Posted by neildubya on 7th December 2007
| Across |
| 11 |
PROO[-f] - PROOfing something is a form of protection and PROO (or “pruh”) is a Scottish word used to direct or summon cattle. |
| 13 |
E,MEN in EAST |
| 14 |
(POTTER A GENIE)* - PRENEGOTIATE. With POTTER being part of the anagram, “harry” must have been irresistible as the anagram indicator. |
| 17 |
RI in RUNG - RI is Rhode Island. |
| 18 |
E,I,N E in NITS< - “eccentricity” has to be E but it’s not in the dictionaries I currently have access to. I assume it’s in Chambers but it seems like an odd thing to abbreviate. |
| 21 |
HAR[-e] in MATAI - MATA HARI went in fairly quickly but the clue itself took a bit of working out. |
| 23 |
WIT,HES - I think this is right. A WITHE can be a number of things but one of them is a handle for a tool, designed to lessen shock. I guess that counts as “protections for hands”. |
| 25 |
(A MALAISE TOO C)* - Here’s how this clue got solved:
Me: What can a vitamin D deficiency cause?
MrsD (a nurse): Umm, rickets?
Me: not enough letters. What’s the medical term for rickets?
MrsD: Rickets. That is the medical term.
[Cut to same scene 15 minutes later].
MrsD: OSTEOMALACIA!
Me: Sorry?
MrsD: The medical term for rickets! Did I get it? I did, didn’t I? I helped you with your puzzle. Are you going to mention me on the blog? |
| 31 |
GRAVE,L L in BIND - this is the slightly surreal definition from dictionary.com: “more blind or dim-sighted than sand-blind and less than stone-blind”. I might try those terms out next time I go to the optician. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
hidden in “regulAR ARSonist” - “the focus” (indicating the hidden element) had me completely fooled, and as a consequence, this was the last answer I filled in. |
| 3 |
(SEE THE CASINO)* - COENESTHESIA. I think “Las Vegas” in the clue is meant to stand for the US as a whole, and thus indicate an American word. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for it though. |
| 4 |
HUM,(ETC)* |
| 7 |
(CAN ANCHOR IT)*,L - CORINTH CANAL |
| 8 |
AL[-l],OK,RIAN/NAIR - I think KALORIAN is right but I haven’t nailed all of the wordplay. “Indian people not quite entirely correct, keeping up Indian languages.” The bit I’m not sure about is whether NAIR or RIAN could be “Indian languages”, unless I’ve parsed this incorrectly. |
| 11 |
P in (PROSPER WET)* - PEPPERWORTS. “Ground” is deceptive anagram indicator here. |
| 16 |
(STEAMED A)* - TEASMADE. |
| 22 |
APL,O,MB |
Posted in Beelzebub | 1 Comment »
Posted by neildubya on 30th November 2007
A very enjoyable puzzle from a very reliable setter. It might be my imagination but there seemed to be a few more obscure words than there usually are in Beelzebub puzzles but I actually found this easier than a typical Columba effort; maybe because harder words meant easier wordplay?
| Across |
| 10 |
RY,BALL,O in AID - an “aryballos” is an oil jar or flask. |
| 12 |
BATH,OS - haven’t seen OS for “sailor” (Ordinary Seaman I think) for a while now. |
| 13 |
(HER COPY)*,R,RE,CT - HYPER leapt out of (HER COPY)* and the rest was easy enough. |
| 19 |
ANA,PER in HS - quite tricky this as “possessions” = ANA is not obvious and “by” = PER is easily missed. |
| 25 |
PORT,MAN,TEA,UX - my first thought was to fill in “portmanteaus” (which is an acceptable spelling apparently) but then it occurred to me that it might end in an X and I couldn’t see how UX would be justified. However, it’s an abbreviation for “uxor”, the Latin word for “wife”. |
| 28 |
(INITIAL SCAN)* - ANNALISTIC. |
| 30 |
Y,PE< in TEST< - TYPESET. Cleverly constructed clue. I spent some time thinking “composed” was an anagram indicator. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
TYM,PAN - not sure if this is right. Full clue is “Frame ends in pot by master with spider?” “Ends in pot by” must be TY and”master” is M, which leaves PAN for “spider” (and there are such things as pan spiders apparently). The definition is a bit unclear though: how can a TYMPAN be a “frame”? |
| 3 |
(ON NERVES A BIT)* - OBSERVANTINE. A branch of the Order of Franciscans. |
| 5 |
L in CIC,HEED - “hackneyed” gave the game away quite quickly for me. “Supreme commander” must be Commander-In-Chief. |
| 7 |
TRAIL in MILE,USE - “Gun dog” requires some lifting and separating to get the definition (MITRAILLEUSE is a piece of heavy ordinance). |
| 8 |
CH in (RUSTICS)* - TROCHISCUS. |
| 11 |
TYP[-e]<,GO in HARAS[-s] - I guess most people would describe PYTHAGORAS as a mathematician but he was the first person to describe himself as a “philosopher” and was a huge influence on Plato. |
| 15 |
T in NL in ARRAY - in the Nato alphabet, “tango” is T. |
| 17 |
hidden in “whiCH A PATIent” |
| 21 |
GI,ANTS[-y] - thanks to checking letters and the definition I filled this in pretty quickly but I couldn’t work out why. GI for “grunt” is quite clever as grunt can mean soldier or infantryman. |
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Posted by neildubya on 23rd November 2007
| Across |
| 1 |
L in BASH - I hesitated over this at first because I couldn’t see why “go” = BASH. Then I remembered “have a bash at [something]”. |
| 11 |
(SIGN BLOOMERS)* - REBLOSSOMING. Pleasing &lit clue. |
| 12 |
ENZOOTIC - this must be right as the definition fits but I can’t untangle the wordplay: “Quickly one should return around zone suffering localised disease”. |
| 16 |
BEE,SWING - a BEE is a social gathering (e.g. spelling bee) and BEESWING is a flaky deposit found in port and other wines. |
| 19 |
P in A DRESS |
| 21 |
DA in DUET,E |
| 24 |
E in SLP,TOFF - I initially filled in SWEPT OFF even though it didn’t really fit with the definition because I convinced myself that Arthur Scargill was in the Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP). Turns out he founded the Socialist Labour Party. |
| 29 |
IT’S A< - IT is vermouth, as in “gin and it” (which sounds like a classic martini to me…) |
| 31 |
ON in (BEST NEARLY)* - BLARNEY-STONE. |
| 32 |
(B[-a]BY)*,LOW - BYBLOW. Excellent &lit clue. A BYBLOW is an illegitimate child. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
BREEZE - I liked this clue a lot: “Refuse to go cheerfully”. As a noun, BREEZE refers to cinders, ash or dust (which is what breeze blocks are made out of) and as a verb it can mean a few things but probably the most relevant is “to move in a self-confident or jaunty manner”. |
| 2 |
(CLEARLY UNLIT)* - LENTICULARLY. I struggled to get, partly because I thought I was looking for a word ending -ICAL. |
| 4 |
BE,A in H (FOOT)* - HOOFBEAT. Another excellent &lit: “Horse with foot moving? Happen one will be involved”. I’ve only now spotted that “happen one” is BE,A though. |
| 5 |
(REST)*,EAST - ESTREAT. |
| 8 |
P,P,IE in LIST |
| 15 |
QUEE[-r],(MAN)*,B - QUEEN MAB is a tantalizing fairy who “governs and produces peoples’ dreams”. |
| 17 |
SPOFFISH - not sure if this is right as I can’t work out the wordplay. Full clue is “Officious affected types upset a person”. This answers crosses with 33A - which I’ve got as HASTE (the H is where they cross) but I can’t explain that either so it’s possible that might be wrong too. |
| 20 |
DEFRA,Y[e]S |
| 25 |
odd letters of SiLk, initial letters of “Used By Braiders”. |
| 27 |
IT<,R,L - TIRL. |
Posted in Beelzebub | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 16th November 2007
| Across |
| 1 |
RUM,GUM,(IN TOP)* - RUMGUMPTION can mean common sense or native wit. I’d heard of plain old “gumption” (which can mean the same thing) but thought it only meant nerve or courage. |
| 11 |
(SURE LIUM)* - I assumed that “half of mycelium” would be MYCE so I didn’t get very far with this until I had a few letters in place. |
| 12 |
R in (SELECT BRAI[-n]S)* - CEREBRALISTS. |
| 19 |
[-d]INNER BAR - I think this is right but I don’t understand all of the wordplay. The full clue is “Lawyers missing start to meal: amusing incident”. The INNER BAR is the Queen’s (or King’s) counsel. |
| 27 |
FLAM in A,E - FLAM can mean lie (”fancy”) or deception. |
| 28 |
WED in SEN - SEN is State Enrolled Nurse. |
| 29 |
JOE-MILLER,IS,M - which is apparently the practice of re-telling old jokes. Nice &lit clue too, with a pun on corn: “One beloved handler of corn is beginning to manifest this”. |
| 30 |
LIES< in ORLE - ORSEILLE. An ORLE is (in Webster’s comma-heavy definition) “A bearing, in the form of a fillet, round the shield, within, but at some distance from, the border”. One of the tougher clues in the puzzle for me, given that I didn’t know ORLE or the answer word. |
