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Archive for August 4th, 2008

Independent 6802 by Nimrod

Posted by NealH on 4th August 2008

NealH.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed

A clever but tricky puzzle which played on one of the crossword setters’ staples, the doh, re, me notes (the proper name of which is tonic sol-fa). Most of the four letter entries were created by running two of the notes together as in do-me and la-te.

Across
1 Dote: do te.
3 Rete: re te.
6 Fame: Fa me.
10 Minuend: Nim< + nude*.
11 Dead sea: cryptic def.
12 Scrip: I didn’t follow this one. Clue is “Return to another line in drink list”. Possibly “drink list” = scrip in the sense of prescription.
13 Tracheae: (a teacher)*.
16 Ephedrine: (ripened he)*.
18 Thief: The f around i.
20 Ester: Est[h]er.
21 Merriment: Mermen around RI + t.
22 Stonking: hidden.
24 Obese: hidden and reversed.
28 Moanful: Another one I didn’t fully get - “Lamentable second, terrible second, moving 90 degrees clockwise”. I’m assuming it is mo + awful and the second letter (w) has been rotated, but I don’t quite see how this gets an n (even with italics).
29 Hidalgo: (Glad I)< in ho[use].
30 Sofa: so fa.
31 Sola: So la. This type of plant is used to make sola topis.
32 Late: la te.
Down
1 Dome: do me.
2, 25 Tonic sol-fa: (fans cool it)*.
4 Eddy: Ref to Eddy Grant, a singer who had the hit “I don’t wanna dance”.
5 Elderberry: err in el derby (both teams are in Madrid, so it would be a derby match).
6 Franc: Ran in FC.
7 Mesmerise: (messier me)*.
8 Reminder: rem[a]inder.
9 Lame: la me.
14 Mete: Me te. I had to check this one, because I thought it might be reme (a possible alternative spelling of ream).
15 Dismantles: This was another one I didn’t entirely understand. “Your average bloke is led around dodgy strips”. I’m guessing that the definition is strips and there appears to be an anagrem of “is led”, which leaves smant = your average bloke.
17 Hot potato: Hot pot to around a.
18 Twin beds: cryptic def (beds = bedfordshire).
19 Fate: fa te.
22 Some: so me
23 Kafka: Kaa (Jungle Book snake) around f k.
26 Dhal: Yet another one I didn’t quite follow - “Losing arm, author reduces pulse”. Obviously, pulse = dhal and the rest seems to be something about removing the word arm and taking some letters from the name of a writer. The only one I could think that it might be referring to was Roald Dahl, but I can’t see how that works.
27 Dore: do re - a French artist.

Posted in Independent | 14 Comments »

Guardian 24,458 - Rufus

Posted by golgonooza on 4th August 2008

golgonooza.

If it’s Monday, it must be a Rufus day! And thank the Lord for that! I always enjoy Rufus - his puzzles are often easier to solve but never boring. This one has lots of Cryptic definitions or riddle style clues, which is typical of Rufus. This was done quickly (for me) but it wasn’t without its puzzlement - see 2dn.

Across

1 ROSEBUD Cryptic def.

5 BELIEVE Another cryptic def. - simple but good.

9 AVAIL A+V+AIL

10 BANTERING B(ANTE)RING

11 MATCHSTICK Another ‘pure’ cryptic, and pretty obvious.

12 LONG double def.

14 ATOMISATION INTOAMOIST* - took me a while to work out what should be the anagram fodder here - I knew it was an anagram though!

18 STIPENDIARY STI(PEN)DIARY ‘it’s back’ = STI, ‘the accounts book’ = diary, ‘to write in’ = put PEN in between them and the whole thing is “paid”. Stipendiary is an adjective meaning receiving a stipend.

21 IMAM hidden

22 BLACKGUARD BLACK = boycott + GUARD = warder, a scoundrel or blaggard. I thought to boycott something was to blackball, but black also apparently means to boycott.

25 ANCHORMAN cryptic def.

26 TWILL (I)T+WILL get one (I) off ‘it will’ and you have twill which is a material also known as drill. Very clever and the last one I got.

