Posted by smiffy on 16th April 2008
Greetings earthlings! I’ve managed to resurface after something of a blogging exile - it turned out that the rehab clinic wouldn’t allow me wi-fi access during my (longer than anticipated) stay.
Good to see several new FT bloggers/solvers on-board the site these days, however. Anyhoo, this is meant to be all about Satori, not me….
Across
1 FLIP,PANT
6 MIMOSA - (Maoism)*.
9 DENIER - double def’n
11 VEGA - If extracted from Las Vegas it’d leave “lass”. Any other Spurs fans still suffer harrowing flashbacks whenever they encounter this name?
12MUT(IL)ATION - a good example of how a clue surface can we lengthy AND read very smoothly.
16 (-cr)EDIT - I always thought of “tick”=credit as a noun, but it seems to be referred here as a verb.
19 TH(OR)OUGH
24 B(LACKEY)E - I thought “content to be” was admirable wordplay.
27 AT,TEST - an ultra-orthodox construction here.
28 SE,C(UR)ITY - “Canterbury” is the South-east city in question.
Down
2 LI(EG)E - “general situation”=lie, as in the “the lie of the land”.
4 AG(RIM)ONY - Potentially quite arcane for the FT. I somehow managed to get this one with only one letter checked, despite being unsure on the word itself. Must have been a brain fragment from another long-forgotten puzzle.
5 TR(US,TWO,R,THIN)ESS - a jam-packed container/contents clue.
6 MODULE - (Ludo in em) all rev.
8 SEASON(IN)G - the last to go in for me. Got hung up on the other definition of “shanty” for a while.
13 TEE,TO,TALLER - not too convinced on the surface reading here.
15 AUTOPILOT - misleading/literal definition. Whither George?
20 ASCENT - “assent”
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 16th April 2008
Dac was described last week as a “class act” by a fellow blogger - I couldn’t agree more.
| Across |
| 1 |
HAS,TEN - I briefly considered N for “mid-morning”. |
| 10 |
IRAQI - I think the spirit is “raki”. |
| 11 |
LO,(A GENT)*,ON - I knew it was a place but wasn’t sure that it was in Derbyshire - not much doubt with the wordplay though. |
| 13 |
E,A in SEMIS< - I had S?A???? so SIAMESE went in without too much thought. Looking at it now, it’s quite a tricky clue to parse, with “offering accomodation” serving as a containment indicator. |
| 14 |
IN,DUB[-a]I,TABLE - This was also a tricky one to parse, mainly, I think, because the clue reads so smoothly that it’s hard to see the joins. |
| 18 |
(A NUT TRE[-e])*,RAIL - I filled in NATURE TRAIL when I had most of the checking letters in place because I couldn’t see what else would fit but the wordplay went completely over my head. Working out now, I accounted for everything except RAIL, which turns out to be a type of bird. |
| 22 |
GETS in GEN (reversed) |
| 26 |
O,NAN in REST |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
HAIR,GRIP - the last one in for me. In TV, a GRIP is someone who manouevres the camera. |
| 5 |
(STRONG BEER)*,NINE - I think I would have struggled with this one for a while had I not immediately thought of NINE for “one over the eight”. |
| 6 |
AVER,P (going up),LENT - “forty day period” made this very easy, for me at least. |
| 8 |
CANNED - yet another synonym for “drunk” apparently, although I don’t think I’ve heard it before. |
| 16 |
FILE (going up) in F,ACT |
| 17 |
PLUG,L in (GUY)* - this is a great clue: “Tough guy shaking, clutching top of leg after getting shot”. Some lifting and separating needed on “tough guy” - the first word is the definition, and the second starts the wordplay. |
| 19 |
DANCER - a ref to Wayne Sleep. |
| 20 |
[-h]ALTERS |
Posted in Independent | 11 Comments »
Posted by manehi on 16th April 2008
A bit of an American theme, and quite a few container type clues from Paul this week. Not as tricky as Paul can be, but a couple of clues held me up for a while and I’m still unsure about one.
| Across |
| 9 |
DEWEY - YE WED reversed |
| 10 |
LEFT - I wrongly put this for the last Paul’s 10ac double def, but am pretty sure it’s right this time. |
| 11 |
COL,LECTION - COL is the ever popular mountain pass, LECTION is guessable enough as an old word for (a?) reading. |
| 12 |
DAMS,ON - really liked this. |
| 14 |
BUDDHIST - Zola BUDD, Olympic athlete, and (this)* |
| 15 |
G(IR)AFFE |
| 17 |
EMERSON - (p)ERSON around ME |
| 20 |
EST(IM)ATE - ESTATE being the sum of assets LEFT to one’s heirs. |
| 23 |
KING,FISHER |
| 25 |
PEANO ? - not sure about this. Logician, sounds like “piano”, but he’s Italian as far as I know. Mick H suggests PLATO ~ “play dough”, which sounds reasonable.
|
| 26 |
P(HARM)ACY |
|
| Down |
| 1 |
L,ITERATI(on) |
| 2,24 |
BE(AT TIM)E - took me ages to see “six-footer” = BEE |
| 4 |
WALL(AB)Y |
| 5 |
AD,DEN,DUM(b) |
| 6 |
SWITCHEROO - (erotic show)* |
| 7 |
NYLONS - N and S are partners in bridge, “inspiring” in the sense of inhaling i.e. taking in (only)* |
| 13 |
S(EALING, W)AX |
| 16 |
FLA(TIRO)N - a TIRO is a beginner, or “starter”. More used to seeing it with a y instead of an i, but Chambers has both. |
| 18 |
ON,E-T,RACK |
| 19 |
PER,HAPS(burg) |
| 21 |
S(KIM)PY - KIM by Kipling - had to Wiki “fifth columnist” afterwards, it seems to refer to subversive elements within an organisation, hence SPY. |
| 22 |
CARNAP - CARP around AN reversed. |
Posted in Guardian | 22 Comments »