The last Arachne I blogged was her last Quiptic before she retired from that section. I’m pleased to make her re-acquaintance today. It was fun solving and blogging it – quite some inventive clueing. Thanks Arachne. Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Across
8 Frocked friend of Dorothy let rip (2,2,4)
GO TO TOWN : TOTO(Dorothy’s dog and friend in “The Wizard of Oz”) contained in(Frocked, as in “clothed in a frock, perhaps, gown”), well, GOWN.
9 Love recalled in touching tear-jerker (5)
ONION : O(representing 0;love in tennis scores) + reversal of(recalled) IN + ON(touching;in contact with).
10 Because, in a manner of speaking, it sounds harsh (4)
RASP : AS(because, as in “he couldn’t come as he was too tired”) contained in(in) RP(abbrev. for “Received Pronunciation”, the manner of speaking British English derived from the speech of southern England).
11 Rough playtimes involving female relatives (10)
STEPFAMILY : Anagram of(Rough) playtimes containing(involving) F(abbrev. for “female”).
12 Strong hand, flat chest (6)
ROBUST : R(abbrev. for the “right” hand) + [O BUST](zero/no bust;flat chest – although an O cup bust would be far from flat and quite uncomfortable, I can only imagine).
Is the clue the female counterpart to the conventional belief “Big hands, big ….. (mentioned elsewhere in the puzzle)”. It would seem Michelangelo had it wrong. But probably not, as scientific data indicates. On the other hand(!), the length of the index finger … that is a different matter.
14 Save time in Blackpool, perhaps (3,5)
SET ASIDE : T(abbrev. for “time”) contained in(in) SEASIDE(as represented by;perhaps, Blackpool).
15 Initiation of infants born with suitable faith (7)
BAPTISM : B(abbrev. for “born”) plus(with) APT(suitable;appropriate) + -ISM(suffix indicating a system of beliefs;faith, eg. spiritualism).
17 Thick peers banning books (7)
VISCOUS : “viscounts”(peers from one the 5 grades of British nobility) minus(banning) “NT”(abbrev. for the New Testament;books in the Bible). True, being noble doesn’t prevent you from being thick.
20 Griped about heartless, exploitative ancestors (8)
PEDIGREE : Anagram of(about) GRIPED + “exploitative ” minus its inner letters(heartless).
Answer: The line of your ancestry.
22 Best mate heads off in car (6)
ESTATE : “Best mate ” minus its 2 respective 1st letters(heads off).
23 Fine sound, yet jerks jeer (7-3)
TICKETY-BOO : TICK(the sound, say, of a clock) + anagram of(jerks) YET + BOO(jeer vocally).
Answer: British informal term for fine;OK.
24 Blue swallow feathers fell from above (4)
DOWN : Quintuple Defn: 1st: … emotionally; 2nd: … hastily, say, a drink in one gulp, or “bottoms up”; 3: …, especially of young birds; 4th: An expanse of upland open country, as in “Epsom Downs” or any of those in the Lake District; and 5th: … as in “he jumped from above/down”. Quite a feat, Arachne, squeezing 5 definitions into all 6 words and still make sense.
25 8ft 4in girth of American (5)
CINCH : [C INCH](Roman numeral for 100 + INCH;a 100-inch girth, say, is how you would describe an 8ft 4in girth).
Defn: The American term for a girth, the strap around a horse’s belly attaching the saddle. Amusing surface – Americans on the whole are known for their wide girths (not those round the horses), but 8’4″?
26 Witches go where outcasts are sent (8)
COVENTRY : COVEN(the collective noun for a group of witches} + TRY(a go;an attempt).
Answer: From the Idiom “sent to Coventry”;to be ostracised/ignored, possibly derived from the sending of Royalist prisoners during the English Civil War to that town.
Down
1 Multinational about to break up companies, all contracting in recession (4-4)
COCA-COLA : CA(abbrev. for “circa”;about in relation to periods in time) contained in(to break up) 2 x CO(abbrev. for “company”) + reversal of(in recession) “all ” minus its last letter(contracting).
Answer: The ubiquitous American multinational company peddling soft drinks – probably one of the factors for wide (but perhaps only 50in+) girths.
2 Ring bear up (4)
HOOP : Reversal of(up, in a down clue) POOH(Winnie-the-Pooh aka Pooh Bear, A.A. Milne’s creation).
