Solving time: about 90 mins
I guess one of the advantages of egg-head crosswords is that because there are fewer solvers to shock, you can get away with some fairly ripe language. This puzzle takes a few such opportunities.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PISSASPHALT – AS=for instance, P=quiet, in PISS-HALT = comfort break. It’s a semi-liquid bitumen, and the piss comes from the Gk. pissa = pitch. I was held up for ages on this, stupidly refusing to believe there could be any long words starting piss-. I should know by know that in this kind of puzzle, “that can’t be a word!” is a thought never to be thought. |
| 12 | VARE – a wand of authority. Wordplay is (era,v.) reversed, but I’m struggling to defend the “a” in the clue, which is neither def. nor wordplay., and doesn’t seem a fair link-word. |
| 14 | T(OP.)UP – op. = operator was a new abbrev. for me |
| 16 | W(EAR)ISH – a word for insipid, derived from Middle English |
| 17 | GERIATRIC = “Jerry ‘at-trick” – punch-line of umpteen shaggy dog stories. |
| 20 | ARCHI(tect),L – archi=”architect. mostly” is a just true |
| 22 | THE,RIA=air rev. – an animal grouping including mammals, marsupials and their ancestors, so “old man” gets in. Not totally sure about {our=the} |
| 24 | FIA(t)S,CO. – I guess the car company is “(Signor) Fiat’s Co.”, to justify the S. |
| 26 | ANTI,S,PAST – any time you see “foot”, you should probably be thinking about poetic metre before body parts. |
| 28 | PHAEDRA – A=academician in harped* – on=drunk is an old favourite barred-grid anag. indicator. A Phaedra complex is trouble between a step-parent and step-child. |
| 30 | AR(D)EA – the heron/bittern genus |
| 31 | IT(A)C,IS,M=butt of criticisM – not an Italian way of speaking Greek, as I thought, but one based on the modern way of pronouncing iota. |
| 32 | REGO = Aussie slang. ‘reggo’, which came up elsewhere recently. I thought it meant regular petrol, but it’s actually a vehicle registration. |
| 33 | SON,S,Y = plump in Scots. “Relative beginners” is a “lift and separate” which I only noticed when doing this write-up … |
| 34 | DEVIL DODGER – someone who “attends churches of various kinds, to be on the safe side” |
| Down | |
| 3 | SUM(m)ER – part of ancient Mesopotamia. |
| 5 | S.M.((n)OWT)S. – SMS = short message service, the technology underlying texting. |
| 6 | PATER,A=Advanced – a round flat ornament in bas relief, inter alia |
| 7 | HETAIRIST – a prostitute (= pro) of a superior class |
| 8 | LA(PITH)S(t) – people of Thessaly who fought the Centaurs, says C. |
| 9 | TRUSS – 2 mngs, one being Lynne T of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame. |
| 10 | CEPHALOTOMY = dissection of the head = loaf. heap* in clot, then “My!” |
| 11 | B(RIGHTS,PAR)K. |
| 15 | ZAMINDARI = (IN,MADRA(s),Z.,I)* – but according to C. it’s the zamindar who’s the tax-collector – zamindari is his jurisdicion or a system of tax-collection. |
| 19 | REBADGE – (agreed,B=bass)* – ‘plan’ is the anag. indicator, in its “design” def. I guess |
| 21 | C.,APE,COD – part of MA = Massachusetts |
| 23 | A.,TRIAL – an atrium being an entrance hall |
| 24 | FIATED = sanctioned – swap F=fine for L=lecturer in rev. of DETAIL = item. |
| 25 | SH(R=take)ED |
| 27 | AKIN,G=”term for festering” when term = an end |
Quite agree about ZAMINDARI. This seems a mistake.
A very is one very or V + ERA (reversed).
our = the
For example, in phrases such as:
How is the back this morning?
zamindari
A jurisdiction or authority, such as the Inland Revenue, could be referred to as a tax collector, could it not?
Erwin