Greetings on Christmas Eve. The 24th December has seen a variety of events over the years, not least the arrival of Apollo 8 at the moon in 1968 which gave rise to that iconic picture of the earth. It is also associated with some slightly strange practices such as the Italian Vigilia di Natale Feast Of The Seven Fishes and a day of celibacy for those of the Jewish faith who recognise Nittel Nacht.
This is a gentle but pleasing puzzle that should not cause too many problems.
A happy Christmas to one and all
Across | |
---|---|
1 | NOTIONAL – newspaper=national then change “a=area” to “o”; like NORAD tracking Santa; |
5 | CICADA – C(ommon)-I-CA(na)DA; large flying insect, eaten in many parts of the world; |
10 | TOPIC – T(OP)IC(k); not sure if Mark featured as a topic in first ever radio broadcast on this day in 1906; |
11 | HERODOTUS – HEROD-OT-US; the “slaughter of the innocents” is a myth but Herod did kill his own sons; |
12 | REPRESENT – RE-PRESENT; |
13 | VEDIC – VE(r)DI-C; Sanskrit used to write the Vedas; |
14 | SEATTLE – SE(A)TTLE; lovely city where I slept very well; |
16 | ON,DUTY – two meanings; from this day in 1943 Ike was as Supreme Commander; |
18 | DETAIL – LIED reversed contains TA=Territorial Army; |
20 | BRAILLE – BRA(ILL)E; the first binary form of writing created by Louis Braille in 1837; |
22 | BLAST – B-LAST; to wear well is to last; what ceased for a while 24th December 1914 at Ypres; |
23 | SPIT,IT,OUT – SP(I-TIT)OUT; |
25 | INDULGENT – (tunnel dig)*; |
26 | TETRA – hidden T(r)E(n)T-(a)R(e)A; colourful fish often found in an aquarium; |
27 | THRUSH – TH-RUSH; pretty song birds; |
28 | BLACK,EYE – BLACK=dirty EYE=watch; shiner is slang definition for feature sported by John Cleese, Jamie Oliver, et al; |
Down | |
1 | NATURIST – (is truant)*; as seen on the Queen’s Estate at Holkham, Norfolk; |
2 | TOP,UP – TO-PUP; |
3 | ORCHESTRA,STALLS – band=ORCHESTRA (really?) – STALLS; the very front seats in the auditorium; |
4 | ATHLETE – (heat)* surrounds LET; |
6 | INDIVIDUALISTIC – (suit civilian did)*; true of General George Patton born 24th December 1923; |
7 | ANTIDOTAL – ANT-I-DOT-A-L; neede to counter the KKK formed 24th December 1865; |
8 | ALSACE – A-L(S)ACE; Eastern France bordering Germany; |
9 | GROTTO – GROTT(y)-O; marketing name for a hole in the ground; |
15 | ALEXANDER – A-LE(X-AND)ER; war lord Alexander of Macedon 356BC-323BC; |
17 | TEST,CASE – Match=TEST (cricket); box=CASE; then split into two words; |
19 | LASHES – L-ASHES; more cricket; Ava Gardner born 24th December 1922 had long ones; |
20 | BRISTOL – B-R-(IS TO)-L; “Bristol Fashion” derives from the floating harbour developed 1803 to counter the large tidal movements encountered in Bristol harbour and is not connected to Ava Gardner’s other assets; |
21 | OBOIST – hidden O(n)-B(roken)-O(ld)-I(nstrument)-S(ounds) |
24 | OUTRE – OUT-RE; |
Yes, easy today except it took me ages to get 17d. Best mate? Heat wave? Quite a lot of options until finally I managed to parse it..
Excellent blog Jimbo. I liked your Christmas Eve references and the iconic earthshot.
Happy Christmas to you and everybody else at TfTT!
Daniel
Not sure I understand 9dn (the comment about a marketing term is lost on me), but if the idea is that looking at a hole from above one sees an O I would point out that not all holes are round – as confirmed by Bernard Cribbens’ bloke in a bowler hat.
Merryt Christrmas!
The marketing reference is my cynical take on how to turn what is after all just a hole into a tourist attraction – give it a sexy name
Edited at 2013-12-24 10:10 am (UTC)
Is grotto supposed to be an &Lit then? I couldn’t for the life of me see where the O came from without hole doing double-duty.
What I found odd in this puzzle was the preponderance of sort of location indicator words in the wordplay:
needs in 1a
but remaining in 10
breaking and travelling in 18
viewed in 20a
just wanting in 2
need and needing in 6&7
appear here in 20.
Thanks for the informative blog Jimbo and as Bing Crosby says, mele kalikimaka to all.
Interesting point about the location words – hadn’t noticed it until you drew attention
See my comment above about the down clue for GROTTO
I was puzzled by GROTTO but figured it was an attempt at an &lit. Last in TEST CASE after a bit of head scratching.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Merry Christmas all.
Thank you for the lovely moon pic Jim. What fools these mortals be.
“Tetra”, like opah (another aquarium fish I believe) is standard NY Times crossword filler, along with words like erne, anent and olio, only found in crosswordland.
I don’t know if we get a puzzle tomorrow, so in the spirit of the blog, here is Washington crossing the Delaware on December 25th 1776.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_by_Emanuel_Leutze,_MMA-NYC,_1851.jpg
Merry Christmas to all.
I struggled in the NE because it took me much longer than it should have done to see HERODOTUS and it took me a while to decode the long anagram at 6dn. ANTIDOTAL was my LOI after ON DUTY because I had been looking for something more specific.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Nice and easy until I was left with a blank at 17dn. Oops.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Edited at 2013-12-24 11:28 am (UTC)
Best Christmases all around
Edited at 2013-12-24 11:57 am (UTC)
Sing daan fai lok to one and all!
Thanks for going to extra mile in the blog, Jimbo. I learned at least 3 things.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, and to one and all.
p.s. At the last count, the Turkey puzzle had had 557 different visitors, which seems pretty good to me for a (mostly) amateur Christmas production. Well done, all.
Edited at 2013-12-24 01:42 pm (UTC)
Seasons greetings to all.
I’ve just discovered it’s on YouTube (here), from a 78 recording I grew up with (which probably accounts for … well something anyway). Those inclined to political correctness should probably avoid it.
Many thanks for the link, I enjoyed the song, and also ‘The Preparatory School, the Private School and the Varsity’ at the same place. Having been married to the same wife for coming up to forty years, I think that one is quite enough for me, especially as I also acquired two mothers-in-law.
I’m missing my morning crossword, so will have to rely on stockpiled puzzles I didn’t have time to tackle when they appeared, but the day has started well otherwise with a newly acquired C.D. of ‘The History of Jazz’ Volume 1 – really cheery stuff.
I hope that the severe weather has not adversely affected you: for once, the North East has had a relatively easy time of it.
All best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
George Clements
Humbug!
TETRA unknown to me, but obvious from the clue. Odd how I find some “long” clues to be write-ins – INDIVIDUALISTIC – and others take time for the penny to drop – ORCHESTRA STALLS. ATHLETE a lovely clue. 1dn surely inappropriate for late December? I suppose it takes all sorts.
Merry Christmas!