3 Stays in fancy place (6)
CORSET : COR!(a British exclamation of amazement, etc., similar to “fancy that!”) + SET(to place something on something).
Answer: Women’s undergarments to make their girths appear smaller, and their chests wider (even less flat?). And they could also prevent overeating – so it all helps.
And as the Doctor and his fans know, it is bigger on the inside.
4 The opposite of “poetically”? (7)
INVERSE : [IN VERSE](as poets would express themselves).
5 Post-match shower (8)
CONFETTI : Cryptic defn: The paper shower thrown at the couple immediately after they’ve been married.
6 Feline introduced from east as mice reproduced (7,3)
SIAMESE CAT : Anagram of(reproduced;re-made) EAST AS MICE. A WIWD(wordplay intertwined with definition) clue. It could have been (but actually not) that the cat was brought in from the east (Thailand, once known as Siam) to help stop mice reproduction.
7 Showing naughty bits in Naked Lunch to youth (6)
UNCLAD : “Lunch ” minus its 1st and last letters(Naked) plus(to) LAD(a youth).
13 Henry VIII could be insensitive (10)
UNTHINKING : Cryptic defn: Reference to the king renown for his wide girth (again) and therefore “un-thin”.
16 Able to expand pigpen to accommodate cat (8)
STRETCHY : STY(a pigpen) containing(to accommodate) RETCH(to vomit;in slang to “cat”).
18 Characterised by misfortune and horribly drawn out (8)
UNTOWARD : Anagram of(horribly) DRAWN OUT.
19 Result of flogging Victorian poisoner? (7)
REDBACK : [RED BACK]how your back would look as a result of being flogged).
Answer: A poisonous spider from Australia, including Victoria State. No relation to our setter, of course. Of course.
21 Incorporated into previous day’s show (6)
EVINCE : INC(abbrev. for “incorporated”, eg. a commercial company) contained in(into) EVE(the previous day to a, usually significant, day).
22 Internal parts of gun change over generations (6)
EVOLVE : The inner letters of(Internal parts of) “revolver”(a gun capable of firing multiple shots without reloading).
24 Dog collars start to niggle chap with lurid hooter (4)
DONG : DOG containing(collars) the 1st letter of(start to) “niggle “.
Answer: Hold on! Before you go down the path of lurid terms for parts of the anatomy (viz. dongs and hooters), it’s a chap with a nose;in slang, a hooter, which was red and lighted: None other than Edward Lear’s “The Dong With A Luminous Nose” from his “Laughable Lyrics – A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems”. And it tells a love story, would you believe. Cheeky clue!
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8’4” equals 100 inches
Absolutely top class stuff, this! Ticks all over the place. Given the quality if the rest if the clueing, I was a tad surprised by the simplicity of DONG, which I only knew as the currency, the sound or the todge. Still, take nothing away – a superb challenge.
Thanks scchua. Loved the first clue, thought gay/dog and plumped for the latter and had GO TO TOWN in a trice. The Henry VIII one was nice, too. Why ‘American’ in 25a – it’s more global than that. And cat = retch? Thanks Arachne, esp for 19d.
Wonderful, but one wrong today: not being a card player, I thought that there must be a strong hand called a ‘nobust’.
Molonglo @3: yes, ‘cat’ is another term for retch.
Didn’t know that ‘cinch’ was the American term for girth but it was easily deduced from the economical and clever clue.
Altogether too many good clues to pick out favourites, and if I am going to be outwitted by a setter I am happy that it’s one as subtle as Arachne.
[[I’ll have a go at the arty ones: Dong YUAN was a famous Chinese artist, and Cezanne painted Still life with ONIONS, as well as quite a few card players, some bought for outrageous prices by oil money]]
[[I presume the third picture is a Vietnamese banknote of ten dong]]
Thanks S and A. Did anyone else have REVERSE for 4dn? Grrrr!
[[The last picture looks like Robert Maxwell, but could it be Rupert Murdoch, aka The Wizard of Oz ? ]]
Thanks, scchua.
Excellent puzzle. I grinned at the unthin king and the lovely misdirection of “Victorian poisoner?”
[[Hi ulaca and George Clements: Yes, Dong Yuan was a Chinese artist, but that’s not the connection I’m thinking of. You need not go beyond what’s in the painting in pic1 for its connection. And there’s a secondary connection for the Chinese note to the Vietnamese dong, in that they’re both currencies, but there is another (main) connection. Both Maxwell and Murdoch are in pic6 with a common connection.]]
