Fifteensquared

Independent 7,452/Phi

Ali — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:19:46 +0000

This is the first puzzle I’ve had chance to do this week and, looking at the blogs, it looks as if I’ve landed on my feet drawing the Friday slot. Nothing too tricky here from Phi, and nothing less than excellent, elegant clueing. I thought there might be something going on in the outer unches when EQU appeared on the top row, but there’s nothing that I can see.

Across
6	IMITANTS – 1 + MIT + ANTS
8	RENOWN – I think this NOW in most of a word for opening, but can’t work out what REN[-?] would be!
10	LEAP – Hidden in mobiLE APps
11	TREATY PORT – T(ime) + AT Y(ard) in REPORT
14	COWCATCHER – COW + CATCHER – Excellent use of ‘neat’ in the definition here
15	REEL – RE[-v]EL
17	PLAY HARD TO GET – Cryptic def.
18	ANTI – [-m]ANTI[-s]
18	PLEASANTRY – L[-ord's] in PEASANTRY
19	PUTTANESCA – TAN in (TEACUPS)*
20	BOHR – BrOtHeR
21	ANOMIE – AN + OM (order) + I.E (that is)
22	SCOTLAND – D[omicile] + (TO CLANS)* – A very nice &lit.
Down
1	EMPEROR PENGUIN – (PUMP OR ENGINEER)*
2	Q-TIP – Q(uestion) + TIP
3	UNSTITCH – (THIN CUTS)*
4	URETER – URE + TE[-a]R
5	SNAPDRAGON – SNAP + DRAG ON
7	SHEPHERDESSES – SHE + P(ower) + HE in (DRESSES)*
9	WORCESTER CHINA – (WHERE NARCOTICS)*
13	CRANIOTOMY – (TORY IN COMA)*
16	TESTATOR – TEST + A TOR
18	PONGEE – Hidden in sPONGE Easily
20	BALM – M[-edical] in LAB rev.

Financial Times 13,481 / Flimsy

shuchi — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:51:38 +0000

Easy anagrams and cryptic definitions, and a liberal helping of hidden word answers, made this a quick solve most of the way. I came to a halt at the last two and had to resort to lookups for 23A and 2D.

Still can’t figure 2D. // Update: Explained now and 11D updated, thanks to Gaufrid.

Favourite clues: 12A, 22A, 7D.

Across

1 BLOOD MONEY cd. ‘Blood money’ is the money paid to a hired murderer. ‘Ready’ is slang for money.
7 ITEM I MET (bumped into), reversed
9 ORAL hidden in ‘fOR A Laugh’
10 HOCUS-POCUS (COUSCOU HP)*
11 LADDER This must be more than a cryptic definition but I can’t see it. GLIDER G (good) L[ift] *(RIDE)
12 EVACUATE CU (copper) ATE (worried, as in ‘the fear ate him’), after EVA (girl).
13 NIGHTJAR NIGH (near) [fores]T, JAR (disturb)
15 ACRE hidden reversed in ‘DovER CAstle’
17 FAIR triple definition: ‘just’ and ‘open’ are nearly the same but they make a nice surface when put together.
19 EMINENCE dd. Eminence is high rank (station), as well as a raised piece of ground (bank).
22 SARDONIC (IS CONRAD)*
23 TARPON PRAT (idiot) reversed + N[et], around O (zero). Two unfamiliar words for me here – prat and tarpon – made this one of my last entries. Tarpon is a large fish found in the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
25 HOUSE-PROUD (DOES UP OUR H[ome])*
26 IBIS I BIS (twice), with ‘kissed’ linking the two words.
27 MESS dd
28 PASTY-FACED PASTY (savoury snack) FACED (experienced)

