Club Monthly 20,142 July 2012 – Languages of the world

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Monthly Club Special
Solving Time: Something a little over an hour, which is about average for me these days. This crossword is a pangram, and only a v and an x short of being a double pangram. It is also notable for the number of different languages represented.. I count at least 12. Overall, a fine effort. As usual I see no untoward clues and many excellent and ingenious ones.

This is my fiftieth blog for TFTT. Time for a little glass of something, I think 🙂

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as *(–).
ODO = Oxford Dictionaries Online OED = Oxford Dictionary, etc.

Across
1 embus – twelve-point unit = EM + BUS(T)
4 jockstrap – sounds like JOCK’S TRAP
9 puzzolana – PUZZL(E) containing O, + ANA. The curious word ana derives from the suffix, as used in, eg, Victoriana.
10 butut – bar = BUT + (B)UT. Banjul is the capital of Africa’s smallest mainland country, The Gambia, where 100 butut = 1 dalasi. Since a dalasi is worth about 2p, a butut is worth 1/50p
11 rolags – teases = RAGS containing O + L
12 mjollnir – boundary = RIM rev., containing JOLL(Y) + (GROUNDSMA)N. Mjölnir is the hammer of Thor
14 chorizont – banger = CHORIZO + N + (GASKE)T
16 Cavan – in the region of = CA + VAN, as in camper van presumably.
17 qajar – queen Q + AJAR. A Persian dynasty
19 reichsrat – *(STARCHIER). Reichsrat means parliament (or diet) in German
21 tutelage – head of Eton = E, + blower = GALE, plus expression of dismay = TUT, all rev.
22 stymie – form = STYLE, with the L (= 50) replaced by I’M rev. A neatly constructed clue
25 quaky – platform = QUAY, containing K for king in chess notation
26 dumb piano – *(PUB + DOMAIN)
27 ectosarcs – shocking way to treat = ECT, + bone = OS + curvature = ARCS. ECT treatment is shocking in more ways than one. It is scarcely believable that such a treatment is still in use. How or why it “works” is not known and the “benefits” are largely illusory. It belongs with treatments such as cupping and bloodletting, both of which are also still in use.
28 howff – H(AUNT) O(OR) (WULLIE’S) F(RIENDS) F(REQUENT). Also an &lit, a howff being an obscure Scottish word for “a favourite meeting place or haunt, especially a pub” according to the ODO
Down
1 emperick qutique – E + MP + *(QUICKER) + *(QUITE). It means empirical, it is a quote from Act II of Coriolanus, and it has probably never been used since, until now
2 bezel – live = BE + enthusiasm = ZE(A)L.
3 sloughi – ditch, in the sense of dump or shed = SLOUGH + I. A sloughi is a rather attractive African dog very like a greyhound.
4 jiao – jack = J + I(N) A (B)O(G) Chinese currency is called renminbi, and it is divided into yuan, jiao and fen. 10 fen = 1 jiao, 10 jiao = 1 yuan. You will see all these words in crosswordland, from time to time!
5 coadjutrix – (coaxial) cable = COAX containing DR + I, containing stick out = JUT. So, COA(D(JUT)RI)X. A term for a female junior bishop, so not many of them about, especially in this country!
6 sibylic – reflected one’s = SI + past = BY + (UNMA)LIC(IOUS). I would normally spell it sibyllic but both versions are valid. In classical times sibyls seem to have been ten-a-penny, less so nowadays.
7 ritonavir – RIT(E) + ON AIR containing volume = V. An antiretroviral drug used to combat HIV.
8 Peter and the Wolf – pressure = P + *(THREATENED) + course = FLOW, rev. A neat clue. My parents took me to see a performance when I was young, but sadly it failed in its intended purpose of pointing up the relative incompetence of the Beatles et al.
13 corregidor – lobby = CORRIDOR containing say = EG.
15 objet d’art – He passed on = OB + two sorts of flier = JET + DART. The convention is not to mention apostrophes, so (5,4) it is. I agree with this rule, life is complicated enough as it is..
18 rallyes – three basic subjects = “the three Rs” = RS containing ALL + YE. this crossword is a multilingual, cosmopolitan sor of place, so no reason ‘Murcan should be excluded.
20 hutzpah – hours = H + state = UTAH containing Z(I)P. The def. being brass, as in brass neck. More usually spelt chutzpah. Fine examples of chutzpah abound. One often cited is the young man who, when being sentenced for killing both his parents, pleaded for clemency on the grounds that he was an orphan
23 miaow – without = WO + end = AIM, all rev. Queen here, as so often in crosswords, being a female cat
24 emys – (ACAD)EMY S(CHOLAR). Neat cryptic definition “hardback about marshlands” of a marsh turtle

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

5 comments on “Club Monthly 20,142 July 2012 – Languages of the world”

  1. Another great blog Jerry for another top notch puzzle. Congratulations on hitting the 50 mark and here’s to the ton!
  2. For the record, EMPERICK QUTIQUE also appeared in Club Monthly 20074 in September 2006 (the month before Times for the Times started in this form).
    1. So it did, by golly! I confess I thought I was on fairly safe ground there.. But, this is very curious.. on investigation, I find the Club Monthly has been published since July 2001 – no. 20011 dated 27 July 2001. Is this when the Crossword Club started? I had no idea it had been going for so long. Is there a founder member out there, somewhere? I might put something onto the Club forum

      Edited at 2012-07-27 12:15 pm (UTC)

  3. An excellent puzzle – though I struggled with it, solving without aids, and finished with one wrong: I guessed BOTUT for 10ac (removing two Os [twice one’s heading] from BOOT OUT [= bar]), though if I’d thought more carefully about it I’d have spotted that the wordplay leads much more satisfactorily to BUTUT.

    At least I got EMPERICK QUTIQUE right this time (it looked slightly better – presumably more familiar – than EMPIRECK QUTIQUE). But, rather embarrassingly, I now find that BUTUT came up in No. 20081 (1 June 2007) as the answer to “What gets criticised about university funding in Gambia? (5)”, and I did get that one right. (Sigh!)

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