Some nice & lit compound anagrams in this week’s puzzle.
But there is one clue which I wasn’t able to parse, and which may be the one referred to in the special instructions (which referred to assistance which might be obtained from an etymological note in identifying a reference in one of the down clues). Thanks to Gaufrid for coming to my rescue (although I’m still not entirely certain as to whether I have identified the etymological note). I’m referring to 7 down.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ORTHODROMICS |
Sailing by most direct route, I’d moor with short cable (not like a seaman!) roughly (12)
|
| *(ID MOOR SHORT C(able)). “Not like a seaman” indicates that “able” is to be removed from the anagram fodder. | ||
| 11 | CHORINE |
Member of Broadway line-up, at home in routine (7)
|
| IN inside CHORE (routine). | ||
| 13 | TORII |
Large mouldings on front of Ichikawa temple gateway (5)
|
| TORI (large mouldings) on I(chikawa). | ||
| 14 | OUTSTEP |
Transgress to upset terribly (7)
|
| *(TO UPSET). | ||
| 15 | ODING |
Alternative to test, no good – excessive snorting! (5)
|
| O(ne) D(ay) I(nternational) (in cricket terms, an alternative – of a kind – to a Test match); N(o) G(ood). It’s written OD’ing (overdosing). | ||
| 16 | CHAFE |
Heat bit of hotpot fed to diner? (5)
|
| H(otpot) in CAFE (diner). | ||
| 17 | TIFT |
A wee dram? Likely to refuse one whenever received (4)
|
| IF (whenever) inside TT (teetotal, so likely to refuse a drink). The more usual spelling of TIFF has to be ruled out by the wordplay. | ||
| 18 | SELENIAN |
Moony by nature, embracing skittish Elaine (8)
|
| *ELAINE inside SN (secundum naturam – according to nature). | ||
| 19 | TETRAPLA |
Web includes pitfall in e.g. Origen’s OT version ( 8)
|
| TRAP inside TELA (web). | ||
| 24 | TREPHINE |
Fine surgical saw (three-pin plugged)
|
| *THREEPIN. I wasn’t particularly impressed by “plugged” as an anagram indicator: in what way does that indicate that the letters are to be rearranged? | ||
| 27 | CARGOOSE |
Diver heading off to sniff behind shipload? (8)
|
| (n)OSE behind CARGO. | ||
| 29 | ANOA |
Wild Asian ox? Could be 6 such (4)
|
| Compound anagram: ASIAN OX = SIX ANOA. | ||
| 30 | ALOWE |
Scot’s ardent one having little vitality alongside English (5)
|
| A LOW E. | ||
| 31 | MOTUS |
PNG natives returned to occupying height (5)
|
| TO inside SUM (height) (all rev). | ||
| 33 | KATORGA |
Some folk at organization supplying hard labour (7)
|
| Hidden in “folk at organization”. It’s from Stalin’s labour camps. | ||
| 34 | PORNO |
Contents of jazz mag, piano number about squaddies (5)
|
| OR (other ranks, or squaddies) inside P NO. | ||
| 35 | TORSELS |
Beam supports rot less when treated (7)
|
| *(ROT LESS). | ||
| 36 | PENTADACTYLS |
Write a little, something done with reverse of cunning? We’ve standard number on hand (12)
|
| PEN, TAD, ACT, SLY (rev). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | RHODIE |
It adorns garden? Right, what Horace urged us to pluck (6)
|
| R HODIE (Latin for “today”); reference to the poem by Horace including the phrase “carpe diem“, usually translated as “seize the day”. | ||
| 3 | THRIFT |
Economy? This is lacking over altercation (6)
|
| TH(is) RIFT. | ||
| 4 | HAIN |
Measure? Opener missing, preserve Scotch (4)
|
| (c)HAIN. | ||
| 5 | DHOLE |
Something like a dingo deserted hiding place (5)
|
| D(eserted) HOLE. | ||
| 6 | ROUILLE |
Piquant sauce incorrect as stuffing for loose liver (7)
|
| ILL (incorrect) inside ROUÉ (a loose liver). | ||
| 7 | MISHNAH |
A lost Mennonite book of scripture (short) – it’s observed by rabbis? (7)
|
| I can now reveal that this parses as (A)MISH (one belonging to a Mennonite sect, less A), NAH(um) (book of scripture). But I still can’t see the etymological note. | ||
| 8 | IN TAIL |
One’s anti being badly treated in centrepiece of will being restricted to some heirs only? (6, 2 words)
|
| *ANTI inside (w)IL(l). A legal term of interest mainly to the landed gentry. | ||
| 9 | CEEFAX |
See Times holding a payment up for purveyor of old news? (6)
|
| A FEE (rev) inside C X. | ||
| 10 | STOTTY CAKE |
Sexy girls in loose sack and English traditional bun? (10, 2 words)
|
| TOTTY inside *SACK, E. | ||
| 12 | OPEN SEASON |
Pheasant and so on we butchered? Could be this, what? (10, 2 words)
|
| Compound anagram: PHEASANT SO ON WE = OPEN SEASON (WHAT). | ||
| 20 | RAGWORT |
See one grow wild in middle of garths (7)
|
| *(A GROW) inside (ga)RT(hs). It certainly grows wild on my allotment, where it provides food for the brightly striped caterpillar of the cinnabar moth. | ||
| 21 | PRONGED |
Like forks, defective, wife left out in hamper (7)
|
| (w)RONG inside PED (a hamper or pannier). | ||
| 22 | MALATE |
