23,498 – Know your rights

Author   foggywebPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
23,498 – Know your rights
Solving time: 1h 20m

It took a while to get going today, quite a few clues would have stumped me if I didn’t have letters already in place. A good mixture of clue-types – I even smiled a couple of times. Although one day I’d like to be able to complete a crossword where I know all the words – maybe my time will come.
There are still a couple of clues I can’t explain – help with 9a and 21d would be appreciated.

Across

1 BRASS,ED,OFF
9 HORSEWOMAN – I wrote this in because it fits – I don’t really understand it!
10 ID(L)E – IDE is another name for the orfe
12 S,TONY,HEAR,TED – luckily I had lots of letters to help, I am normally quite slow when the clue has lots of bits!
15 ATTAINDER – anagram of ‘a trained t’ – I’ve seen the word ATTAINDER before but looked it up to check the precise meaning
17 K(END)O – I’ve seen KENDO a few times in crosswords, normally defined as (martial) art
18 DOWE[r], L – I hadn’t heard of a ‘widow’s dower,’ but guessed it was related to a dowry
19 SIDE,T(R=’manager finally’)ACK – ‘to tack’ can mean the same as to ‘change tack’
20 VARIABLE STAR=anagram of arts – I got this quickly enough, but didn’t think the clue was great
24 LIEN=”lean” – LIEN is another legal term, I guessed this, thinking it more likely than ‘leen’
25 SALMAGUNDI – anagram of ‘amusing lad’
26 [f]EAST
27 D,ELECTABLE – I don’t think I’ve seen democrat=D before

Down

1 BOHR – odd letters of brother
2 [s]ACRE[d]
3 SWEET WILLIAM – Violet Elizabeth is a character in the Just William books, who might have thcreamed at the suggestion of him being sweet
5 F(E=’first from eggs’)ATHERED
7 OLD ETONIAN – anagram of ‘led nation’ and O=nothing
8 DREAD,LOCKS – I always thought that going through locks was one of the best bits of boating on a canal
13 VAUDEVILLE – DEVIL in anagram of ‘value’
16 DIS(PL=place)EASE
21 SOMME – I guess this is correct, it is definitely a battle scene. At first I thought it was M=male in SOME=’a particular’ but what about the rest? Then I thought OM=’military honour’ but it isn’t just awarded to the military. Then I got bored thinking about it! Any suggestions?
22 KNOB=”nob” – I’d always presumed that nob was spelt knob, so I took a little time over this one!
23 FINE – double definition: I didn’t know that a fine was the end of a piece of music

9 comments on “23,498 – Know your rights”

  1. 9A – “Up” in a cryptic clue can mean one of two things: “riding a horse” or “at University”. So it’s just a cryptic definition clue.

    21D – Your thought processes were exactly the same as mine. Nothing further to add.

  2. 20A: You have spotted the “wordplay in the clue” aspect haven’t you? (Variable star => Star* = arts)

    21D: Nearly there: MM (Military Medal) replaces the M=male in “some”. The OM (Order of Merit) is not necessarily a military award.

    23D: One of various examples of a bit of bias towards those who have sung or played an instrument. A common instruction at what looks like the end of a piece is “DC al fine”. DC = Da Capo – i.e. go back to the beginning, and “al Fine” means “carry on until the end”, the “end” being indicated by “Fine” written where you’re supposed to stop.

  3. 20A: Thanks, Peter. This makes more sense now. I thought ‘arts maybe’=>arts* and didn’t think any more about it.
  4. Do I take it that you all have salmagundi for breakfast, lunch or dinner? Obviously my culinary vocabulary is sadly deficient. I’ve never encountered the word before (not even in The Listener) and an anagram clue did not help me to arrive at the answer, so the gaps remained unfilled until I had recourse to a dictionary.
    1. I did know salmagundi, possibly from xwds – I have a vague idea that like “Gallimaufry”, it’s been used as a title for puzzles using a mixture of advanced clue-types – DLM, Printer’s Devils, Misprints, Letters Latent, etc.
  5. D for Democrat (not democrat) is the std abbrev for the Democratic Party — as is R for Republican — in the US. (note “Democratic Party” and not “Democrat Party” — the latter being one of the ways Bush manages to slight his opposition).
  6. Entering SHOOTING STAR wrecked today’s time for me. Though it didn’t really matter, as ‘salmugandi’ wrecked my score as well. Definitely rusty after an almost crossword-less week.
  7. One of the nicely framed crossword. Were it not for checkinf letters i would have had a hard time. David in kenya
  8. I had the variation of Stone Hearted at 12a which seems fair enough if one can have “Tone” as the boy doing the hearing – another diminution of Anthony = Tony or Tone?

    Only 4 “easies” omitted – perhaps an indication that our esteemed blogmeister is not, or at least WAS not, a speed merchant?

    Here they are:

    6a Pen to stop functioning = FOLD – a tricky DD in my opinion where the pen = enclosure (usually for sheep?) = “fold” and “to fold” is to stop functioning?

    12a Very cruel son – one boy to pass judgement on another = S TONE HEAR TED – this was blogged but the clue was not repeated for illustration of the wordplay. I’m trying to justify Tone here!

    4d Sink when swallowing river = D R OWN – an & lit where sink (down) swallows river (r) and you get what you will do if this happens to you??
    11d Part of course giving indication of good posture = BACK STRAIGHT – the part of a running track opposite to the start/finish?
    14d (Dress) with (sweat)* inappropriate for working woman = STEWARDESS – perhaps trolly-dollies are trained to keep their cool?!

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