Down

2 LORELEI *([po]LI[c] ROLE). In German folklore, Lorelei was a kind of siren luring shipmen to distraction with her singing.
3 OGLED LE (‘the’ in French) D[efender], after O G (own goal)
4 MAHARAJA A JAR (container) A HAM (type of meat), all reversed. I was about to say that maharaja is ‘great king’ and not ‘prince’, but then found that English dictionaries list this as a valid synonym.
5 NUCLEAR REACTOR (ACTOR UNCLES REAR)*. Needed to look this up - ‘Plies’ refers to The Windscale Piles.
6 YES-MAN (MY SANE)*
7 INOCULATE (AT CLUE IN)* around [s]O[lution]
8 EQUATOR cd
14 HARD DISKS (DAD SHIRKS)*
16 BIRTHDAY cd
18 A LA MODE A LAM (hit) ODE (elaborate lyric)
20 CHOC-ICE CHOICE (excellent) around C (cold). A nice way to break up to word.
21 SNAP UP S (son) N[udge] A[nimal], PUP (little dog)
24 RAITA hidden in ‘AgRA IT Appears’

Guardian 25,106 – Araucaria

Andrew — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:14:17 +0000

A very enjoyable puzzle from Araucaria, with some interestingly linked clues. Luckily I was familiar with most of the literary and other references, and found it not too hard. There were a few Araucarian liberties, which I’ve noted below, but not serious enough to detract from the fun.

Across
1.	TIGHTS	Double definition, sort of: TIGHT is rather old-fashioned for “drunk”, but only (I think) as an adjective: hence I suppose the question mark.
4.	DECIMAL	C I’M (setter’s = setter is) in DEAL. Nicely misleading use of “10″ in a puzzle with so many linked clues.
9.	TOLERABLE	(BEER TO ALL)* – the smooth surface conceals the structure of the clue well.
10.	AUDIT	A UDI + T
12.	RECAPTURE	E C (notes) in RAPTURE.
13.	AZKABAN	AZ (extremes) + K + A BAN. A prison island in the Harry Potter books.
15.	THRUMS	Double definition (or really a definition plus a hint) – a thrum is “The fringe of threads of warp left after cloth has been cut off of a loom” Not STRUMS, as I originally guessed. (I thought THRUM was familiar,and I see it came up recently in an Audreus puzzle that I blogged, where I quoted the same definition.)
17.	ANGERS	Double definition
19.	BUS TRIP	BUST R.I.P.
22.	ABSURDIST	(SUITS BARD)*. The clue should really indicate that Beckett is an example of an absurdist, not a definition
24.	PEDRO	Hidden in stopPED ROt, though the hiding isn’t indicated unless “from” is doing double duty.
26.	TWERP	[AN]TWERP
27.	PROPRIETY	Double definition
28.	NODULAR	(AL[L] ROUND)*
29.	OSTMEN	[P]OSTMEN. The Ostmen (“”east men”) were Danish settlers in Ireland. I liked “men of letters”.

Down
1.	TITANIA	[W]ITAN in TIA (Spanish for “aunt”). Rather obscure wordplay, but easy to get from the definition if you know that Titania is the queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
2.	GULAG	GUL[ES} (red in heraldry) + AG. Again the definition is rather a giveaway here.
3.	TURNTABLE	URN in BATTLE*
4.	DEEPCUT	DEEP CUT
5.	CLAMP	CLAM + P
6,11.	MIDSUMMER NIGHT	Double definition - the "25" is a cross-reference to "dream", but 24/6 refers to the 24th of June.
8.	OBERON	OBE + RON. King o the fairies in MSND
14.	KING'S HEAD	Double definition
16.	ROSA PARKS	SAP in ROAR + K'S ("of 14"="of King's Head"="of K")
18.	SKIPPER	Double definition
19.	BOTTOM	Double defintion - reference to Nick Bottom the Weaver in MSND
20.	PROCYON	CORP[ORAL]< + YON. I hadn't heard of the star, but the wordplay is clear
21,7.	MARTIN LUTHER	(TERMINAL HURT)*. Martin Luther King famously had a dream
23.	REPEL	P in REEL
25.	DREAM	TRAUM[A] is German for “dream”, so it’s how Martin Luther would say it..

Financial Times 13,480 / Falcon

smiffy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:46:25 +0000

A real bran tub today. Our ports of call range from the dangerously shallow (yes, I’m talking about you, five-letter answers!) to almost uncharted waters (C19th operatic minutiae).

