Oct. 1st, 2010

About average difficulty, this one. It took me an hour in two sessions, plus a bit longer to sort out 14dn owing to the dictionary error mentioned below, and to contemplate 22dn in a vain attempt to understand the wordplay. SW corner was the last to go in. I find the level of difficulty of these Club Monthlies is remarkably consistent. Presumably it is the same setter each month, which would help. Whoever he/she is, they are inventive and devious.. the standard of clues is relentlessly high.
I’ve had a difficult month and have left this blog to the last minute, rather, so if it’s a bit terse in places I apologise and will be happy to answer any queries anyone may have. I also apologise for the huge empty space between these comments and the entries below, I don’t know why it is there and cannot seem to eradicate it. Now corrected, with thanks to Koro!

Across
1 jalapic – nick = JAIL + A PIC (- shot)
5 pan-Slav – state = PA + LAV = “throne room,” ha ha, containing poles = NS. I confess I smiled at this, one is never too old, it seems, to appreciate a bit of toilet humour.
9 Jack Sprat – cards = JACKS + PRAT = fool, Jack being the one who would eat no fat
10 Negev – greens = VEG + END. The Negev desert being in Israel. Since 1948, anyhow, to the catastrophic disadvantage of the Bedouin.. it makes up half of Israel’s land area, so I don’t suppose the Bedouin will be getting it back any time soon. Read the link.
11 bhuna – cake = BUN + A, containing H = hot, to make the traditional curry choice for the wimps who daren’t enter the vindaloo races..
12 implanted – rascal = IMP + L + ANTE = “Caesar’s before,” ie Latin + D = daughter.
14 manrikigusaris – (I arming Russia)* containing K = a thousand, to make an obscure Japanese weapon, seldom seen outside the Bruce Lee genre of films (and also Kill Biil vol.1, if I remember aright). The really fascinating thing about this clue is that in my 2003 9th edition of Chambers, this word is misspelt as “MaUriki…” This is the only typo I recollect seeing in a top line dictionary. My other Chambers, the 10th (2006) edition, has corrected it. Before you move on, gentle solver, pause to admire the beautifully smooth surface which results in such a horrific word. Masterly stuff by the setter.
17 hapax legomenon – fortune = HAP (as in mishap, hapless etc) + AXLE + GO ON containing people = MEN to make a useful way of describing a word that appears once and once only in a given work, usually a doorstep like the bible or Ulysses. This word itself appears only once in this blog, but that hardly counts I suppose..
21 synizesis – “gives a measure of” = SIZES + one’s = IS containing YN = “Extremely naturally fitting back”
23 cultyFACULTY – the Football Association being the sports administrators
24 qui-hi – QUIT + HI
25 whiffling – “XI’s predecessors” = WH + IF = “one following” + FLING = pitch. This is a clever clue, which I think is absolutely sound technically, albeit the surface reading might be thought just a little stretched.
26 eoliths – what’s = EH’S containing O + LIT
27 kolkhoz – KNOLLS + KHZ containing O. Did I miss something here? Why the “very short time?” It seems redundant.
Down
1 jojoba – Another clever clue; “Orleans girl” = Joan of Arc, dropping new = JOANoutside JOB = calling, to make the seedy desert native so beloved of upmarket shampoo & conditioner manufacturers
2 lactuca – (ACTUAL)* containing C “covered initially”
3 piscatrix – (A SCRIPT I)* + X = by as in 2 by 4, making “casting female with line” – not a word you would need very often, 99.99% of all fisherfolk being male in my (limited) experience
4 carsickness – touch = CARESS containing so = SIC + KN = “keen to be energy free,” the rather attractive definition being “Being green, perhaps, on transport.” I have the most vivid memories of negotiating Park Lane, Marble Arch & Edgware road in our old Hillman Minx, with my 4 year old daughter (she is now 36!) being violently sick all over the back seat.
5 pit – advice = TIP, rev.
6 nanna – the last letters of “Canaria on vacation: sea, sun,” climbing ie rev. Gran being the definition
7 lighter – LITER, the volume measure of Americans including Mr Poe, when they aren’t using cups or gallons, containing GH, the “origins of gothic horror.”
8 vividest – sex, as in sextet I suppose, = VI + VIDEOS + T
13 pigeons milk – ages = EONS contained in gorge = PIG + exploit = MILK, to make an imaginary liquid (at least so far as Tesco are concerned) which children are sent to buy by sad people who think they are funny, but are not.
15 speechful – = (PUCE FLESH)*
16 physique – resentment = PIQUE containing RHYS, the Welshman.
18 pennill – write = PEN on NILL = love, repeating last”
19 oilfish – OAFISH, the missing A being replaced by IL = “current on lake.”
20 kyrgyz – the “hides” = the outside letters of “zany ginger yak” rev. Tortuous, but ingenious
22 zoist – I can’t fathom this one. It seems pretty certain that “Zoist,” a follower of the doctrine of Zoism, a doctrine so obscure that it defeats Wikipedia, is what we are looking for. But how to extract it from “so ouzo’s out!” is a mystery to me. Ideas, anyone?
25 wis – Hidden, reversed, in wySIWyg

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

8 comments on “Oct. 1st, 2010”

  1. I have to agree this was another very good club special

    I have the same problems as you Jerry and was looking to you for enlightenment!! At 27A I thought the setter might mistakenly have thought that KHz meant kilohertz per second. At 22D I’m completely lost. I tried to turn “zest” into “zoist” but to no avail. I’m not aware of any real alternatives to “ouzo” other than brand names possibly – a mystery.

    1. When ZO IS T OUZO becomes OUT

      I’ll get back to you on the Khz thing as I do not have the puzzle to hand just now (and no, I cannot access it from the www from here 🙂 )

      1. Going back to the KOLKHOZ clue the meaning aimed at is one thousand (cycles in a short space of time, i.e. second), rather than one thousand cycles per second. I discussed this with my checker and I remain unconvinced that it is necessary however I don’t think it is wrong.
        1. I am very grateful for the explanations. I understand ZOIST which seems entirely legitimate, if difficult, and I am annoyed I didn’t spot it.. next time, I hope!
          So far as KOLKHOZ is concerned, indeed 1KHz = 1,000 cycles per second, so “a thousand cycles in very short time” is an accurate, even thorough, definition of that part of the answer..
  2. Jerry, in the html (or is it xhtml) code for 1 across, your explanation is sandwiched between two <td>’s, the second one having lost its / in the editing process. This invariably causes the mysterious blank space. There may be other offending lines.
      1. That is the mysterious thing about it. And a second pair of eyes is almost invariably needed to find the little blighter causing the problem.

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