Independent 7522/Dac
Posted by John on November 24th, 2010
The usual excellence from Dac today. Such smooth surfaces, and he clues everything so seamlessly and neatly. A couple I don’t understand, but they will no doubt be explained.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | VOCALISTS — (cov{e})rev. A-list |
| 5 | SEEN TO — “scene two” |
| 9 | WAR DANCE — d{river} in (a new car)* |
| 10 | SCRAP E |
| 12 | LEND AN EAR — Len Dan (are)* |
| 13 | EVEN T |
| 14 | BREAD AND BUTTER — what this (or bread and butter pudding) has to do with a guest house I can’t see: is it something to do with the fact that they are both B & B? |
| 17 | LOST ONE’S THREAD — (the old senators)* |
| 21 | BIBLE — b in (Eli b)rev. |
| 22 | TH(RASH)ING |
| 24 | OPENER — op (Rene)rev. |
| 25 | CINEASTE — (in case ET)*, lovely semi &lit. |
| 26 | AS TUTE{e} |
| 27 | M(EAT {Frenc}H {chees}E)AD — didn’t know this word but presumably it means a fool |
| Down | |
| 1 | V O WELS{h} |
| 2 | C(OR ONE)R |
| 3 | ItaLIAN Alps |
| 4 | SECRET AGENTS — gen in (Tasers etc)* |
| 6 | EXCHEQUER — “ex checker” I think, with ‘finances’ the definition |
| 7 | NE(ARE)ST |
| 8 | OVERT URE — the Ultravox singer is Midge Ure (had to check this as you might expect) |
| 11 | P(RE D)ET ERMINE — here the ermine is fur rather than animal fur |
| 15 | {l}A(TONE)MENT — although Ian McEwan wouldn’t be best pleased for his work to be called a film. The original work was a book. |
| 16 | C(L)UBS OD A |
| 18 | SUB JE(C)T |
| 19 | AT ISSUE — (ties USA)* |
| 20 | AGREED — I can’t understand this: it seems to be (vintage red – vint)* with fine=agreed |
| 23 | S(WE)AT |
November 24th, 2010 at 5:22 am
Thanks for the blog, John and Dac for another fine offering.
14A BREAD AND BUTTER, the closest I can get to explanation is: READ [=mostly prep(ared)*] in B AND B (=guest house) + UTTER (=say), though I still have a reservation in that “ared” is only half and not mostly of “prepared”.
6D EXCHEQUER I think is an &lit with the definition being “one who audits finances”.
20D AGREED I think RE [=re(d), no end] with “drunk” to indicate it’s within AGED (=vintage). “Fine” as in a response to someone telling you eg. to do something.
MEATHEAD I think is an Americanism, most commonly used by Archie Bunker, the American spin-off of Alf Garnett, to describe his son-in-law, in the TV series “All in the family”. The word presumably stems from “dead from the neck up”.
Favourites were 25A CINEASTE, 6D CINEASTE, both nice &lits, and 18D SUBJECT, with its not often used equivalents of “transport”.
November 24th, 2010 at 5:27 am
PS. Apologies, I withdraw my comments about 6D EXCHEQUER being an &lit. Your definition is totally correct. Feel a bit of a 27A now.
November 24th, 2010 at 5:39 am
PPS. Of course! 14A BREAD AND BUTTER, “mostly prepared” = READ(y). Duh!
November 24th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Thanks for the blog, John, and Dac for the excellent puzzle. Just a little trickier than usual for Dac, I agree with scchua’s explanations of BREAD AND BUTTER and AGREED both of which I too worked out first from the definitions.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Many thanks, John. Fine puzzle – like nms, I found it a bit harder than normal, but it was all eminently gettable and more important, very enjoyable. SEEN TO and BREAD AND BUTTER were my favourites today.
November 24th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Bread and butter is very good when you see it. Like John, I was thinking it was something to with B&B. I also liked the excellent surface in 4 down.
November 24th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Surely 6D is defined by “Report of” so the homophone of ex – checker is correct – at least that’s how I got it, and the meaning is finances, hence exchequer, so I think John was right?
November 24th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Hi IanJ, I think you’re right; that’s certainly how I read the clue and John’s parsing is correct as far as I can see. Not sure there’s much of an &lit about it. But belated thanks to scchua for explaining AGREED, which I couldn’t see.
November 24th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Completely missed the cryptic stuff in BnB, otherwise got agreed as Scchua. An enjoyable wednesday puzzle over lunch. Thanks John for blog/DAC for puzzle.
December 15th, 2010 at 3:14 am
In 14AC, the “read” is supplied by mostly prepared = “read[y]“.