Solving time: 27 Minutes
Another easy Monday puzzle for you experienced solvers. How beginners will fare, I have no idea, because I’ve been at this too long and am wise to many tricks that beginners have never seen.
Music: Brahms, Piano Concerto #2, Gilels, Reiner/CSO
Across | |
---|---|
1 | ARACHNID, anagram of HAD CAR IN. The trick is to know that a ‘harvestman’ is a spider. |
6 | CURFEW, RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) backwards + FEW. This is where the beginner might be at a loss, while hardened solvers automatically think ‘RUC’ when they see ‘old policemen’. |
9 | SUMMIT, SU(MM)IT. MM = ‘Military Medal’, a rather generic name for a particular award in the British Army. |
10 | OPULENCE, O P(U[nusua]L)ENCE, a bit of a chestnut, I believe. |
11 | VETO, VET + [p]O[pe]. Not a literary clue, as I at first suspected. |
12 | OVERSTRUNG, OVER ST + RUN + G[rand]. A technical term referring to a particular type of piano construction, which I did not know, and did not need to know. |
14 | EGGSHELL. Double definition, where ‘Dorking’ is a hen as well as a town. One I had to research, since my original answer was based only on the literal. |
16 | Omitted – look for it! |
18 | EARN, sounds like ERNE. |
19 | VARIANCE, V + ARIAN + CE. Heretics are almost always Arians in these puzzles. Pelagians and Donatists just don’t fit. |
21 | BEDEVILLED, double definition. Not very accurate, because ‘devilled’ foods are not usually highly spiced compared to some cuisines. |
22 | MACE, MA(C)E. You just have to interpret ‘West’ correctly. |
24 | TANGIBLE, anagram of BENGAL IT. |
26 | AIR BED, AIR([aha]B)ED. |
27 | TAXMAN, T + AXMAN. |
28 | TREELESS, TR(EEL)ESS. |
Down | |
2 | ROUTE, R(OUT)E, where ‘determined’ has the sense of already known, publicly available. |
3 | COMMON SENSE, COMMON + S + E + N + S + E, or something like that. Most solvers won’t bother with the cryptic, which is very weak. |
4 | NITROGEN, anagram of RINGTONE, another well-used cryptic. |
5 | DO ONE’S LEVEL BEST, double definition, one jocular. |
6 | Omitted! |
7 | Omitted as well! |
8 | ECCENTRIC, double definition, neither very cryptic. |
13 | REAR ADMIRAL, RE[-d + A R] ADMIRAL. A letter-substitution cryptic, but the answer is very evident with a few checking letters. |
15 | GUATEMALA, G(U + anagram of TEAM)ALA. |
17 | GRADUATE, GR(AD + U)ATE. A ‘graduate’ may well not be a scholar any more, and may never have been very scholarly. |
20 | GIBBON, NOB, BIG upside down. |
23 | C(H)ESS, a cesspit. Usually a ‘cess’ is a tax around here. |
25 | GEM, MEG upside down. Cairngorms are both a Scottish mountain range and yellowish-brown quartz gem that was formerly mined there. |
With the double wisdom that comes of noting another’s slip and noting too said person’s undoubted and much-proven wisdom, might it not have been expected of you to take cognisance of the wisdom of the one with the jesting picture which seems to be crying out to you?
Edited at 2012-10-15 04:56 am (UTC)
Edited at 2012-10-15 05:05 am (UTC)
Note to fellow Monday blogger: I think 3d is COMMONS (archaic word for shared grub) + E N S E.
I hadn’t understood exactly how 3dn worked before coming here so thanks to ulaca for that one. I have met (short) COMMONS previously but it had completely slipped my mind. Similarly Cairngorms, the gemstone
Edited at 2012-10-15 08:23 am (UTC)
My first instinct on the Gaullism was NON, as in je regret infiniment mais… as said to Heath if not Wilson.
SW corner put up the biggest fight, and GEM was a best guess (could conceivably have been gam, I suppose). An assumption to go with harvestman=spider and (faint bell ringing) Dorking=hen. COMMONS=food rang a louder, Mephisto resonant bell. EGGSHELL my favourite.
I think “out” in 2dn is “determined” in the sense of “they’re all out to get me”.
Nice start to the week.
1. Why are answers sometimes omitted?
2. And how then do I learn how a clue works?
You’ve got plenty of crossing letters, so think about them for a bit. Still stuck? Ask, and someone will answer.
Good point well made Vinyl ref being “wise to many tricks that beginners have never seen”. 4 years ago I’d have struggled with some elements but RUC reversed, GEM, see = V, O pence, West = MAE were spotted pretty much straight away.
Ah, having been to Wiki, I learn that Arius was a C3 bishop chap who was a bit off piste doctrine wise – all rather uninteresting for a practising atheist / heretic like me.
Edited at 2012-10-15 12:53 pm (UTC)
The definition of “devil” (as a verb) in Chambers is “to season highly and broil”.
“Certainly, my home at my uncle’s brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears and Vices, I saw enough. Now, do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat.”
This comes, surprisingly enough, from Jane Austen.
What I appear to be doing in preparation for the weekend is going through a slow patch.
His domination is becoming so Lance Armstrong-esque I expect drug testing to be in place before long. (This testing will also reveal that I’ve invariably had one pint too many the night before the competition, which probably helps. That said, I don’t expect this year to be any different).
Most beginners have reported rapid improvement just by doing as much of the puzzle as you can every day, and then reading the blog, and all the comments. If you don’t understand, ask! If you are UK-based, get a Chambers and look up the abbreviations.
Alan Connors has some columns for beginners in the Guardian crossword blog. He is covering the letter abbreviations letter by letter, and is up to ‘F’. He will come to ‘v’ eventually, which = Latin ‘vide’ which means ‘see’. You could also clue it as ‘against’ = ‘versus’.