AZED 2,473

20 comments on “AZED 2,473”

1. Many thanks to both for the entertainment. As always it occupied several slots over several days before it was finished.

   i suspect the “jagged back” is an allusion to the cartoon shape of a lightning bolt so as to make sure we look at things going the other way. Helps the surface reading too.

   i needed the crossers to get 24a as I could not parse it. Having had an involvement with Chemistry over many years I saw LIEBIG would fit for 29a but had no idea of the food so had to go looking to check.

2. If https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ad%C3%A8s is the answer to 25a in my not so humble opinion it is the worst Azed clue I’ve ever seen. unless there is some sort of reference to the person’s work that isn’t blindingly obvious on that wiki page.

   I doubt I’d ever have parsed 24a as it takes two dictionary steps to equate enthralled to serfish, the latter not actually defined as enthralled in my electronic Chambers, it’s back defining by several steps. Not actually convinced that “serflike” = enslaved.

   And BRO?

   I didn’t enjoy this one at all.

    

3. Not much of a problem but I think too, PeeDee, that BREAST PIN was one of Azed’s rare errors. I bet a lot of us knew the “gay deceivers” reference but note that it must be plural: both Chambers and OED make that clear. So we’re talking about “… east in gay deceivers? Variety of pints”. On its own, that would be a weak clue and certainly not up to Azed’s standards. Let’s wait and see and give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

   Stefan

   I know a lot of us here are getting on a bit but, by the by, if you haven’t read The Leopard by Giovanni di Lampedusa, just set aside next Sunday’s Azed. Read the book. It’s all right: you might suffer withdrawal symptoms but you can do the crossword later in the week. And you will go to your grave all the happier for knowing you’ve read the books you read.

4. ADES troubled me as well.  I had heard of the composer but had forgotten that the word is also a Miltonian spelling of Hades – it’s in Chambers – hence the reference to shades.  So a little more subtle than it first appears.

   And BRO has a specifically Welsh meaning (also in Chambers): “a place for which one feels great affinity”.

5. I too think that BREAST PIN is intended as PeeDee parsed it. Pity about the extra A and that, as Stefan points out in post 3, “gay deceivers” should be plural.

   I suspect that Azed’s inner proofreader was still taking a break when he wrote 25a. I tend to go with the explanation on other forums that ADES is Milton’s spelling of HADES, of which SHADES is a synonym. Perhaps Azed overlooked the fact that SHADES is so close to the actual answer?

   Azed produces quality puzzles weekly without the benefit of an editor, so I’m more than willing to forgive the odd lapses. I’m less inclined to forgive whoever it is at the Observer who quite regularly fails to press the upload button and put the puzzle online!

    

6. Marmte Smuggler @3, I loved reading The Leopard.  It is a wonderful book.

7. I’m totally at a loss as to why BRA should be a Gay Deceiver – anyone help me out here?

    

    

8. Skinny@7:  I was wondering that myself so I just looked up “gay deceiver” in Chambers and it can mean a type of foam-padded bra.

   No, I never knew that either.

9. I also have heard of that for a padded bra, also googling (once you get past a film of the same name) reveals it is of USA origin. I also presume ‘gay’ is the proper meaning of the word = happy.

10. Thanks PeeDee. For the record, the ‘short one’ in 34 is GENesis.
    For some reason I didn’t look in Chambers for ‘gay deceiver’ and didn’t get past the films online, so was stuck with an unexplained BR. Thanks to Azed all the same. So is Ades the composer pronounced aid-ees?

11. I’ve heard it as add-ez, but when he was a regular in the arena  at the Proms back in the eighties, he was just Tom.

12. The correct spelling of Ades has a grave accent over the E so would probably have a short vowel sound.  I try and avoid getting involved with accents and foreign character sets in the blog as they are a so easy to get wrong.  They have a habit of displaying correctly in one place but not in another.  Plain old a-z shows up properly everywhere.

13. Thanks to Azed and PeeDee.

    I found this not too tough but got stuck for a bit on the three-letter words. Overlooked KRU in dictionary search- twice!

    ADES does seem odd with “shades” containing the answer. Had never heard of the composer and made a rare forage in Google.

14. Thanks to PeeDee and Azed

    In 5d I assume “trone” must also be a market as the continental must be an “asian”.

    It feels as if there must be more to 25a but I have no insight.

    24a also felt a little odd as I think the ? might have been dispensed with.

15. Dansar – the spelling of the market place in this instance is indeed TRONE.  Well spotted.

16. Thank you but my main point was “Asian” rather than “Austrian”

17. Sorry, making a complete hash of 5d.  Will have another go at fixing it…

18. Thank you again Dansar, fixed now. I am hopelessly unable to proof read my own typing.  I have a strong tendency to read what I expect to have written, I can’t see what is actually on the screen until someone points it out.

    I think AUSTRIAN must have been a hangover from a some half-finished explanation that I abandoned.  Once I had decided that it should be ASIAN then it became ASIAN in my head and that was that.

19. No mea culpa for 17 in the published answers, so maybe a misprint at the publisher? ‘…variety of pints’?

20. Hah, already answered by bridgesong in today’s blog…pardon the noise.

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