(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) A fair puzzle from Armonie, to whom thanks. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Mad king’s past it (6)
RAGING : R(abbrev. for the Latin “Rex”;king) + AGING(past it;getting too old to perform what was possible when younger).
4 Passes on without a risk of illness (8)
DIABETES : DIES(euphemistically, passes on) containing(without) [A + BET(to risk in return for a bigger return) ].
9 Firm is after almost new painting (6)
FRESCO : CO(abbrev. for “company”;a commercial firm) placed after(is after, in an across clue) “fresh”(new) minus its last letter(almost).
10 Divorce upset sergeant (8)
ESTRANGE : Anagram of(upset) SERGEANT.
12 Long-term smoker is somewhat sweet-natured (4)
ETNA : Hidden in(somewhat) “sweet-natured “.
Answer: The Sicilian volcano that has been for a long time, and still is, active.
13 Dispatch old penny publication (10)
EXPEDITION : EX-(prefix indicating “old”;former) + P(abbrev. for “penny”) + EDITION(a publication).
Defn. and Answer: Speed in performance;promptness.
15 Changed email address for improvement (12)
AMELIORATION : Anagram of(Changed) EMAIL + ORATION(an address;a speech).
18 Push button for news sheet (5,7)
PRESS RELEASE : [PRESS RELEASE] (to push one of the buttons you might find on an instrument or machine).
21 Property makes soldier and porter panic (4,6)
REAL ESTATE : RE(abbrev. for a member of the Royal Engineers corps in the British Army) plus(and) ALE(porter;a dark sweet ale) + STATE(panic;a nervous or excited condion, as in “he was in a state over the next day’s exams”).
22 Uproar in jail (4)
STIR : Double defn: 2nd: Slang for prison.
24 Undressed hair went wild (2,3,3)
IN THE RAW : Anagram of(wild) HAIR WENT.
25 Wild and free in Spain (6)
MADRID : MAD(wild) plus(and) RID(to free from).
Defn: … in Spain
26 Gloria’s great at the final curtain (8)
SWANSONG : SWANSON(Gloria, American film actress) + G(abbrev. for “great”, as in GB for Great Britain, but I’m not sure about when it’s a standalone).
And this quip from S.T. Coleridge (he who wrote a much longer verse featuring another bird):
Swans sing before they die— ‘t were no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.
27 Strikes coins (6)
POUNDS : Double defn: 2nd: Coins in the British currency. There was a time when there were 1 pound notes, not coins.
Down
1 Soldier to sack valet (8)
RIFLEMAN : RIFLE(to sack;to plunder) + MAN(a valet;a manservant).
2 Teenager brewed beverage (5,3)
GREEN TEA : Anagram of(brewed) TEENAGER. And it is brewed, too.
3 Steal porridge (4)
NICK : Double defn: 2nd: Slang for “prison”, as in “do porridge”;serve time in one.
5 Fact-finding body in full flow about Trojan ‘ero (12)
INSPECTORATE : IN + SPATE(a fast flow;a sudden outpouring) containing(about) “Hector”(the mythological Trojan prince who was a hero of the Trojan War) minus “h”(as in ” ‘ero“).
6 Stop writer suffering over conductor (10)
BARBIROLLI : BAR(to stop;to prevent) + BIRO(a ballpoint pen, the name derived from László Bíró, Hungarian inventor) + reversal of(… over, in a down clue) ILL(suffering from, usually, a disease).
Answer: John, British conductor, famous for being conductor of the Hallé Orchestra.
7 Local in crowd turned up in game (6)
TENNIS : Reversal of(turned up) [ INN(a local watering hole) contained in(in) SET(a crowd;a group of people) ].
8 Pigment one found in tropical shrub (6)
SIENNA : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(found in) SENNA(any of various tropical plants of the genus Cassia).
Answer: Yellowish-brown or reddish-brown pigment from a natural clay.
11 Indicate tutor‘s on track (7,5)
EXPRESS TRAIN : EXPRESS(to indicate through words, symbols, formula, gestures, etc.) + TRAIN(to tutor).
Defn: …’s on track .
14 Violence in scenes rife in production (10)
FIERCENESS : Anagram of(in production) SCENES RIFE.
16 It’s hard for Tory keeping awake (4-4)
CAST-IRON : CON(abbrev. for a member of the British Conservative Party;a Tory) containing(keeping) ASTIR(awake;moving about).
17 Islands‘ male union members (8)
HEBRIDES : HE(pronoun for a male person) + BRIDES(cryptically, participants in;members of the union of marriage).
19 Multitudes sign to have spymaster imprisoned (6)
ARMIES : ARIES(a zodiac sign) containing(imprisoned) M(fictional spymaster in Ian Fleming’s Bond novels).
20 Ray set about reading words of comfort repeatedly (6)
MANTRA : MANTA(any of a family of ray fishes feeding on plankton) containing(set about) R(abbrev. for “reading”, as in the basic “3 Rs” in school). I was held up, thinking of Man Ray, the artist, and trying to explain the last 3 letters of the answer in that context.
23 Gloria‘s heartless greeting (4)
HALO : “hallo”(a greeting) minus its central letter(heartless).
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The pictures below have unidentified links to the crossword.
Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.
Thanks scchua,
Pic 5 is a HALO parachute descent.
Is 2 across inthe raw or all fresco ?
Thanks to Armonie and scchua.
Pic 2 includes Chuck Connors who played The Rifleman on TV.
Cheers…
Hi Muffyword, grimalkin, grandpuzzler: You’re right about High Altitude Low Opening parachute jump, and Chuck Connors, the RIFLEMAN. Pic1 is an MRI scanner, for which STIR is an acronym for a technique to get a certain type of contrast in the images. Pic3 is Jake LaMotta, boxer aka The RAGING Bull. Pic4 is a map showing, in the upper half, Vanuatu, whose name when it was a colony was New HEBRIDES. Pic6 is a wine cellar, possibly in Tuscany, where the FRESCObaldi family is a famous wine producer.
I thought it was either Jake LaMotta (and wife Vicki) or Carmen Basilio having gone fifteen
rounds with Sugar Ray Robinson. Unfortunately, I didn’t recall the movie title so didn’t
pull the trigger. Next time…