Salt of an acid causing sickness consumed with meal (6)
|
| MAL (sickness) ATE. | ||
| 23 | CROTON |
Learn about decay in tropical plant (6)
|
| ROT in CON. | ||
| 25 | INTRAY |
Is it in part dealt with (bit of pile going) before end of day? (6)
|
| *(IN (p)ART) (da)Y. An & lit clue: the definition is included in the wordplay. | ||
| 26 | NOUNAL |
Number without verve I’ve abandoned to do with agent? (6)
|
| NO UNAL(ive). | ||
| 28 | SCALA |
‘Spiral’ canals may reveal this, note (5)
|
| Another & lit clue: SCALA N(ote) is an anagram of canals. Scala is defined as “a ladder-like structure, such as any of the spiral canals of the cochlea”. | ||
| 32 | OONT |
Kim’s camel? Nothing’s preferred to riding it, in short (4)
|
| 0 ON (i)T. It’s an Indian term for a camel. |
Thanks bridgesong. I thought the etymological note was for HODIE in RHODIE – Chambers only has ‘hodiernal’ as a headword.
The intersecting RHODIE and ODING made this a technical DNF for me, it took electronic help to get the unknown former. TIFT was hard without the last letter crossed too.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
Also, I’m guessing that ‘Kim’s camel’ is a reference to the Kipling book.
Thanks for the blog, for RHODIE I thought RHO=R ( right) and DIE is the day from Horace, I am now inclined to agree with Gonzo @1 .
Also agree that Kim is from Kipling who also gave me DHOLE from the story Red Dog Dhole.
STOTTY CAKE is not in my Chambers 93 but I do know it well, the use of totty is dubious to say the least.
Gonzo: you’re probably right about the etymological note being to “hodiernal”, where it explains its derivation from hodie = hoc die. Still a bit of a leap to “carpe diem”, though!
And you and Roz are both right about Kim being a Kipling reference, which I should have pointed out.
Roz: without wishing to get into a debate about the use of possibly offensive terms in crosswords, I will simply acknowledge that Chambers defines “totty” as “sexually attractive young people collectively”, which is not the usage in the clue.
Fair enough. In my rather old Chambers 93 it says young girls, but Azed does specify 2014 so I cannot object.
Not a good week for me. There were nine clues I just couldn’t get. If I don’t finish by Monday night, I reckon I’ll never finish.
Can someone explain what PORNO has to do with jazz?
Thanks Azed and Bridgesong
Dormouse@7 re 34ac: Chambers defines jazz mag as slang for a pornographic magazine.
Now that I did not know!
Found this tough, with lots of the NW sector bare, so thanks for the elucidations. Plugged as an anagrind (24a)? One meaning of PLUG is to shoot, so PLUGGED could mean SHOT … not convinced.
Another one here who failed on the crossing ‘rhodie’ (I’ve never heard rhododendrons abbreviated thus) and ‘od’ing’, as well as on some of the parsing. Glad it wasn’t just me!
However often I read the instructions for Playfair coding, they still defeat me. Oh well, I do have a lot of other more useful tasks waiting for me today…
Most of the instructions are missing in the newspaper today but I have seen them before and assume they have not changed.
Rhodie was very familiar to me , I use it myself a lot.
Roz@12: Found the instructions by googling for the puzzle.
Thank you Dormouse but I am strictly pen and paper, all done now , quite quick for a Playfair.
I printed off the instructions but I must admit, even after reading them I’m completely lost. I can’t remember the last time I did one of these, if ever.
I just checked when the last Playfair appeared and it was in 2015, it seems, before I re-started getting the Observer. But looking at the last one it’s cleared up my confusion as to how it works.
I just do all the clues as normal for the crossword, I do not worry about the Playfair square until the grid is nearly full. I must have done about seven or eight before. I think the occasional Cyclops is a Playfair.
My problem was I’d misread the instructions and thought all answers were in code. Which in retrospect is obviously wrong.
Nice to get today’s Playfair after a long gap but I pity any who will be puzzled by the omission of the first half of the explanation. Shall be measuring may brain’s dwindling capacity.
Returning to last week thanks to Azed and bridgesong. Hodie was in bracketed entry immediately below.
I wondered how you’d punctuate ODING, my last in, as ODI was not in my ancient Chambers. Is it o.d.ing? o-d-ing? od-ing?
Now to the nitty-gritty of solving the four unaided clues. Bletchley Park time has come!
Keith @ 19 ODI for cricket was not in my Chambers 93 but I have heard it said quite a lot.
OD is in capitals in Chambers and then written OD’ing, strange but valid.
Good luck with the four clues, get one and it is obvious.