Guardian 24,404 / Rufus

16 comments on “Guardian 24,404 / Rufus”

1. 20dn – AC=”account” is standard crosswordese for “bill”.

   I was a bit annoyed at 2dn – it’s normal for setters to use ONE’S in this sort of expression, but in this case the clue clearly points to “ON YOUR OWN”. Something like “How to live if single-minded” would be fairer, IMHO.

   21ac is a bit feeble, as you say.

2. I think it is account = a/c = AC.

   As Andrew says it’s crosswordese. For, in Chambers we have a/c but not AC with the expansion ‘account’.

3. 6dn: i think ‘broadcast’ is ok as an anagrind, if you think of it as being a method of scattering seeds.

   I agree with the objection to 2dn. There is often ambiguity as to whether the answer should be ‘your’ or ‘one’s’ but in this case there appeared to be none!

   I’m sure it was Manehi’s rush that made him write ‘courting’ instead of ‘court’ in 1ac!

4. I’m sure Manehi is aware that AC (account) = bill. It was the “one” part he was fretting over I believe. I think in his rush he’s missed the nuance that’s all: one “representation of” bill inside(another)bill + I. Sorry if I haven’t put this over as well as I could.

5. I’m glad I’m not the only one who had issues with 2dn. “How one may live…” would have worked fine.

   I wasn’t entirely happy with 21ac either – surely not a proper “double” definition, or am I being picky?

   But I’d say broadcast is a perfectly acceptable anagrind – by no means the first time I’ve seen it used.

6. 24ac. My (admittedly 1973) edition of Chambers gives lychee or litchi but does not give lichi.

   2dn. The way this is worded definitely suggest ‘on your own’ rather than ‘om ones own’.

7. I must admit I didn’t bother to look up ‘lichi’ but now see that OED gives it as a ‘var. of litchi’.

8. I agree that ONE’S and YOUR are often interchangeable in phrases used in crossword solutions – when solving I never put in either until I’ve got another crossing clue to decide which one. Clueing it with “How one may live…” might bring brickbats by using “one” in the clue and “one’s” in the solution, but but I think “how to live if single-minded” would have been better. Thanks – clue card altered!
   LICHI is in Chambers (1998 edition), as is LYCHEE, LEECHEE, LITCHI and LICHEE.
   In Collins Thesaurus you get “eccentric” under both headings NUT and NUTS .

9. 21ac: An eccentric nut is an engineering component with an off-centre hole, used for adjusting alignments. It isn’t in Chambers, 1990 edition, in this sense: but there are several links in Google.

10. Am I alone in never having thought of Syria as an ‘Asian’ country or seen it described as such? (Geographically it is east Mediterranean, regionally it is Middle Eastern or what used to be called ‘near Eastern’.)

11. Syria is indeed in Asia. You leave Europe when you cross the Bosphorus, and enter Africa when you cross Red Sea or Suez Canal.

12. Just for interest and completeness: an eccentric nut is also a piece of rock climbing gear.

13. Muck — I was really asking the question out of curiosity. I know that, in terms of the land mass they are part of, Syria, Lebanon and Israel are west Asian countries, but in my mind it has been the sea on which they have their coastlines (the Mediterranean) that establishes the most suitable group category to put them into. So the question remains, how often have other people thought of any of these three states as Asian countries or heard them described as Asian countries in ordinary modern usage?

14. Thanks for all the comments – yes, I plead temporary insanity as regards the extra -ING for 1ac and my own confusion over 20dn. “broadcast” as an anagrind and “eccentric nut” have been added to my crosswording to-remember list. Like Eileen, put in LICHI without really thinking about it, and like Rufus, I always leave YOUR/ONE’S up to the checking letters, and so didn’t really have a problem with those two clues. As for Syria, I personally never really think of it when thinking of Asia, but do think “Asian” when thinking of Syria…

15. Thanks for the info about the “eccentric nut”; I realise now that I came across one when struggling to learn about engines in my Fleet Air Arm training 56 years ago, but I had forgotten all about them! My use of ECCENTRIC for NUT and NUTS is using the more usual synonyms as given in Collins and other thesauri, i.e. a NUT is an eccentric (person) – NUTS being eccentric – somewhat deranged, etc. It was a twist on the old favourite “Nuts or bananas” for CRAZY.

16. Rufus, I’m never really happy with “double definition” clues in which the two definitions are synonyms for the same definition.

    In this case, nut=eccentric (noun) and nuts=eccentric (adjective) are perfectly acceptable definitions, but I feel that they are too close etymologically to count as a true “double” definition.

    Despite that, I thought the clue was neatly formed and witty. So apologies for being picky!

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