Across
1 PENCHANT - p{oet} + enchant.
5 STOGIE - egoist*.
9,17 THE QUEEN OF SPADES - A clue whose natural home would have been in the Times, c. 1972 (when the working assumption of what constituted “general knowledge” was a lot more highbrow). It turns out that the pun here is that Peter Ilyich’s brother (Modest) was the librettist for this piece. If you already knew this then my cap is doffed in your general direction..
10 PATOIS - {h}ospita{l}*.
12 COPSE - cops + e{xamine}.
13 TINDERBOX - tin + der + box.
14 SNAPPY - nap in spy.
16 BARBERA - bar + b{izzar}e + RA. The chap who, along with his partner in crime Mr Hanna, was responsible for producing a panoply of celluloid delights. Let’s hear it for Hong Kong Phooey, The Hair Bear Bunch, Snagglepuss et al.
18 FREEMAN - free + man.
20 OCELOT - coolest* – s.
22 PEPPERONI - pepper + on + I. I thought that using pepper in the wordplay was too close to its related sub-component for comfort.
23 BREAK - double def’n.
24 DARING - dar{l}ing.
25 POLYGLOT- Poly(technic) + l in got. After a couple of years of remission, we seem to have experienced a recent outbreak of ‘Poly’s across the broadsheet puzzles in recent weeks.
26 SADDLE - DD in sale. ‘Lumber’ here is a transitive verb.
27 GOVERNOR - as hiddens go, it’s a nice one; not least because it put me in mind of Fulton Mackay in Porridge.

Down
1 PUTSCH - puts + Ch.
2 NO EXPENSE SPARED - (ex pen’s) in (spread, one)*.
3 HOUSE - H + ouse.
4 NO ENTRY – (neon)< + try.
6 TO A DEGREE
7 GOODBYE TO BERLIN - (It bore golden boy)*. Again, not a work I’ve ever encountered (it’s by Isherwood), but the anagram fodder was obvious and yielded few possibilities.
8 ESSEX MAN- {w}essex man. Finally an art/literature reference that I recognized! (Probably helped by being a native West Saxon myself). Michael ‘Henchard’ is The Mayor of Casterbridge.
11 SNUB - buns<
15 PIMPERNEL - cryptic only if you’re unfamiliar with the Scarlet varietal, Percy B..
19 NOOK - nook{y}.
20 ORINOCO - or + coin* + O.
21 SKATER - s + Kate + r. Re: Christopher Dean, who successfully went from pounding the beat in Nottingham to flouncing the Bolero in Sarajevo.
23 BOYLE - homophone of “boil”.

Beelzebub 1,070 (22/08/10)

Simon Harris — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:23:41 +0000

A tough week, I thought, especially without online access to Chambers any more. Apologies for the late-ish blog.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
4	EFFECTUAL – EC in FATEFUL*.
10	AVANT – AV + ANT.
11	LORENZO – LORE + N + OZ<.
12	MERRY AS A GRIG – RR in (MY GARAGE IS)*.
13	ESCOT – ESCO[r]T.
14	MINUEND – (NU + E) in MIND.
16	CHOLI – C + HOLI.
18	SWEET PEA – T[ermites] in (SWEEP + EA).
21	EMISSARY – MISS in [t]EARY.
25	MANGY – MAN + G[u]Y.
26	KAROSHI – I’m not sure about the wordplay here: What’s agitating to this word? ‘Work too hard’ is.
27	ELSIE – S[trangeness] in (E + LIE).
28	SIAMESE TWINS -(WITNESSES AIM)* .
29	ADMIRER – ADMIR[al] + ER.
30	LEVEE – L + EVE[n] + [dialogu]E.
31	EASTER EGG – SEGREGATE*.

