Independent 6645/Morph
Posted by neildubya on February 8th, 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | FAST FOOD – I think this could be considered an oxymoron because fasting means not eating at all. |
| 9 | NET,(LET)* – “stingy” is made all the more deceiving because of the money reference in “tax deducted”. |
| 10 | W,HIP – in Parliament, a WHIP is a note sent to MPs requesting their attendance to vote on a particular issue. The definition in the clue – “Persuade MPs” – suggests that it can also be used as a verb. |
| 11 | FRIEDMAN – first name Milton, and an economist, like J.M.Keynes. |
| 13 | SNITCH – for those who have managed to avoid the books and films, Harry Potter plays a game called Quidditch; one of the objects of the game is to capture a small flying gold-coloured ball called the SNITCH. Doing so ends the game, I believe. |
| 14 | ARNI[-e],CA – Good clue, with a great surface reading. |
| 18 | WAS A BI |
| 27 | MORPH in (ATOMISES)* – METAMORPHOSIS. One of our Australian readers told me recently that the Independent crossword is syndicated to his state paper but with one detail missing – they don’t publish the name of the setter. So the “me” in this clue won’t mean much to him (or people solving the clue online) but it’s a common enough word and the wordplay is straightforward so hopefully it wouldn’t have stopped anyone from solving the clue. |
| Down | |
| 3 | EGOS – I liked this one a lot: “When they clash, you’ll ‘ear either ____ or I go!” EGOS sounds like “‘e goes”. |
| 4 | UNDER THE WEA(THE)R – this is very nicely done: “ill fitting” looks like the definition but it’s actually definition plus a key wordplay element. |
| 12 | BUTS (reversed) |
| 15 | (MAY DREAD)* – DAYDREAM. |
| 17 | (BOW OAR T)* – ROWBOAT. “All found at sea” seems to be doing double-duty as the anagram indicator and definition, unless I’m missing something. |
| 19 | BACCHUS – “back us”. |
| 20 | A,DON,IS – the previous clue had “God, he’s drunk” for the definition and this one has “God, he’s gorgeous…” |
| 22 | LOC[-k],UM |
February 8th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Adonis – reminds of quite a nice clue, Guardian I think: Dish cooked in soda…
February 8th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
ROWBOAT It’s a &lit, I think (bow, oar, t – stern of it)* with “at sea” indicating the anagram and the whole clue giving the definition.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Thoroughly enjoyed this one – made me laugh / groan several times. Thanks for explaining 13ac – knowing nothing at all about Harry Potter, I was trying to do something with ‘witch’…
February 9th, 2008 at 12:11 am
I’m sure some of us just want to do
Beautiful young man said no to cock (6)
but you know how it is.
Nice puzz, brother Morph.
February 9th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Has anyone else noticed that in today’s Independent the Friday solution space is blank?
Trick by the compiler or just a mistake?
(Mistake more likely, although blank solutions to puzzles are not unknown. See my (mainly) puzzle Resolution by Alligator, a Listener which appeared in October 2007)
Al
February 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Regarding 10 across, a whip is a party official who uses fair means or (more usually) foul to persuade their party’s MPs to vote for it against their better judgement, and whip can also be used as a verb to describe what a whip does. Neil is right that whip also refers to the note sent to MPs telling them how to vote.