Guardian 24315/Orlando – about midnight
Posted by ilancaron on February 19th, 2008
Well, according to my local clock it’s still today Tuesday. So by the letter of the law, this isn’t late. I like Orlando’s clean Ximenean sensibility which means precise, albeit sometimes surprising clues. This puzzle was no exception. Not sure about a couple of defs, but I trust someone to illuminate.
Across
| 8 | DEEP DOWN – ref. County DOWN and I suppose DEEP can be cunning. Not sure what “fundamentally” is doing though despite appearances. |
| 9 | ENROL – hidden rev in “chancelLOR NEedlessly”. |
| 10 | O(R[eall]Y)X – oddly enough, I chose an ORYX as my desktop background on a new Vista installation today. |
| 12 | GAFFE,R – Brit slang for a foreman. |
| 15 | INGRATE – tearing* – I suppose that “like Cinders” is our anagrind. So thanks to comments, “off” is our anagrind and “like Cinders” describes their location: IN GRATE. Nice clue. |
| 17 | A,D(V)ANCE – nice clue since there’s probably a Charleston in VA. Note the precision of “leader from Virginia” for V. |
| 20 | [w]ES[t],PRESS,O – more Americana — Ohio is normally abbreviated as OH but can be just O (unlike Virginia!). Perhaps after all purists would argue with “Midwest” indicating ES though. |
| 22 | SETTLE – must be a SETTLE in Yorkshire. |
| 23 | GOBS,TOPPER – I think a GOBSTOPPER is a v. large sweet spherical object one inserts in one’s mouth to provide a challenge for one’s molars. |
| 24 | B,RAW – splendid clue since it’s Scotch (21D) for splendid! Pointed out in comments that SCOTCH is not quite Scots… |
| 25 | CHECK – an American cheque. |
| 26 | ID,ES(ALI)ST – That is, Mohammed ALI in ID EST. |
Down
| 1 | PEAR,MAIN – not excited by this really, probably since I’d never heard of the PEARMAIN apple. |
| 2 | APEX – two meanings but the second: “Top fare”? The second kind of APEX is in fact a Brit train fare. Thanks to comments… |
| 3 | NO,T FAR=rev(raft, on) |
| 4 | ON, GREEN DOLPHIN S,T(RE)ET – I’ve actually read the Faulks book so I recognized the jazz allusion and ref. the TET offensive in I think 1967?? My wordplay is a bit fanciful actually. It’s really GREEN DOLPIHNS in (to enter)*. Again thanks to comments! |
| 6 | PROTEST,A,NT – spotter* |
| 7 | FLY,ING FORTRESSES – FLY as in sly or “knowing” followed by (Forest singers)* — rather doubtful surface frankly. |
| 18 | CO(LLA=rev(all))PSE |
| 21 | SCOTCH – two meanings. |
| 24 | BOLT – and we end with another double definition. |
February 19th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Is it the done thing for someone else to step in in this situation?
February 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I did it once Amnesiac and didn’t get too much stick. Here’s my contribution.
24ac: BRAW from B(ishop)+ RAW. A Scots/Scottish word for fine or brave. But 21dn is a dram and not the same as Scots or Scottish!
February 19th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I’ve got to dash out right now, so nothing from me other than to say I did it but had to resort to Googling for “jazz green street” for the long combined clue. I’d never heard of it. Does that make me a philistine or is this an obscure reference to others as well?
February 19th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
The Jazz clue was nearly my last, but I did manage to get it without Mr Google!
February 19th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I’d never heard of it either, Amnesiac – the wordplay wasn’t too difficult after I had a few checking letters though. Had most problems with the “knowing” part of the 7/13d clue.
Nice puzzle, I liked 6d and 26a.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
The idea of the placeholder is to allow others to discuss the puzzle as they normally would rather than for commenters to produce the blog themselves. As Ilan said, he’ll post the full blog later this evening.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Sorry, Neildubya. Hope I didn’t overstep the mark.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
No, not at all.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
4,19,22 is a book by Sebastian Faulks I have but have never read, but knew enough of the setting to get the answer.
I had NEAT for 24ac… “naked for scotch (21)” being neat, splendid also meaning neat (as in “that’s neat”), and there was also another 3 parter (15: def, cryptic and anagram), so I sort of guessed this was one too, and there was some Bishop Neat of which I did not know. Oh well.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:04 am
I was pleased to complete this-even if the solving time was longer than i might have liked, but I did miss the Blog, as there were a few solutions I didn’t fully get:
26a that is =ie, the remainder i’m not sure about
7,15d New ‘forest’= anagram, but I don’t understand where the rest comes from: I thought of the flying pickets-an acapella group?
February 20th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Hillclimber – ie is in full id est; Ali is the boxer. Fly is knowing or sly – that leaves ‘ing fortresses’ which makes singers part of the anagram with forest.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:53 am
26a – that is = i.e. which stands for ID EST, around ALI = boxer gives IDEALIST
7/13d, new (forest + singers), after “fly” for “knowing”, gives FLYING FORTRESSES, an American (I think) bomber plane
I considered NEAT for 24 having got 21 and ??A?, but then I got 24d which clashed, and put B RAW from the wordplay.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:56 am
sorry for repeating you, Petero, I took a while to post my comment and yours hadn’t appeared at the time.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:05 am
2a – An APEX fare is an advanced far on our wonderful train service. Apex and Super Apex used to allow you cheap travel if you booked far enough in advance.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:47 am
4 – I think this is GREEN DOLPHINS in (TO ENTER)*, “fray” is the anagrind, while “about” puts ON TREET about the “inexperienced swimmers”
15 – surely “off” is the anagrind… where could you find cinders?
February 20th, 2008 at 9:16 am
8 – The “fundamentally” is part of the literal definition, i.e. “fundamentally, despite appearances” = “deep down”. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it does add to the feeling of depth…
15 – “like Cinders?” is a punnish secondary definition, alluding to “in grate”.
17 – Charleston is in West Virginia, but close enough
22, 23 – Your suppositions are correct…
24 – As Muck’s pointed out, not quite so splendid as Scotch is a drink, not a language…
February 20th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Sorry – failed to notice that Manehi had already explained 15. That was too subtle for me – I’m not a morning person
February 20th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Are there not simply two ways of tackling the SI at 15? There’s an anagram, and a charade: being IN/ GRATE is being ‘like cinders’.
Cinderella isn’t an ingrate, but a heroine persecuted for her virtue, according to my enquiries.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Thanks Petero & Manehi for explaining those definitions-all in all a good puzzle
I solved “on green dolphin street” by the solved letters, though i must have been vaguely familiar with the name, though not from the Faulkes book, which i didn’t know about.
It appears to be a jazz standard, recorded by Miles Davies & John Coltrane,(probably where i remember it from) amongst others, & a novel & film, so plenty of scope there……………
February 20th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
It was this version by Chick Corea that I had the great good fortune to stumble over while surfing the phrase last night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NeIj1NwKvA
February 20th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
About Scotch: Chambers English Dictionary 1988, which is generally good on Scots usage, has “Scotch (adj) a form of Scottish or Scots, in common use even among Scottish dialect speakers, though disliked or resented by many Scotsmen”.