Independent 7,683 / Dac
Posted by RatkojaRiku on June 1st, 2011
Owing to a mix-up over dates on my part, I missed my last Wednesday blog four weeks ago (and thus my opportunity to blog a Dac puzzle), and I think I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms. What a pleasant feeling it is as a blogger to be able to enjoy solving a puzzle AND to know that when it comes to writing the blog, you will be able to present the reader with a set of reliably parsed solutions!
The entries that I struggled most with today were at 3 and 13: with 13 I just couldn’t get Little Red Riding Hood out of my head, while with 3, although I spotted the second word easily, the first word proved highly elusive, since both “bound” and “milk” change their grammatical form surface reading to wordplay.
I very much appreciated the surface readings in 1, 2 and above all 5. My favourite, however, was 23: I guessed the answer from the letters, but was foxed by “leaves” for a long time, as I did not spot yet another change in part of speech.
*(…) indicates an anagram
| Across | ||
| 1 | COSH | COS (SOC=society; “in recession” indicates reversal) + H (=hard, as in HB pencils) |
| 3 | HOUSE PARTY | [USE (=milk, as a verb, i.e. exploit) in HOP (=bound, as a verb/noun, i.e. jump)] + ARTY (=cultured) |
| 9 | ERSE | Hidden in “… writERS Especially …”; “used by” indicates hidden answer. |
| 10 | TARANTELLA | [RAN (=organised) in TATE (=art venue, i.e. gallery in London)] + LLA (ALL=everybody; “doing the twist” indicates reversal) |
| 11 | PREACHINESS | <m>ACHINE (=powerful group, as in the Communist machine; “deposing leader” means first letter dropped) in PRESS (=newspapers) |
| 15 | INDIE | IN (=much favoured, i.e. popular, fashionable) + D (=daughter) + I.E. (=that is, id est in Latin) |
| 16 | WRITE DOWN | Homophone of “right down” (=towards bottom of charts); “do you say?” is homophone indicator. |
| 17 | LANDSCAPE | LANDS (=acquires, e.g. a job) + CAPE (=costume for Batman) |
| 18 | INDRA | IN (=during) + DRA<w> (=game, as in no-score draw; “finally abandoned” means last letter dropped); Indra is the Hindu god of the firmament and of rain, hence “cause of rain”. |
| 19 | BRECONSHIRE | *(ONE RICH SERB); “resettled” is anagram indicator; Breconshire was one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. |
| 23 | SALVADORAN | V (=five, in Roman numerals) in [SALAD (=leaves) + ORAN (=port in Algeria)] |
| 24 | OGRE | Hidden in “…alsO GREedy…”; “to some extent” indicates a hidden answer; & lit. |
| 25 | EXPEDITION | Double definition: EXPEDITION means “speed”, haste AND “journey”, outing. |
| 26 | FRET | RE (=about) in FT (=daily newspaper, i.e. Financial Times) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CAERPHILLY | *(<s>PHERICALLY); “slice top off” means first letter dropped; Caerphilly is an “item from cheeseboard” (=solution at 12) |
| 2 | SUSPENDING | US (=the States) in SPENDING (=consumerism) |
| 4 | OMANI | IN A MO (=shortly, i.e. abbreviation of “in a moment”); “turned up” indicates a vertical reversal. |
| 5 | SLATE MINE | *(MAIN STEEL); “works” is anagram indicator and fits the surface reading of the clue perfectly. |
| 6 | PATISSERIES | P<ies> A<nd> T<arts> (“first of all” means first letter only of each is used) + IS + SERIES (=order, i.e. sequence); & lit. |
| 7 | RILL | <b>RILL (=fish; “headless” means first letter dropped) |
| 8 | YEAR | YEAR<n> (=long (for), as a verb; “never-ending” means last letter dropped) |
| 12 | CHEESEBOARD | *(OBESE) in *(CHE<d>DAR); “daughter‘s cut” means the “d” is dropped; “sort” and “fresh” are anagram indicators; & lit. |
| 13 | GOLDFINGER | [OLD (=getting on, i.e. ageing) + F (=female)] in GINGER (=red, as of hair); the definition is “film villain”, from the James Bond film of the same name from 1964. |
| 14 | ENGAGEMENT | Double definition: ENGAGEMENT is “one’s intended (=fiancé) to be part of this” AND “battle”, military action. |
| 16 | WEASEL OUT | EASEL (=support, i.e. for artist) in [W (=wife) + OUT (=determined, as in "to be out to do something")] |
| 20 | OTAGO | O (=old) + *(GOAT); “wild” is anagram indicator; Otago is a region of New Zealand, located on the South Island. |
| 21 | ASHE | A + SHE (=female); the reference is to the African-American tennis player Arthur Ashe, who won Wimbledon in 1975. |
| 22 | SLIP | Double definition: SLIP is “cricketer”, i.e. one of the fielders next to the wicketkeeper AND decline, lapse, deteriorate. |
June 1st, 2011 at 11:15 am
A very clear blog, RatkojaRiku, for which thanks.
The usual fine puzzle from Dac, with – as usual – the surface readings as smooth as a baby’s bottom. I couldn’t understand HOUSE PARTY or SALVADORAN, so thank you for those. LANDSCAPE and WEASEL OUT were stand out clues today.
June 1st, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Great puzzle from Dac as usual. Thanks, RatkojaRiki, for ‘Indra’ which I didn’t get. Everything else finished in 25 minutes.
June 1st, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Yes, the usual top quality puzzle from Dac. My favourites today were CAERPHILLY, PATISSERIES, YEAR and CHEESEBOARD. Many thanks, RatkojaRiku and Dac.
June 1st, 2011 at 4:39 pm
For some reason I struggled a bit with this unlike most Dacs, no complaints about the clues, just my brain not working I suspect. Thanks for the blog RatkojaRiku and of course Dac.
June 1st, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Very tasty fare. Bravo Dac, and COD is the nice anag at CAERPHILLY. Good stuff.
June 1st, 2011 at 9:54 pm
I enjoyed today’s Dac as others seem to have done. But I always enjoy a good Dac, and Dac is always good.
There’s the meticulous clueing, plus the silky-smooth surfaces – and also today, he cleverly hides those essential household items, RUG and URN, in his unches.
Walruss: COD is fish, not cheese!