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Archive for May 26th, 2008

Guardian 24398/Rufus - should have stayed in bed

Posted by ilancaron on 26th May 2008

ilancaron.

Somewhat patchy Rufus — some doubtful cryptic definitions but elsewhere some clever misdirections. I’m writing this up through the fog of a migraine so no promises as to quality. In retrospect, I wonder why I got up so early to do this. Wasn’t really worth it. On reading the comments below, I feel I must have let my migraine-induced grumpiness get the better of me.  There are some nice clues here indeed: 5A, 18A, 20A — I found 26A and 19D transparent but i can understand their appeal (on the other hand, I am often mystified by allusions that others find obvious…).

Across

1 SHADES - a shady double definition.
5 OFFICERS - quite neat anag &lit - (forces if)*
9 EVENS,OUT - planes in the surface and in the definition quite different.
10 SPLASH - two meanings: ref. landing near Cape Canaveral in the sea.
11 EARNED INCOME - is this a double definition masquerading as a cryptic definition: “Means being out of employment?”. Can EARNED INCOME refer to INCOME derived say from investments, thus hinting that you don’t need to go to work?
13 MARC=rev(cram=stuff) - it’s the grapeskins left behind once you’ve made your wine.
17 ADOPTING - a rather obvious cryptic definition.
18 LENT - two quite different meanings: the second referring to sacrificing food at LENT.
20 ALL SAINTS DAY - (lands - Italy’s a)* with “various” the anagrind. What’s the role of “possibility” though? I think it’s just there for the surface unless the whole thing can be an &lit (but even so, “possibility” has no role in the cryptic grammar).
25 FAIR=”just”,ISLE=lies* - ref. Shetland Island pattern.
26 SITTER - another weakish cryptic def.

Down

2 HIVE - and another (weak cryptic def).
3 DUNCE’S CAP - a slightly better cryptic def since “assumption” misleads nicely.
4 SPOORS - which leads to another rather transparent cryptic definition.
5 ON THE BRIGHT SIDE - but to look on the bright side, this one’s rather better (sort of a double cryptic definition).
7 COL,IC - COL is a pass followed by the the final letters of “OlympIC”.
12 CAN,DELA=lead*,BRA - our (well, not mine) perennial female support is BRA and I like “giving enlightenment” defining CANDELABRA.
15 BILLY GOAT - but it’s followed by another weakish CD.
16 DIVIDERS - is this even a cryptic def: “”Drawing instruments - possibly rulers?”
19 ADAPTS - or this? “Makes work play, perhaps”.
21 STAIR=stare*
21 F,ETE - rather cheeky since French is both F and modifies “summer” for ETE

Posted in Guardian | 15 Comments »

Independent 6742 - Eimi / Bank Holiday Fun

Posted by tilsit on 26th May 2008

tilsit.

Solving time: 24 minutes

A good stiff Bank Holiday mental workout. A very entertaining curate’s egg of a puzzle for me in that i really liked some clues, but one or two definitions seemed a bit “loose” to me. 10 across’ definition is an example. Correct, I suppose, but inadequate to me. Incidentally, I can’t find a cartoon dog named Tom ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_dogs ), was this a misprint for Cat?.

Other clues are quite clever, but would your average solver know there was a poet called (Walter) Savage Landor for 11 across to work properly?

Nina fans are acommodated here too!

 

ACROSS (*) = anagram (CD) = Cryptic definition (R) = Reversal

1 DANNY BOY    DANNY BOY(LE) directed Irvine Welsh’s masterpiece, and the tune is probably known to some as the Londonderry Air.

6 PITMAN        Sir Isaac Pitman invented shorthand. I am not keen on the “homophone” definition, however 18 across has probably converted me.

9 ODES           The US Playwright is (Clifford) ODETS, whom I have never heard of. He apparently wrote The Sweet Smell of Success. Take the T (time) out.

10 PLUM TOMATO      This parses as TOM inside MA inside PLUTO. i can’t find a cartoon dog named Tom, and so wondered if that should have been “cartoon cat“. Is “food” OK as a definition for this entry?

11 ARNOLD LANDOR*       Nice clever clue, but did you know about Walter Savage Landor, an American poet?

12 ETHERNET            THE RN [Royal Navy - (Armed) Service] inside TEE (R). Having spent most of last week having rows with BT’s Call Centre staff over my broadband connection, I now know what an Ethernet cable is, especially as I wish to insert it in a very painful place belonging to one of their advisors! Chambers gives Ethernet under ‘Ether’

13 SAKI          HH Munro wrote under the pseudonym Saki and it is also Japanese wine, though I am used to seeing it spelt SAKE.

14 CHE GUEVARA             HUGE RAVE* in CA - Nice clue, conjures up nice imagery.

16 i PAGLIACCI             Camille PAGLIA inside IC CI, which just happens to be the centre of ArctIC CIrcle! Very clever. I Pagliacci (The Clowns) is an opera by Leoncavallo. I knew this from an episode of Batman where the Joker dressed as a clown and threatened to unmask the Dynamic Duo. Just checked this on Wikipedia and they claim it should not have the definite article (I) at the front! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagliacci

18 ARIS         See Chambers for definition!!! However, definition is, like 6 across, a homophone of part of 1, i.e. Derriere!

