Beelzebub 998 (05/04/09)

by

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

I found this tough going this week, and still haven’t managed to explain 12. There’s some splendid clueing in there though, including at least two &lits.

Across
1 PALMTOPS – PAL MOPS “around” T.
7 AMUN – A + M + ‘UN &lit.
11 ARIARY – (AI “to include” R) + ARY. The currency of Madagascar.
12 VIRE – “transfer” is the def. “of powers in reduced form”?
13 REGROUPED – (PRUDE + GOER)*.
16 UNICORNS – UNI + CORNS.
17 TAHA – (A HAT)<.
18 AFOUL – (A L) “wrapping around” FOU.
20 HAIL-FELLOW – HAIL + FELL + OW.
22 HIEROGRAMS – (MORE GARISH)*.
23 ABUSE – U “blocking” ABSE. I assume this is Dannie Abse, of whom I’ll admit to having been completely unaware until today.
25 ETAS – SATE<. An “eta” is “a member of the lowest Japanese class, which did work considered menial or degrading”.
26 PLAYGOER – (PRAY LOGE) &lit. A “loge” is a theatre box, so this is excellent.
30 CHASTENER – C + HASTENER.
31 LOUR – [-f]LOUR.
32 CONDER – [-abs]CONDER.
33 EDAM – MADE<.
34 EDENTATA – ANTEDATE*.
Down
1 PARK – P + ARK. A “park” can be “an enclosed basin for oyster-culture”.
2 AREW – A + [-c]REW.
3 MARSALIS – MARS + A + LIS[-ten]. I’m not confident of LIS for “audition, not half”. This will be Wynton Marsalis.
4 TROUT – TR + OUT.
5 PAPILOTTES – (SPOIL PLATE)*. These are those little paper hat things with which they used to decorate roasts.
6 SPEC – SPEC[-k].
8 MICROWATT – (I CROW) “used in” MATT[-e].
9 URANUS – U + RA + SUN<. Very good, Ra being a sun god.
10 NEWSLESS – N[-obl]E W[-arrior]S L[-os]E S[-kirmishe]S.
14 UNDERBOARD – UN + DER + BOARD.
15 CHIHUAHUA – CHI + HU[-bb]A HU[-bb]A. “Chi” is a Romany term for “woman”. Very inventive clue. CHIHUAHUA was clear from the checking letters, but it took some time to work out how to get there.
17 THRAPPLE – THRALE “pocketing” PP. This is probably Henry Thrale, although it could be his wife Hester, who was also an acquaintance of Samuel Johnson. Boswell was a Scot, so this is the Scottish spelling of “thropple” – to throttle or strangle.
19 FOREWENT – EWER< “in” FONT.
21 ‘SBLOOD – LO “into” (S + BOD).
24 ORTON – ORT + ON. Joe Orton, playwright, 1933-1967.
27 GHEE – G “on” HEE[-l].
28 MEET – dd.
29 ORRA – ARRO[-w]<.

3 comments on “Beelzebub 998 (05/04/09)”

  1. There is this legal term “ultra vires” {of the Constitution, for example) where vires’ means force, power.

    Power or powers in reduced form gives vire.

  2. I looked up C.

    ‘vis’ (L) is singular, ‘vires’ is plural.

    Thus “powers in reduced form” yields vire.

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