AZED 2,407

7 comments on “AZED 2,407”

1. 1a is more likely PACKWAY; which is A WK backward in PACY.

2. I agree about PACKWAY, which Chambers defines as “a narrow path …”.

   I share your surprise about OAK turning up twice in two crossing clues. I also raised my eyebrows at DAY being included in both clue and solution at 18d, although ASMODAY must have been a pig of a word to clue.

3. Thank you AR, I was never quite happy with my answer but couldn’t find anything better.  I assumed I was looking for the definition in the wrong resources.   Fixed now.

4. I had PACKWAY, too, and when I saw the blog last night I thought I’d got it wrong. 🙂

   Then I again, I appear to have entered YKOST for 33ac and a week later I have no idea where I got that from and it isn’t in Chambers.

   When I first picked up the paper Sunday morning, the first clue I saw was 28dn and I got it immediately.  A few minutes later they played some Walton on the radio.

   Couldn’t parse 26ac, thanks for that.

5. There were a few clues in this puzzle that I found less than satisfactory by Azed’s exceptionally high standards. In particular, I can’t accept ‘dissecting’ (6ac) as an insertion indicator; true, to dissect is to ‘cut apart’, but the subject of the verb is the performer of the dissection, not the instrument used. ‘The pathologist is dissecting the body’ tells us nothing about the position of the pathologist during the process, but ‘The pathologist is dissecting the body with a sharp knife’ tells us all we need (or want) to know about where the knife is. I can find no usage where the subject of the verb ‘dissect’ ends up within the object (‘bisect’ is the exact opposite, where the subject is invariably the instrument of division).

6. DRC – I agree with you about dissect not strictly indicating an insertion, it has to be inferred.  I think the reasoning goes something like:

   1) one usage of dissect is “to cut”

   2) “to cut” means to separate

   3) therefore GO dissects ART since GO separates ART

   You may say this reasoning is flawed, and I would agree with you.  I have had similar discussions with both solvers and setters about using “touring” as an inclusion indicator, despite to tour meaning to travel inside a locality not travel outside one.  I’m told by all and sundry that “tour” is clearly listed in Chambers as “go around” and since “go around” also means to to “detour around the outside” of everything is fine.

   I am left with the overriding feeling that upholding such grammatical distinctions is arbitrary, sometimes we insist on logical deductions from grammatical rules and other times logical deduction and rules are ignored.  Who decides what is grammatically correct and what constitutes a cryptic interpretation (ie an exception to the rules)?

7. I agree 100% with PeeDee about “touring” as an inclusion indicator. I feel the same way about “describe” which means “write about” in the sense of to depict in words rather than to write some letters outside others. As for “controlling” which seems be to the trendy inclusion indicator in some quarters…

   The problem is of course that we can find technical issues with so many indicators if we try hard enough. “Drunk” and its variants as an anagram indicator for example – however sloshed you get, your body parts don’t change places, though it may seem like it the morning after.  I don’t think any of us would want to restrict setters to a small handful of indicators so perhaps the happy medium is to accept anything that doesn’t involve an intermediate stage of meaning?

   Thanks goodness I am not a dog (= setter, = someone who produces crosswords)!

Comments are closed.