My thanks to Tim for swapping with me whilst I had a short break. I returned to find both the ill judged letter from The Times about the Crossword Club and the blog giving details of what is afoot. I read the 130+ blog comments with great interest and was affected by both the number and tenor of the comments. I had previously thought that I would not subscribe when called upon to do so. However that blog has forced me to reappraise the situation and I have decided that I will continue my membership and will continue to blog the puzzles for so long as I’m needed and am able. I hope that as many of my fellow bloggers as possible will follow a similar path.
This puzzle shouldn’t cause too many problems with its anagrams signalled loud and its simple wordplays and definitions.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | OHMMETER – (home)* surrounds MET then R(ule); instrument for measuring electrical resistance after Herr Georg Ohm; |
9 | EYELINER – EYE sounds like I – LINER=vessel; “okay” is padding; cosmetic used by ancient Egyptians and modern Punks; |
10 | MASS – two meanings; |
11 | CAPITAL,GAINS – CAP(IT-A(L)GAIN)S; values can fall as well as rise; |
13 | MISLAY – M-ISLAY; |
14 | FORESTER – FOR(E)STER; E M and C S; |
15 | DRAUGHT – two meanings; in US think checkers; |
16 | PHONEME – PHONE-ME; the bugbear of setters using homophones; |
20 | STRAW,MAN – N-AM-WARTS all reversed; in the UK think Aunt Sally; |
22 | MOMENT – hidden (gri)M-OMEN-T(hat); |
23 | OBJECT,LESSON – OBJECT-LESS-ON; about=ON; |
25 | DILL – D-ILL; used extensively in Polish cooking – not sure about “medicinal”; |
26 | ANECDOTE – A-N(ECD)OTE; E,C,D are musical notes; the life blood of celebrity magazines; |
27 | DING-DONG – D(o)ING-DO(i)NG; The Witch Is Dead; |
Down | |
2 | HEARTIER -HEAR-TIER; |
3 | MISCALCULATE – (claim a clue’s)* surrounds T(hink); what IBM did with Bill Gates, perhaps; |
4 | TRIPTYCH – TRIP-T(rend)Y-CH; altar painting; |
5 | RECTIFY – RE(CT)IFY; IBM had no chance to do this once they had signed away their interest; |
6 | CELLAR – sounds like “seller”; |
7 | ANTI – (c)A(n)N(o)T-(w)I(n); |
8 | PRESERVE – P-RESERVE; page=P; |
12 | ABSENT-MINDED – (best in damned)*; now why did I come to this room….?; |
15 | DISLOYAL – DI(SL-O-Y)AL; Heath to Thatcher; Thatcher to Major; |
17 | HOMESPUN – (posh menu)*; my favourite branch of philosophy; |
18 | MANDOLIN – M-AND-O-(NIL reversed); |
19 | INDEXED – IN-DE(X)ED; |
21 | MOTION – two meanings; |
24 | JEEP – J(E-E)P; |
Anyway, 8:16 on the timer, and my view was also that it was, like yesterday’s, fairly simple (especially for the more experienced solver) but with some nice flourishes. I also found myself wondering if the setter was trying to tell us something with the surfaces of 3dn and 12dn…
Glad you remembered last Tuesday, Tim!
Now I know what a STRAW MAN can be, today’s learning of something you’ve heard of but never bothered to understand.
I had RHEOSTAT for 1ac initially, no parsing but pleased to remember something about resistance from schoolday physics. Physics is probably the one subject I wish I had taken more notice of as the gateway to the astro- variety. Sadly, it wasn’t that well or imaginatively taught and was just another O level. But I did remember rheostat. And OHMMETER, though the double M looks slightly odd even if it is necessary.
Enjoyable stuff.
24 minutes for this one with my customary delay at the end on a couple of answers, on this occasion STRAW MAN and ANECDOTE. I hate clues where one is required to pick a random assortment of musical notes as these can include the customary A-G plus additional German ones and tonic-sol-fa with all its various national spellings.
Didn’t know REIFY or the required meaning of DRAUGHT.
Edited at 2013-06-18 08:21 am (UTC)
Hold on, what day is it?
Today I got stuck on DISLOYAL/MOTION/ANECDOTE. I thought 21dn might be MATTER and just couldn’t get it out of my head.
Unknowns: MISLAY meaning something other than “lose”, and the fishy meaning of DRAUGHT.
I’m not sure about the US aspect of STRAW MAN: I hear it all the time. I’ve also heard “Aunt Sally” used in exactly the same sense, although this meaning’s not in Chambers.
Dill is also very common in Scandinavia, where it’s used to turn salmon into gravadlax. According to Chambers it’s a carminative.
One quibble: shouldn’t it be “profits” in 11ac?
Glad to hear you won’t be leaving us, Jimbo.
Edited at 2013-06-18 08:16 am (UTC)
Chambers has three definitions:
1. To lay in a place not remembered
2. To lose
3. To lay or place wrongly
If I put something in the wrong place, but remember where I put it, then I have mislaid it in the third sense, but not in the first two. This is the meaning I didn’t know.
DING-DONG is a favourite of the BBC text commentary team, who have used it in the context of a variety of sports including tennis, golf, cricket, and no doubt others.
LOI: the pesky hidden, MOMENT
Much appreciation that you’ll be staying on to blog, Jimbo!
Edited at 2013-06-18 09:23 am (UTC)
20 minutes today, a puzzle that had its moments whilst perhaps not tickling my general cruciverbal fancy.
Many thanks and best,
Chris G.
I had CAPITAL GAINS fairly early on, but then took way too much time over FORESTER, PRESERVE and ABSENT MINDED. My LOI was RECTIFY, mainly because if I had ever come across ‘reify’ before I had forgotten it.
Although I had parsed ANECDOTE the same way as Jimbo and was pretty sure that ‘story’ was the definition I still had my fingers crossed.
And I had no idea there were two Ms in OHMMETER. I suppose it makes sense, now I think about it.
Bravo, jimbo, for staying aboard. Life wouldn’t be the same without a bit of Dorset thunder.
I knew STRAW MAN from political discussions, where an opponent will claim to refute you by demolishing an argument which you had never put forward.
I had 10ac as three definitions.