US coins
18 (CARESS A)* PAL ACE. Caesars Palace is a famous Las Vegas hotel.
23 AL(MA MA)TER
26 EXPA(R)T E - I think “exile” is a noun here
28 I think this is PER CENT, but I don’t really see why, beyond the fact that a percentage of something is a proportion of it
29 SEMPER FIDELIS, the motto of the US Marine Corps; in English it means “always faithful”.
 
Down
1 LAPPS - “Lapse”
2 T in (ATTIRE)*. Lovely simple good &lit.
3 (LL) in SUN rev. Not a very common word used as a verb, but it’s there.
4 MASSEUSES - I think this is just a cryptic def.
6 CAT is hidden in each of the words
7 NO-SIDE - Edison rev. A strange word - you never hear football commentators use it, but it is I think used in rugby.
8 SCRA(P)PED - it took me ages to see why; I couldn’t understand “scred”.
16 BE AWARE OF - (Arab foe we)*
17 SECRETE - simply two meanings I think
19 E (UP TREE)* - Euterpe was one of the muses
20 ADMIRAL - Pinkerton was a naval officer in Madam Butterfly. The butterfly reference is to the Red Admiral and the White Admiral.
21 DIVERS - two meanings
24 MOP(P)ED
25 TRESS - a forTRESS is a secure place. Good clue that took me some while to understand.
27 P AM

Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »

Guardian 24,279 - Gordius : Dead Bodies

Posted by stan on 8th January 2008

stan.

This was a fairly straightforward puzzle, which I initially made more difficult by insisting that 16d was TATTLER and 23d was ACRE. They aren’t.

Music is “Dead Bodies” by Air - the best “air drums” music ever

ACROSS

1 ARTEMIS - (IMASTER)* Artemis is the Roman name for the greek goddess Diana

5 CA(DAVE)R 

9 SAC-CHAR-IN

10 NARKS - SNARK with first letter last (Lewis Carroll very much in vogue at the moment)

11 NAAN - didn’t get the wordplay

12 Straightforward anagram, omitted at my discretion 

14 CANNAE - A battle and a Glaswegian’s inability to cope

15 EX WORKS

16 NIT-RATE

18 CO(R)PSE

20 B(OARD)ROOMS - i.e “brooms” with (road)* inside

21 S-CAT

24 LUPIN(e)

25 VENER-ABLE - as in “the Venerable Bede” (never)* with “able”

26 S-PRAYER 

27 YAN-GTSE - (ANY GETS)* - 

 DOWN

1 (p)ARSON - Trad. crossword clue

2 TOC(CAT)A

3 MOHR - sounds like “more”

4 SERVICE REVOLVER - reference to the “Lazy Susan” style of dumb waiter, rather than the little lift

5 CON-SCIENCE MONEY - “CON” is “for”,  “SCIENCE MONEY” is what the government give for research

6 DON-KEY WORK

7 V(ERNIE)R - a scale for precise measurement. I think the device is ERNIE (Premium Bonds computer) and the wise old queen was Victoria (VR).  Was she really so wise ?

8 RI-SINGS

13 ONE AND ONLY - (ANY E LONDON)*

16 NIBBLES - why “publisher” ? A writer is a nib and nibbles are titbits

17 T-RAPPER

19 SACK-BUT

22 THE-ME

23 O-RAN - as in “none ran”

Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »