Luckily for me, a fairly straightforward offering from Kcit this week. I got back from golfing hols on Sunday, and everything has bunched up nicely, including some crosswords that need solving and blogging … oh, and some real work too, which is nice. So no time for a treatise on this occasion.
A letter falls from 9 of 13 columns into the bottom row to start a “revelation”; the initial letters of clues, for which the answers need to be entered jumbled, finish the revelation. The remaining 4 rows have thematic items highlighted.
THE SCALES in the bottom row start the revelation, FELL (the missing verb), and then FROM MY EYES finishing it. The thematic words in the remaining column are four scientific scales (well three of them are): RICHTER, BEAUFORT, MERCALLI and SCOVILLE, the latter in Webster’s Millennium Dictionary. I suppose they can all be thought of as measuring things that are catastrophic, Scoville being the measurement of chilli pepper strength, the strongest of which would certainly blow your head off.
Solving time: not too sure, but I think about two hours, most of it in bed recovering from 108 holes of golf!
Legend:
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
X = letters dropping to bottom row and excluded from wordplay
| ACROSS | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IMBRUTED* | degraded, once: (MUTE BIRD)*; I couldn’t really justify ‘found’ as an anagram indicator, but I could be wrong |
| 6 | ESTRO | culminating inspiration: E + ORTS< |
| 10 | AIGRET | spray of jewels: A (one) + I + REGRET (rue) – RE (about) |
| 11 | CAUDEX* | stem: (A + C (Carrot initially))< + (cr)UDE(ly) (crUDEly trimming edges) + X (mark of cross) |
| 12 | ICER | bakery employee: (D)ICER (kitchen utensil missing front) |
| 13 | DICHROMAT* | visually impaired person (who might see an orchid as dull?): ORCHID* + MAT (dull) |
| 14 | DUCKSHOVER* | Melbourne thief: DUCKS (avoids) HOVER (helicopter, US) |
| 17 | SADIRON | heavy metal utensil: INROADS* |
| 20 | ECHOES* | memories: E + CHOSES (French for things) – S (special) |
| 21 | SALLOW* | yellowish: S (front to Sales) ALLOW (permit) |
| 23 | ORDERED | arranged: ORD (old weapon’s point) suppressing (holding in) DERE (old injury) |
| 27 | ASBESTOSIS* | lung disease: BEST (elite) OS (sailor, ordinary seaman) in AS IS (unaltered) |
| 28 | ACARIDIAN* | mite: A (one) + (ACID RAIN)* |
| 29 | VAIL | 3 meanings: no longer disguise & lower & profit; “on each occasion in the past” refers to each definition being obsolete or archaic, although the initial “no longer” seems to be superfluous |
| 30 | SALOON | exhibition area: ALOO (potato) in Sn (tin) |
| 31 | EDIBLE | likely to promote scoffing: (CR)EDIBLE (75% of crEDIBLE) |
| 32 | EIKON | image: I (one) K (king) in EON (time) |
| 33 | YESTREEN* | last night, Scot: YES (sure) TREE (plane, say, ie an example) + N (Norway) |
| DOWN | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DAIKOS | drums: DAIS (platform) filled with KO (knockout) |
| 2 | EGESTED | discharged: EG (say) (T)ESTED (tried without leader) |
| 3 | TERROR | naughty child: T (little time) + RRR (educational staples, ie the three R’s) absorbing O (nothing) |
| 4 | SITHENCE | after, Spenser and Shakespeare: THE N (north) covered (ie surrounded by) ICE |
| 5 | CUPIDS | love symbols: ID in UPS (successful periods) |
| 6 | EXTRADOS | part of arch: SORTED* receiving X (cross) |
| 7 | TALMA | cape: (A MAT (rug))< |
| 8 | RED CROSS | health workers: DROSS (refuse) holding C (first of Casualties) after R (resistance) |
| 9 | SOUDAN | African country: OUD (arab instrument) + A + N (north) |
| 15 | TERMINI | bus stations: TEAR (sign of unhappiness) – A + MINI (small car) |
| 16 | FORTRAN | computer language: FORT (trading station) + RAN (operated) |
| 18 | ALLICES | fish: ALL (everyone) ICES (kills, a la Al Capone) |
| 19 | RAGBABY | old doll: B (book) in RAG (horseplay) BAY (horse) |
| 22 | WHALER | ship: W + R (starts to Wallow and Roll) around HALE (sound) |
| 23 | TODDLE | young child: ODD (strange) + (A)LE (beer without head) |
| 24 | DONUT | sweet treat: DO (party) + NUT (fruitcake, ie madman) |
| 25 | LEVIN | lightning: SNIVEL< (whimper) – S (sun) |
| 26 | WHISK | old collar: IS in WK (work) |
In the paper version, 11 across began “Brought back…” which gave FBOM rather than FROM MY EYES. Since Dave doesn’t mention this, do I presume the online version was different?
I suggest it was intended to start “Returned…” but got altered somehow at a late stage.
That didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the puzzle, though.
Mike,
Thanks for mentioning this. I did come across the mistake when I solved the puzzle (paper version) but completely forgot it when I did the blog a couple of days later. Slap wrists.