It’s traditional for the last Azed of the year to be on the easy side, after the rigours of the Christmas special; so it was with this one, though it was by no means a walkover. Thanks to Azed as we move into the 48th calendar year of the series.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | PHLEGMAGOGIC | Deviously help grand trickery involving energy and venting humour? (12) HELP* + G + GO in MAGIC. Phlegm was one of the four humours of ancient and medieval medicine |
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| 10. | HOOR | Nasty Scot in Glasgow we found among personnel (4) OO (Scots “we”) in HR (Human Resources, aka Personnel [department]) – hoor is a Scots variant of “whore”, used to mean “a difficult or unpleasant thing or person” |
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| 11. | OVERAGE | Excess reporting? Cut initial chapter (7) COVERAGE less C |
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| 12. | ROUSANT | Rising like a bird that exercises a turn so (7) (A TURN SO)* – it’s a heraldic term for “rising as a bird” |
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| 13. | BRAN | Bits of breakfast roughage adding nourishment (4) First letters &lit |
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| 15. | POP-UP | Appearing when option’s selected, champers at an end (5) POP (slang for champagne) + UP (at an end) |
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| 17. | STORY | Plot ryots worked (5) RYOTS* – not that it matters for the clue, but a ryot is an Indian peasant or tenant farmer |
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| 18. | SPOOR | Singer’s first substandard track (5) S[inger] + POOR |
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| 21. | EQUIPOISE | Balance is shown following ball in French team (9) O (ball) + IS in EQUIPE (French for “team”) |
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| 23. | OPODELDOC | Poodle treated by (US) vet producing type of liniment (9) POODLE* + DOC |
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| 24. | GEMOT | Historical assembly learnt about them (5) ‘EM in GOT |
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| 26. | SKIMP | Spare mobile’s thrown into waste container often (5) M (mobile, as m-banking) in SKIP (waste container) |
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| 28. | SWELT | What makes society wither and die in some parts (5) S + WELT (to wither). A dialect word meaning to die |
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| 30. | AULA | Hall, type of expansion university welcomed (4) U in ALA (“a leafy expansion..”) |
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| 31. | VERDURE | Feature of green belt behind schedule, not the first? About right (7) R in [O]VERDUE |
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| 32. | PROTEUS | Blind cave-dweller erupts furiously, pierced by Odysseus initially (7) O[dysseus] in ERUPTS*. The cave-dweller is not the shape-shifting character from Greek mythology, but another name for the Olm, an aquatic salamander |
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| 33. | KARA | It carries significance for Sikhs, knocking back strong drink (4) Reverse of ARAK |
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| 34. | HETEROSTYLED | The old trees they varied with flower parts of differing length (12) (OLD TREES THEY)* – the initial “The” seems redundant |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | PHRASEOGRAPH | Ah gosh! Rapper garbled cursive sequence (12) (AH GOSH RAPPER)* |
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| 2. | HOOK-TIP | Moth took off in joint (7) TOOK* in HIP (joint) |
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| 3. | LOUP | Droop on fringes of university dance (4) U in LOP (to hang down loosely, droop). Is U the “fringes” of University? |
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| 4. | GRAPY | Like wine making one merry dipped into regularly by distinguished don (5) The letters RP (Regius Professor – distinguished don) inserted separately into GAY |
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| 5. | MONOPULSE | Radar system creating endless work – terribly solemn about it (9) OPU[S] in SOLEMN* |
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| 6. | GENUS | Class benders (not classically proper!) (5) Plural of GENU = knee = bender; the “classically proper” plural would be “genua” |
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| 7. | GARBOIL | Outcry once dress comes into contact with grease (7) GARB + OIL |
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| 8. | IGAD | Mild oath senior officer produces having lost pipe outside? (4) BRIGADIER less the outer BRIER (pipe) |
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| 9. | CENTRE SPREAD | Meeting-place, special, to study e.g. Playboy feature? (12, 2 words) CENTRE (meeting-place) + SP[ecial] + READ |
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| 14. | UREDO | Extract from pasture dock for nettle rash (5) Hidden in pastURE DOck |
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| 16. | PRIDELESS | Press lied freely displaying hubris? Far from it (9) (PRESS LIED)* |
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| 19. | POCKY | Damned old and cold cramped houses (5) C in POKY |
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| 20. | COMPLOT | Stewed fruit with a dash of lemon in? It was intriguing (7) L[emon] in COMPOT |
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| 22. | SIMARRE | Shift is taken up and nearly spoilt (7) Reverse of IS + MARRE[D] – variant of “cymar”, a coat, or undergarment (“shift”) |
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| 25. | TWIER | Blast of air, tornado with no hush inside (5) TWISTER less ST (hush!). Chambers defines this as “a nozzle for a blast of air”, rather than the blast itself, as the clue implies |
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| 26. | STRUT | Prop displaying bulge, routine with stone put on (5) ST[one] + RUT (routine) |
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| 27. | IURE | International practice formerly sanctioned by law (4) I + URE |
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| 29. | DUAL | Twain-like, showing what’s universal in boy’s upbringing (4) U in reverse of LAD, with a surface reference to Mark Twain’s characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn |
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Thanks for the blog, Andrew. I agree with your comment about the superfluous “the” in 34 across; I thought the same could be said about “often” at 26 across.
At 3 down, I didn’t read “on fringes of” as referring to U(niversity) but simply as an inclusion indicator, U not requiring any additional explanation.
Thanks for the explanations of 4dn and 5dn. Got the answers from the definitions only.
Also took be a while to work out exactly 23ac. Chambers gives “doctor” (hence doc, presumably) as a term for a veterinary surgeon in N. Am. Hadn’t realised it wasn’t used in the UK. I have a friend who is a vet but she’s also a Ph.D.
