ST 4339 (Sun 26 Jul) – Proper noun?

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 4:16

I solved this online, though I’m never sure whether this makes it faster or slower; possibly faster to enter the answers but slower to solve the anagrams because you can’t just cross out random letters in the clue as you can with a print version.

This puzzle was a mixture of the good (10ac, 12ac, 16dn), the chestnutty (1ac, 14ac, 20ac, 17dn) and the baffling (3dn and 6dn), but perhaps someone can clarify these last two.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

This report is from talbinho not Peter – he sends me the ST reports when he’s not going to be able to file them himself. He also tells me his userid and password so that I can log in as him. Usually I remember to do so!

Across
1 MOCK TURTLE SOUP – the hackneyed pun on ‘course’. If, like Alice, you don’t know what a mock turtle is, this should explain all.
10 LET IT BE; (TITLE)* + BE – good clue.
11 POSTERN; (SET)* in PORN
12 BARRACUDA; (RADAR CUBA)* – nice anagram.
13 L + LAMA
14 A DON IS
15 ACID (= ‘tart’) + HEAD (= ‘toilet’) – the ‘heads’ are the toilets, but can it be singular?
18 TENDERLY; TENDER (= ‘present’) + L[uck]Y
20 TSETSE; (SET)* x 2
23 CA(S)TS – I think the definition, ‘Eg puts’, refers to putting (i.e. casting) the shot in athletics.
25 TRANSCEND; (CAN TRENDS)*
26 OVERATE; OVER (= ‘balls’) + (TEA)*
27 IRON + OR + E
28 EXTENDED FAMILY; (I DEMENTEDLY FAX)*

Down
2 ONTARIO; ON TO (= ‘Having become aware of’) around (A + R[hode] I[sland]) – couldn’t see the wordplay when solving, but the answer was clear.
3 KATHARINE – I’m not sure I get this. It must be a reference to Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the eponymous character in which is known as Kate, but her full name seems to be Katherina, not Katherine.
4 USE + FUL[l]
5 TAP DANCE (cryptic definition)
6 EASEL – I think this is a pun on ‘to prop’, but it doesn’t really work; the agent noun would have to be ‘propper’, not ‘proper’, and I don’t think the question mark makes up for that. Perhaps I have misunderstood.
7 [c]OVERAGE
8 PINS (= ‘legs’) AND NEEDLES (= ‘irritates’)
9 GLOBE ARTICHOKE; (COOK GERBIL + HEAT)*
16 DUST STORM (cryptic definition) – another I couldn’t understand when solving, but when I twigged (‘particular’ = ‘involving particles’) I thought it was excellent.
17 ALL THERE
19 N + A + SCENT
21 TREFOIL; (LOFTIER)*
22 TARIFF (2 defs)
24 S + PAIN

7 comments on “ST 4339 (Sun 26 Jul) – Proper noun?”

  1. I, too, was unsure about Kate’s full name and searched the web to see if there was some dispute about this. In what should be a warning to students everywhere, the only sites that give the name as ‘Katherine’ are some of those ‘Termpapers R Us’ essay shops. Misspelling the protagonist’s name might give even dimmest teacher to suspect foul play (no pun untended).
    1. Sotira, my Oxford World’s Classics edition of The Taming of the Shrew suggests that the lady in question, though usually called Katherina or more often simply Kate, is also referred to in the play as Katherine. The one variant of her name that appears to have no sanction whatever is KATHARINE, precisely the one required by 3dn. Could the setter have had in mind some other shrew we know not of? Seems unlikely. Incidentally, I learn from the same edition of the play that Kate’s surname is Minola, which I had long forgotten if I ever knew it, which I doubt. Now there’s an obscure piece of Waggle-Dagger general knowledge that would have Jimbo frothing at the mouth! It can only be a matter of time before it turns up. Remember, you heard it here first.
      1. The following short story is reprinted from Tales From Shakespeare. Charles & Mary Lamb. London: Thomas Hodgkins, 1807.

        Katharine, the Shrew, was the eldest daughter of Baptista, a rich gentleman of Padua. She was a lady of such an ungovernable spirit and fiery temper, such a loud-tongued scold, that she was known in Padua by no other name than Katharine the Shrew.

        The question mark covers the possibility of alternatives.

        My 1940s edition of The Complete Works has the character as Katharina.

  2. Katharine is at least as close to Katherina as one would expect the ST to get… I had no idea which was the correct variant, and in fact only knew the woman’s short name because of the musical “Kiss Me Kate” 🙂
  4. I thought ‘casts’ referred to casting someone (a soprano perhaps) for a role ina musical. Also, ‘Cats’ is a musical, into which you can cast an ‘s’ (soprano.
  5. No problem with Head as a singular for a toilet on a boat. My printed clue had toilet in singular. Interesting I was stuck on a few clues but after coming home from playing some very competitive duplicate bridge I completed in about 10 minutes. The bridge must have really got my brain working.

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