Independent 7239/Glowworm
Posted by John on December 29th, 2009
How lucky I am. Yesterday’s Anax took me absolutely ages, and that was with a paper copy in front of me, which always makes it a little easier. Preparing to do this online shortly after midnight I feared the worst, but in fact it was a mild and pleasant crossword from Glowworm themed around 1ac.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | THE WIZARD OF OZ — the = article, expert = wizard (old slang?), oz. = little weight |
| 9 | AK(EL)A — ref boy scouts and Kipling’s Jungle Book |
| 10 | G(A RIBALD)I |
| 11 | ENSHRINED — (dinners he)* |
| 12 | EVIAN — (naive)rev. |
| 13 | T IN MAN — ‘blotke’ can be seen as ‘t in man’, another W of O reference |
| 14 | ESTRANGE — (sergeant)* |
| 17 | {l}END(US)ERS |
| 20 | EDITED — (tide)rev. ed |
| 23 | crypT OR CHancel |
| 25 | SCARECROW — (cowers)* around car — I hadn’t realised that scarecrow had this meaning, but perhaps it doesn’t and it’s just that a scarecrow is inanimate. Anyway, another W of O reference. |
| 26 | TOTTERING — tot (rig net)* |
| 27 | KNAVE — kn (Eva)rev. I think, with ‘ties’ simply meaning combines/links/puts together |
| 28 | YEAR IN YEAR OUT — 2 defs, one of them referring to the fact that Thursday night is New Year’s Eve |
| Down | |
| 1 | TEAK {s}ETTLE — ‘going into’??? |
| 2 | EMERS{I}ON |
| 3 | IN ARREARS — “inner ears” |
| 4 | ANGINA — (ana{gg}ing)* |
| 5 | DORADOS — (sod a rod)rev. |
| 6 | FABLE — if you get rid of ‘oak’ from ‘of a bleak’, this is what you are left with |
| 7 | Z(ILL)ION |
| 8 | LION — the girl rising from 7 (zillion) is Liz, and this is another W of O reference |
| 14 | gEtLoSt — Ernie Els is a pretty good golfer but crossword setters are particularly fond of him. He often appears in the Azed Slip. I don’t like clues of the form [wordplay] with [def], although [def] with [wordplay] is OK. In the first case what does the ‘with’ actually mean? |
| 15 | RU(DBE)CK 1 A{laddin} |
| 16 | ENDOWMENT — (women tend)* |
| 18 | DO ROTH {Hard}Y — references yet again to the W of O and to Philip Roth |
| 19 | {d}ROSS IN {su}I{te} — I think probably, although why the dross is godforsaken I’m not sure |
| 21 | TORN A DO — and another — I’m never very happy with definitions of this type (phrases without a subject) — recently Azed tried to justify some of them but I couldn’t see what he meant. To me they simply seem inadequate. |
| 22 | TANGLY — (at Glyn)* |
| 23 | TOT O — and another |
| 24 | HYENA — “hi Ena” |
December 29th, 2009 at 4:53 am
Hi, I found this much tougher than you did, and eventually turned to your remarkably early post in order to finish it off, so well blogged
25 – Scarecrow is “brainless” in the context of this particular book/film. He’s in search of a brain, much like the other chaps are in search of, well, other stuff.
19 – I similarly wondered about [d]ROSS, but Chambers has D for Deus/God so “Godforsaken” does work quite nicely.
Thanks for explaining FABLE and “Blotke”, would never have understood those without your help.
December 29th, 2009 at 4:53 am
Hmm, and I wonder how many readers can recall the names of the lion, scarecrow and tin man without turning to Wikipedia?
December 29th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Yes Simon, The Scarecrow in the film is brainless, similarly The Tin Man is heartless and The Lion is spineless. Nice linking.
December 29th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Everyone on night shift or in a different time zone last night?
Since we’re in the middle of rehearsing Wizard of Oz for our village pantomime I didn’t have much excuse to not finish this one. After yesterday, was pleased to get there, with just one or two I didn’t understand, so thank you, John for the early blog. I thought it was a well-constructed puzzle with a good variety of clues. I especially liked DORADOS, which was last to go in and made me laugh out loud.
Right, off to watch a bit of England thrashing the Saffers all around the park in Durban!
December 29th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I think the definition comes ‘with’ the wordplay just as the wordplay comes ‘with’ the definition. It makes no difference to me. With the puzzle I would also say ‘mild and pleasant’.
December 29th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Did not find it quite as easy as John, tho being familiar with the film certainly helped. My favourite clue was also DORADOS.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
good to see you on here kathryn’s dad. positions eversed! my first try at the indy, and finished it but needed the blog for some which i didn’t totally understand. dorados i got from the crossing letters eg and saw Rod but not the rest.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Easier than other Gloworms i’ve done but got stuck on top left corner.
6 ac. fable is also a hidden word: tale o(f a ble)ak tree; there is no hidden word indicator so was this by chance, and unnoticed?
I was also hunting for a river/lake evilo (olive rev). there isn’t one.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
I got FABLE on first run through seeing the letters. I think John tho is totally right in his explanation which I only understood after. So no hidden word indicator is needed, I think.