Solving time : 23:07, which was good enough for fourth (out of four solvers), though I’m a little distracted at the moment with people over and my mouse freezing up. There’s some very tricky stuff in here, and a few out-of-the usual uses. It’s also a pangram (not far from a double pangram).
Tomorrow is the 4th of July, which is a big deal in the country in which I live at the moment. So happy USA day, and if I finish the day with fewer fingers than I started with, I will have celebrated appropriately.
Away we go…
Across | |
---|---|
1 | MAR(blemish),MO(doctor),SET(fixed) |
9 | REIGNITE: TIN,GI inside EER allk reversed |
10 | FAN,G: Extractor here meaning a fan that removes a smell or air from a room |
11 | AIR AMBULANCE: A, then an anagram of |
12 | EMPIRE: MP(representative) in EIRE |
14 | END(scotch),PA(pop),PER(through) |
15 | MAJESTY: JEST(kid) in MAY |
16 | DIVERS,E |
20 | NO MATTER: MAT(pad) in NOTER(journalist) |
22 | CO, |
23 | ROCKING CHAIR: since A RICH is an anagram of CHAIR |
25 | I-SPY: hidden reversed in gYPSIes |
26 | ACID DROP: or A CID DROP |
27 | SPEEDWAY: DEEP(hidden) reversed in SWAY |
Down | |
2 | ACADEMIA: alternating letters in lAb CoAt then AIMED reversed |
3 | MAGAZINE RACK: MAGAZINE(arsenal) then CAR(train) reversed, |
4 | SCARIEST: C |
5 |
|
6 | LIQUID: QUI(who) in LID |
7 | LION: N,OIL reversed |
8 | TENEBRAE: reversal of EAR,BE,NET |
12 | AN AXE TO GRIND: double def, one cryptic |
15 | MONTREAL: MO(modus operandi), N(ightspo)T, then REAL(official) |
17 | IN(accepted),CHARGE(cost) |
18 | SPLIT PEA: LIT,PE in SPA |
19 | TRICEPS: sounds like TRY CEPS(mushrooms) |
21 | TUNDRA: DR(bones – term for doctor) in TUNA |
24 | C,RIB |
The fiendish SCARIEST was my LOI and probably COD.
Edited at 2013-07-04 01:28 am (UTC)
I also felt vaguely discontented with this puzzle (‘strum’ and ‘pluck’ both involve the digits, but different ones, typically, and the words are separate not synonymous in most people’s mental schema), but that may be as a result of staying up till all hours to watch Murray prepare for his ultimate demolition by Djokovic by only starting to play properly when he was two sets down.
Also in the setter’s defence, ‘strum’ and ‘pluck’ are listed as synonyms in both thesauruses I have to hand although as we have discussed here previously that doesn’t necessarily make it all right.
Edited at 2013-07-04 06:09 am (UTC)
George: your mouse is probably mourning for Douglas Engelbart.
I got the anagram part of 23ac and guessed ‘rocking’. Can someone please tell me if that is another word for ‘rich’.
Thanks, Cozzie
Are you saying then that the “Rocking” should therefore be a guess?
Here, most solvers will reverse solve this, if you like, by fixing on ‘a + rich’ as the letters to be ‘ground’, seeing CHAIR and then coming up with ROCKING.
Hope that helps.
Errrrr………..yes, and er no.
As The Lad Himself would say – “It’s a game innit!”
Thank you so very much – I think I am getting the ‘ang of it.
Anyway, enjoyably tricky challenge (for the more mature solver, at least, I can see it being a bit indigestible for those with less experience).
Took about an hour, and even then I ended up with one stupid four letter blank: CRIB, which I don’t know why I didn’t get! Grrr… so another DNF today.
Didn’t know TENEBRAE, but worked out the cryptic, and only managed to get MAGAZINE RACK once I realised it was a pangram. In fact, it was my last one in as I was convinced the answer was the name for some sort of sports-related home stand.
I always marvel at how, when for example someone comes to the door (as happened this morning) and your thought process is broken, you come back and can immediately spot something that you’ve been pondering for ages! ARCADIA (a random caller at door interrupts activity?)
TENEBRAE from TLS, where you also had to know your Star Wars. DKK CRIB as a place where animals (oxen, it seems) live, possibly thrown by “Away in a Manger” where there is “no crib for a bed”. So it isn’t a manger, then.
CoD to the cheap and cheerful TRICEPS, expecting to see the same clue tomorrow for BICEPS. Not sure my greengrocer knows what a cep is.
Edited at 2013-07-04 09:54 am (UTC)
Away in a… manger?… no, crib… for a bed
As has been noted already this was a very devious puzzle that took plenty of concentration to unpick. TENEBRAE was vaguely familiar and the wordplay was clear enough, ROCKING CHAIR didn’t fool me because this sort of clue seems to be appearing more frequently, and the use of “bones=Dr” in 21dn was good even though I have seen it before. I must confess that I didn’t bother to parse AIR AMBULANCE once I had a few checkers. MONTREAL was my LOI after I finally saw the wordplay.
> EMPIRE = “corporation”
> Per = through
> “Jumpers at seaside” = “divers”. A jump and a dive are not the same thing, and people don’t really dive at the seaside anyway: you’d hit your head.
> “Journalist” = “noter”
> “Real” = “official”
> “Strum” = “pluck”
> That meaning of CRIB
> ACID DROP: hard to swallow? Not the ones I used to eat.
> What are the words “according to home” doing in 3dn?
I’ve no doubt much of this can be justified by reference to some dictionary and/or I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, but it all contributed to a feeling that the setter was stretching quite a lot, and for me it made the puzzle hard for the wrong reasons.
As for strum = pluck, I don’t care what it says in any dictionary. Mctext is right.
I thought at first that 26ac might be CHOP CHOP. Replace the initial “a” with “quick” and it could be.
>ACID DROP: hard to swallow?
I nearly had this on my list of dodgy definitions, but I came to the conclusion that the setter was contrasting it with (say) a piece of fudge, which would be “soft to swallow”.
Me, I was wondering whether it was fair to label all neonates as animals…!
I refer my honourable friend to my earlier comment about “stretching”.
Keriothe pretty much sums up my thoughts.
As a member of the Musical Mafia, I had no problem with TENEBRAE once I’d thought of an EAR for the “organ”.
I do get the impression that, sometimes, pangram puzzles are more satisfying for the compiler than for the solver. I would agree with the comment previously made that some of the clue surfaces were very good, and others rather ‘iffy’.
George Clements
Cheers
Carolyne
JeffB