Down
1	NAMECHECK – A + MEC in NECK.
2	EVESHAM – EVE + SHAM.
3	MARCONIGRAMS – CON in (GRAMMAR IS)*.
4	ENROLLS – EN + ROLLS.
5	FLAME WAR – (W + EMA[i]L)< in FAR.
6	CRANK – two definitions, plus C + RANK.
7	TEGUS – TEG + US.
8	UNRESPONSIVE – (PRISON VENUES)*.
9	AZINE – A + ‘ZINE.
15	DIAPYESES – (I’D SEEP SAY)*.
17	DERRIERE – (ERR in DIE) + RE.
19	THALWEG – (LAW* in THE) + G.
20	ENGINED – NEEDING*.
22	HAIDA – (A in HID) + A.
23	VOMIT – V + (I in TOM*).
24	ISERE – R in I SEE.

Independent 7451/Nimrod

John — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:41:21 +0000

All this was far too difficult for me and if it hadn’t been for the reveal function I’m sure I’d never have finished, because there are still several that I can’t understand. The initial reaction is to say hmm… but perhaps they are devilishly cunning clues that simply go over my head. Let’s hope a few come to me while I’m doing the blog, otherwise this would be rather thin. Well not many did I’m afraid.

Across
1	TO BE SURE — Chambers gives this as equivalent to “I admit”, but what it has to do with a banker, whether regular or of the river type, I can’t see; is it saying that a banker is a cautious type? Surely no
5	ANGINA — utterly bewildered here: Carmen? Joe? News? All I can see is that angina is a condition — Google suggests that it is something about the latest production of Carmen and that Joe is Don Jose, but goodness knows how the clue actually works
10	IN THE VERNACULAR — (thu{g} cranial nerve)*
11	DINETTE — net = practise, I suppose in the cricketing sense: a batsmen who is netting is practising, so it’s net in (diet)*
12	HUN DRE{a}D — a hundred is a square number and it’s also an old area, but this latter is nothing to do with it because the area part of it is used in the wordplay
13	TIME BOMB — (met bimbo)*
15	OZ ONE — Oz is Australia and a = one
18	O READ — not comfortable here: ’0 read’ is an oblique way of saying that nothing is read, I suppose, hmm…, and an oread is a mountain nymph, so presumably the oread is in the mountains so is in a range
20	FIG LOVER — referring to Fiona Glover, of whom I’d hardly heard
23	SO-AND-SO — good clue, to give poor old Nimrod his due (I’ve been rather negative about all this): the make-up of so-so (= indifferent) is “so” and “so”
25	B LEN(D{rum})IN
26	SACHIN TENDULKAR — (he’d cut Sri Lankan)*, a very nice anagram &lit. referring to the great Indian batsman who in my opinion should have been ahead of Viv Richards in Wisden’s list of the five cricketers of the 20th century
27	TATA M1 — a tatami, as I discovered, is a basic floor covering made from rice stalks
28	ALDEHYDE — (lead)* Hyde

Down
1	TRIODE — (editor)* and editor is Ed fully
2	BE(TENO(I)R)E
3	S (WEE) TIE — I suppose a wee, which is an informal word for urine or urinating, is as in ‘spend a penny’. Perhaps.
4	REEVE — 2 defs, one of them referring to The Reeve’s Tale from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
6	NO CAN DO — a bottle party is a “no can” do — I’d be very enthusiastic about this if at the back of my mind weren’t the feeling that I’ve seen it before
7	IDLE R — referring to Eric Idle of Monty Python
8	A BRIDGES — referring to Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate
9	IN THE BAG — 2 defs
14	OF(F)-SORTS — which I discovered is wool set aside in sorting, and rough = of sorts, in the sense of ‘approximate’
16	O KEY (DO) KEY — where a key is a locker, something that locks (supported by Chambers) and do = fare
17	HOUSE-SIT — (issue)* in hot and I expect in some dictionary hot = working, but I can’t find it anywhere
19	DA(DAIS)M
21	OVER US {carriag}E — to hackney is to overuse — it seems to me a bit doubtful to say that “over US” is deliveries from America
22	ENTREE — quite lost here — OK an entree is a course, but the rest of it?
24	AS COT — although how Nimrod gets “as” to be the equivalent of “one playing” I can’t see
25	B ANAL — anal = obsessive no doubt, but not in the dictionaries I can find, although it is in common usage

Guardian 25,105 / Chifonie

Handel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:01:14 +0000

An enjoyable and relatively quick solve for us this morning, with only the southwest corner troubling us.

