I thought this puzzle was another excellent addition to the QC stable, with clear wordplay and no obscurities. COD to DREADFULLY, as there’s something pleasing to me about answers that can be broken down like that.
Including the clues in the blog post didn’t quite meet with unequivocal approval last time, so this time around the clues will only be available by hovering your mouse over the clue number. Comments about the presentation, parsings, and Primal Scream are all welcome.
Across | |
1 | AIRWOMAN – Definition: pilot. Anagram (flying) of IN A WAR around OM (centre of ColOMbia). If you spend much time in Crosswordland, you may end up assuming that genderless nouns such as pilot always refer to males – at your peril. |
5 | SPAM – Definition: unwelcome emails. First letters (initially) of Some People Accept Many. |
8 | CLAPTRAP – Definition: rubbish. The wordplay indicates that the component parts of CLAPTRAP, i.e. CLAP and TRAP, rhyme. |
9 | ETON – Definition: College. SET ON (determined to), minus its initial letter (dismissing head). |
11 | RED HERRING – Definition: distraction. HER (Girl’s) inside (wearing) RED (ruby) and RING (wedding band). |
14 | ABROAD – Definition:in a different country. A + BROAD (American word for woman). |
15 | CARTON – Definition: box. CON (Against) around (keeping) ART (paintings), where CON with this meaning is perhaps most commonly seen in the phrase pros and cons. |
17 | DREADFULLY – Definition: Terribly. Last letter of involveD (involved ultimately) + READ FULLY (absorb from cover to cover). |
20 | TA-TA – Definition: ‘Goodbye’. TA (Territorial Army) twice (repeated). TA is one of many military abbreviations commonly encountered in crosswords, whose comrades-in-arms also include RM (Royal Marines), OR (Other Ranks), RE (Royal Engineers), REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), RA (Royal Artillery), RN (Royal Navy), RAF (Royal Air Force), and others. |
21 | SACK RACE – Definition: sports day event. SACK (Discharge) + RACE (people). |
22 | SLAM – Definition: hit. Hidden reversed in PriMAL Scream. For anyone who hasn’t listened to pop music in recent decades, Primal Scream are an indie rock band best known for tracks like “Loaded” and “Movin’ on up”. YouTube them at your own risk. |
23 | CASSETTE – Definition: Tape. SET (collection) + last letter (finally) of puT inside CASE (holder). |
Down | |
1 | ARCH – Double definition: “Very clever” and “structure”. I tend to think of arch as having mischievous connotations rather than necessarily clever ones, but Chambers has both cunning and shrewd among its definitions. |
2 | ROAD – Definition: Way. Homophone (speaker’s) of rode (travelled). |
3 | ON THE CARDS – Definition: Likely. The rest of the clue is a cryptic definition referring to a pack of cards. I suppose there is an argument to be made that the entire clue is a cryptic definition, also. |
4 | APACHE – Definition: brave (in the sense of a Native American warrior). PA (old man) surrounded (Beset) by ACHE (pain). |
6 | PATRIOTS – Definition: country lovers. PAT’S (Paddy’s, with both Paddy and Pat being short forms of Patrick) around (welcoming) TRIO (group of three). |
7 | MANAGING – Definition: able to cope. MAN (Fellow) + AGING (getting old). |
10 | GREAT LAKES – Definition: expanses of water. Anagram (Unusually) of LARGE SKATE. The Great Lakes lie on/near the Canada-US border and include Erie, perhaps the most famous lake in Crosswordland. |
12 | MANDATES – Definition: Instructions. MAN (staff, as a verb) + DATES (nights out). |
13 | GREEN TEA – Definition: Drink. Anagram (sozzled) of TEENAGER. |
16 | GUYANA – Definition: Country. GUY (man) + AN + beginning (leader) of Australian. Guyana is the only South American nation where English is the official language. |
18 | PACT – Definition: Agreement. P (power) + ACT (to do something). |
19 | HERE – Definition: in this place. HE (His Excellency) around (receives) ER (the Queen, Elizabeth Regina). His/Her Excellency is the mode of address for an ambassador, so seeing “ambassador” in a clue should make you think of HE. |
Your blog looks fine, m. I thought there seemed to be quite a lot of support for including clues and I am planning to put them in myself next Monday now that I’ve found a means of doing so without typing them all out. I’m intrigued how you managed to hide them. Could you supply a sample line of coding please?
Edited at 2014-03-31 12:47 am (UTC)
Copied this from the page source:
[td valign=”top”][span title=”Pilot flying in a war round centre of Colombia (8)”]1[/span][/td]
Replace square brackets with angle brackets.
Edited at 2014-03-31 04:10 am (UTC)
May I ask how you are going to get the clues? I was going to write a script to parse them out of the Times’ site’s HTML but you may have done my work for me 🙂
Thanks for the blog – the hovering clue thing is excellent. I will try it out too if I may. Does anybody read the Guardian’s Crossword Blog? Alan Connor has his own conventions using colours/italics/underlining to annotate the clue directly. If we could make an explanation and key easy to find, could this be another helpful addition?
Edited at 2014-03-31 07:51 am (UTC)
Edited at 2014-03-31 08:28 am (UTC)
AIRWOMAN held me up as I fell into the gender trap and was looking for a war – Crimean, for instance, around OM.
ROAD I was just slow to cotton on. CLAPTRAP was a neat clue, but I stared at it for a good ten minutes before the penny dropped. Then ARCH was a shoe in, but not until I had the C from CLAPTRAP.
Very elegant and economical blog mohn2 – thanks for that. Liked the hovering clue thing. Will see if I can get the hang of that technique for my alternate Wednesdays.
I like the presentation, m. Primal Scream I can take or leave.
I expect to see Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers, etc make appearances from now on…
Nice blog mohn2. I like the way you elaborated on other possibilities 20a. Very helpful for us newcomers.
I though ARCH was weak even if it is an obscure usage to be found in a dictionary. My favourite CLAPTRAP.
Edited at 2014-03-31 10:55 am (UTC)
http://bigdave44.com/crosswords/usual-suspects/
Making the clues available via a simple hover of the mouse is a super idea. Thanks for that too.