Guardian 24,790 – Logodaedalus
Posted by manehi on August 28th, 2009
Solving and blogging in a rush today – thankfully, I found it fairly easy with the exception of 24ac which I’m unsure on. Liked 4dn.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MASTERLY | (steam)* + RLY |
| 5 | PAMPAS | rev(SAP MAP) |
| 9 | DIATRIBE | rev(AID) + TRIBE |
| 10 | GLORIA | GLO[w] + rev(AIR) |
| 12 | ARENA | [k]AREN + A=”one” |
| 13 | UNORDERED | double def |
| 14 | CHRONOLOGIES | cryptic def |
| 18 | LOUIS BLERIOT | (bells)* around OUI + RIOT=violence |
| 21 | BELGRAVIA | (lager)* inside B + VIA=road |
| 23 | RHODA | RA[ce] around HOD |
| 24 | ADORED ? | =Loved, but not sure how the rest of it works. Guessed ATONED at first, but online cheat button confirms ADORED. |
| 25 | CHEERIOS | CHEES[e] around RIO |
| 26 | DRESSY | DR + ESS[a]Y |
| 27 | ODYSSEUS | [anyb]ODY’S + (uses)* |
| Down | ||
| 1 | MADCAP | ADC in MAP |
| 2 | SCARED | SCAR + ED |
| 3 | EARBASHES | =”Rabbits” in the sense of “chatters”. rev(brae) + ASHES=trees |
| 4 | LABOUR OF LOVE | Heh. |
| 6 | AILED | (a deli)* |
| 7 | PORTRAIT | PORT=wine + rev(TAR) around I=half of “it” |
| 8 | STARDUST | STAR=celebrity + DUST[in Hoffman] |
| 11 | COLOUR WASHED | a technique in faux painting, presumably using distemper. COLOUR=”go red” + WASHED=clean |
| 15 | ODOURLESS | O=Love + DOUR=forbidding + LESS=without |
| 16 | CLUBLAND | CLU[e] + BLAND |
| 17 | BULLDOZE | BULL + DOZE[n] |
| 19 | IODINE | I + O + DINE |
| 20 | PASSES | P + ASSES |
| 22 | REELS | double def |
August 28th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
24ac: ADO (trouble), RED (left, i.e, the Left), ‘loved and respected’ being the definition and ‘behind’, the position indicator.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Many thanks, Logodaedalus and Manehi.
I loved it. A great mixture of easier and harder ones: the former guiding the way to the latter.
I toyed for a time with MONOTONOUSLY for 14a.
Re 24a RED = someone politically LEFT, like a Commie.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Nice straightforward puzzle. Though I was slightly delayed by entering CHRONOLOGERS at 14ac. I was sure 7dn should be PORTRAIT but couldn’t see how it fitted!
August 28th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Thanks, manehi. I found this pretty easy, but had trouble with 7dn and 8dn and googled the checking letters to get the answers, which means I didn’t really ‘get’ them, although I should have done.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
enitharmon #3, I done exactly the same, and was held up for a few minutes by this. Also some clues (10ac, 23ac, 2dn et al) were so obvious/easy I hesitated to enter them at first!
Nick
August 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I think we may have found someone for the next time Rufus has a Monday off.
The online version has SCAAED. I am forbidden from saying what I think about that, but I guess you can make your own minds up. Why do the other versions never have such regular problems? Any ideas?
August 28th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
If this had been on a Monday there would have been complaints from the usual crowd that it was too easy! This was gentle enough to be more of a quiptic than a cryptic and very strange for a Friday.
Even so, manehi, 22 dn might be quite clever – isn’t it a dd and also River catches fish EELS?
August 28th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
“The online version has SCAAED.” How strange, it didn’t when I did it this morning and doesn’t now.
Ben
August 28th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I wonder what rightback’s solving time was for this?
4d delivery (giving birth) = labour + of + honey = (my) love.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
The online version has “SCARED” for me too.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Is it just me, or does anyone else have a problem with 22d.?
Def. fine, but where does the “S” come from in the wordplay?
It’s not riverS, so it must be “fish”(plural) = EELS?
In that case, where does CATCH come in?
August 28th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
My take is that R (river) is to catch (or to get) EELS (fish).
‘stumbles’ is the def and ‘into’ is connector.
The surface reading is smooth.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
OK Rishi, but I think “catch” as connecting word is a bit dodgy.
