Wikipedia reminds me that on this day in 2003 there was a widespread power outage in the northeast of the US. I was living in New York at the time and it was the strangest thing to wander around Manhattan after nightfall with no street lights. I was lucky in that I only lived about an hour’s walk away from the office, though it was still a downer to reach my apartment block, trudge sweatily up 14 flights of stairs in the dark, and then discover that there was no water either. A broken night’s sleep was followed by a walk to work at the crack of dawn, where I made use of the cold showers that the office building had in its basement gym. It’s so very easy to take things like electricity for granted even though (a bit of Googling tells me) roughly a billion fellow human beings have no access to electricity at any time. First world problems, I suppose.
The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20170814/25205/
Definitions are underlined, {} = omission
| Across | |
| 1 | Before dawn, bound to revive (4-5) |
| JUMP-START – JUMP (bound) before START (dawn) | |
| 6 | Strong suit (3) |
| FIT – double definition, the first an adjective and the second a verb | |
| 8 | Nation America backed, and abandoned (5) |
| SUDAN – reversal of (backed) US (America), + anagram of (abandoned) AND. Some years ago, I did a round-the-world trip and my impressions of Sudan were: i. populated by friendly and helpful people, despite a brutal government, and ii. awash with La Vache Qui Rit cheese segments. Coincidence? | |
| 9 | Wash legs and arms initially, then beneath (7) |
| LAUNDER – LA (legs and arms initially, i.e. the first letters of the words “legs” and “arms”) + UNDER (beneath) | |
| 10 | Detesting endless freight, object (8) |
| LOATHING – LOA{d} (endless freight, i.e. the word “load” (freight) without its last letter) + THING (object) | |
| 11 | A shade down (4) |
| BLUE – double definition, referring to the colour and being sad respectively | |
| 13 | Verbatim alternative to ‘Promise’ in thesaurus? (4,3,4) |
| WORD FOR WORD – literal interpretation, in that if you looked in a thesaurus then you would find several words that mean word (promise, as in “I give you my word”). Of course, “promise” is itself a word for word so arguably the “alternative to” isn’t needed (though the surface would suffer). | |
| 17 | Food — pork and ham etc, but no starter (4) |
| EATS – {m}EATS (pork and ham etc, but no starter, i.e. the word “meats” (pork and ham etc) without its first letter) | |
| 18 | Antipodean city set down in a river (8) |
| ADELAIDE – LAID (set down), in A + DEE (river). Capital of South Australia situated on the river Torrens. | |
| 21 | Language — almost all I wish to be translated (7) |
| SWAHILI – anagram of (to be translated) (AL I WISH), where the AL comes from “almost all” (i.e. the word “all” without its last letter) | |
| 22 | Dizzy and frivolous (5) |
| GIDDY – double definition | |
| 23 | Whopper somewhat colossal, I expect (3) |
| LIE – hidden in (somewhat) colossaL I Expect | |
| 24 | Difficulty seeing coach behind back of vehicle, certainly (9) |
| EYESTRAIN – TRAIN (coach), behind E (back of vehicle, i.e. the last letter of the word “vehicle”) + YES (certainly) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fairly scorching at first, temperature in summer month (6) |
| JUSTLY – S (scorching at first, i.e. the first letter of the word “scorching”) + T (temperature), in JULY (summer month) | |
| 2 | Radio etc aimed to broadcast (5) |
| MEDIA – anagram of (to broadcast) AIMED | |
| 3 | Use hands to shift parasol (8) |
| SUNSHADE – anagram of (to shift) USE HANDS | |
| 4 | In due course, no-one late? (3,2,4,4) |
| ALL IN GOOD TIME – literal interpretation, in that if no-one (is) late then ALL (are) IN GOOD TIME | |
| 5 | Yank arresting first of hoodlums, ruffian (4) |
| THUG – TUG (Yank) around (arresting) H (first of hoodlums, i.e. the first letter of the word “hoodlums”) | |
| 6 | Musician, a cheat (7) |
| FIDDLER – double definition, the first referring to a violinist | |
| 7 | Land bird (6) |
| TURKEY – double definition, referring to the country and the gobbling bird respectively | |
| 12 | Wit surprisingly easy at the end of the day (8) |
| TWILIGHT – anagram of (surprisingly) WIT, + LIGHT (easy) | |
| 14 | Unstylish fashion shock (7) |
| OUTRAGE – OUT (Unstylish) + RAGE (fashion) | |
| 15 | Ship — schooner, perhaps? (6) |
| VESSEL – double definition, the second referring to a large glass | |
| 16 | Important to welcome leader in Nigeria, an African (6) |
| KENYAN – KEY (Important) around (to welcome) N (leader in Nigeria, i.e. the first letter of the word “Nigeria”), + AN | |
| 19 | Country — popular destination in Asia, primarily (5) |
| INDIA – IN (popular) + DIA (destination in Asia, primarily, i.e. the first letters of the words “destination in Asia”) | |
| 20 | Acceptable penalty (4) |
| FINE – double definition | |
On August 14, 2003, I was vacationing in Vermont. My neighbors complained about the power outage when I returned, but all I had to do was reset my clocks.
I found little cunning hereabouts and wearily completed in 9:22.
LOI 24ac EYESTRAIN. No COD! WOD GIDDY!
For novices today’s 15×15 is pretty easy IMO. A good chance of completion for most.
Edited at 2017-08-14 06:40 am (UTC)
PlayUpPompey
That didn’t work, nor did restarting wi-fi,
Edited at 2017-08-14 04:56 pm (UTC)
Until that issue is resolved though, are you perhaps able to access the puzzles from the Times site (as opposed to the Crossword Club) instead, i.e. go to https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ and then scroll down to the Puzzles section?
Надежно. Выгодно. Без слётов. И БЕЗ каких-либо проблем.
Оплата:
ЯндексДеньги, Webmoney (профессиональные счета)
Рады сотрудничеству!
________
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