[[Murdoch and Maxwell MULTINATIONAL, perhaps? Picture 1, FROCKED?]]
[[ah, REDBACK = Yuan]]
[[pic 1 is Cezanne’s Card Players, referring to “strong hand” (12a)?]]
[[Murdoch and Maxwell are/were part of the “fourth estate” (22a) as well as dealing in pictures of 7d women]]
[[Is the lady Dorothy Malone?]]
[[Stretching things a bit, but Robert Maxwell was a ‘press baron’ and Rupert Maxwell remains one, and the baronetcy is a rank of the peerage. I can think of other characteristics that Re common to both men but that has nothing to so with the puzzle, and would probably be actionable if spelt out]].
[[Is the picture of the fire the bombing of 26a?]]
Getting back to the crossword [only 6/17 comments so far] many thanks, as ever, Arachne, for a lovely puzzle.
Like George Clements, I didn’t know cinch = girth or cat = retch [but I do now and they couldn’t have been anything else] and I, too, have too many ticks to mention them all.
Such a wonderful variety of clue styles: quintuple definitions don’t come along very often – and certainly not, as scchua says, making such perfect sense. [I suppose adding ‘in Northern Ireland’ would have been been a step too far. 😉 ]
Lovely puzzle – thanks both.
[[Surely #4 is Peggy Lee – but I can’t think why – I was expecting Judy Garland.
Both great voices. I could marvel at just the first two notes of this for ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HRa4X07jdE
]]
[[OK I’ve got it – #4 Peggy Lee song Siamese Cat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMKnDp5AyII ]]
Same new words for me as for Eileen, and the Victorian poisoner I assumed to be some Jack-the-Ripper type I hadn’t come across.
CORSET my favourite, closely followed by the UNTHIN KING, but there are many to choose from.
[I guess it’s relevant that the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing appears in pic 3. Olympics sponsored by Coca-Cola?]]
Typically witty and clever Arachne offering. There seems to be a possible family theme here with STEPFAMILY, BAPTISM, PEDIGREE and various relatives and generations in the clues.
Thanks scchua; I hadn’t spotted the cor! in CORSET.
I did particularly like CONFETTI, ROBUST and UNTHIN-KING. In deference to Eileen, I’ll leave the quiz until later… 🙂
Arachne nearly always manages to squeeze in a clue or an answer in which the normal male default is replaced by a female one. No plain one that I can see here but I wondered if REDBACK carried that role to some extent.
The ones that have the vivid red markings and bite are female. Apparently the males (who may have a very small amount of red) are equally, if not more, venomous, but being fairly inactive they rarely get around to biting anyone.
In the animal kingdom the candlelit dinner tends not to be part of the mating ritual – however if one were a redback male it would pay to include one as a hungry female will consume the male once the deed is done. Not my idea of equality.
The usual treat from Arachne – don’t think I have ever had so many *s by clues I liked.
Thanks to setter and explainer.
Fans of the spider lady may (if Eileen and I have our suspiciions confirmed ;)) enjoy the FT puzzle today too.
[[#5 is the burning of Atlanta in Gone With The Wind – Atlanta is the HQ of COCA-COLA?
#2 is from The Hobbit, where Bilbo Baggins is FROCKED?
I’ll go with the UNCLAD page 3 connection between Maxwell & Murdoch?
Any good??]]
This was very enjoyable, as always with Arachne – I particularly liked UNTHINKING and CINCH (which had to be right once I’d done the math(s), but I didn’t know it meant girth). Came close to failing in the NW corner until pooh occurred to me – up to then I’d been thinking (without much conviction) that 10 might be CAWS, so I wasted too much time trying to think of bears beginning with S.
Thanks to Arachne and scchua.
Thanks Scchua and Arachne
Very enjoyable. I found the left half much harder than the right.
Like others, I found several clues especially pleasing inc. 11a, 20a, 3d, 7d and 24d.
Now it’s no surprise when I don’t know a word, but I do find it surprising some of the quite ordinary words you clever people don’t know!
Take CINCH.
Eileen, you have read thousands of books and seen probably as many films, but not one Western? OK, so my middle teenage years were full of them, somebody had to do it!
Trailman, how can you have a name that could be Western derived and not know that one? Different sort of trail huh?