ACROSS

1. O(P.E.)RATE

5. ASK AN C.E.

10. FE(R)N apparently a slough is a fen

11. PRO TRACTOR

12. REVE(A)L

13. NOTARIES (senorita)*

14. SEAWORTHY (weary host)*

16. CA CA O

17. S PINE

19. SMART NESS

23. HOG’S HEAD

24. STREAM (master)*

26. BED EVIL LED

27. PUT T

28. B(R)ITTEN

29. FEELING (fine leg)*

DOWN

2. PRE CEDE as pointed out below, it’s P RECEDE

3. beeR IN SErbia

4. TI(PP L)ER

6. SP(R)ITE

7. AS CERTAIN

8. C HOLE R.A.

9. DOWN THE MIDDLE neat visual clue there

15. WINDS WEPT

18. PI(ONE)ER

20. RUSHDIE (his rude)*

21. SPAR TAN

22. R(EC)IPE

25. REPEL<

Financial Times 13,471 – Crux

Uncle Yap — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:02:26 +0000

Monday Prize Crossword on 23 August 2010

ACROSS
1 VILLAINOUSNESS *(an evil soul’s sin) almost an &lit
10 ELECT synonymous with SELECT
11 UNTAXABLE Zero-RATED (answer to 14) goods (like infant food) are not subject to tax
12 TRAINED *(in trade) with go through the mill as anagrin
13 TAPERED Ins of PE in *(RATED)
14 RATED bReAsTfEeD
16 TAIL-ENDER Ins of AIL (to be sick) in TENDER (inexperienced)
19 BACKSIDES Cha of BACK (champion) SIDE (team) S (an oversight by Crux?)
20 LOVER The White Cliffs of DOVER with L (left) substituted for D (dead) such as Lothario, a seducer or rake in Nicholas Rowe’s play, The Fair Penitent (1703)
22 MACHETE MAC (Scotsman) *(THE) E (English)
25 IMPASSE I ‘m passe (old fogey)
27 OSTRACISE *(Old English RACISTS)
28 REALM *(LEAR) M (first letter of madness)
29 FISH OUT OF WATER dd

DOWN
2 INELASTIC *(clean it is) Very neat
3 LATIN LA (French definite article) TIN (can)
4 INUNDATED I (one) NUN (sister) DATE (boyfriend) D (died)
5 OCTET OCT (October month) ET (first letters from Extra Training)
6 SEX APPEAL dud A lover must have SA and IT is SA
7 EMBER Part of either NOVember or DECember)
8 SPENDER Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE (1909 – 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. He was appointed the seventeenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the United States Library of Congress in 1965.
9 NECTAR Excellent cd which used lap as drink. Nectar is the name given by Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, etc to the beverage of the gods. I rated this cd as excellent because there is an idiomatic expression that when something is in the lap of the gods, it is beyond our control and fate will decide the outcome.
15 DESPERADO *(speed) RA (rear-admiral) DO (party)
17 IN SPITE OF *(it opens if)
18 DEVASTATE Cha of DEVA (what the Roman named Chester) and STATE (say) DE-VA , spirit of the River Dee, on which Chester lies
19 BUMP OFF Ins of MP (army police) O (nothing) in BUFF (polish)
21 RHEUMY Sounds like ROOMY (spacious)
23 CITES CITIES (towns) minus I
24 EXIST (S) EXIST
26 PARKA Sounds like nosey PARKER

Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

Financial Times 13.470 by Cinephile

Pete Maclean — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:01:11 +0000

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 21

This is one of those fairly typical Cinephiles where several of the clues, especially those for longer answers, fit a theme and are rather pedestrian, and thus make the whole puzzle fairly easy — at least if one can spot the theme. I knew enough about John Milton to manage well although I had not come across his poem Comus. Including 25A (HAMILTON) was clever but my choice clues this time are 13A (GHOST TOWN) and 22A (DOWN UNDER). I have a reservation about 26A.

