Well, another blast from the past, literally. I volunteered to help mcctext out again, as Jerry is out trudging his way through the Pyrenean snows* and dodging Tour de France camper vans. I find to my horror that I must break my cardinal rule of never attempting a crossword compiled before I was born. OK, so that’s stretching things a bit (see 21d). Actually on July 10, 1973 I was probably sitting in a lecture theatre copying stuff off blackboards, which we in Australia at that time liked to call an education. On a good day, you might find yourself copying from the same one the lecturer was actually writing on at the time. There were nine to choose from. Sadly, that education was not the one required to complete The Times crossword.
I knew at the outset that I’d be “resorting to aids” at some point, but after an hour of googling I thought I’d just look at the solution, which I found in The Canberra Times of June 18, 1979. On that day, it was announced FM radio was coming to Australia and that 500 Vietnamese refugees had been put on a boat in Malaysia and told to go somewhere else, with the incentive of being “shot on sight” if they returned. The first of these tidings circuitously led to my being banned from the airwaves for playing a Jeannie Lewis song and the second no doubt inspired a young Tony Abbott to greatness. Ironically both of those personages possibly had sat or were to sit in the very same lecture theatre I occupied in 1973. It’s a small and rather convoluted world. So, to the business at hand…
Oh, and if you’re looking for the Qualifier, it’s here, I am reliably informed.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | PILTDOWN. Cryptic definition? I got this from Neddy Seagoon’s description of Eccles. “There, before me, stood living proof that the Piltdown skull was not a hoax”. |
5 | TINKER. Double definition? My first one in. Peter Pan meets the reddleman? |
10 | OSCULATES. Visual gag. X for a kiss at the bottom of 1973 correspondence. Never found out what the ! stood for. |
11 | SCREW. Cryptic or double definition? Screw is slang for remuneraton, but not in Australia. Archimedes’s legendary screw can be googled. |
12 | OASES = O + SEAS*. A construction at last! |
13 | EMOTIONAL = MOTION in ALE*. And another actual clue. |
14 | UNITIES. There’s that ! again. From Archimedes to Aristotle. “The classical unities, Aristotelian unities or three unities are rules for drama derived from a passage in Aristotle’s Poetics.” If only I’d got a proper education. |
16 | TRUISM = (IT’S RUM)*. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, …” and so forth. |
19 | THANET = NE in THAT. Thanet is in Kent or possibly vice versa. According to St Isidore of Seville, “Thanet is an island in the Ocean in the Gallic channel (English channel), separated from Britannia by a narrow estuary, with fruitful fields and rich soil. It is name Thanet (tanatos) from the death of serpents. Although the island itself is unacquainted with serpents, if soil from it is carried away and brought to any other nation, it kills snakes there.” Why haven’t the authorities in Australia been alerted?. More info here. |
21 | ANEMONE = NEMO found in ANE, as in “As I was walking all alane, I heard twa corbies makin’ a mane.” |
23 | WATERGATE. Cryptic definition topical in 1973. |
25 | TEKEL. Cryptic definition. From the ancient Babylonian tagline “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” meaning “No fat chicks allowed” or some such. |
26 | GAMIN = GAM + IN. Some quaint 70’s racism. |
27 | LOATHSOME = (HOT MEAL SO)*. |
28 | TURNER. A cryptic definition for the original Impressionist. |
29 | PEDESTAL. Straight definition disguised as a cryptic one. |
Down | |
---|---|
1 | PROROGUE = PRO + ROGUE. My second one in. |
2 | LOCKSMITH. I’ve got no idea why. Anyone in the audience? |
3 | DULLS. A quote by Polonius from Hamlet. It’s from his advice to Laertes on leaving for Paris: “neither a borrower nor a lender be … to thine own self be true” etc, and nothing to do with pints of lager. |
4 | WITHERS. A cryptic definition. |
6 | INSTITUTE. Double definition, the second a reference to G & S’s HMAS Pinafore “I wore clean collars and a brand-new suit, For the pass examination at the Institute”. Ahhhh! |
7 | KORAN. A straight definition masquerading as a cryptic one. |
8 | ROWELS = SLOWER*. They’re spurs. |
9 | ESCORT = E SORT around C. At least the constructions are straightforward when you don’t mistake them for another cryptic definition. |
15 | IGNORANCE. Cluelessness indeed. And it’s got bloody Nora inside it as well. I’m guessing some biblical quote. Perhaps Job 11:12 “But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey’s colt is born a man!”. I’m still waiting. There’s that ! again. |
17 | STOCKPORT = STOCK PORT. Another one I got. |
18 | PELL-MELL = ELL inside PM + another ELL |
20 | TEAZLE. Double definition. Sir Peter Teazle from Sheridan’s School for Scandal and a device for teaseling cloth, an activity popular in the 70’s. |
21 | AVERAGE = AVER as in state AGE. A facetious double definition. |
22 | DWIGHT = D for denarius + the Isle of WIGHT for Ike. |
24 | TIMOR = TIM as in Tiny + OR |
25 | TEHEE = His or Her Excellencies in TEE. A golfing reference to end our travails. |
* Late breaking news – Jerry is actually at home in his warm cosy bed, nursing frost and the odd Pyrenean bear bite. He shall return to a screen in front of you in the very near future.
