A nicely accessible (at least for a prize puzzle?) offering from Morph, with some hidden fun and games which nearly eluded me…
…as did the parsing of 22A…oh, and part of 12A. Maybe not quite so accessible as I thought!
I had worked my way steadily through this and was about to put it in the envelope to post when I remembered I was due to blog it – so need to copy it and maybe best to check for anything hidden…when I saw BTW along the top line.
Now, I am hardly down on the street with the kids in the hood – in fact I have only JUST signed up on Twitter, but can’t really think of anything interesting to tweet – but I am familiar with that as a text-speak (TXT SPK) abbreviation for ‘BY THE WAY’.
I then looked down at the bottom line to see WTF – WHAT THE F!…(with apologies to anybody of a sensitive nature early on a Saturday morning.)
And then I realised that I had subconsciously recognised and included (but not noticed the significance of) several other TXT SPK examples cleverly built in to the clues/answers:
There may well be more that I have missed…
The wordplay of 22A completely baffles me – grateful for any assistance – and I couldn’t find any definition of TICE as a ‘link’ in 12A. (Correction – just got it – ‘C’ for ‘about’ in ‘tie’!)
Standout clue – aside from the hidden txt spk – was 4D for VENETIAN B(L)IND, and I enjoyed Santa’s helper signing a letter ‘YOURS, ELF’, and the ‘plastic payment’ punning in 17A MAESTRO. Credit where it’s due!
THX Morph. LMAO! TTFN.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 4A | VICTIMHOOD | Winner, run out, departs, comprising in my humble opinion suffering (10) | suffering / VICTO(R) – without R, run – plus D (departed), around IMHO (txt spk for bolded phrase) |
| 7A | TIFF | Don’t start formal dispute (4) | dispute / (S)TIFF (informal) not starting |
| 10A | NEEPS | Born on outskirts of Peebles with Scottish roots (5) | Scottish roots (turnips) / NÉE (born) + PS (‘outskirts’ of PeebleS) |
| 11A | PHOTOCELL | Light device, still mobile (9) | light device / PHOTO (still) + CELL (mobile, cellphone) |
| 12A | TITMICE | Link containing too much information about little birds (7) | little birds / TIE (link) around TMI (txt spk for bolded phrase) + C (circa, about) |
| 14A | TURN OFF | Divert bore (4,3) | double def’n / to turn off can be to divert (something) from/to somewhere; also to bore (someone, about something they aren’t really interested in…like tweeting?!) |
| 15A | AMPLEST | Most Liberal focus groups reject leader – Tory leader (7) | Most Liberal / (S)AMPLES (focus groups, without leading letter) + T (first letter of Tory) |
| 17A | MAESTRO | Means of payment – most are plastic (7) | Means of payment / anag (i.e. plastic!) of MOST ARE (Maestro being a type of debit card payment in the UK (and elsewhere?) – so ‘plastic’ works doubly here! |
| 18A | BREATHE | Be heartbroken, split up, but live (7) | live / anag (i.e. broken) of BE HEART (‘heartbroken’ split up into two words) |
| 20A | DEFYING | Maintaining opposition to study government, for your information getting in (7) | maintaining opposition to / DEN (study) + G (government) around FYI (txt speak for bolded phrase) |
| 22A | IPSO FACTO | Thespian’s speaking parts lacking stage directions as a result (4,5) | as a result / ?!? |
| 23A | NADIA | Irish man turning into Russian woman (5) | Russian woman / NADIA (stereotypical Russian woman’s name) = AIDAN (maybe not so stereotypical Irish man’s name?) |
| 24A | DOOM | Setback for atmosphere spells disaster (4) | disaster / MOOD (atmoshphere) set back = DOOM |
| 25A | PROFLIGATE | Dissolute swine scoffed, going round rolling on floor laughing (10) | Dissolute / PIG (swine) + ATE (scoffed) around ROFL (txt speak for bolded phrase) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | BIAS | Heartless gentleman from 21’s rising prejudice (4) | prejudice / SA(H)IB – term of address to a gentlemen from India (21D) without H (heart, and the middle letter, or heart) rising |
| 2D | TO BOOT | Starts to turn on and power up as well (2,4) | as well / TO (first letters of Turn On) + BOOT (power up – a computer or other electrical device) |
| 3D | WIPED OUT | Clear suspicion Britain’s left financially ruined (5,3) | financially ruined / WIPE (clear) + DOU(B)T (suspicion, without B – Britain) |
| 4D | VENETIAN BLIND | Sun screen – litre absorbed by merchant’s pound of flesh? (8,5) | Sun screen / The Merchant of Venice’s ‘bind’, or obligation, was a pound of flesh – so VENETIAN BIND around L – litre |
| 5D | CLEFT | Crack cocaine not taken (5) | Crack / C (cocaine) + LEFT (not taken) |
| 6D | HIPPEST | Most in rose garden might be attacked by one? (7) | Most ‘in’ / A garden of roses, bearing hips, might be attacked by a HIP PEST |
| 8D | FALL FROM GRACE | Firstly, forgive everyone, father; oh my God, people lapse (4,4,5) | lapse / F (first letter of Forgive) + ALL (everyone) + FR (Father) + OMG (txt speak for bolded phrase) + RACE (people) |
| 9D | YOURSELF | How Santa’s helper might sign off to solver emphatically (8) | solver (you!), emphatically / An elf, one of Santa’s helpers, might sign a letter: YOURS, ELF |
| 13D | IDENTIFY | Sympathise, yet I find revolting (8) | Sympathise / anag (i.e. revolting) of YET I FIND |
| 16D | PEEPSHOW | Hopes dashed – occupying seat in church provides little erotic entertainment (8) | erotic entertainment / PEW (church seat) around anag (i.e. dashed) of HOPES |
| 17D | MADE OFF | Disgraced financier took Euros and ran (4,3) | ran (away, with) / (Bernie) MADOFF (disgraced financier, Ponzi scheme runner) around E (Euros) |
| 19D | ESCORT | Conquistador sending last letters to top guard (6) | guard / (Hernando) CORTES (conquistador) – with last two letters move to the top = ESCORT |
| 21D | INDIA | Donations part of UK raised for Commonwealth state (5) | Commonwealth state / AID (donations) + NI (Northern Ireland, part of UK) – all ‘raised’ up |
| 23D | NAIF | Prospective groom missed church, turning up wide-eyed (4) | wide-eyed (innocent) / FIAN(CE) – prospective groom, without CE (Church of England) – all turning up |
Can’t help with 22 but the puzzle deserves a http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu330/cthulhu19887/forum/roflcopter.gif
22ac is LIPS OF ACTOR less L and R.
As has been said, probably a little more accessible than some Saturday puzzles, but very enjoyable nonetheless, and the inclusion of so much txt spk was original.
HIPPEST was my LOI and I must have stared at it for a couple of minutes before the penny dropped, and YOURSELF probably raised the biggest smile.
I didn’t see the wordplay for IPSO FACTO so thanks for that Dormouse.
Great little theme.