As always, solving an Azed is a learning experience.
On first reading through the clues, I could only see two across answers (the final two) and a smattering of down ones, but after about 30 minutes, I had about 75% of the answers in place and educated guesses for some of the others. New words to me were TULCHAN, BRAIRDS, HONGI, ORTHIAN and VADE and I also learned new definitions for PEAN and TRASH. There were a few Scots words in the puzzle, but even though I’m Scottish I hadn’t come across VAE instead of VOE, TULCHAN or the definition of TRASH as “trudge”.
Was it just me or were there more reversals in this puzzle than normal?
Thanks Azed
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TULCHAN BISHOP | Churchman with financial duties distributed cash in pub? Loth (13, 2 words) |
| *(cash in pub loth) [anag;distributed]
A tulchan bishop was in Scotland a man appointed as bishop after the Reformation, who was a bishop in name only and whose revenue was drawn by his patron. The term “tulchan” originally referred to a calfskin stuffed with straw and presented to a cow, as if living, to induce her to give milk. |
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| 10 | OPERATE | Function as earl – nothing to boast about (7) |
| E (earl) with O (“nothing”) + PRATE (“boast”) about | ||
| 11 | REPOSE | Traveller over sea, mostly calm (6) |
| (sales) REP (“traveller”) + O (over) + SE(a) [mostly] | ||
| 13 | TATOUS | Armadillos at heading west to the States (6) |
| <=AT [heading west, i.e. from right to left] + TO + US (“the States”)
“Tatou” is also the French word for an armadillo |
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| 15 | VINCA | Flowering plant college planted in vain, shrivelled (5) |
| C (college) planted in *(vain) [anag:shrivelled]
Vinca is a genus of flowering plants. |
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| 16 | TORULOSIS | Oils smeared interrupting anatomical bulge – nervous affliction (9) |
| *(oils) [anag:smeared] interrupting TORUS (“anatomical bulge”)
Torulosis (or cryptococcosis) is a disease of the nervous system which can be passed to humans through contact with pigeon droppings or unwashed raw fruit. |
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| 18 | TROMINO | Shape formed with squares, diverting to minor (7) |
| *(to minor) [anag:diverting]
A tromino is the three-square version of a tetromino (the shapes made from combining four squares in the video game Tetris) or the domino (two squares) |
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| 20 | CIPHER | Reversed image alongside equivalent of his monogram? (6) |
| [reversed] <=PIC (“image”) alongside HER (“equivalent of his”) | ||
| 21 | DRAGEE | Sweet one in tow, might one suppose? (6) |
| If someone being paid is a PAYEE, then someone being towed could logically be a DRAGEE? | ||
| 24 | ASTARTE | Love goddess, one to get one going endlessly? (7) |
| A STARTE(r) (“one to get going”) [endlessly]
In the Bible, Astarte (Ashtoreth) was the Queen of Heaven and goddess of love and war to whom the Canaanites burned offerings and poured libations (Jeremiah 44). |
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| 29 | SHATTERER | One that’s mad about sermon? The opposite – he’s creating wreckage (9) |
| SER (sermon) about HATTER (“one that’s mad”, i.e. The Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) | ||
| 30 | LINAC | Special accelerator, component of pedal in a car (5) |
| Hidden in [component of] “pedaL IN A Car”
Linac is short for “linear accelerator” which is used in cancer treatments. |
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| 31 | GITANA | She’s a wanderer, an’ a touch backward (6) |
| <=AN’ A TIG (“touch”) [backwards] | ||
| 32 | ACEDIA | One needs help from behind, showing sluggishness (6) |
| ACE (“one”) needs <=AID (“help” from behind) | ||
| 33 | RENAMES | Supplies new handle for tiller (stern only) seamen cracked (7) |
| (tille)R [stern only] + *(seamen) [anag:cracked] | ||
| 34 | MODERN ENGLISH | Today’s lingo, broadly modish, general misused with name for one (13, 2 words) |
| *(modish genernl) [anag:misused] where GENERNL is GENERAL with N (name) for (instead of) A (“one”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TOTTY | Bird, petite, keeping dry (5) |
| TOY (“petite”) keeping TT (teetotal, so “dry”)
Totty and bird are both pejorative terms for women. |
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| 2 | LET RIP | The Parisian visit? Don’t hold back! (6, 2 words) |
| LE (“the in French, so “the Parisian”) + TRIP (“visit”) | ||
| 3 | CROUCH | Bend low – cane’s beginning on Bunter’s rear – that hurts! (6) |
| C(ane) [‘s beginning] on (bunte)R [‘s rear] + OUCH (“that hurts”) | ||
| 4 | HAULIER | One transporting goods to the French press in a short time (7) |
| AU (“to the” in “French”) + LIE (“press”) in HR (abbreviation for hour, so a short “time”) | ||
| 5 | NEWSTHEATRE | Was one at Waterloo, say? There we sat, nervously, following Napoleon’s lead (11) |
| *(there we sat) [anag:nervously] following N(apoleon) [‘s lead]
In 1815, Waterloo would have been a newstheatre in the same way as Durham, Barnard Castle or the back garden of 10 Downing Street has been this week. |
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| 6 | BRAIRDS | Rook, one among fellow creatures, appears above ground (7) |
| R (rook) + A (one) among BIRDS (“fellow creatures” of rooks)
Brairds are the first shoots of a cereal crop and they are said to braird when they appear above ground. |
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| 7 | SPIV | Big shots turning up in Aussie lair once (4) |
| <=VIPs (“big shots” turning up)
In Australia, lair used to be a word for a flashily-dressed man, or a spiv. |
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| 8 | HONGI | Going rhinal? It could be this with a girl, involving front of nose! (5) |
| GOING RHINAL is an anagram (indicated by could be) of HONGI A GIRL N (where N is [front of] N(ose)) and &lit.