20 SLOW DOWN           S (Economists finally) + LOWDOWN

22 BORZOI             BOR(NE) + 1 OZ (16 Drams) (R) The on-line version gives “sixteenth” rather than sixteen. 16 drams (in avoirdupois) is one ounce. In troy weight, it’s only 8.

23 ANNE BOLEYN         A + N + NEB (A new nose) + ONLY* with E inside. Nice definition!

24 ACID     A + C.I.D.

25 YARELY      RAY (R) + ELY. the city of ely stands on the River Ouse in Cambridgeshire.

26 LAST TO GO       A Last is a shoemaker’s model (Cue Cobblers joke!), plus TOGO, an African country.

DOWN

2 ANDORRA         ROAD RAN* i was rather devastated that Andorra’s bouncy little ditty didn’t make it to the final of Eurovision.

3 NO SMOKING        Excellent clever cryptic definition. Monday’s Fascinating Fact: H Vernon Watson was a popular variety entertainer during the wars and he took his stage name from a No Smoking sign painted on a set of double doors, where the doors split, gave him his stage name Nosmo King!

4 BIPED        P.E. inside BID

5 YOU NEVER CAN TELL        A riposte to the Nina? Apart from being a Chuck Berry song, it’s a play written by George Bernard Shaw.

6 PATCHOULI           TOUCH 1 TAP A word I remember from Al Stewart’s The Year of the Cat, one of the discs I’d take to my desert island.

7 TIMER         REMIT (R)

8 ANT BEAR      A N.T. (National Trust) + BEAR (carry) - a tough one if you have never heard of it, still aardvark never hurt anyone……

14 CHIROPODY       Hmm…. do chiropodists remove flakes of corn?

15 VEAL ROAST        A LOVE RAT’S* Good funny surface reading.

17 POLENTA        LENT inside P.O.A.

19 IRONING      I + RONIN + G     i is the electric current symbol in physics - a subject I detested at school and nice to see something Frank “The Twank” Webster taught me has stuck. RONIN is a de Niro film from 1998, which i thought was a remake of a French film, but I can’t trace it.

21 WHERE WEAR (homophone) SPORT is used in the context of “sporting a garment”.

22 BONES B ONES - In the world of advertising demographics, the B1’s are part of the middle classes.

Thanks to Eimi for an interesting and thought-provoking puzzle!

Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »

Private Eye/Cyclops 365 - I will survive

Posted by beermagnet on 26th May 2008

beermagnet.

This was most enjoyable.

Across
6 NOAH NO-AH “Flood survivor” I had a real blank on this one. I expect it was just me. It ended up being the last in. I left it at N?A? but saw it immediately when I looked a while later. Nice clue.
7 COLOSTOMY CO (MOSTLY O)*
11 IAGO I-A-GO One-on-one giving I and A Naughty boy.
13 GOVERNMENT (GNOME TV ER N)* Gnome enterprises of all sorts are controlled by the legendery Lord Gnome, supremo of The Eye
15 TREMOR T(REM)OR ROT< about R.E.M The Chinese might dispute “tremor” being synonymous with “tingle”.
17 COHORT COO and HRT interwoven (”before and partly during”) I liked this and was surprised and pleased when the answer popped out using the wordplay
20 ADAM AND EVE ADA MAN D EVE Cockey slang for believe, i.e. credit
23/12 ONCE OVER ON C[ivil] E[ngineer] [l]OVER
24 COWPUNCHER COW PUNCH ER I had the check that a C is a cowboy (”He’s often mounted”)
25 BRASSIERE BR ASS IE RE Re is an alternative to Ray in the Solfa scale
26 BERK BERK[s]
 
Down
1 IN CLOVER LOVE (”really enjoy”) inside INCR (”solvent briefly” in the money sense)
2 LABOUR (BAL[f]OUR)* We’ve seen the “F-off” technique used before, it still raises a smile.
3 CONCAVE (CAN)* inside COVE (”old bloke”)
4/22 DOGSBODY DOGS BODY
5 IMOGEN [l]IMO GEN[t] Despite using the general “Girl” as a definition, this gets the favourite clue award:
Girl, fancy car, top off, bloke getting end away (6)
8 TRIUMPH PM (”Brown”) and later I (”Cyclops”) inside HURT (”sting”) all reversed (”mounted”)
9 HANGER-ON HANGER (NO)*
14 RACKED UP [c]RACKED UP On first reading the clue implied to me the “opposite” wordplay to that required. I was wondering how “Raked up” apparently meant “burst into laughter” before parsing it as shown:
Burst into laughter when Conservatives’ leader goes “Accumulated points” (6,2)
16/10 MEMBERS ALLOWANCES
18 REDNECKS NECK inside REDS
19 NETWORK (WET)* inside NORK is Nork a particularly Aussie term? Well known enough in the UK now anyway.
21 DONORS CD
22 BUCKET BUCKE[d i]T This is the trickiest in the puzzle, I hope I’ve parsed it aright. It would’ve been the last in if I hadn’t suffered Noah-blindness. The answer is clearly bucket as you kick the bucket when you die, I’ve assumed the last phrase is the definition, the middle “kicked it” gives “bucked it” and the first “Di going spare” indicates removal of “di”. If so, all very clever but there is no way anyone would use such wordplay to discover the answer:
Di going spare, kicked it, Di kicked it (6)
24 CHIT C HIT

Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 3 Comments »