I’m returning the compliment to Tim who stood in for me last week when I was away sampling the strudel and beer kellers.
Today we celebrate World Metrology Day with a measured puzzle having some labyrinthian qualities.
With well disguised definitions and some first class “lift and separates” this is a quality offering that may cause some difficulties. I had to work hard at itfor 30 minutes and only saw some of the parsing when writing the blog. Thanks to the setter
Across | |
---|---|
1 | DEBIT,CARD – DR-ACT-I-BED all reversed; |
6 | DUMBO – OB-MUD all reversed; OB=obit=died; DUMBO is an elephant; |
9 | TANKINI – TANKIN(g)-I; “take to the cleaners”=defeat heavily=tank; solved from definition and reverse engineered; |
10 | MUSKRAT – MUS(ARK reversed)T; |
11 | MIDAS,TOUCH – MI-DA’S-TOUCH; |
12 | VETO – VE(racruz)-TO(wnship); red light is definition; |
14 | STYLI – hidden (dyna)STY-LI(sted); |
15 | HOLD,COURT – HOT surrounds (could)*-R; |
16 | WITH,CHILD – WILD surrounds IT(H)CH; the proper phrase for up the duff etc.; |
18 | ARCED – A-RC-ED; RC=Roman Catholic; |
20 | OLID – OL(I)D; it means rank smelling; |
21 | REPRIMANDS – REP-RI(MAN)DS; carpets is definition; |
25 | TOBY,JUG – TO(B)Y-JUG; prison=JUG; “man getting drunk from” is definition; |
26 | OUTPACE – OUT-P-ACE; in bloom=OUT; parking=P; fine!=ACE!; |
27 | REDUX – RE(DU)X; from the French=DU; king=REX; brought back is definition; |
28 | ROYAL,GALA – (gaa + orally)*; gaa from G(u)A(v)A; eater is definition (it’s a type pf apple); |
Down | |
1 | DATUM – M(onitoring)-U(nit)-TAD all reversed; |
2 | BONE,DRY – (by drone)*; the definition refers to using hot air to dry something as in a hair dryer; |
3 | TRIP,SWITCH – TRIP-SWITCH; acid=LSD which gives the user a TRIP; rod=SWITCH; |
4 | AMIGO – (l)AM(p)-I-GO; have a crack=have a GO; china=friend=definition; |
5 | DOMICILED – DO(IM reversed)CILE-(roa)D; I’ll let the lawyers argue about domicile and residence; |
6 | DISH – three meanings 1=one who’s fetching (good looking); 2=receiver (as for Sky TV); 3=ruin=screw up; |
7 | MORCEAU – sounds like “morse o” which is – – -; |
8 | OUT,TO,STUD – OUT TO STUD(y); I love “serving in the field” – nice work if you can get it; |
13 | SCRAP,METAL – (smart place)*; estate=type of car; |
14 | SAW,DOCTOR – ROT-WAS reversed surrounds COD reversed; someone who services the teeth of a saw; |
15 | HEIDEGGER – HE-I’D-EG-G(E)R; ambassador=HE; say=EG; Greek=GR; Martin H 1889-1976 who pontificated about ontology; |
17 | TWIN,BED – DEBT reversed surrounds WIN=land; |
19 | CANTATA – CAN-TA-TA; |
22 | ROOMY – ROO-MY!; hopper=kangaroo; |
23 | SIENA – (sea in)*; |
24 | AJAX – sounds like “age (h)acks”; Achilles china; |
Two examples of how to do soundalikes in MORCEAU and AJAX that are, lets face it, more that a bit dodgy, that charm their way past the censor with cheerful enthusiasm. Both made me smile.
“Eater” as a definition in 28 took forever to drop its penny – our Tescos isn’t posh enough and only vends the proletarian variety.
And I learned, courtesy of crossing letters, how to spell Heidegger after all these years.
Too many good’ns to isolate a CoD. Well set – um – Setter. And well blogged, Jim!
Thank you, dorsetjimbo and the setter.
Everything parsed and understood before submitting except ROYAL GALA, an unknown apple for me. But I still felt pretty confident about it, testament to the sure-footedness of the setting.
So many ingenious clues, but OUT TO STUD made me laugh out loud so it’s an easy COD.
Thanks setter, thanks jimbo.
on edit: I see on the leaderboard a rare excursion into double figures for Magoo. Assuming he didn’t stop to make a cup of tea half-way through, this puzzle is officially hard
Edited at 2014-05-20 08:59 am (UTC)
Thanks to setter and Jimbo (especially for the full parsing of AJAX).
COD to 22D, for the reminder of my favoured mode of locomotion during childhood summers.
Too hard for me… definitely a goat in the great division…
Good stuff, well worth the effort; though I’ve heard of neither TANKINI nor “tanking”, other than in the context of a damp-proof liner for a cellar or in the expression “fairly tanking along”, which has almost the opposite meaning to that used in the clue.
I might have known the acid was a mind-altering substance; here was I trying to get “tart” into the answer. There must be quite a few ageing hippies on the team of setters, I guess.
There are good clues here but I agree with jackkt that this is probably a bit much for a weekday morning. Well blogged Jim.
This ex-Tax guy is not going to get started on the crucial differences between Domicile and Residence.
Nairobi Wallah
Time was terrible, of course, but I do enjoy the more difficult puzzles, provided I finish them. I admit not seeing what the literal could be in ‘Royal Gala’, but everything else was clear enough.
I don’t think we’ll be hearing from the beginners today, unless they drop by to lament.
I’m in the camp that enjoyed the challenge of this crossword. I like to feel that I’ve worked hard to squeeze the answers out. I also disagree with the comment about the variation in the difficulty – I have no problem with the puzzles ranging in difficulty from day to day.
Obviously a puzzle this tough was never going to please everyone, but I found the struggle well worth the effort (which isn’t always the case with the tougher daily puzzles – as always, I think, it’s that mysterious wavelength thing).
I didn’t know the apple, but otherwise there were no unknowns, so I think the puzzle proved so difficult because many definitions were so well disguised.
download for free.
Bit of a curate’s egg I thought – some clues were fiendishly clever, others I had absolutely no idea how to parse.
I used to think Tuesday’s were the easiest of the week.
I agree with anonymous that the scale of difficulty has recently much increased.
Mike and Fay
I got maybe a third of the way, and was feeling quite cheerful when my usual method for identifying philosophers (reciting Monty Python’s Philosopher’s Song) worked for 15d. For anyone not familiar with this invaluable aide memoir, it begins:
“Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.”
But, from there on, things went from bad to worse. Had it not been for an amusing, imaginative and original punting accident*, I would have ended the day grumpy.
(*for the record, when trying to stop a puntfull of people by pointing the pole forward and digging it into the riverbed, it is very inadvisable to have the top end of the pole anywhere near your mouth.)
p.s. re. [deezzaa]’s comment that “I used to think Tuesday’s were the easiest of the week.” – that may yet be the case.
Edited at 2014-05-20 09:55 pm (UTC)
I raise my hat to the setter of this brilliant puzzle – pretty well every clue was a delight. This was Championship final grade, so I’m not surprised that some people found it difficult, but experienced solvers do need something a little more testing occasionally.
Had never heard of a TANKINI, but guessed it following the delightful bikini and the hideous mankini. Is -kini the fashion equivalent of the journalistic -gate as an entirely silly suffix?
Thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.