Independent 7858/Morph

by

Morph has produced a good crossword today, but I’ve never known him not to have a Nina and it is completely lost on me. All that effort and I didn’t even see it. No doubt someone will help.

And I’m sure people will also help with one or two clues which are still a slight mystery to me.

Across
1 BLACKBERRY — a Blackberry may or may not be compatible with an Apple in computing terms, and the two fruits: so is this a CD or is it something else? I’m not sure.
6 hAM ENtrée — but I don’t really understand this: presumably ‘helping of’ is the hidden indicator, but what does ‘What do you say to second’ mean? [What do you say to second helping of ham entrée]
10 IMPASSE — 1 pass in M{illionair}e
11 ANTH{e}R AX — to axe in US speak is to ax
12 ICE CREAM — both to ice (again rather US) and to cream are to murder
13 CROC(U)S
15 INSULTING — (sin guilt)* around {transgressio}n
16 SLOOP — (pools)rev. — the pool stage is the early part of a competition to find the better teams/players, instituted largely for television
18 MY WAY — “why May?”, Spoonerised
21 NO-BRAINER — with ‘no bra’ is ‘in ER’
24 REPAST — ‘re past’ is a brief description of what goes on in history
25 SANDWICH — (winds cha{nge})*
27 NAIVETE — (Evian)rev. about (E T{ap})
28 KNOSSOS — T{heseus} leaving ‘knots’ SOS — Knossos was also known as Labyrinth
29 HUGE — Hu (eg)rev.
30 BIRTHDATES — (Brits dated)* — I think the anagram indicator is ‘useless’; and one is sometimes identified online by one’s date of birth
 
Down
1 BRITICISM — criticism with its first letter upgraded from C to B
2 APPLETS — (t lapse)* around p{enguins}
3 quicKEST RELay
4 ELEVATIONS — (violent sea)*
5 ROAM — road ‘out of lowest’, i.e. missing its lowest letter, then m, which is an abbreviation for ‘mobile’
7 MOR{e} OC CO
8 NEXUS — “necks” us
9 UTERUS — (sure TU)rev.
14 AGE BRACKET — a (beg)rev. racket
17 PUR(CH A)SES
19 WAPPING — 2 defs
20 YE(SME)N — SMEs are small and medium enterprises
22 ANDROID — (Dior DNA)rev.
23 N(AILS)ET
24 {b}RANCH
26 KEPI — (1 pe{a}k)rev. — semi &lit.

11 comments on “Independent 7858/Morph”

  2. Thanks Morph for a puzzle with a lot to enjoy and John for the blog.

    16ac: I think this refers to football pools, “better” = “gambler”.

  3. Re 1A, the reference is to (what this luddite dimly perceives to be) the theme: Blackberry and Apple, while fruits and therefore compatible as in blackberry & apple pie, are incompatible as phone systems. Or whatever they are. Other whatevers might be Nexus etc, but as I say I am not gadget-savvy in any way, shape or form.

  4. Well the mobile phone operating system Android has a new version called IceCream Sandwich. There’s probably more.

  5. Thanks John and Morph. Quite a tough one. I got 5 wrong and failed completely with 26. Re 6, AMEN, does the phrase “Amen to that” ring any bells (amen literally meaning, “so be it”)?

  7. Other thematics might be APPLETS and ROAM

    23d wasn’t exactly new to me – I’d heard the term but didn’t know exactly what it meant. For the curious a nail set is a sort of punch held between a nail and a hammer to enable the nail to be driven in without damaging the surface of the wood.

  9. MikeC, that’s what I was attempting to put forward @ #1: if you second, you support, you ‘amen’ (or, if it’s not yet listed as a verb, ‘give your amen’). Sorry!

  10. Thanks for the blog and comments. Paul, I’m not particularly techie either, but just like some of the weird and wonderful words they come up with for these gadgets, operating systems etc – such as Ice cream Sandwich, as Flashling points out. I think you got them all between you, anyway.
    Happy Christmas.

Comments are closed.