On edit: Indeed, Christian and Ignorance have an argument–probably about salvation or something–and Ignorance finally says, “You go so fast, I cannot keep pace with you. Do you go on before; I must stay awhile behind.”
Edited at 2013-07-10 05:31 am (UTC)
The capital C should have been the give away, of course.
Edited at 2013-07-10 06:28 am (UTC)
Didn’t we have something to do with Belshazzar recently re the ‘Writing on the Wall’? I think it was Ulaca who didn’t like it. (Belle-Shazza is, of course, a largeish bogan chick in these parts, so Koro’s translation of the Hebrew may be to the point.)
Lastly, it was very strange moving on to the 3rd Qual after doing this. A complete switch of logics. Of which: I’ll post the blog on Thursday 18th inst.
Edited at 2013-07-10 05:52 am (UTC)
It’s a reference to Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis:
“Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast,
Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last.”
Edited at 2013-07-10 06:00 am (UTC)
Edited at 2013-07-10 06:34 am (UTC)
I was determined to finish unaided but in the end I just knew that I didn’t know the T-K-L (I’m afraid I spent most of those hours in school chapel staring out of the window, though doubtless contemplating the wonders of creation) and had to enlist some help from
abovebelow (wherein Google, now officially evil, doth dwell).There was plenty that went in without any understanding whatsoever but I am now much the wiser. Thanks to all above for the education.
Edited at 2013-07-10 10:37 am (UTC)
This definitely from my earlier regular solving days, when I used to knock ’em off during coffee break at college. Didn’t remember it, though, and the Castlemaine clue was one I think might have stuck over the years.
Since the College I was at was Theological, Tekel, Koran and Ignorance were virtual gimmes, and perhaps Unities should have been. I also remembered the Hamlet, but missed the reasoning behind the locksmith, a way too clever clue that would have gone in on checkers alone, once I’d got rid of the idea that Thanet was in fact Kennet.
Good fun, this one and even a CoD, given to AVERAGE.
Held up in NW at least 10 min by putting OBSOLETES at 10a and thinking 19 might be KEN(NE)T – eventually resorted to aid for alternative word to fit checkers, when all came clear suddenly, the proverb being sufficiently well-known to give 2dn as soon as I had the C. No problem with TEKEL, from Walton’s work, though it’s not in Chambers. The Hamlet & Pilgrim’s Progress references went in without checking, as nothing else would fit.
Too hard by far today. Only managed 16 without aids and turned to the blog for the missing half. Most of my successes came in the right-hand side. Pleased that my hunches of Screw, Watergate, Pedestal and Ignorance were correct.
17dn Stockport
This clue interested me and dates the crossword. I live in Heaton Moor, one of Stockport’s suburbs, and have never thought of Stockport as being in Cheshire. If I’m understanding wikipedia correctly, Stockport was in Cheshire (with a small part in the north in Lancashire) until 1974 (ie a year after this puzzle) when under the Local Government Act 1972 it and neighbouring districts were amalgamated to form the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.
It’s also worth pointing out (yet again) that the statue in Piccadilly Circus is not of Eros despite popular belief, but his brother Anteros. The clue still works though as he was the God more specifically of requited love.
Edited at 2013-07-10 12:33 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2013-07-10 06:30 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2013-07-10 07:42 pm (UTC)