Still it all adds to the fun!
Different sort of trail, Derek. Though I’ve watched my share of westerns.
Oh damn. Don’t you hate random memory jogs? Saying that got me on to teenage reading of sci-fi, which for some reason made me remember “infinite rooms”, which Google tells me is Hilbert’s Paradox and Wiki tells me there are 6 books which use that idea. Want to guess the problem? Yup, can’t remember which is the one I read, so now I’ve got to find all 6 of them! Sigh!
[[ulaca, Shirl, George Clements, Jolly Swagman and Robi: Pic3: Nickname for the Chinese RMB is REDBACK, as opposed to the US Greenback; Pic4: Peggy Lee sang the song and voiced the pair of SIAMESE CATs, Si and Am in “The Lady And The Tramp”; Pic5: Atlanta, spectacularly burnt in GWTW is the location for the HQ of COCA-COLA; pic6: Maxwell and Murdoch, part of the 4th ESTATE, were the models for the main characters in Jeffrey Archer’s novel of the same name – and 7down never came to mind. That leaves 1 and 2.]]
BTW Eileen@18: I am not sure of the point you’re making with your opening sentence. “getting back…”: I wasn’t aware that we had abandoned the crossword. “only 6/17 …” (you actually counted them!): I, speaking for myself (and I can’t and won’t speak for anyone else) have not dictated nor discouraged even, any commenter from saying what he/she wants. Also, I am not aware that there should be a minimum number of comments on the crossword at any time, nor that there should be a minimum ratio of comments on the crossword to total comments. We’re not running a competition for either of these. So what if there are 6/17 or 17/17 crossword comments to total comments? Your first sentence surely is irrelevant.
[[…I forgot to mention, pic2 is indeed from The Hobbit.]]
Thanks Arachne and scchua
I too found the left much harder than the right, and the top left the hardest. I didn’t know “cat” = “vomit”, and I hadn’t converted 8ft 4in into inches, so missed that part of that one too.
Derek Lazenby @30
Are you thing of the hotel with an infinite number of rooms, and how it can accommodate additional guests? I think Hofstader’s “Godel, Escher and Bach” explained the paradox (though I may be mistaken – it’s a long time since I read it).
JS @23, you’ll find the type of clue you were looking for in the FT puzzle today [that was one of the give-aways!].
Hi crypticsue @24 – I wasn’t surprised to hear that you were on the same track as me [and Gaufrid was pretty quick off the mark in amending the Setters list, too]. 😉
What a treat we’ve had today – and a superb Nimrod, too!
Thanks Arachne & scchua, I learnt a few things & had some fun finishing the puzzle which is what it is all about.
scchua @ 31, I’m sure Eileen can respond for herself but to have 11 of the first 17 comments with no relevance to the crossword seems rather extreme and not in line with the site policy.
paul8hours@35, sorry, I can only refer you to what I said earlier. Commenters are not bound to comment on the crossword if they don’t want to, so the “extremism” (a subjective concept itself) is a fallout and not a conscious objective, and therefore there is no reason for it to be relevant. And in case you haven’t noticed, the comments are relevant to the blog, and to the subject matter in the crossword, and hopefully through those comments one can learn a few more things in addition to what solving the crossword provides. And in case you haven’t noticed, such comments are enclosed in double brackets, to signal that you can skip them if you don’t want to do a bit more thinking and gain a bit more knowledge. Again, there is no compulsion for you to do the latter, but neither should there be compulsion for others not to do so.
Thanks Scchua and Arachne.
Effortless surfaces and subtle hiding of definitions from Arachne as usual; I ticked umpteen. Failed on DONG.
24a: Being picky – we from the Lake District wouldn’t equate a FELL with a DOWN 🙂
Well, here’s another comment that’s about the matter at hand. This was one of Arachne’s best, I think, although it took me an age to finish it. The fact that I’d used up most of my crossword brain earlier solving the Nimrod that Eileen mentions might have had something to do with it.
Plenty of inventive clueing: my favourite today was GO TO TOWN, although nobody seems to have mentioned that ‘friend of Dorothy’ has another connotation which I am sure was in the setter’s mind when she wrote the clue …
Also liked ONION, ROBUST, COVENTRY, and indeed lots of others.
Brava, Arachne and thanks to scchua for blogging. The picture quiz is not my cup of tea and normally doesn’t bother me, but I agree that we’ve had to wade through quite a few comments today to get to find out what folk thought of the crossword.
K’s Dad, … and to help you skip (and not wade through) those comments, watch out for the double brackets, but you know that already.
Great puzzle as ever and GO TO TOWN the best of a very good bunch.
Re: the number of comments about the quiz – I’m sorry but it’s a nonsense. Only tenuous link to the puzzle and an inconvenience for people who want to discuss the puzzle – which is what this site exists for. The square brackets, whilst well meaning, doesn’t cut it. Can’t you just post the puzzle at the end of the blog (not a problem in itself) and then solutions in one further post later at night, with nobody cluttering up the blog in between? This is easily the most reasonable solution.
I would support scchua on this – I enjoy (though rarely can solve) the picture links. It provides a bit of welcome variety, and I do think the [[…..]] is sufficient for those not interested to ignore these parts of the posts.
I do see the point of view of the naysayers, however. (A wishy-washy post, I know!).
nametab@37
Re: 24A: I wondered about that too, but in this case, there’s no need to equate FELL and DOWN as nouns – they equate perfectly well as verbs.
Like many here, my heart leaps at the sight of her name! And today was another near perfect crossword. To be able to combine such quality surfaces with elegant and playful wordplay and perfectly judged difficulty of synonyms is a rare skill.
Thank you Arachne.
Count me as another who thoroughly enjoyed this superb puzzle. I also didn’t know cat=retch and cinch=girth, but as has been noted by a few of you they were very gettable.
I also had the most trouble in the NW and RASP was my LOI after HOOP.
Even though I never comment on scchua’s additional quiz that doesn’t stop me from admiring the effort that has been put into it.
Thanks to Kathryn’s Dad for pointing towards the other connotation of ‘Friend of Dorothy’, I had to Google to find it as it was new to me. I’ll file it away on the memory bank (which probably means I shall have forgotten it by tomorrow).
Sorry about the errors in my previous posting: second Maxwell should, of course have been Murdoch (though my suggestion was wrong anyway). plus another typing error.
For what it’s worth, I enjoy scchua’s quiz pictures, though I’m pretty hopeless at spotting the connections. I’m sorry they irritate some contributors, perhaps Gaufrid would allow those who want to participate to post their responses in the General Discussion area of the site?
Thanks for highlighting “friends of Dorothy” – the expression had completely passed me by.
I don’t even know where to begin to compliment the setter. Quite outstanding.
Re Friends of Dorothy – onboard ship you often find them meeting. On the notices they are lumped with “Friends of Bill” – you do get a few confused Bills and others of course coming along to a meeting who really don’t want to be there…
Friends of Dorothy: as I have said before, it’s surprising what you learn here. But… can anyone explain how its gay connotations adds value to the clue and its solution? On the quiz: comments are enclosed in square brackets – so how can I filter them out if I don’t want to see them?
@cholecyst: I think it was just the joy of a fun surface – a “friend of Dorothy” in that sense might well wear a frock/gown and, given their often flamboyant nature, “let rip”. And yet “that sense” in the end was purely misleading.
(Friend of Dorothy = Toto was lovely though!)
Thanks Limeni, but I think you are confusing cross-dressing with homosexuality. Grayson Perry enjoys wearing a frock but is married to a woman and, as far as I know, is not gay.
Thanks all
I thoroughly enjoyed that,especially H VIII.
The American refers to the cinch not the girth!
We’re not in Kansas now, Toto …
Just to reassert that I don’t mind the picture quiz. Some people obviously enjoy it, and yes, I know I can skip through the comments with the double brackets; perhaps today I was just a bit frustrated. After having solved the puzzle late in the day I was keen to see what other folk had made of it.
Each to his or her own.
Another superb crossword from Arachne although towards the easier end of her spectrum. None the less enjoyable for that. Just over too quick.
I must agree with Eileen’s comments on the large number of “square bracket” only comments today. I too was becoming slightly impatient at skipping through what I consider “indulgent misplaced irrelevancies”. However I’m sure many people love them 😉
I thought your reply was a little testy scchua! After all there’s isn’t actually a reason to include a picture quiz on a crossword blog is there? So I personally would just be happy it was tolerated.
