Comments on: Guardian 24376 Araucaria -”Inconsiderate Service Order”

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:30:32 +0000

Well, as you said earlier, thank Goodness this is still ‘Araucaria’s day’, with a return to some humour. The last one I wrote in was 13ac!

Andrew, does it matter that 1ac and 25ac don’t have a life of their own? [They do balance one another rather nicely.] Thanks for your explanation of 17dn.

By: stan

stan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:27:26 +0000

I may have to apologise about being so sniffy about “PG”=”Paying Guest” which does seem to be a current abbreviation. The problem is that I have only ever come across the term (a) in previous Araucaria crosswords and (b) in Wallace & Gromit’s “The Wrong Trousers”

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:43:43 +0000

A very easy puzzle for Araucaria, I thought. Can’t add anything to excellent explanations from Stan and previous bloggers.

So a comment about 21a: the CIVIL YEAR was a secular, not church, time period (as the name implies), although it traditionally started on a religious festival – the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on 25 March (the visit from the angel Gabriel, obviously timed to be exactly 9 calendar months before Christmas). By the time the Gregorian calendar was finally adopted in Britain in 1752, the old Julian calendar was 11 days ‘behind’ (in terms of dates of solstices etc) so 11 days were skipped in September 1752 in order to bring the calendar back on track. So as not to have a short year. the start of the civil year was also moved forward 11 days to 5 April in 1753. It was again moved forward by one day in 1800, which didn’t have a leap day (following Gregorian rules), but no correction was made for 1900. That is why the tax year starts on the apparently random 6 April – one of the few relics of this old system.

By: Octofem

Octofem — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:44:38 +0000

12 ac – _Sorry: my first comment and I was carried away. Was thinking of Macho from another puzzle! Must do better.

By: Octofem

Octofem — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:32:45 +0000

12 ac -Tambo is also a small bongo drum, making less noise than the larger one.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:00:14 +0000

12ac – the “jingly drum” is actually spelt Tambourine, so TAMBO really is exactly half of it. (With the second half perhaps giving scope for a less tasteful clue…)

By: John Ridge

John Ridge — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:37:33 +0000

23ac – TOPI is the sahib’s pith helmet (more often spelt TOPEE?)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:20:47 +0000

Oh, and 17dn: I thought the AR was the “opening” of “article”, in addition to the article=A in CHIC.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:18:56 +0000

Oops – “..phrase on its OWN,…”, that should be.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:18:13 +0000

9ac – the extra R is from R for Recipe = take (as in medicine).
14ac – DEAR BRUTUS: a play by J M Barrie, DE(from) + R in ARBUTUS

I’m not sure about 1ac and 25ac – does either of them exist as a phrase on its on, without DISTINGUISHED?