Independent 7,347/Math
Posted by Ali on May 4th, 2010
Always a pleasure to land a puzzle by Math, who is one of my favourite setters in the Indy stable. You can always expect some music references and other assorted pop culture, as well as very nice clueing. 25D is my favourite here.
I do feel as though there might be something going on with the finished grid. There are plenty of short answers at the top and bottom, and STAR WARS appears on the bottom row, but I can’t make out any more than that.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FEAR – EA(ch) for D in FDR | |
| 4 | ANGER – [-B]ANGER | |
| 7 | HATE – H(enry) + ATE | |
| 9 | SUFFERING – ‘UFFER in SING | |
| 10/11/16 | THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – Got this more or less straight way, but I can’t quite figure out the anagram components. Any help welcome. | |
| 12/22 | LIGHT SABRE – (IT’S REAL GBH)* | |
| 13 | HERETO – (THREE)* + 0 | |
| 15 | ROOSTERS – O (love) in ROSTERS | |
| 17 | ITEMISED – (M + TEESSID[-e])* | |
| 20 | THEISM – THE (see 10A) + 1′S M(illion) | |
| 23 | INTEGERS – (SINGER + TE[-nors])* | |
| 26 | END – [-t]END | |
| 27 | OUTSOURCE – OUT (not in) + SOURCE (the beginning) | |
| 28 | STAR – STAR[BOARD], i.e. the right hand side on a ship | |
| 29 | OCEAN – Cryptic def. | |
| 30 | WARS – W(ith) + A(active) + R[-eligiou]S | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | EASED – (SEA)* + ED | |
| 3 | REFEREE – Cryptic def. | |
| 4 | AVERSIONS – A VERSIONS | |
| 5 | GRINDER – GRIN + RED rev. | |
| 6 | RIGA – RIG A | |
| 7 | HIT LIST – Cryptic def. | |
| 8 | TEE SHIRTS – (THERE SITS)* | |
| 14 | EXTRAVERT – EXTRA VERT | |
| 18 | MIRADOR – ([-a]RM[-y] + RADIO)* | |
| 19 | DINETTE – TEN rev. in (DIET)* | |
| 21 | EYEBROW – Cryptic def. This should help explain | |
| 24 | SHEAR – Hidden in caSH EARnings | |
| 25 | SOLO – [-w]OL[-f] in SO – A quite brilliant &lit. | |
May 4th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Enjoyed this too, not too hard. Anagram starts with ‘OK’ and ends with ‘noted’ in 10/11/16, I think
May 4th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
PS in OCEAN there is wordplay too, I think. ECO (reversed) (green rolling) AN.
May 4th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I feel the same. Lots going on, but can’t quite work out what.
There’s a few Star Wars references – The Dark Side, (Hans) Solo, Light Sabre
Ah ha! Googled Fear, Anger, Hate and got this:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080507193522AA2ZYU4
..More Star Wars
Don’t know why though – is there an anniversary?
May 4th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Thanks Ali,
I think the anagram in 10/11/16 is “OK he’s made hit for noted” (broadcast)*, with “obscure face on satellite” a further cryptic definition.
Do you think the first six acrosses are a cry for help?
(only alleviated slightly by the seventh).
*as nms says…
May 4th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
I remember now
“May the Fourth be with you”
May 4th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Oh, well done Peter.
May 4th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Ah, brilliant, well spotted.
May 4th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Dash it, I’d worked that out and was going to crow about it!
May 4th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
I especially liked the correct spelling of light sabre
May 4th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
I thought it was normally EXTROVERT . . .
May 4th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Perhaps someone can explain to me why exactly “did it” is ate and what is the point of all those dashes in 4 down ?
May 4th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Really enjoyed this one but I’m also puzzled by the dashes in 4 down. And where’s the definition of ‘star’ in 28 across?
May 4th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
I suppose it’s a sort of indirect definition of star i.e. something that when you put it on top of board, you get a word for right (on a ship).
May 4th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Chambers gives extravert as a variant of extrovert. No intravert though.
I was puzzled by the dashes in 4D too, but I guess it’s just to emphasise the typing of individual letters
May 4th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Thanks Ali. The theme was as usual a million miles over my head (I find Star Wars a bit prepubescent, but there you are). Enjoyed solving this one anyway, with a good variety of clues to keep you interested, and a curious mixture of easy-peasy and pretty tough.
Could 17ac be faulty? ITEMISED is not an anagram of TEESSIDE without the E, plus M. Or maybe I’m missing something.
May 4th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Peculiarly worded and punctuated, but I think you’re looking for M1 to be your motorway after excision of ES (clued ‘e’s). Then it works.
May 4th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Thanks, Paul, that makes more sense now.
May 4th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Hi NealH, Comment 11
I think, because of the ellipsis, ‘did it’ refers back to ‘nibbled’ in 4ac.
May 4th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
OK missed the wordplay on ocean and the link to May the Fourth even though my other half joked about it earlier today. Spent too long thinking about a recent wolf clue being lobo…
May 4th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Thanks, Eileen. I never really pay much attention to ellipses since they’re normally just there to make the surface reading work.
May 4th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Another minor and slightly pedantic criticism. The definition in 1 across seems to be “thing that scared him” and the answer is fear. Surely fear is the state of being scared rather than the cause. It’s a bit too tautological: it’s like saying “he was ill because he had an illness”.
May 4th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
… or ‘I can resist everything but temptation’!
May 4th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Isn’t 1 across referring to FDR’s quote that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”?
May 4th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Fair enough – I’d never heard the quote.
May 5th, 2010 at 12:37 am
When I finish a crossword and make lots of marks by the clues, that tends to mean that the clues are less than excellent. Not necessarily I suppose, it could be me, but I never make all these marks with Virgilius or Dac.
I made seven marks here, and in two of them it was my incompetence. In some of the others, well OK, but I wouldn’t have set such a clue. In 13ac what on earth is the point of ‘once’? The surface makes little sense with or without it. In 6dn is it that ‘Rig A’ is one’s first choice of equipment for sailing? If so then shouldn’t there be a question mark? Hardly a standard phrase. And in 8dn how do Geordies come into it?
May 5th, 2010 at 7:38 am
I can’t really see the point of ‘once’ in 13a, either. In 8d, the reference is to the reputation (deserved or not) that Geordies have for going out in all weathers without warm clothing. There’s some joke about the easiest job in the world being ‘cloakroom attendant in a Geordie nightclub’.
I found this puzzle very entertaining, though — not being a Star Wars fan — I too missed the anniversary reference.
May 5th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Your knowledge of North-Eastern fashion habits is impeccable, jetdoc! Newcastle FC fans also have an unpleasant habit of stripping to the waist in sub-zero conditions just to show how hard (or, imho, stupid) they are. Not usually a pretty sight.
May 5th, 2010 at 7:54 am
To be fair, it’s not an ‘anniversary reference’. ‘May the FOURTH be with you’ is an old gag reference.
May 5th, 2010 at 8:14 am
In 13 Across, the ‘once’ indicates that ‘hereto’ is flagged as an obsolete word for ‘hitherto’ in Collins. In the surface the idea was that three nil was a rare result which had reoccurred.
May 5th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Re comment 5 etc – so that’s why we got Virgilius a day early!