Independent 6698/Phi
Posted by John on April 4th, 2008
This took a little longer than usual because so far as I could see there were some rather unusual words and meanings, and I also got one answer wrong, which threw me for a while.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | HEPATIC - H pa in cite rev. |
| 5 | SICKBED - CD I think, “off” meaning “not well”. Or is it “off” as in “nodding off”? |
| 9 | TO A DEGREE - 2 mngs |
| 10 | STUN G(ingivitis) |
| 11 | F LAWS |
| 12 | OR CHEST RA. To avoid the carthorse chestnut is the task for the setter here. |
| 14 | CHARACTERISTIC - char(=do) act (it cries)*, def. “Just like you”, which seems a bit odd: surely the definition is really meant to be “Just like”. I can’t quite place the “you”. |
| 17 | SUPER SCRIPT 1 ON. A word that not only is not common, but is used in a rare sense, so far as I can see. |
| 21 | AND ROME D A, the Greek heroine. “…one with a shred of doubt” is I think just A and D next to each other, in the order DA. |
| 23 | RING O (Starr) |
| 24 | BIG O(ne) T(hat) |
| 25 | GO IT ALONE - (too genial)* |
| 26 | LEA(R.(R.R.))NED |
| 27 | NODULAR - l in (around)*. This took me ages because of my getting 15dn wrong. |
| Down | |
| 1 | HI TOFF |
| 2 | P HAR(d) A OH |
| 3 | T REA(SURE)R |
| 4 | CARBON CYCLE |
| 5 | SEE(m) |
| 6 | CAST(l)E |
| 7 | BLU(E)T IT. The question arises how common a foreign word needs to be before it can be used in a crossword. I’d have thought “blut” was at the edge of acceptability, either just out or just in according to your point of view. |
| 8 | DOGWATCH - g in (what cod)* |
| 13 | C(REP)ITATION - a word that was new to me and which, according to Chambers anyway, means “crackling”, so the definition is difficult |
| 15 | INTERLARD - (later rind)*. I confidently wrote in “interlade”, which of course is impossible. Does the word even exist? |
| 16 | I STAN(d) BUL(k) |
| 18 | POD AGRA. Had to look this up, but now I realise that I’ve come across it before. |
| 19 | OWN G(O)AL |
| 20 | V O(YE)UR |
| 22 | ORT ON. “Ort” for “small piece” seems a rather unusual word for a broadsheet cryptic. Will Joe Orton eventually be remembered more for his extraordinary lifestyle or for his frequency in crosswords than for his plays? |
| 25 | GO(O)D I think, where “promoting health” = “good”. |
April 4th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
‘Greek heroine and source of Latin, one with a shred of doubt’ looks like it ought to be
AND/ ROME/ A/D
which is slightly pedantic of me, as ‘one’ (the second A) WITH ’shred of doubt’ (the D presumably - although you could, one supposes, choose from all 5 ’shreds’) doesn’t necessarily specify an order.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Enjoyed this puzzle, good as always from Phi. The order of the A D in Andromeda worried me a bit too but ‘with’ can mean either way, I guess, though I’d not like to be faced with such a choice on a regular basis. While you do not see it often in the daily cryptics I think convention has established “bit of , shred of” etc etc as the first letter of the word.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I agree completely with Nmsindy and with Jon regarding BLUT.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
So do I, as implied.
April 4th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Nice relief after yesterday’s. All done in 15 minutes with no recourse to dictionaries or other aids.
I didn’t have any problem with BLUT.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
“Ort” is my favourite disused short English word, and I use it often to encourage its revival. It means “left-overs” or “crumbs”. “Do you want my ort?” “Eat up your ort.” “I’ll clear away the ort.” etc. It’s short and lovely. Use it today!
April 7th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Yes, we all ort to use it.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Aorta. Aorta builda harba bridge.