Guardian 24426/Arachne – TGIF
Posted by ilancaron on June 27th, 2008
Some tough stuff here that had me using Chambers (not something I like to do on a Friday morning getting ready for work but I tend to have a bit more time). Bit of a disheartening experience discovering I didn’t know what SPINNERET (Arachne spinning her web?), BREADHEADS and CAVATINA meant — nor a couple of unusual meanings for ALSO and GRAM. Good clues though with surfaces that held together nicely. And I feel a barrage of explanations about to descend for all the things I didn’t understand.
Across
| 1 | C(HA,’S,T)ITY – Can’t explain the HA though. | |
| 5 | SCARAB – hidden in “genuS CARABus” and might be an &lit (is the SCARAB in the CARABUS genus?) | |
| 9 | MASTODONS – (and so most)* | |
| 11 | VAL(U)E | |
| 12 | DISHEARTENED – I think this is a double definition with the first one being cryptic and the other def “down”. However, there might be some wordplay going on that escapes me: e.g. SHEAR,TEN in DIED?? | |
| 15 | LEA[r]N – good misleading surface: def is just “lean”. | |
| 16 | F,ONT=not*,AN,ELLE – needed Chambers to check that FONTANTELLE is the soft spot on the skull of an infant. | |
| 18 | THREEPENNY – tough clue: needed all the crossing letters to work this out: vulgar as in “The Threepenny Opera” and it’s an old coin (octagonal I think?). | |
| 19 | [g]US,ED – not sure about the wordplay: should the clue have been “Employed boys who’re no good?” | |
| 21 | CAVEAT=vacate*,EMPTOR=(pro tem)* | |
| 24 | AB,ASH=has* | |
| 25 | SPINNERET – it’s the part of a spider that knows how to spin (a web). But the rest? “Fly, oddly, only eats part of spider”. | |
| 26 | STA(I)RS – Pegasus is a constellation, and flight as in flight of STAIRS. | |
| 27 | STOCKMAN – two meanings. |
Down
| 1 | COMB – two meanings | |
| 2 | ALSO – hidden in “hospitAL SOmetimes” — turns out that Chambers always says ALSO is archaic “item”. | |
| 3 | T(R)OPIC – ref. TROPIC of Cancer e.g. | |
| 4 | TOOTHSOMENESS – (one’s smoothest)* | |
| 6 | CAVA,TINA – had to look this up… yes, it’s a kind of melody. | |
| 7 | RELENT,LESS – nice charade with a convincing surface. | |
| 8 | BREAD=(are, bd)*,HEADS – Brit slang for the money obsessed. | |
| 10 | STARTING, POINT – ref. to start from “scratch” — and I imagine one of the 9000 meanings of POINT is “sting”. | |
| 13 | PLUTO,C,RATS | |
| 14 | LA, TR(A,VI)AT,A – might be an &lit if I knew the plot of LA TRAVIATA but it sounds plausible as is! I think the wordplay is: A,VI (few?) in rev(tart). But I could be wrong. | |
| 17 | METAPHOR – (map, other)* | |
| 20 | CO,G,NAC=rev(can=tin) – G for general but… how does pot give us OC or CO? | |
| 22 | GRAM=rev(marg=margarine) – chickpea (didn’t know this… checked Chambers). |
June 27th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Eagerly awaiting the analysis. This was a wonderful crossword. I was delighted by the very high level of surface readability of the clues and the thumbnail opera plot summary was both accurate and hilarious!
June 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
12ac: I think “down” is the definition, and if “disheartened” is disheartened the result is “died”.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
20d: can is a tinpot, and goc is General Officer Commanding.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
25ac: maybe spinner (fisherman’s lure) is a fly, and “e” and “t” are the only odd letters in “eats”.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
1ac: I took ‘s as being abbreviation of ‘HAS’, which I thought was rather clever [the clue, I mean1]
June 27th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
19a US is an abbreviation of useless: so boy who’s no good is US ED
June 27th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I agree with John about 12ac & 25ac, and with Eileen about 1ac. Certainly some very devious clues here, though also a few easy ones to get a foothold with.
The old threepenny bit was actually 12-sided – ah, for the days when it was worth something! I used to take a one-stop train journey to school on what is now the Tyne & Wear Metro; the single fare was 3d, but bizarrely there was also an off-peak return for 2d.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Just a couple of questions:
7d: How is “not able” (or “not able to be”) “less”?
23d: Is there a superfluous “w” in the wordplay of this clue, or am I missing something?
Re 14d, the clue is an accurate (if somewhat abbreviated) summary of the plot of La Traviata.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Amnesiac – I was about to agree with you on 23dn, but looking at it again I suppose it’s “Regularly mention” = ETO, plus N=New.
I do share your puzzlement about 7dn, unless it’s an obscure meaning (I don’t have Chambers to hand to check).
June 27th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I think u/s is probably an abbreviation of ‘unserviceable’.
The HAS (along with IS and even WAS) for ‘S is a technique as far as I am aware limited to Guardian puzzles.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
20D GOC is General Officer Commanding
18A I’m surprised no-one has challenged Ilancaron’s assumption that threepenny is something to do with the opera.
It’s vulgar because it’s schoolboy slang for tits (threepenny bits)!
June 27th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Amnesiac 23D The answer is Eton. Starting from the “e” of mention it is the alternate letters ending with the N of New College. The W is irrelevant
June 27th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
5a – just noticed the question. No, as far as I can tell, the Carabus genus is not a genus of any variety of scarab beetle, but it is a beetle genus.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Shirley – I got the answer, I just felt it was poor wordplay if the alternation produced 5 letters of which the last had to be discarded without explanation. However, I believe Andrew’s suggestion earlier is what was intended as that works correctly.