Hongi is a traditional Maori greeting in which people press their noses together |
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| 9 | PEAN | Heraldic fur, soft, covering old bear (4) |
| P (piano, so “soft”) covering EAN (an “old” word for “bear” as in “give birth”) | ||
| 12 | SCENEMEN | Back-stage staff (Scots) moan having to turn up in Cologne endlessly? (8) … (8) |
| <=MENE (“Scots” word for “moan”) [having to turn up] in SCEN(t) (“Cologne?” endlessly) | ||
| 14 | AORISTIC | …It’s turning up in Cairo that’s wretched, getting past without auxiliaries? (8) |
| <=ITS [turning up] in *(cairo) [anag:that’s wrecked]
In grammar, aoristic refers to a the aorist tense, a form of the past perfect. |
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| 17 | ORTHIAN | Poet’s missing words with wife, high- pitched (7) |
| (Wordsw)ORTHIAN (“poet’s) missing WORDS and W (wife) | ||
| 19 | ORATING | Vessel encapsulated by Argo at sea, setting forth? (7) |
| TIN (“vessel”) encapsulated by *(argo) [anag:at sea] | ||
| 22 | ACETAL | Alcohol derivative? Most recent cases inverted (6) |
| <=(LATE (“most recent”) + CA (cases)) [inverted] | ||
| 23 | GURAMI | Claim from self-confessed runner maybe rearing aquarium fish? (6) |
| <=I’M A RUG (an unlikely but possible confession from a “runner” as in “a long rug”) [rearing] | ||
| 25 | TUNED | Ready to play part of contest – unedifying (5) |
| Hidden in [part of] “contesT UNEDifying” | ||
| 26 | TRASH | Trudge as leader of tour over unsightly spots (5) |
| [leader of] T(our) over RASH (“unsightly spots”)
“Trash” is a Scots dialect word for “trudge” |
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| 27 | GLAM | Romanticize one of those in the woopie class (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | VADE | The old pass away, having died in northern creek (4) |
| D(died) in VAE (a version of VOE, a Shetland or Orcadian “creek”)
Vade is an old word fro pass away (as in “fade”) |
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Thanks loonapick.
A News Theatre was a type of cinema showing mostly short films, found particularly at railway stations – hence Waterloo.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
Apparently Waterloo Station had a news theatre.
Thanks Gonzo – I just assumed that a newstheatre was a place where news was created, as there was no indication that it was two words, and there certainly Wouldn’t have been a news theatre in operation as early as 1815.
Makes the clue a lot better than I originally thought
According to the references I googled last week, the Waterloo news theatre became a cartoon cinema and I vaguely remember it from a three-hour stopover at Waterloo station on a family holiday in 1967. It was next to platform 1.
28dn I couldn’t get without a word search. I knew neither the answer nor the word play.
Quite a good one, this was.
Loonapick, “lair” and “lairise” are still in current use in Australia.
I was pleased to see “totty”, though I had to double-check in Chambers because I didn’t get the definition. Then I was disappointed because Chambers does not give the definition that I learned at about the age of two in the Midlands of England. The totty was the totty-pot. It is in SOED. And it was a bit distasteful therefore to find a cross-reference in Chambers to tot (1): a drinking cup.
Stefan
More on Waterloo News Theatre at http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/13093
And the Terminus film linked to from the comments is worth a watch.
Re TROMINO I recall as a Maths teacher, trying to liven up my lessons to year 4 (ten in newspeak) by using an idea of Solomon Golomb which developed from Domino, the idea of Tromino-tetromino-pentomino. There are, 12 of the last, unless you al reflections and the challenge was to fit these together as a single rectangle. The champion was not, as on might have expected, the maths star but a girl who was expert at needlework!
Keith, I remember reading about pentominoes back in the sixties in a book of Martin Gardner’s columns from Scientific American and making a set. I still have a copy of the book somewhere. As I recall, the 3 by 20 rectangle was the most difficult.