Solved in 15:44, so about average in difficulty. I didn’t realise until I came to do the blog, but there’s a long run of double definitions and semi-cryptic double definitions in the middle of the acrosses. Seems to be a new feature of Saturday puzzles as there were loads last week as well. COD to 25ac for the humour value.
Across |
1 |
BIASED – BASED (grounded) around I (one). |
5 |
CALENDAR – cryptic definition. |
9 |
PANDEMIC – PAN (god) + DEMI (half) + C(aught). |
10 |
CANOPY – COPY (contribution to magazine) around A N(ew). |
11 |
LAYMAN – LAY MAN. |
12 |
LAST POST – double definition. |
14 |
NUTS AND BOLTS – double definition (NUTS = headbutts, but I’ve a feeling Americans might not be aware of that slang). |
17 |
BOW AND SCRAPE – double definition. |
20 |
GREY AREA – double definition, one cryptic. |
22 |
ROUTER – double definition. |
23 |
TIVOLI – I LOVE IT, minus the E from the end of “pleasure”. Also appeared last Thursday with a very similar clue – “Town near Rome – I adore that place when English must go back (6)” |
25 |
RETAILER – RE-TAILER. Made me chuckle anyway. |
26 |
PEARMAIN – (th)E + ARM inside PAIN (French bread). Despite the name, it’s a variety of apple. |
27 |
COGENT – CO GENT. |
Down |
2 |
IN A WAY – IN (home) + AWAY (the opposite). |
3 |
SEDIMENTARY – (dynamiters, E)*. |
4 |
DOMINATED – ATE (took meal) inside DO MIND (actually care). |
5 |
CECILIA – CE (church) + CILIA (lashes). Patron saint of musicians. |
6 |
LOCUS – LOC(k) (nearly secure) + US (American). |
7 |
NUN – hidden in London University. |
8 |
APPOSITE – OPPOSITE (against) with a different first letter. |
13 |
PROSECUTING – PROSE (be boring) + CUT IN (interrupt) + G(ood). I didn’t know PROSE could be used as a verb that way, but Chambers has it “to speak or write tediously”. |
15 |
DIACRITIC – ID (papers) reversed + A CRITIC (a judge). Any mark on a letter, such as an acute accent or umlaut etc. |
16 |
LORRAINE – LORE (old wives’ tales) around RAIN (bad weather). |
18 |
CHAGRIN – GR (king) inside CHAIN (badge of office perhaps). |
19 |
AEGEAN – sounds like E.G. (for example) + AN. |
21 |
RAITA – sounds like RIGHTER, i.e. more APPOSITE. I lot of people will make a fuss about this one, but to me a homophone just has to “sound like”, not “sound exactly identical to”. Anyway, the answer is an Indian dip, usually made with yoghurt and cucumber. |
24 |
OAR – HOAR (frost) without the H. |
The first is the tedious long run of double-definitions
The second is the homophone used to clue a foreign word. To get a homophone to work in received English can be difficult; to also work in most regional accents is much harder; to throw in a foreign word for good measure is asking for trouble!
I hadn’t noticed the run of DDs because I solve in a somewhat random manner, but seeing them listed above the imbalance does rather leap out.
A few rather irritating things in this:
> Excessive quantity of DDs
> The non-homophone in 19dn. I didn’t mind 21dn – that’s how I say RAITA – but that’s not how I say AEGEAN.
> 26ac. PEARMAIN is an obscure word. I dislike it when obscure words are clued using other obscure words, but for Pete’s sake can we at least stick to English?
It was very odd on Thursday to have almost exactly the same clue in exactly the same place. And frustrating today to spend half an hour staring at two clues!
Edited at 2014-03-01 10:35 am (UTC)
Both homophones work for me, but surely a little elasticity is needed, if homophones are to be used as clues at all? I can’t imagine 19dn actually being a hard clue to solve.
Prose as a verb will be well known to the G. Heyer brigade!
Edited at 2014-03-01 11:11 am (UTC)
The abbreviation database must be getting quite large now?
I (finally) parsed PEARMAIN as PIN around E+ARM+A, so no French needed.
I must admit that I don’t get any great enjoyment out of puzzles like this.
I am all for the new Editor clamping down on homophones. I wrote in AEGEAN but rightly or wrongly, I do not pronounce it EG. RAITA was fine as I know no other way of pronouncing it but I am sure that Nairobi Wallah would have a slightly different take on it. Solving crosswords should not depend on your accent.
Interested to read the homophone debate in the comments. Personally I had no issues with Raita or Aegean, which probably just means I happen to share the setter’s pronunciation.
That said, I see the force of the regional accents issue, particularly as my wanderings have resulted in my acquiring a most peculiar hybrid mode of pronunciation that is part Somerset and part Australian, whilst still retaining a splash of the rounded vowels favoured at Cambridge and the London bar in the late 70’s / early 80’s.
I await with some trepidation the homophones dished up by a setter from Wigan. An old pal of mine from that fine town pronounced “fair hair” as “fur her”: sadly, I have no recollection of him ever having been called upon to pronounce Raita, so no idea what would have happened at that point…
Edited at 2014-03-02 12:42 am (UTC)
PEARMAIN – (th)E + ARM + A inside PIN.
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