Across
1, 11. PARADISE LOST – IS (is) in PARADE (display) + LO (see) + ST (a way)
5. AMUSED – A (one) + MUSED (thought)
9. REGAINED – EG (say) in RAINED (was wet outside), referring of course to Paradise Regained
10. ANIMUS – A (a) + NIM[b]US (rain-cloud eliminating B)
12. COMUS – CO (senior office) + SUM (everything) backwards
13. GHOST TOWN – G (good) + HOST (entertainer) + anagram of WONT
14. INVEST – IN VEST (not wearing shirt)
16. TOO FAST – TOO (as well) + FAST (don’t eat)
18. NE0LITH – anagram of THE LION
20. CUSTOM – CUS (rude word) + TOM (cat)
22. DOWN UNDER – NUN (sister) in anagram of WORDED
23. GUILD – homophone (“gild”)
24. ADMITS – M (a number) in ADITS (mineshafts). An adit is a nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine.
25. HAMILTON – HA (expression of satisfaction) + MILTON (our poet)
26. SONNET – SON (issue) + NET (online). Clueing NET with “online” does not seem quite right to me.
27. PREMISES – double definition

Down
1. PIRACY – PI (letter) + RACY (somewhat improper)
3, 17. DRIBS AND DRABS – anagram of BIRDS + AND (with) + anagram of BARDS
4. SLEIGHT – homophone (“slight”)
6, 2. MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN – MONS (battle) + TROUS[ers] (some garments) + REGIMENT OF WOMEN (female soldiers). The answer, which I had to look up, refers to a declaration by John Knox. The statement is not about female soldiers but about rule by women.
7. SAMSON AGONISTES – anagram of “IM ON ASS GET ON ASS”
8. DISUNITY – SUN (tabloid) + IT (it) in DIY (one’s own work)
15. ETIQUETTE – anagram of QUITE + [b]ETTE[r]
19. HIDE – double definition
20. CORSAIR – CORS (French horn’s) + AIR (melody)
21. ADONIS – A (an) + DON (academic) + IS (is). Refers to Lord Adonis.
23. GRIMM – homophone (“grim”)

Independent 7450 by DAC

flashling — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:52:43 +0000

Pretty easy and straightforward DAC today.

This was a bit rushed so there may a few typos.

1 Tapestery – Apes + T(itian) in TRY
5 Rabbit – Rabbi + T(time)
10 Arson – A+R(adical)+SON
11 Provender – P(ost) + Rover around END (scrap)
12 Coloradp Springs – COL(onel) + OR (soldiers) + ADO (trouble) SPRINGS (starts)
13 Paradise – PARAD(IS)E
15 Noble – NOB(b)LE
17 Hades – HAD (experienced) E(ternal) S(uffering)
19 Strapped – DD
22 Proboscis Monkey – Pro(for) BOSC(h, Artist) IS MONKEY (Eng slang for £500)
24 Tetragram – (A Four letter word) Margaret reversed about T(his)
25 On Air – Reverse hidden in Wagna(rian O)pera
26 Warden – Raw reversed + DEN
27 Parented – Was Mother, PA + RENTED

1 Thatch – THAT + CH
2 Pestel and Mortar – (A modern platter’s)*
3 Sangria – (Gran Is)* + A
4 Rapid – Fleet, RID about A P(ort)
6 Aneurin - Postwar leading Labour Party member and alternative name for Thiamine, vitamin B1
7 Bed and Breakfast – B&B =Pension, can’t see the stock market reference
8 Thashers – Type of birds related to mocking birds and getting thrashed.
9 Monsieur – (rum noise)*
14 Insecure – IN + SEE around CUR
16 Chepstow – (The cops)* + W
18 Storage – OR in STAGE
20 Propose – Police Officer in PROSE
21 Hybrid – Hom. High + BRID(e)
23 Samoa – SAMO(s)A