Followers of Phi’s blog will have known to expect a slightly Christmas-themed Beelzebub this week.
The extra challenge was that we have six unclued entries which could be arranged to form a seasonal quotation. This perhaps slowed me down a little at first, but the normal entries fell in quite smoothly. Soon several words in the unclued entries became clear.
The quotation wasn’t immediately familiar, but I recognised “Marley” as a dead person from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I admit to resorting to Google Books to confirm the precise word order and punctuation, but:
MARLEY WAS DEAD, TO BEGIN WITH. THERE IS NO DOUBT WHATEVER ABOUT THAT.
These turn out to be the opening lines from the book, in fact. A very enjoyable puzzle, all in all.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 11 | NAVAHO – HAVAN[a]< + O. |
| 12 | STALE – two definitions: a lure/old form of “stalemate”. |
| 13 | OXER – OXE[n] + R. |
| 17 | MONROE – (ON + R) in MOE. James Monroe was president between 1817 and 1825. |
| 18 | IN UTERO – UT in (I + NERO). |
| 20 | TINEAL – TINE + AL[l]. |
| 23 | AILETTE – (I + LET) in ATE. |
| 25 | EO IPSO – (POSE I + O[bserve])*. |
| 27 | RHODORA – R (king or queen) + (HAS A DOOR)*. |
| 30 | MANAMA – M + ANA + MA. Capital of Bahrain. |
| 32 | CONDONE – [l]ONDON in CE. |
| 34 | ABEAM – [baggag]E in A BAM. “Fast one” as in a con or scam. |
| 35 | TSETSE – SETS in TE[am]. |
| Down | |
| 1 | D-NOTICE – NOT in DICE. |
| 2 | UVEOUS – (VE[n]US + OU[t])*. |
| 3 | BARN – BAR N, so potentially the 14th bar you’d visit. |
| 5 | HATE – HAt + E. |
| 7 | ETEN – [th]E TEN[t]. |
| 8 | VAGUE – V + A[r]GUE. |
| 9 | ELIJAH – J[ohn] in HAILE[d]<. |
| 10 | REND – R[ever]END. |
| 14 | FORLORNLY – F OR L OR NL + Y. |
| 16 | BRITONESS – TONES in (BR + IS). |
| 19 | OER – REO[pen]<, I guess, thought it strikes me there may be other REO??? words that mean “start again”. |
| 21 | LOATHED – THE in LOAD. |
| 22 | JOJOBA – JO + JOB + A. “Jo” appears to be a Scots word meaning a beloved one. I wonder if I was the only one to spend some time trying to make something out of (LOVER + A)*. |
| 24 | SOMITE – SO + MITE. |
| 26 | INNER – [s]INNER. |
| 28 | SCAM – SCAM[p]. |
| 29 | ODAL – [n]ODAL. |
| 30 | MEOW – ME + OW. |
| 31 | AWED – A + WED. |
I couldn’t parse 2dn, but I see it now, thanks.
29dn, I knew the word UDAL meaning an estate so guessed it must be that, but I couldn’t parse it. I had not realised there was an alternative spelling with an ‘O’.