Independent 6894/Dac
Posted by John on November 19th, 2008
As always with Dac, clue after clue hits the button.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SUBJECT — 2 defs |
| 5 | DA(STAR)D — although the similar word with a different initial letter has a similar meaning, at least in one sense, there seems to be no etymological connection between the two |
| 9 | A (learne)R GOT |
| 10 | ROLLING I N |
| 11 | PORTRAIT GALLERY — (RA it) in (port (largely)*) |
| 12 | E YEW ASH |
| 14 | THEATRE — a lecture theatre and a general word for lots of plays, but I’m not sure — this seems a bit thin |
| 16 | TITANIC — (Tati)* Nic(e) |
| 19 | RIG H(T)E’D |
| 21 | P(ub) RE SUP-POSITIONS |
| 23 | LEICESTER — (I select)* (stal)e (chedda)r |
| 24 | A(narchic) G(angs) G(et) R(ollicking) O(ver) |
| 25 | THERMAL(s) |
| 26 | EX AC T(e)L(l)Y |
| Down | |
| 1 | S(NAPPIES)T |
| 2 | BOGARDE — “beau guard” |
| 3 | (r)ENTER — no sloppiness here — Dac makes sure we remove the first and not the second r |
| 4/5 | TURKISH DELIGHT — (kid the girl shut)* |
| 6 | SPIEL BERG |
| 7 | AUGMENT — Aug “meant” |
| 8 | DINKY — to my surprise this (double income no kids) is in Chambers 2003, also the COD (but not Collins). I’d always thought the y stood for yet, but not apparently. |
| 13 | AD NAUSEAM — (Sue Amanda)* |
| 15 | END O(f) S(urgeon) COPY |
| 17 | TIE LINE — “Thai line” |
| 18/19 | CAPITAL RESERVE I think, in that London is the capital and to reserve is to book, but I can’t find the term in any of the dictionaries |
| 20 | T(HOUGH)T — a rare occurrence of an unusual word (hough), at any rate in an unusual spelling, but the lovely surface justifies this |
| 21 | PI LOT |
| 22 | CenTRAL America |
November 19th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
14A I read as “Here a lecturer works and [here] plays” as in, “here you would find plays”.
11A I still can’t quite see how the insertion is indicated. Is it “fixed”? If so then in what sense does “fix” mean to insert.
8D I initially read this as “Dainty”=definition, “woman, say,”=DI, “with no children”=NKY (short for “No Kids Yet”) but I thought it a bit weak as I thought NKY only existed as “No Kids Yet” as part of the DINKY acronym. I now realise it’s supposed to be a double def though.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Testy
One of the definitions for ‘fix’ in Chambers is ‘to drive in’ so ‘fixed’ becomes ‘driven in’ or ‘inserted’.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Great puzzle. Only vague quibbles are with two clues mentioned already: DINKY- never heard of the acronym.
In PORTRAIT GALLERY, “has” fits rather awkwardly with the syntax. Clue is: “Exhibition centre left largely untidy- artist has it fixed”.
I think it would be better as: “Exhibition centre left largely untidy- artist having it fixed”.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Excellent puzzle – I really enjoyed this.
Does this sense of “eyewash” have any relation to “hogwash”? I hadn’t heard that meaning before.
November 20th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Ahem! Uncle Yap is about to reveal a dark secret (please do not tell John Cleese) … yes, he is a Chartered Accountant and “capital reserve” is an accounting/financial term meaning
Resource created by the accumulated capital surplus (not revenue surplus) of a firm, such as by an upward revaluation of its assets to reflect their current market value after appreciation. Allocating such sums to capital reserve means they are permanently invested and will not be paid as dividends.
In short, it is a store of the corporate wealth