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Archive for March 4th, 2008

Guardian 24,327/Paul - slip of the tongue

Posted by manehi on 4th March 2008

manehi.

A few surprisingly easy clues from Paul (9a, 19a and 26a especially, all omitted below) started me off on an otherwise enjoyable puzzle with some excellent surface readings.

Solving time: 26 minutes, one unsure.

Across
1 PUBLISH - the online version earlier in the morning had the clue as something similar to “[Put out by the tongue of drunks?]“, complete with square brackets. I found it odd, but didn’t think to record the exact wording. It’s now “Put out by the language at the inn, you might say?” both online and in my copy of the paper, which leads more easily to the idea of PUBLISH being the language spoken in pubs.
5 BOOTLE,G
10 SPIDERMAN - DERMA in SPIN, lovely clue.
11 SUPERWAIF - (WAS PURE)* + IF = “provided”. “Superwaif” is new to me, but I don’t suppose it ever refers to a superhero orphan.
12 TUT,T,I - the different kinds of “Leaders” combining to make a musical direction to all play together.
13 OMEGA - hidden/”lost” in “hOME GAme’s”.
15 IN,SIN,U,ATE - surface hinting at the rather thin Mrs Beckham.
18 BREATHE IN - (BE AIR THEN)*, “inspirational” in the sense of, well, breathing in.
21 RECAP - (PACER)<, the internet confirms that a pacer is a horse that paces.
23 CHAIN GANG - CHIN holding A, GAG holding N.
25 QUID,DITCH - surface almost very topical.
27 E,M(BASS)Y
28 (g)RE-EN,TRY - don’t think I’d be able to forget about gravity during re-entry, personally.
Down
1 PICASSO - I assume this is PI + CASSO(wary), ref the cassowary bird, but can’t see how PI comes from “demands good”.
2 BLASPHEMES - BLAMES around SHE around P.
3 (t)INTER(n) - ref the abbey on the river Wye, but I’m not sure how much the “by river” part really adds to the clue.
5 BRIE,F - does brief == “In short”?
6 OVERT,ONES - almost put this down as a dodgy double def, spotted the wordplay just now.
7 LIMIT - or at least I think so, I can’t make anything from the wordplay. Anyone?
8 GUNFIRE - (GRIEF)* around UN
14 ANTIPODES - (AS POINTED)*
15 SUN,BA(THE)R - wordplay confused me at first, as I read it as SUN + BAT = “staff” + HER = ?
17 AERIALIST - A (AIRE)< LIST, a US term (apparently) for acrobats, trapeze artists and the like.
18 BAR(O)QUE
20 BA(G LAD)Y - nice
23 C(h)ATTY

Posted in Guardian | 11 Comments »

Independent 6671/Virgilius

Posted by John on 4th March 2008

John.

Nice to have Virgilius back again. But where’s the Nina? I hope his cutting back isn’t extending to the clever things he does with the grids, and that it’s simply that I can’t see it.

Across
1 STAB - 2 mngs
4 OVAL OFFICE - Not really sure about this, but I think the def. is “Room for C-in-C” [C-in-C = President of USA?]; “test location” is Oval [the cricket ground] and “in Antarctic Ocean” is “off ice”, because if you’ve fallen off the ice in the Antarctic you might be in the ocean.
9 T(R)OMB ONE
10 ASSUME - as (emus rev.)
11 newspaPER I SHredded
12 INIMICAL - in 1 (claim)*
13 DELI(us)
14 G RAIN
16 (i)N (j)AIL
17 LION I think - (n oil) rev., refers to the star sign Leo. This was the last one I did, having to resort to going through the alphabet for the first letter. A plausible answer came when I’d reached L, so I stopped searching. Prematurely?
19 AMISS - Amis with his concluding letter repeated, although for a while I couldn’t understand “doubly”. The clue could omit it and still be sound, so far as I can see.
20 I ON A(tlantic)
21 H(A STEN)E’D
23 IRVING - Henry Irving and Irving Berlin
24 POUR IN “pore inn”
25 A P(ER (knigh)T)URE
26 STALINISTS - (list in Tass)*
27 DASH - 2 mngs
 
Down
2 THREE MEN IN A BOAT presumably, although I can’t understand it. What’s the “falling-out” about?
3 BAMB(IN)I
4 OMOPHAGIA - had to look this one up, never having heard the word, although the fact that it was (o pig a ham)* around o was fairly obvious.
5 AMERICAN INDIANS - (Canadian miner is)*. Evidently the plural of Chinook is Chinook.
6 r(OMANI)a
7 FUSTIAN - suit* in fan
8 COMPANION-IN-ARMS - def. “belligerent colleague”, in arms under companion. I couldn’t understand this and then discovered that there’s such a thing as a companion ladder.
15 N(AS TINES)S
18 NATURAL - 2 mngs
20 IN(VI)TED
22 N IN ON

Posted in Independent | 23 Comments »

Financial Times / 12707 by Armonie

Posted by C G Rishikesh on 4th March 2008

C G Rishikesh.

Not a difficult puzzle. Some familiar clues (14ac, 19ac, 21dn) provide the starters. First I finished the lower half;  in the top half, the left quadrant was the last to be completed.

Across

1 HEDGEROW - H (edger)ow - Not one with green fingers, I came to know of ‘edger’ only today. ‘How’ is given gratis; we don’t realise this until later.

5 FIDDLE - Fi(DD)le - I was initially thinking of ‘diddle’.

12 ERODE - (-h)er ode - There is a town in Tamil Nadu whose name we spell this way.

13 IMPLEMENT - Imp(-a)lement

16 MISSION - (-O)mission

23 ADORATION - Ad oration - Bill at other times could give AC (from account, a/c).

25 OLIVE - O live (’live’ as in ‘live wire’)

27 CRACKERS - two definitions

29 REPRISAL - Re(pr. is)al - concrete (’real’) as in ‘concrete evidence’.

Down

1 HAMLET - Two definitions - ‘Play’ is a verb in surface reading but as definition for required word, it is a noun.

2 DOCTORATE - Doc (dwarf) to rate (deserve)

3 ELATE - (-R)elate - ‘associate’ as a verb gives ‘relate’ - I would prefer “… when Romeo is gone”.

4 OPINION - O pinion - ’shackle’ is a welcome change from the usual ‘wing’.

8 EVENTING - E venting (’giving voice’)

17 ITCHINESS - It(chin)ess*

18 ASSASSIN - As (when) SAS (crack troops) -sin (go astray) -  SAS: Special Air Service. Nice to see two fools left alone. 

20 LAID - rev. of ‘dial’, v. ‘to ring or call someone’.

Posted in FT | No Comments »