Down

1 REALMS RE+ALMS ‘unite’ seems superfluous other than giving a smoother surface reading.

2 SPARTA Anyone tell me why ‘luggage sent up’? Probably being thick here.

3 BALDHEADED To my mind a brilliant cryptic def!

4 DEBUT DEB(U)T ‘limited’ means that u is put in debt, a debut is an entrance. This got me thinking of debit for ages until I realised.

5 BONE CHINA cryptic def.

6 LEER rev.

7 EPISODIC IDCOPIES*

8 ENGAGING double def.

13 LARYNGITIS ATINYGIRLS*

15 OLD FLAMES cryptic def.

16 ESTIMATE EST(IM)ATE

17 FINANCES FI(N)ANCES

20 ADDLED ADD+LED

23 CANOE CAN(O)E a good misleading definition of canoe I think.

24 BOAR BOA+R boa is fur and round head = R, but surely the ‘a’ is superfluous here?

Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »

Private Eye/Cyclops Crossword 370 - Descent …

Posted by beermagnet on 4th August 2008

beermagnet.

… of the one-armed pedant

Across
1 KOWTOW K[ens] O[ffice] WOW around T[ime] 1 Across is last to go in again.  I think it must be that my brain cell is not warmed up when I start then I get convinced I can’t get the answer to that first clue.
5 BUNGALOW BUNG, AL[l]OW
9 HECTORER (H CORE T[ense])* ER Anagrind “Kinky”.  Odd word I felt
10 CHESTY DD Naughty capitalisation again: Hawking Ref. chesty coughs.  The other def. comes from e.g. Chesty Morgan (though I suspect DD was an underestimate for her)
11 ARSE [he]ARSE
12 COUNTED OUT COUNT (DUE TO)* Anagrind “shakes”
14 ESTATE AGENTS E STATE A GENTS
17 KNEE-TREMBLER (BERK ELEMENT)* R[esistance] Anagrind “stirred”
19 LEBENSRAUM (NUMERABLE [Anschlus]S)* Anagrind “moves”
20 SHAG DD What would we do without that cormorant.  Nice concise DD.  Favourite clue:
Roger’s bird (4)
21 BARSAC BAR,SAC[k]
23 GET A LIFE Hmm. Cherie’s book is not called “A life” so I suppose it is simply referring to the fact that it is an autobiography - or am I missing something? Full clue:
Buy Cherie’s book? Don’t be a nerd! (3,1,4)
24 ST GEORGE Ref. George Brown the bespectacled labour Foreign Minister in Harold Wislon’s time.
25 RATTLE RAT (LET)* Anagrind “out” Ref. Simon of that ilk, now rattling out tunes with the Berlin Phil.
 
Down
2 ONE-ARMED ([c]AMERON)* ED Anagrind “screwed up”
3 TITHE TIT HE
4 WIRE-CUTTERS CD I suspect you need chunkier tools than wire-cutters to strip lead.  An empty house nearby has had all lead and copper removed - the resulting damage shows that crowbars, picks and sledgehammers were the tools of choice.
5 BERMUDA TRIANGLE (A BUM RED)* Anagrind “with agitation” There’s been a marked disappearance of stories about the Bermuda Triangle lately …
6 NBC NB,C I found this really hard for a 3-letter word though I suppose if it had been enumerated (1,1,1) it would have been too obvious. I needed both crossing letters (the C was a long time coming) and then an alphabet trawl to spot it.
7 ANECDOTAL (CODE)*, t[echnique's] inside AN-AL Anagrind “breaking” Anecdotal evidence isn’t that unreliable so I’ve heard …
8 ON TOUR (TURN O O)* Anagrind “somersaults”  The two Os from Balls
13 THERMOMETER (MOTHER)* MET ER Anagrind “turned”
15 TENNESSEE TEN,NESS,E[ast] E[uropean] Ref No.10 Downing St., and Eliot Ness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Ness
16 DREADFUL (DEFRA DU[a]L)* Anagrind “reorganisation”
18 PEDANT DAN inside PET 
No!  ED inside PANT
20 SPLIT L in SPIT
22 CUR CUR[e]

Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 3 Comments »