It is Wednesday today, so it was no surprise to find Dac’s latest offering to tackle this morning.
I found this easier than the average Dac puzzle, and made steady progress from start to finish. 18 was a new word for me, but Dac’s unambiguous wordplay led me to the right answer, which I could check in Chambers. However, I am not totally convinced of my parsing at 20, so I would be pleased to hear how fellow solvers interpreted that clue.
It is always hard to single out any individual clues from of a consistently high-quality set, but if pushed, I would go for 11, since it made me smile, and 23, for its attention to detail in clarifying that the oath is now obsolete (“it was”).
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | CALCULATED | Reckoned copper acted all strange when going outside
CU (=copper) in *(ACTED ALL); “strange” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | ADAM | Beastly female is after a man
A + DAM (= “beastly” female, i.e. female horse) |
| 09 | MANIFESTED | Fellow’s condition investigated after initial loss of temperature is revealed
MAN (=fellow) + IF (=condition) + <t>ESTED (=investigated; “after loss of time (=T)” means letter “t” is dropped) |
| 10 | ASTI | Wine imbibed during feast, invariably
Hidden (“imbibed”) in “feAST Invariably” |
| 11 | ROLLING PINS | With which wives punished husbands moving drunkenly on legs?
ROLLING (=moving drunkenly) + PINS (=legs) |
| 15 | TRIBUTE | Passing through Turkey regularly, I save tax
[I + BUT (=save)] in T<u>R<k>E<y> (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used) |
| 16 | SADDLER | Craftsman not so happy to enlist learner
L (=learner) in SADDER (=not so happy) |
| 17 | ENDGAME | Play darts, say, first taking aim
END (=aim) + GAME (=darts, say); Endgame is a 1957 play by Samuel Beckett |
| 19 | TOO TRUE | Absolutely right to sound horn on Calais thoroughfare
TOOT (=to sound horn) + RUE (=Calais thoroughfare, i.e. the French for street) |
| 20 | CLEVER CLOGS | Whizz kid in classes always ‘as everyone’s attention
[EVER (=always) in CL CL (=class x2)] +<h>OGS (=’as everyone’s attention) |
| 23 | EGAD | It was a mild oath 500 years back
D (=500, i.e. in Roman numerals) + AGE (=years); “back” indicates (here full) reversal |
| 24 | EMBANKMENT | Financiers met, assembling outside Underground station
BANKMEN (=financiers) in *(MET); “assembling” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | RATE | Outsiders in race coming round at speed
AT in R<ac>E (“outsiders” means first and last letters only) |
| 26 | PASSING OUT | Successfully completing training, dance and celebrate loudly
PAS (=dance, i.e. in ballet) + SING OUT (=celebrate loudly) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | CAMP | Conservative politician entertains a group of supporters
A in [C (=conservative) + MP (=politician)] |
| 02 | LENT | Advanced slowly, not reaching the end
LENT<o> (=slowly, i.e. in music; “not reaching the end” means last letter dropped) |
| 03 | UNFORTUNATE | Hapless Frenchman’s single talent is catching fish
UN (=Frenchman’s single, i.e. the French word for one) + [TUNA (=fish) in FORTE (=talent)] |
| 04 | ABSOLVE | Excuse sailor on crack
AB (=sailor) + CRACK (=solve, e.g. a puzzle) |
| 05 | ENEMIES | Adversaries chuck me into river upside down
ME in SEINE (river); “upside down” indicates (here full) vertical reversal |
| 07 | DISTILLERY | Actor named Ben gets into do-it-yourself (whisky production here)
STILLER (=actor named Ben) in DIY (=do-it-yourself) |
| 08 | MAIN STREET | US film terminates unexpectedly
*(TERMINATES); “unexpectedly” is anagram indicator; Main Street is a 2010 US film starring Orlando Bloom, Colin Firth, etc |
| 12 | GODFORSAKEN | Dank fog rose out of place that’s deserted
*(DANK FOG ROSE); “out of place” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | STEER CLEAR | Animal approaching net? Keep away
STEER (=animal, i.e. young ox) + CLEAR (=net, i.e. adjective) |
| 14 | MIDDLE EAST | Slovenian leaders mediated after a fashion in Arab countries
*(SL<ovenian> + MEDIATED); “leaders” means first two letters only; “after a fashion” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | ENCOMIA | English officer, note, with a number of commendations
E (=English) + NCO (=officer, i.e. non-commissioned officer) + MI (=note, i.e. in music) + A |
| 19 | TROJANS | They work hard, taking about a month to tidy up
JAN (=a month) in TROS (SORT=to tidy; “up” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 21 | REDO | Repeat left-wing orthodoxy at the outset
RED (=left-wing) + O<rthodoxy> (“at the outset” means first letter only) |
| 22 | STET | Editor’s comment put round end of manuscript
<manuscript>T (“end of” means last letter only) in SET (=put) |
15A Minor typo in 15A – answer is TRIBUTE.