I could only think that the word ‘The’ at the start of the clue for 34ac was the legacy of an earlier version – it certainly makes the clue unsound in Ximenean terms. I believe that the “often” at 26ac is there because Chambers indicates that a skip in the container sense can also be used for transporting eg theatrical costumes, so Azed has deliberately made the indication less prescriptive.
On the contrary, DRC, Azed’s superfluous ‘The’ at 34ac is a direct throwback to Ximenean times when unwanted articles, definite and indefinite, cropped up all the time. Consider eg this (otherwise) brilliant first prizewinner by Mrs Jarman for WYLIECOATS: “Slips over Scottish briefs? The Law Society’s shattered!”. Perhaps it’s appropriate that Colin Dexter, that great Ximenes-era champion, should have resurrected the policy by chucking in a superfluous ‘a’ in his last ever Azed prizewinner for PERIQUE: “Partly a pauper, I queued for possible refill of bowl. (Twist, maybe)”?
Fair point, Richard – my selection of the term Ximenean was of course itself Humptydumptyian, chosen to mean ‘conforming to the rules first set out by Ximenes in 1966 and progressively modified since his demise based on some sort of vague consensus’. In the first competition of 1967 Ximenes awarded first prize to “Abbreviations not in Chambers, but should not be looked up anyway!” for MINI-SKIRTS, but I don’t think today’s solvers would consider that this clue conformed to the ‘A’ standard for rigour. Perhaps ‘ximenean’ is the right term, or else we need a new adjective (‘spartan’, perhaps) to set against ‘libertarian’ (Azed seems still to use ‘Ximenean’ for this purpose).
There are I know some situations where a superfluous article is generally considered acceptable (eg definitions, hiding places), and an unanswered ‘to’ in an infinitive is typically indulged, but that ‘The’ in 34ac is surely covered by Azed’s observation that “The inclusion of superfluous wording … merely to improve the readability of clues is quite a common fault and should be guarded against.” In earlier days clues tended to contain all kinds of ‘padding’, as witnessed by this Afrit clue for MINOTAUR: ‘This monster has elements which may be given to rumination, the human element being put in to complete the mixture’…since today’s barred puzzles tend to have a limit of around 420 words including preamble this 20-word beast wouldn’t go down too well with editors!
DRC, Azed does by and large practice what he preaches so I agree with you that the superfluous article at 34ac was probably an oversight.
The term ‘Ximenean’ (or ‘ximenean’) is a flexible one that seems to have been hijacked in recent years and used to describe any style of clueing that’s seen as stuffy and old-fashioned. Personally, I’m all in favour of scrapping the terms ‘Ximenean’ and ‘libertarian’ altogether and replacing them with ‘grammatically sound/unsound’.
Thanks to Andrew and Azed
I don’t have a problem with 34a as articles are long established as being dispensable. I prefer if they are only used if they improve the surface and in this case I think it does – slightly.
However,
11a: I can’t see how “Cut initial chapter” indicates dropping the “c” from coverage. Assuming “c” is being used as an abbreviation for “chapter”, “initial” is not merely superfluous but suggests that there is more than one “c” and we must drop only the first.
26a: I am dubious about “often”, “skip” is a perfectly good synonym for “waste container”.
26d What is “displaying bulge” doing here? Does it refers to a strut under a car (which can incorporate a shock absorber), or am I missing something?
I’m not sure of the distinction between “Ximenean” and “libertarian”, for me clues are taut or flabby.
Not much flab here.
Richard – Yes, I think you’re right. Let’s be honest, the very word ‘Ximenean’ sounds pretty abstruse (and dull), while ‘libertarian’ suggests unrestraint (and fun). After 53 years it would be good to move on, and not allow shoddy clues to hide behind the ‘libertarian’ shield.
Dansar – I see no problem with 11ac. The ‘initial’ may not be essential, but it simply gives additional information to the solver – remove the C that starts the word meaning ‘reporting’. The wordplay is still grammatically sound, and superfluous elements are only an issue if they unfairly mislead the solver. Chambers is the primary reference for Azed, and its definition of ‘skip’ suggests that if ”container’ is prefixed by ‘waste’ then there needs to be an indication that this is not a skip’s only use. Although I seriously doubt whether anyone would have complained if Azed had omitted the qualification. In 26dn, the verb ‘strut’ has an obsolete meaning of ‘bulge’. Personally, I do see a problem with the ‘The’ in 34ac as its only role in the wordplay can be as part of the anagram fodder; since it is not, it shouldn’t be there – if ‘The old’ were indicating, say, ‘eld’ (a meaning of the noun ‘old’) then I would agree that it was an ‘ignorable article’.
Azed’s puzzles are checked but there is a transition between checkers at the moment and I suspect the extraneous ‘the’ slipped through. I also suspect that Azed had an anagram using ‘the’ with a ‘y’ left over and then forgot to delete the ‘the’ when he brought in ‘they’. Nothing to do with extraneous ‘the’ words in Ximenean rules (interesting diversion though!), just a simple error ( which I certainly passed by after a brief raise of an eyebrow)
I agree with posters above that “Ximenean” sounds arcane and stuffy while “libertarian” suggests fun – but in my opinion unsound clues are anything but fun to solve!
I also suspect that the superfluous “the” in 34 started out as part of the anagram fodder and that Azed forgot to delete it. We all make minor slips like that from time to time!
I think it is testament to Azed’s exceptional and continuing accuracy in clue construction that we find ourselves discussing a single definite article in one clue. After all, he’s written well over 80,000 others since the Azed series began.