| 32 |
MARROW,BONES - an informal term for the knees. MARROW can mean a variety of things: spouse, helpmate, co-worker, companion or close friend, all of which were new to me. Not sure about BONES for “pinches” though. Is this is in Chambers (which I don’t have to hand right now)? |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
URENA - I liked this; the full clue is “Mallow plant encountered in Nature repeatedly.” So URENA is hidden “NatURE NAture” |
| 6 |
T in RAF in PALLS - another good clue with a nice surface reading. |
| 8 |
GEM,TUN< - for non-footie fans, a NUTMEG is when you play the ball through an opponent’s legs. |
| 9 |
OS,SE[-t]TERS - an OSSETER is a species of sturgeon. |
| 13 |
SOL,IF,I,DIAN - DIAN was the only bit I wasn’t sure of her. Is it another spelling of Diana (the Roman goddess of hunting)? |
| 15 |
BARE,L in ALL,O - an ALBARELLO is “a majolica jar of the 15th and 16th centuries, cylindrical with a waist slightly narrower than the ends, used in Spain and Italy for keeping dry drugs” |
| 17 |
I in JOCK in JIG - JICKAJOG. I found this tough to parse and really needed the four consecutive checked letters at KAJO. |
| 25 |
WE in BED< - very nearly filled in TWERP as I had the W filled in. |
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Posted by neildubya on 9th November 2007
Apologies for the longer than expected break in blogging these puzzles - normal service should be resumed from now on.
| Across |
| 1 |
SUBS,TANTIV[-i]ES - a “tantivy” is a hunting cry (took me a while to think beyond “tally ho”) which I somehow knew, probably from an Azed puzzle. I still don’t really get why the definition is “more mundane words”. SUBSTANTIVES are nouns or words that function like nouns. Maybe they’re mundane because they don’t describe actions or qualities like verbs and adjectives? |
| 12 |
ALA in HELL |
| 13 |
AIRDRAWN - puzzled by this one. I think it’s right, as it’s the word used to describe the imaginary dagger that Macbeth sees but I can’t work out the wordplay: “State of indecision blocking Macbeth’s strength - Shakespeare’s visonary”. |
| 15 |
UTTER? - not sure about this either. Full clue: “Anti-mine device? Tip of pin should be avoided” |
| 16 |
FAY in PERS - which must be another spelling of “parfay”. |
| 17 |
RIG in TS - “stuffs old” is the definition here, indicating an archaic word. |
| 19 |
ED in (A HARP)* - PHAEDRA is a cantata for mezzo-soprano and Britten’s last work. |
| 23 |
hidden in “upstaGED DAncer” |
| 28 |
GRID,(LINE)* - interesting clue this as it contains a sort-of-indirect anagram: “Network of lines, with one awry, in greyish colour”. The indirect bit being “with one [ie, line] awry”. |
| 29 |
DON in MISE |
| 30 |
NOR,I - filled this in straight away as I must have remembered if from another puzzle somewhere. |
| 31 |
(MEDIA MONITOR)* - IMMODERATION. Very apt surface reading and anagram. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
ST[-r]APPING - one of the clues that held me up. I filled in “stopping” as I thought (hoped) that “stropping” might mean “thrashing”. |
| 2 |
U,RITES |
| 3 |
SE DEFENDENDO - can’t work out the wordplay here: “After assault, son needed to limit excellent legal justification”. If “son needed” is anagram fodder, that leaves EFE and I can’t see where that might come from. |
| 4 |
AIR,ARRET< - I filled in TERRARIA from the definition and then had to check that ARRET could mean “decision”. |
| 5 |
BAHA[-i] (going up) - AHAB was, of course, the captain in Moby Dick and BAHAI is a religion founded in Iran and “teaching the essential worth of all religions, the unity of all races, and the equality of the sexes”. |
| 7 |
R in (MEANT LITTLE)* - ILLTREATMENT. |
| 8 |
VAS,TID[-e],IT,Y - VAS, in anatomy, is a vessel or duct. |
| 14 |
GRUNDY,IS,M - “fast liver” is, I think, a reference to the poem “Solomon Grundy”, which goes:
Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
That was the end of
Solomon Grundy |
| 18 |
SAF[-e],RAN,I,N |
| 21 |
R in SCENE |
| 27 |
VIER - which is the German word for “four”. Someone who vies (contends) might be a VIE-R |
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