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Archive for January 16th, 2008

Independent 6630/Dac

Posted by John on 16th January 2008

John.

A bit harder than the usual Dac, I found. Some of the bottom-half clues were peculiarly impenetrable, although in the end there was the usual satisfaction with Dac’s skills.

Across
1 HIT THE JACK, POT
9 CAN(NAB 1)S
10 UP STICKS - up “Styx”
11 HEART H. Feeling = heart. This seemed a bit weak, but I suppose it’s as in “give your piano-playing some heart”.
12 CRUD(ites). I don’t quite see how “crud” (a noun) is defined by “Ugh” (an interjection)
14 S TAR RATING
16 MAPLE SYRUP - (plum pear s(ogg)y)*.
21 thaT RAVI Shankar. The name wasn’t, I have to admit, very familiar, but Google confirms.
23 SHOEBILL. This refers to Imelda Marcos’s penchant for shoes.
25 FAIR GAME - (image RAF)*
26 AM A ZON(e). “By” always throws me - I forget that it doesn’t indicate the order of words.
27 STREET THEATRE - CD
 
Down
1 HOT S (UP rev.)R. Hotspur was an English rebel.
3 HARD CASES - (has scared)*
4 JO CAST A. For Jocasta see Oedipus the King by Sophocles.
5 (C IN C) H
6 PLAY-ACTOR - (royal pact)*
13 DELIVERER - re-reviled rev. I’m not 100% sure either that deliverer = white-van man or that re-reviled even exists. It seems to me that at the very least a question mark is needed.
15 RE PROBATE
17 AIRWAYS - 1 in (war say)*
20 (LAW rev.) POLE. I was thrown by “European” and thought it was simply E.
22 STAKE - CD
24 BE A ST - can be read as “be a saint”. Lovely.

Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »

Guardian 24,286 - Paul : Fizzy Pop

Posted by stan on 16th January 2008

stan.

A man notices a blonde sucking on the bottom of a Coke can. Curious, he asks her what she’s doing. “Duh! It says for best taste drink by date on the bottom.”  

ACROSS

9 <<left out on purpose>>  - simple cryptic definition (too simple?)

10 (r)OAST <<thanks to Paul for the correction>>

11 ORDER PAPER - Used in the UK Parliament (PREPAREDOR)*

12 K(OPEC)K

15 PALER-MO : Doctor is M.O, “more anaemic” is paler - thank heavens, the only thing I know about Sicily is there is a town called Palermo.

17 R-ECEIP-T : That’s “piece” reversed between R(uns) and T(ime)

20 MAKE ONES PRESENCE FELT : Not entirely convinced I’ve grasped the full meaning here <<”make ones present svelte” according to Rulei>>

22 DI(TH)ER : Wings of thrush =”th” is inspired

23 C(RY-P-TOG)RAM

25 <<left out of purpose>> - simple sound-alike

26 CON-FLI(C)T

DOWN

1 C-O-C-ACOL-A : clue of the month for me. Reading backwards we have A LOCA(l) with C(aught) O(ld) and C(onservative). It rots your teeth. Oh yes it does.

3 SH-TOOK  - <<Thanks to Paul for saving me>>

4 FR(I-D)AYS

5 A-PERT-URE : Runner-up in the Clue of the Month competition : “pert” is “fresh” (sort of) and Ure is a river

6 HARAS-S(MEN)T : “sarah” backwards

7 U-N(W)ELL : Little Nell from Dickens : reference to the play “Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell”

13 ELEVE(N PL-U)S - we’ve had this one a few times recently : “Eleves” is French for students, “Nepal regularly” is “N.P.L” and U for University. Must be something about the alternating letter E’s that makes it beloved of compilers.

16 M(AN-BO)OBS - As a middle-aged man of girth, this made me smile

19 (m)OST-RICH

21 A-BRU(P)T

22 DOM-IN-O - i.e “MOD” reversed

24 PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER - trad. joke. Now we all know what Paul got in his Christmas cracker.

Posted in Guardian | 19 Comments »