Independent on Sunday 1054 by Quixote 25th April 2010
Posted by Handel on April 29th, 2010
Once again we solved this while on a rail-replacement bus service. Plently of good surfaces and very enjoyable overall. We felt that 2dn was particularly good. One unresolved point at 25ac – suggestions welcome as always.
ACROSS
1. DISCUS(s)
4. A SIAN S
9. A T TIRED
10. ACADEME (dame)* in ‘A CE’
11. B LIMP
12. MAKESHIFT (mask thief)*
13. DRESDEN CHINA cd
17. IN CON SIS TENT
20. CAMEL HAIR (meal)* in ‘chair’
22. NORTH (thorn)*
23. OR I F ICE
24. (a) VERSION
25. EC HO ES don’t quite get this: ‘traces of French art at the back of city house’ EC is city and H or perhaps HO is house, but about ‘French art’?
26. PRIMUS dd didn’t know this could be a bishop, but remarkably we had a copy of Chambers with us so this was easily confirmed!
DOWN
1. D (ET) AIL didn’t know ‘dail’ for parliament either, but the definition is clear and C confirmed the word
2. SCRAP IRON clue of the puzzle, this: ‘female becomes male if you do this? Matter of recycling’ Nothing too challenging, but an inventive approach to the clue
3. UNDOMESTICATED (deaden music OTT)*
5. S NAG S
6. A PERI TIF<
7. SPECTRAL dd
8. BACKSEAT DRIVER (verdict a brake’s)
9. ASBO hidden and reversed in ‘yob, say’
14. CO(NUN)D RUM
15. D IS CLOSE
16. SCAM PISH
18. TRAINS ‘strain’ with first letter moved to last
19. SHIN(e)
21. LO IRE
April 29th, 2010 at 9:59 am
In French “you are tall” is “vous être grand” but when “you” is a familiar person, I think, it is “tu es grand”.
Now, ‘art’ goes with ‘thou’ which is ‘you’, familiar, though archaic.
So art = are = es in French.
April 29th, 2010 at 10:13 am
I’m not surprised you had trouble at 25 across. Ridiculous and obscure!
April 29th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Thanks for the explanation, Rishi. That is a tough way of clueing ‘es’! Might have been nice to give some hint that ‘art’ was being used in an archaic sense in the clue, but I imagine that didn’t work well with the surface reading. Having recently set our first puzzle, we have a new-found sympathy when it comes to such things!
April 29th, 2010 at 10:46 am
I found this a bit tougher than usual for Quixote, esp that SE corner with PRIMUS, TRAINS, and SHIN. Just in case anyone does not fully understand SCRAP IRON Fe is the symbol for Iron.
That ‘French art’ = es would be familiar to solvers from way back, though one sees it less now. As Rishi has explained, you are = thou art = tu es.
Favourite clue, LOIRE.
DÁIL is the Irish equivalent of the House of Commons (pronounced Doyle).
April 29th, 2010 at 11:28 am
The use of the ‘french art’ thing is pretty widespread, so much so that it counts IMHO as a dead giveaway.
April 29th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
My sheltered life then Conrad, I’d never heard of it. I remember the chat about Araucaria’s ‘art lecturer’ definition for TEACHEST though.
April 29th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Though on the plus side, no recondite words!
April 30th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Although in 17 across I worked the answer out I still don’t get ‘tent’ = red wine. Not one I’ve encountered before.
April 30th, 2010 at 8:40 am
Just a question of which crossword cliches you know! We’ve certainly seen this one quite a bit though, along with ‘sack’.
Tent:(archaic) A kind of wine of a deep red colour, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain