Another Wednesday, another Dac and we’re not complaining. As RatkojaRiku said in the blog last week, it is always very difficult to pick a favourite with Dac’s puzzles.
Last time we blogged a Dac there were three of us involved in the solving. The problem with having more than one head is that when you come to write up the parsing you often have to work out how the other person solved the clue – 22ac was one of those that stumped Joyce despite originating from that region!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Joker drinks French wine, gesticulating | |
| WAVING | WAG (joker) around or ‘drinking’ VIN (French wine) | |
| 4 | Escorted tour starting round quiet Asian city | |
| TASHKENT | TAKEN (escorted) + T (start of Tour) round SH (quiet) | |
| 9 | Some minor malaise is not unusual | |
| NORMAL | Hidden within the clue miNOR MALaise | |
| 10 | Before exercise, girl has finally cut one form of chocolate | |
| MISSHAPE | MISS (girl) before PE (exercise) + HA |
|
| 12 | Maybe small amounts of water I served after cold cake … | |
| DROP SCONE | DROPS (small amounts of water) + ONE (I) ‘served after’ C (cold) | |
| 13 | … guzzled with creamy filling mid-morning | |
| EATEN | EA (middle letters or ‘filling’ of crEAmy) + TEN (mid-morning) | |
| 14 | Tweeting isn’t out of order for a philosopher | |
| WITTGENSTEIN | Anagram of TWEETING ISN’T anagrind is ‘out of order’ | |
| 18 | They say organic matter’s buried in desert; oh really! | |
| FOR PETE’S SAKE | PETE’S (sounds like PEAT’S or organic matter’s) buried in FORSAKE (desert) | |
| 21 | Print out of circular letter penned by university employee | |
| PROOF | O (circular letter) inside or ‘penned by’ PROF (university employee) | |
| 22 | Fizzy drinks in Somerset are swigged by team’s supporters | |
| ROOT BEERS | The correct parsing relies on the fact that if you and your friend come from Somerset you might say, “We be from Somerset”. BE (are) inside or ‘swigged by’ ROOTERS (team’s supporters) | |
| 24 | Saddo reversing truck down under is not giving up | |
| RESOLUTE | LOSER (saddo) reversed + UTE (truck in Australia) | |
| 25 | Making an effort is difficult | |
| TRYING | Double definition | |
| 26 | Genet play helps those people to achieve prominence | |
| THE MAIDS | THEM (those people) first or ‘acheving prominence’ + AIDS (helps). We’d never heard of the play but it was easy to solve from the wordplay. | |
| 27 | Pale fellow sought by police? | |
| WANTED | WAN (pale) + TED (fellow) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Begin to relax, gale no longer raging | |
| WIND DOWN | WIND (gale) + DOWN (no longer raging) | |
| 2 | Vicar stands up to speak, wanting drink | |
| VERMOUTH | REV (vicar) reversed or ‘standing up’ + MOUTH (to speak) | |
| 3 | Approaches Tyneside pubs after opening | |
| NEARS | NE (Tyneside) + |
|
| 5 | Top-grade fruit – tons – consumed by people for nourishment | |
| ALIMENTATION | A (top-grade) + LIME (fruit) + NATION (people) around or ‘consuming’ T (tons) | |
| 6 | Having uttered request for silence, Morecambe and Sykes maybe create lots of laughter | |
| HYSTERICS | HYST (sounds like hist – request for silence) + ERICS (as in Eric Morecambe and Eric Sykes) | |
| 7 | Create new card game | |
| ECARTE | Anagram of CREATE (anagrind is ‘new’) | |
| 8 | Quaintly attractive and extremely naughty old maid | |
| TWEENY | TWEE (quaintly attractive) + NY (first and last letter of NaughtY or ‘extremely’). A new word for us but easy from the wordplay. | |
| 11 | Vending machines are popular in store and highly thought-of on line? | |
| COIN OPERATED | IN (popular) in COOP (store) + E-RATED (highly thought-of on line) | |
| 15 | Work over lawyer defending cruel US gangster | |
| GOODFELLA | GO (work) + O (over) + DA (lawyer) around or ‘defending’ FELL (cruel) | |
| 16 | Cosmetic surgery file can be scrapped in fact | |
| FACE LIFT | Anagram of FILE (anagrind is ‘scrapped’) inside FACT | |
| 17 | After muddle, got on and sent text | |
| MESSAGED | MESS (muddle) + AGED (got on) | |
| 19 | Mettle shown by one in climbing expeditions | |
| SPIRIT | I (one) inside TRIPS (expeditions) reversed or ‘climbing’ | |
| 20 | See us getting stuck into some exotic dessert | |
| MOUSSE | US inside an anagram of SOME (anagrind is ‘exotic’) | |
| 23 | Country no longer America’s problem? Quite the reverse | |
| BURMA | A reversal of AM (American) RUB (problem). Burma is now officially called the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. | |
Thanks to setter and bloggers. Though the answer was obvious, I couldn’t parse “FOR PITY’S SAKE” [sic]. Now I see why. Also, I guessed TWEENY early on but passed on it, as that seemed too young to be an old maid, but I suppose I see the reasoning now. I, too, was stumped for a long while by the Somerset argot. Arrrrr!
Thanks Bert and Joyce for the blog. One or two clues which were more difficult than the usual Dac, I thought. Would never have parsed ROOT BEERS in a million years, so well done. Had forgotten FELL for ‘cruel’, so couldn’t understand GOODFELLA either. ‘One fell swoop’, I guess. And I have, thank goodness, finally remembered to look for UTE when I see ‘Australian truck’.
Thanks to Dac as well.
Another very enjoyable Dac puzzle, although I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who entered “for pity’s sake” unparsed. That’ll teach me to rush. Of the ones I actually got right PROOF was my LOI after SPIRIT.
I had to look up Genet’s plays but otherwise a fun and tantalising puzzle. Thanks for the parsing, especially coin-operated, although solvable without ‘e-rated’!
Thanks both. I also couldn’t parse ROOT BEERS. MISSHAPE was new to me. Good puzzle.
Count me in as another who initially went for FOR PITY’S SAKE and who couldn’t parse ROOT BEERS. Thanks also to MikeC@5 for proving to my wife that I’m not the only person who doesn’t know that MISSHAPES are a “form of chocolate”.
Thanks Dac for a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle and B&J for the blog.
10ac: The relevant definition from Chambers 2008 is “a misshapen item”. The link to chocolates is that a well-known manufacturer of chocolates sells misshapes at a lower price.
25ac: Two meanings from the same root word, but in my view they have diverged sufficiently that I was completely happy with this clue. As always, I have no quarrel with those whose views on this sort of thing differ from mine. (Well, it is possible that someone takes an even stricter view on this sort of thing than I do.)
Should you require further ammunition in the marital discussion, Howard, tell Mrs L that I too was only vaguely aware of MISSHAPES. Should have known it better, since near me in Derbyshire is the Thornton’s factory, and although I’m a chocolatephobe myself, I know that when their shops were still open, they used to bag up the MISSHAPES from the production line and sell them in the retail outlets at a discount.
Pelham beat me to it …