Thanks to scchua and Arachne
Sorry to be so tardy, and for various reasons this can only be a quick eight-legged scuttle across the late evening carpet, but I couldn’t leave scchua’s sterling blog unacknowledged – thank you for such a grand job! – and just had to say thanks for such kind comments. Much appreciated, all.
Love and hugs,
Arachne
Scchua’s quizzes have been remarked upon before in that they can detract from a discussion about a puzzle, especially where that item is popular. As here, for example, where folks want to bathe in the famous Arachne treacle, which makes everyone feel lovely, sweet, curiously fond of otherwise reviled taxonomies, and even reborn. But beware anagrams of Electra.
On other occasions, where a puzzle regardless of its often super clues is not flavour of the month, perhaps written by an ogre, or a controversial person, or Don Manley, the quiz can be the only thing that attracts commenters (who tend to say something like, ‘yeah, great puzzle, and by the way the sparrow pic relates to Captain Jack Sparrow …’). You know the story, but what to do?
I must confess, I don’t actually care. But I’ve just watched quite a good programme on BBC4 about Easter Island. There aren’t any trees, you know.
Please just stop.
I must confess I do get testy when individuals adopt a self-righteous, holier than thou attitude and then come up with tenuous, if not plainly irrational, rationale.
Too few comments on the crossword? Detraction? If people want to comment or discuss, there’s nothing to stop them from doing so, least of all, a quiz at the end.
Distraction? Is one’s focus of thought really so uncontrollable and attention span so brief? Isn’t the mind capable of filtering out what you don’t need?
Inconvenience? How many milliseconds does it take to detect and to skip over a double-bracketed comment?
Is the quiz necessary? Wrong question. The proper one is – does the blog fulfil the requirements with respect to explaining the crossword? Tell me if it doesn’t.
Is the quiz nonsense, indulgent, etc? That is your (subjective) opinion which you’re entitled to, but whatever it is, I can live with it and certainly tolerate it.
Sorry, forgot my manners there:
Arachne, appreciate your taking the time to comment. It’s always a pleasure blogging your puzzles.
@scchua: I find the quizzes, like ads, very annoying and distracting. I left the blog yesterday as soon as I noticed the pictures. I return now only to add this comment.
It may only take milliseconds (or more realistically tenths of a second) to scroll past an entry but unfortunately one usually has to spend a little longer to check that the post contains no relevant comments on the crossword.
Per se, I don’t think most people actually object to the quiz. It is to a lot an mild irritant which is tolerated like lots of other posts.
I personally only objected to the tone of your response to mild complaints about it.
Of course anybody can post anything they please on this board and it’s up to the moderators to decide what is acceptable.
Some people obviously just “don’t bother” when it’s there others just ignore it while I’m sure many people enjoy it.
Perhaps it would be better for relpies to the quiz to have their own forum? After all it would only take tenths of a second to go there.
Just a quick vote of support for scchua – I generally ignore the picture quizzes but it’s easy to do so when the picture comments are so clearly marked, and I for one appreciate the variety of different blogging styles here.
What a can of worms!
All I said was, “!Getting back to the puzzle …”
And all I said was that it was not relevant nor true, and why it was not so.
[[I like the pictures when I have the time, and when I don’t I think that the square brackets do their job well (if used)]]
Thank you Arachne and Sschua
[[And the answers to pics 1&2 are???]]
Re ‘cat’ – anyone who read Kipling’s Stalky and Co might recalled the trio smoking an illicit cigar and ‘catting’ mightily!
[[Sorry, Robi, busy day today, Chinese New Year and all that. Sure, glad to provide the answers: Pic1: CINCH ia card game, perhaps not so popular now as before; and Pic2: Smaug the dragon was voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch who played Julian Assange in The Fifth ESTATE movie.]]
[[Thanks]]
Well, I’ve learned what the square brackets signify 🙂
[[the quizzes are fine with me sschua]]
We’ve just completed the puzzle tonight!
If anyone is still reading the blog, we enjoyed the challenge but had to come here to parse 24d. We were convinced that it wasn’t DOG circling N because it was also in the clue. We also hadn’t thought of Edward Lear!
Thanks Scchua and Arachne!
I think “cinch” is not so much American as Western, and like many cowboy terms, Spanish in origin. I rode as a teenager on the East Coast and a girth was a girth. I learned about cinches, like the others here, from Westerns. I suppose that Westerns are the only American films in which people ride horses a lot, so my British friends can be excused for generalizing it to the whole country.