Solving time: 38:32
I was all done bar two in 30 minutes, but then PHENOMENA took an extra couple of minutes for me to realise it wasn’t the Latin name for some plant or other that I was looking for. Then the unknown HOOPOE took the rest.
This felt pretty easy to me. In fact, I started it at midnight, and I when I posted my time at about twenty to one, I was already 6th on the leader board. A fact that is usually indicative of a pretty straightforward puzzle. Despite it’s relative simplicity, I found it quite enjoyable.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
Across | |
---|---|
1 | PITCH – dd – Pitch is the residue of distillation of tar. |
4 | LOST CAUSE = ACTS (turns) rev in LOUSE (rotter) |
9 | RE(PRO)DUCE |
10 | NADIR = RID + AN all rev |
11 | PRE(POSSE)SSING |
14 | R + APT |
15 | MAN + A(G)ERIAL |
18 | SKY(SCRAP)E + R |
19 | HI + LT |
21 | ENCYCLOPAEDIC = (DELICACY ONCE + P)* |
24 |
|
25 | PHENOMENA = (ANEMONE + P) all rev about H |
27 | IN + DE(M + N)ITY |
28 | T + ODD + Y |
Down | |
1 | PARAPHRASE = PAR + APSE about H |
2 | TAP – dd |
3 | HOOP + O + |
4 | LOUISIANA = LIANA (trailer, it’s a type of vine) about (SIOU |
5 | STEPS – hidden |
6 | CON + SIDE + R |
7 | U(N + DIG)NIFIED |
8 | EARN = NEAR with the N moved from beginning to end |
12 | EMPTY-HEADED = ED about (A DEEP MYTH)* |
13 | PLUTOCRACY = (OUT)* in PLC + RACY |
16 | AWESOMELY = (OWL MAY SEE)* |
17 | ICE CREAM = I/C + MACE rev about RE |
20 | RAG + OUT |
22 | CAP + |
23 | TAX + I |
26 |
|
PHENOMENA almost got to me too. But it was the “facts” that threw me. In everyday speech, we do talk of “natural phenomena” and the usual sources have “phenomenon” as “fact … that is observed to exist or happen” (and the like). Just that I’m more used to its philosophical meaning which can be just the opposite. Here the stress is on the “observed” bit so that the putative “object” is purely a matter of perception. Contrast: noumenon/noumena. No wonder PHIL101 students get confused!
PLUTOCRACY took a fair bit of parsing. I’d forgotten the UK usage, PLC.
* On edit, this meaning:
(esp. of a look) showing earnest and eager attention: a curiously intent look on her face.
Suppose this is close enough to RAPT to pass muster.
Edited at 2012-10-26 01:02 am (UTC)
Edited at 2012-10-26 01:20 am (UTC)
I find vanilla puzzles full of long ordinary words very difficult. I do much better at the puzzles with complicated cryptics or obscure vocabulary.
I don’t think some of the clues were that high-quality. For example, 6 down. A ‘con’ is not exactly a ‘racket’, a ‘hand’ is not exactly a ‘side’, and ‘consider’ is not exactly ‘hold’. In a witty puzzle, everything is exactly correct, but not in the way you would expect, which makes the process of solving much more satisfying.
It’s a con, it’s racket, it’s a scam.
On the one hand so-and-so but against that on the other side such-and-such.
To hold/consider somebody responsible for something.
Edited at 2012-10-26 04:48 pm (UTC)
Didn’t know HOOPOE, and TAXI proved very elusive. Much of it went in on definition and checkers leaving the parsing until after the event.
Thanks to yet another cock-up, those who subscribe to the online newspaper rather than the Club have been denied this puzzle and instead have been given Grand Final No 3 which had already been put up earlier in the week, and is also still there on a separate button alongside its two companions.
Edited at 2012-10-26 01:18 am (UTC)
I suppose we should take this up with Andy.
Struggled with the middle and NW corner today. Eventually twigging Hoopoe gave Prepossessing then Undignified and the others missing in the top half soon followed.
I also thought CONSIDER a collection of non-standard references, apart from the R of course, but it worked. Just not in an expected way. Neat surface, probably set up with a handy Thesaurus.
As for others, a lot of post entry sorting out of the wordplay. In puzzles such as this, expecting philosophical nicety is whistling in the dark. PHENOMENA has at least a tangential connection to facts, and that will have to do. Credit to a terrific use of anemone, which I usually struggle to spell, let alone backwards. Probably my CoD.
I wonder if anyone else solved PREPOSSESSING with “important” as the definition? I did fathom that it was the other way round when the wordplay didn’t quite work.
“Delicacy once” in 21 looked such a gimme for CATE that it cost me much time, especially once I had the two adjacent crossing Cs. Sometimes you can know too many archaisms. A well disguised and (in my case) diversionary anagram.
Hard to see NADIR without zapping back to Hoffnung and Bruno Heinz Jaja, (entry 15), sadly not on youtube.
Yes, that was me! At least during the solve.
I slowed right down towards the end, and took a while to get TAXI (I’m sure I’ve spent far too long on an almost identical clue at some point in the past), PITCH, and the unknown HOOPOE.
I’m with vinyl1 on this one: I too find vanilla puzzles full of long ordinary words very difficult, and do much better at puzzles with complicated cryptics or obscure vocabulary (particularly the latter).