Although there are one or two I’m not sure about, this was not one of Dac’s most difficult. Which doesn’t prevent it from being well up to his usual standard. Is there some kind of a cinematic theme?
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | O O MPH |
| 4 | DRAMATISE – (smart ideas)* |
| 9 | TITANIC – ((scrip)t I act in)* |
| 10/11 | THE NAME OF THE GAME I think, just a CD with a reference to the game ‘Simon Says’. But if so, then shouldn’t it be ‘Says’ not ‘says’, which would spoil the surface? |
| 12 | DAILY – 2 mngs. It’s never very satisfactory when the question mark is really referring to the first of the two. |
| 13 | AM BITS |
| 15 | CINERAMA I think, but am not at all sure why. It seems to be an &lit., where ‘film’ = ‘cine’, ‘ram’ is a kind of projection technique (??: I’m very doubtful here, something about a battering ram projecting…), and ‘originally American’ is A; the whole clue referring to Cinerama. |
| 18 | HERS C(HE)L. William Herschel discovered Uranus, amongst other things. |
| 19 | ST(RE)EP |
| 21 | WROTE – “rote” |
| 22/24 | OTHERWISE ENGAGED – (wear eighteen dogs)*. Rather obvious anagram fodder, although Dac makes the best of it. |
| 25 | O KIN AWA(y) |
| 26 | PASTERNAK – “pasta knack”. ‘Famous’ seems a bit odd. What’s wrong with simply ‘Russian author’? |
| 27 | ROO ST |
| Down | |
| 1 | OSTEOPATH – (toes)* op at h |
| 2 | proMOTE Traditional |
| 3 | HANSEATIC LEAGUE – seat in (China)* league. The Hanseatic League was a league of German commercial cities in the 14c and 15c. |
| 4 | DAC HAS. Not an easy clue for online solvers, who aren’t told the setter of the crossword. |
| 5 | AS(THEN)IA |
| 6 | ABERDEEN TERRIER – 2 mngs. |
| 7 | INAN(I(MA)T)E |
| 8 | ENEMY – y(men)e, all rev. |
| 14 | BURROUGHS – (rub)rev. roughs |
| 16 | APPLET ART |
| 17 | BE HOLDEN I think – there were evidently two William Holdens, one of them a long time ago |
| 20 | SH TOOK |
| 21 | W HELP |
| 23 | FlorIDA HOliday |
15A – anag. of American
How blindingly obvious. And I knew that cinerama is an anagram of American, too.
18ac hasn’t yet discovered mine, I’m relieved to say. But how can one not be wary of these so-called star gazers?
Good puzzle as always from Dac – good point, John, re DACHAS which did not occur to me. Very slight niggle about HERSCHEL in that I felt girls should be girl’s = hers but that would have wrecked the surface. It was my last answer.