Solving time 20 minutes
A normal Times cryptic with a good overall standard of clues, no queries or problems, solved left to right, top to bottom. I seemed to spend a lot of time taking little bits of words and concatenating them with anagrams or other words, which may irritate some. No poets, authors or painters but a little sprinkling of science – how Times have changed.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | ESSAYIST – ES(SAY-IS)T; EST from (w)E(b)S(i)T(e); George Orwell perhaps; |
5 | SKI,BUM – SKI(BU)M; BU from BU(tter); |
9 | DAB – BAD reversed; |
10 | BETA,BLOCKER – BE-TAB-LOCKER; live=BE; drug=TAB(let); key=LOCKER; James Black’s drug to treat angina; |
12 | VIDEO,DIARY – (I did a very + o=nothing)*; strange modern phenomenon; |
13 | RANI – country = IRAN then move the “I” to give RANI, a female queen; |
15 | STRUNG – ST-RUNG; |
16 | ISOLATE – IS-O-LATE; O=zero=love (tennis); |
18 | SMACKER – two slang meanings; |
20 | WINGER – two non-slang meanings; Stanley Matthews was the best; |
23 | RANK – two more meanings 1=complete as in “rank outsider”; 2=line (of soldiers); |
24 | ATROCITIES – AT-R-O-CITIES; AT from (h)A(l)T; |
26 | SOLAR,SYSTEM – S(hiver)-(are mostly + s=son)*; step forward Copernicus, Galilei, Newton and Kepler; |
27 | TWO – (aircraf)T-(sto)W-(carg)O; more than one but less than a crowd; |
28 | ORDEAL – OR-DEAL; |
29 | GRADIENT – GRA(DIE)NT; reference Hiram Ulysses GRANT 1822-1885, 18th President of the USA; |
Down | |
1 | ENDIVE – END-(l)IVE; rabbit food; |
2 | SUBEDIT – SU(BED)IT; clearly an Italian journo; |
3 | YA-BOO,SUCKS – (as you sock + b=book)*; modern politics; |
4 | SITTING,PRETTY – group taking meal=SITTING; quite=PRETTY (slang); |
6 | KOOK – KO-OK; floor=knock down; |
7 | BAKLAVA – BA(K)LA-VA; K from (san)K; Lake Bala is Welsh beauty spot; Turkish dish containing honey and nuts; |
8 | MARTINET – TEN-I-TRAM all reversed; number=TEN; one=I; from North Korea perhaps; |
11 | BERTIE,WOOSTER – B(ER-TIE-W)OOSTER; royal=ER; marry=TIE; wife=W; Jeeve’s mate; |
14 | HORN,RIMMED – (men + horrid + m=made primarily)*; why old ladies spectacles – Clark Kent say? |
17 | ESPRESSO – ES-PRESS-O; ES from (f)E(a)S(t); smooth=PRESS: a form of coffee; |
19 | ANNELID – ANNE-LID; scientific name for the leech; |
21 | EPISTLE – (concret)E-PI(ST)LE; old fashioned video diary; |
22 | ESCORT – (sector)*; |
25 | ORCA – hidden (don)OR CA(rd); |
Also contributing to my woes were a character I have never read and have assiduously avoided watching on the telly (11), a popular expression I never use and have hardly ever heard (3), a slang term based on a pursuit I’ve never undertaken (5), and a couple of unfamiliar scientific terms (19 and 21). Improve on that lot of excuses if you can!
Please do read a Jeeves and Wooster story. Utterly brilliant IMHO.
RANK was last in, and I was toying with ring (no more completed line than one which meets its own beginning) as an answer which might just be quirky enough. I’d have put an H in YA-BOO, but apparently it’s optional. Border=end in 1d had a query against it until confirmed.
Smashing oblique definitions in this one especially “bodies round heater” in 26, my CoD, and the simply true “more than one” for TWO.
Is presenting 4 three-line (printed edition) clues something of a record?
5ac seems to rely heavily on Chambers which is alone amongst the three usual sources in listing SKI BUM and ‘cream’ = SKIM directly, however the definition doesn’t mention hedonism so I don’t know where that has come from.
Edited at 2012-01-10 11:09 am (UTC)
Edited at 2012-01-10 12:00 pm (UTC)
‘Ya-boo sucks’ is unknown in the US, and I was looking for something along the lines of ‘hooray Henry’ for what finally turned out to be Bertie Wooster. But in the end, I was stuck with ‘baklava’, ‘espresso’, and ‘ordeal’, of which ‘ordeal’ proved the toughest.
Enigma
1) when you don’t know the spelling pay close attention to wordplay
2) your spelling is terrible so you don’t know the spelling more often than you think
Absolutely no problem with SKI BUM. A familiar term to me, and if we’re allowed archaic terms we should be allowed new ones, provided in both cases the wordplay is clear, which it is here. The definition seems spot on to me: a ski bum is someone who devotes his or her life to this particular type of pleasure.
No complaints about ski bum, a familiar term (and I’m a non skier) and its in Chambers which is good enough for me. It was also news to me that “sitting pretty” is an Americanism
Something at least seems to hinge on an implicit adoption of a time-frame (year-round v. much of the year) by the lexicographer and also on the perspective and provenance of the dictionary (UK v US). Just my 5 cents / 2p.
Edited at 2012-01-11 02:30 am (UTC)