RR I think your parsing of CLEVER CLOGS is right, so thanks for that, entered it from crossers without parsing.
12D have not seen GODFORSAKEN as one word before, no doubt some dictionary support for it.
Thanks to Dac and RatkojaRiku.
Definitely easier than the average Dac, and in an attempt to establish a personal best time I started to fill in answers from cross-checkers and definitions alone. On revisiting the answers I found I couldn’t parse CLEVER CLOGS, but I’m sure RR’s parsing is correct. And “no” I didn’t establish a new PB!
All clear to parse, but certainly enough playul challenge along the way. Thanks, Dac and RR.
gwep @2, where have you seen GODFORSAKEN as two words? I certainly never have.
I also thought this puzzle was towards the easier end of Dac’s spectrum, but it was still an enjoyable solve. I finished off in the SE with REDO after the checkers from ENCOMIA and TROJANS had led me to PASSING OUT.
Count me as another who has only ever seen GODFORSAKEN as one word.
Just to be contrary, I would always write GOD-FORSAKEN with a hyphen. But I’m a hyphen-phile.
Lovely puzzle as always from Dac. ROLLING PINS was one I particularly liked, but I needed the blogger to parse CLEVER CLOGS. Thanks to him and to the setter.
Thanks for pointing out the typo, gwep – now corrected!
Re god-forsaken, thanks to the voice of reason @6Kathryn’s Dad.
@4Ian SW3 and @5AndyB, I suspect the hyphen is going the way of the apostrophe (that is, when it’s not inserted or added incorrectly).
I didn’t mean I would write it as two discrete words. I would write GOD-FORSAKEN.
gwep, I am pretty generous in my use of hyphens (though, as with apostrophes, only where appropriate), but I honestly can’t recall ever seeing one in GODFORSAKEN. No doubt there are such cases (cue embarrassing parade of obvious examples from Shakespeare to Dickens), but I had pretty meticulous parents and teachers who never suggested even an optional hyphen there, so GOD-FORSAKEN cannot have been common where I grew up as long as fifty years ago. I’m not intending to criticise your usage, by the way — I just thought it curious that you’ve never seen it one way, and I’ve never seen it the other.
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog. I didn’t find this as easy as some here and took a break with much of the bottom of the grid to fill. However, it all came out fairly smoothly on picking it up again. LOI was ENCOMIA – never heard the word but no matter thanks to Dac’s cluing. I also parsed 20a in line with RR, although I wasn’t too ‘appy wiv it ’til I thought of ‘ogging the limelight. Favourite was 19ac because it made me groan, but it takes all sorts….
Hyphens are funny little so-and-sos. Apostrophes you either get wrong or you get right. But hyphens, well, when you’re a fifty-year-old, rather than fifty years old, you go with the flow, I guess. I always e-mail people, but sometimes they email me back. And the seventy-year-olds who make up the Rolling Stones are re-formed, rather than reformed, I fancy. Similarly, the young lady who was wearing a light-green dress wouldn’t be the same young lady who was wearing a light green dress.
I’ll stop now.
Re hyphens: is this a free-for-all 😉 ? [i.e. I didn’t do the puzzle but may I put in my two-penn’orth?]
I don’t remember seeing GOD-FORAKEN as one word or as two and I would certainly never use either. For what it’s worth, Chambers gives it a hyphen and I’m disappointed to find that Collins, my dictionary of choice, doesn’t.
There is a very good explanation of the use of the hyphen here:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/hyphen
GOD-FORSAKEN is a compound adjective of the noun + participle type.
Rather enjoyable romp from dac. Made a false start trying mare at 6a, m for man and are for is, that held me up for a while…
Thanks RR for the blog.
K’s D @11: use of a hyphen often depends on where the stress falls (a guiding principle for copy-editors and compilers of style manuals). In ‘re-formed’ the two syllables have equal weight, whereas ‘reformed’ has the stress on the second syllable. In other cases the current tendency to delete hyphens to make a single word can be seen as rooted in US English.
I think that currently, Polly, it’s as you say, a bit of a style manual thing. If you get an apostrophe wrong, then you’ll wind people up; but the hyphen sometimes comes down to personal choice. Good job neither of us lives in Rossshire, though, where we’d both be crying out for the little fellow.
No-one seems to have mentioned the topical reference to Lent (2d).