Azed No. 2,581 Plain

12 comments on “Azed No. 2,581 Plain”

1. What a muppet I am, I had ECCE but thought the up and down referred to its palindromic nature, and wrote a little note “surely Rome not Cannes ?????” Completely missed ce as French for this.

   I also wondered at eau for river, surely some indicator that its French is needed here? Maybe it’s so ubiquitous now that I’m mistaken?

   On AROUND if you’re referring to a round of sandwiches that’s two slices of bread, but a round of toast is only a single slice.

   Thanks Azed and PeeDee

2. 28 across was the one answer not in Chambers. I guessed GOAMAN, but it doesn’t really parse satisfactorily, so I’m sure now that GODMAN must be correct.

   I also had a question-mark against the clue for AROUND.

3. Incidentally, there’s no further information in today’s Observer about when the results of the November competition will be announced. There’s also no further news on the &lit website, which merely repeats the message about postal delays which was in last week’s paper. But I note that Azed is inviting UK competitors to enter the December competition by post in the usual way. Does anyone know if Oxford is still affected by postal delays?

4. Thank you Blah – for AROUND toast as a foodstuff makes more sense than drinks, I had not thought of that.

   Re EAU – in the sense of a river eau is not a French word per se but a mis-spelling of an Old English word ea meaning river. I think you are right that it really needs some indication of being dialect, but I have seen it so often in barred-grid crosswords that it has become one of the first words for river that spring to mind!

5. Blah @1, for 22dn I thought it referred to a round of toast as in bread, but hadn’t thought of the single slice as against a sandwich – that’s clever. Re 8dn, my (1998) Chambers gives EAU as an alternative version of EA, dialect word for a river, as PeeDee says. I started off thinking 12ac must be POSE – POISE with one ‘left….out’, but I wasn’t happy with it – then I reread the clue and the penny dropped!

6. Sorry, PeeDee @4 – I was typing before seeing your post!

7. I am still struggling to write a concise explanation of AROUND, can anyone help me?

   My sticking point is that toast in the sense of bread is uncountable. That’s why (unlike a sandwich) one has to ask or a piece of toast or a round of toast. What has to me made singular here? Two pieces of toast is still just toast, not toasts. Alternatively, ROUNDS can refer to toast in just the same way that A ROUND can.

8. Thanks for the pointer to ea, I’ve found it in Chambers and won’t forget it again. I also see dialect mentioned in the blog which I missed the first time.

   Re toast how about this. Singular points to A as in one, and close could indicate round, to round on someone is to attack them and I found an entry under close for an encounter or conflict (Shakespeare).

   Maybe a bit tenuous and overthought ?

9. I suppose AROUND could have been ‘A toast is close’, but it’s possible that Azed wanted to avoid clueing ‘a’ as ‘a’ again, having done it already twice before (he writes clues in the order they appear in). So he fell back ‘singularly’ to indicate the ‘a’.

   Bridgesong @3, I’m looking forward to blaming the postal service for my Varioru(m) clue not appearing in the Slip. 😉

10. All those early birds shame me. I was quite well-organised last Sunday and wrote notes for myself, though no-one will probably now read them!
    Thanks to Azed and PeeDee- i did not have any trouble over A Round of Toast.
    Knowledge of simple French is a help with Azed- Sybil is a linguist and a lot rubbed off on me so A Bras Ouverts was a doddle and the rest followed smoothly.

11. I didn’t have a problem with AROUND. “Would you like some toast?” “Yes please, just a round”. So a single piece of toast. I don’t see where the sandwich comes in, except that it’s an interesting distinction. Am I missing something?
    Congratulating myself on completing the grid for the first time this week, I now see that I had two mistakes. Broo instead of BROG and pose instead of POSH. No wonder I couldn’t parse them!

12. Hi trishincharante, once Blah @1 put me on the right track I didn’t have any problem seeing the answer to AROUND either, my problem is how to explain it succinctly in the blog. Azed is a stickler for grammar. “Toast singular” presents something of a problem in this respect, as on the surface it looks like Azed is counting and uncountable noun. The explanation is deeper than it looks on the surface.

    Following your example: “one piece of toast” or “two pieces of toast”. Toast is not being made singular here, it remains the same in both cases: neither singular nor plural but uncountable.

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