I had a number of questions or quibbles here.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | GOSSIP-WRITER *(I REPORT SWIGS) |
| 10 | REELING EEL (fish) in RING (bell) |
| 11 | VANILLA AN in VILLA (home in Rome). Vanilla is an orchid extract. |
| 12 | MUSIC MU (Greek character) SIC (thus) |
| 13 | KERCHIEF homophone of “cur chief” (head of scoundrels) |
| 15 | TRANSCRIBE N (name) and CRIB (cheat) in *(TEARS) |
| 16 | UGLY homophone of UGLI |
| 18 | CHER dd |
| 20 | GOOD FOR YOU *(DUO OR GOOFY) |
| 22 | ROCK BASS ROCK (pop) B (beginning to bug) ASS (jenny) |
| 24 | BIG UP BIG (huge) UP (increase). Hmm. I have heard the slang phrase “Big ups to …” generally meaning “kudos to …” I never heard of it being used in the singular. |
| 26 | NARRATE *(RARE ANT) |
| 27 | SUNBURN SUN (star) BURN (to make CD) |
| 28 | TWENTY-TWENTY dd |
| Down | |
| 2 | OPEN SEA *(EUROPEANS minus UR (hesitation)) First time I’ve seen UR rather than ER for hesitation. |
| 3 | SUITCASE SUIT (appropriate) (how are these the same parts of speech?) CASE (cartridge). |
| 4 | PAGE P (quiet) AGE (period). |
| 5 | REVIEW BODY REVIEW (assess) BODY (corpus). IMHO, clues in which a two-word phrase are based on indicators for each of the two words separately generally aren’t that interesting. |
| 6 | TUNIC hidden in PashTUN I Caught |
| 7 | ROLLING [st]ROLLING (promenading when street’s blocked) |
| 8 | DRAMATIC IRONY *(CRY + ADMIRATION) |
| 9 | BARFLY JUMPING I think this is BAR (but) FLY (cunning? more slang?) JUMPING (vaulting). Apparently the practice of jumping up against a wall while wearing a velcro suit. |
| 14 | ORION’S BELT ORION’S (hunter’s) BELT (career, as in to move fast and somewhat wildly). Same comment as re 5 down. |
| 17 | SORBONNE SOR (homophone of SAW = “witnessed”) BONNE (“good,” French) |
| 19 | EXCERPT R (Romeo) in EXCEPT (bar) |
| 21 | YOGHURT *(HOG) in YURT (tent) |
| 23 | BLAME B (second-rate) LAME (golden fabric) |
| 25 | ISN’T I (one) + N (new) in ST (outer parts of “Somerset”) |
‘Big up’ can be a verb…
Hi Agentzero
I am not going to spend time typing extracts but bug up = show approval, to appropriate = to suit and fly = cunning can all be justified in Chambers.
Thank you both; this has prompted me to renew my online subscription to Chambers. Having done so, I note that to appropriate = to suit is listed as archaic. Is there a general view on archaic usages?