A containing indicator, fine, but….
August 28th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I don’t think it’s a DD either, Ian. The only ordering that seems likely is R + EELS, but the ‘into’ is slightly bizarre as link, and ‘to catch’ is hardly appropriate for the ‘plus’ in an X + Y (charade) equation. Maybe it’s a typo, and should have been – as I think you may be suggesting – ‘rivers’?
For ADO/ RED, I’d say ‘behind’ is somewhat redundant except that it favours the surface, and I’m sort of okay with adjectival usage, even without a capital, for the RED/ LEFT synonymy.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
The one that bothers me, if I’m going to nit-pick, is CHEERIOS. ‘Bye-bye’ is surely ‘Cheerio’. Where is the plural indicated?
August 28th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
‘Bye’ itself means ‘cheerio’ and ‘bye-bye’ gives ‘cheerios’!
August 28th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Liz
Bye-bye is plural.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Hi Rishi
Yet again we have crossed.
Don’t you think that we should stop meeting like this?
August 28th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Thanks! Another ‘doh’ moment today!
August 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Don’t know what time you lot looked but I was doing the online verion well before 7am, so it wouldn’t surprise me if you didn’t see the error all day if it was fixed early. Why would that be strange?
In case anyone is making unjustified insinuations (for which I will happily accept applogies), I’ve saved the image to a Word file which I will send to them.
August 28th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Wasn’t very certain about GLORIA for 10a (though it seemed all that would fit). To me AIR is more ‘show’ than ‘look’?
August 28th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for the help – I’m kicking myself over ADO + RED.. and R+EELS as well, “river” would have been completely redundant in my reading of it.
ray: AIR as in a quality something/someone possesses e.g. an air of mystery, which I suppose can be (partly) visual
August 28th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
ray: To add to the comment from manehi… “air” can be the noun “look” when it has the meaning “manner” or “appearance”. For “show”, you were probably thinking of its use as a verb.
August 28th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Found today’s pretty straightforward, although the regular use of actual parts of the definition in the answer (eg 23,25,26ac) is a bit irritating, as by default I’m inclined to look for something a bit more, well, cryptic.
I too dispute the fact that “bye bye” is plural. It’s synonymous with Cheerio singular, surely.
August 28th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Brian with an ‘I’
I’ve just done an audit and I can confirm that there are TWO byes in ‘bye bye’.
Bryan with a ‘Y’
August 28th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
11d
I don’t think that this has anything to do with faux painting or any other art technique. As Chambers says a colourwash is “a cheap form of distemper coating”. Distemper is a watery indoor paint.
August 28th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
BrIan/BrYan: You’re both right. Bye-bye is an alternative for Goodbye (singular) and Bye is short for Goodbye (also singular – which implies two would be plural – at least in a cryptic clue).
August 29th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
And now for something completely different:
Ref. the discussion on ‘bye bye = cheerios’ I remember years ago in the Listener xword, the definition to one clue was ‘his’… leading to the answer of ‘hellos’ – alas, I cannot remember the rest of the word play.
Nick
September 1st, 2009 at 2:49 am
A couple of queries:
26A: DRESSY: the clue is ‘Formal doctor’s written essay does not get an “A”‘. What’s the function of “written”?
16D: CLUBLAND – the definition “area of companionship” seems a bit weak to me. Am I missing something?
I liked 3D EARBASHES
September 1st, 2009 at 10:19 am
26ac I don’t know, to be honest: it may be an attempt to indicate the abbreviation whilst assisting the surface, but it seems a bit unnecessary. I can’t see how the cryptic grammar works for this one, which bothers me more.
16dn you may indeed have missed something, to wit that CLUBLAND – long before discos and nightclubs came along to hijack the term – is the area of London around St. James that contains many of the famous gentlemen’s clubs.
September 1st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Thanks Paul B.
26A: By cryptic grammar, I guess you’re referring to the possessive apostrophe in “doctor’s”. I’ve seen that redundant apostrophe a few times recently and, once again, seems to be there to assist the surface at the expense of the cryptic grammar.
16D: I did know about St James’s but only because I found a Wikipedia entry on ‘clubland’. But what’s the link between ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ and ‘companionship’? You can get companionship in many places – what’s so special about the companionship you get in gentlemen’s clubs? Is it superior to that gained in other venues? Or am I missing a nuanced definition of ‘companionship’?