This has been one of those times when you get three blogs running from me: we had Imogen on Friday and now here’s his alter ego Vulcan in his familiar Monday slot.
Vulcan has given us a typical Monday medley of charades, anagrams and double definitions. My favourites were the anagrams at 12ac DRAYMAN, 24ac DRASTIC and 3dn TESTIFIES. I also quite liked 1dn ALLURED, 4dn OGLED and 20dn YIDDISH.
Thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Lovely lad who may make cannibals soup? (1,5,2,1,3)
A BROTH OF A BOY
This rang a distant bell and I (re)discovered that it was the title of an old film – but I’ve never seen it and I’ve never actually heard the expression used; Chambers gives ‘(Irish) the quintessence of a good fellow’ and, having lived in Northern Ireland, I know how folk there love their broth, so it makes sense to me
8 Inserts more bullets: corps has lots (7)
RELOADS
RE (Royal Engineers – corps) + LOADS (lots)
9 Beat victim one seizes and sucks (7)
LAMPREY
LAM (beat) + PREY (victim)
The only thing I knew about lampreys was that Henry I allegedly died from a surfeit of them – and thereby hangs a tale – see here
11 Tennis champion, one for a cocktail (7)
MARTINI
MARTIN[a] (Navratilova – tennis champion) with the second a replaced by I (one)
12 Many a slip by Dr Carter (7)
DRAYMAN
DR + an anagram (slip) of MANY A
13 Backed America and abandoned another country (5)
SUDAN
A reversal (backed) of US (America) + an anagram (abandoned) of AND
14 Frequency of occurrence with small company would be a fluke (9)
INCIDENCE
[co] (small company) + INCIDENCE would give COINCIDENCE – a fluke
16 One getting rid of chemist (9)
DISPENSER
Double definition
19 Made fun of outspoken leader (5)
GUYED
Sounds like (outspoken) ‘guide’ (leader)
21 Shortly aiming for painkiller (7)
ASPIRIN
ASPIRIN[g] (aiming)
23 An annoying person in these two ways? (2-3-2)
SO-AND-SO
SO (in this way) twice
24 Violent racist reformed by Democrat (7)
DRASTIC
D (Democrat) + an anagram (reformed) of RACIST
25 Join a party, but not gregarious (7)
ASOCIAL
A SOCIAL (a party)
26 Give public recital? What are you playing at? (7,5)
CONCERT PITCH
This must be a cryptic definition but I don’t quite see how it works – see here for an explanation of concert pitch
Down
1 Attracted by United wearing the Liverpool strip (7)
ALLURED
U (United) in (wearing) ALL RED (the Liverpool strip)
2 Once more, let’s get this straight (7)
REALIGN
I think I’m missing something here – is it cryptic?
3 Feistiest criminal gives evidence (9)
TESTIFIES
An anagram (criminal) of FEISTIEST
4 Stared lasciviously, having found someone online? That’s no go (5)
OGLED
[go]OGLED (found someone online) minus go
5 Buoyancy aid for a team of Marines (7)
ARMBAND
A + R M (Royal Marines) + BAND (team)
6 A ransom put together for Oxbridge blue, perhaps (7)
OARSMAN
An anagram (put together) of A RANSOM
7 Heaven swore to come down to earth (8,4)
PROMISED LAND
PROMISED (swore) + LAND (come down to earth)
10 Bet on squiggle representing an American dandy? (6-6)
YANKEE-DOODLE
YANKEE (a multiple bet) + DOODLE (sqiggle)
15 Cheat who works with a pack (4,5)
CARD SHARP
Cryptic definition, the pack being a pack of cards
17 American mobster with a high voice? (7)
SOPRANO
Double definition, the first referring to the TV series
18 Wandering, one falls into terrible crater (7)
ERRATIC
I (one) in an anagram (terrible) of CRATER
19 Travel round Indian state, fit (2,5)
GO ABOUT
GOA (Indian state) + BOUT (fit)
20 Homework over some food: tongue (7)
YIDDISH
A reversal (over) of DIY (‘homework’) + DISH (some food)
22 More pleasant to avoid most of volcanic eruption (5)
NICER
Hidden in volcaNIC ERuption
A nice challenge today. Never having heard of 1a, I could only guess, and opted for BRUTE. I later found it in a dictionary somewhere, which said its origin was American. But other places suggested Irish. Seems an odd expression to me, unless I’m missing something.
I didn’t know Yankee was a bet. Remembered the two British initialisms RM & RE, but was unaware that Liverpool was red.
YIDDISH was my favourite today.
Thanks Vulcan & Eileen.
I remember my mother using 1a, so it was a write-in, given the numeration.
When I worked in a lab years ago there was the old joke about the chemists who “dispense with accuracy”. The people most sensitive to the distinction between chemists and pharmacists are chemists and pharmacists!
Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen. I’ll follow up those links now.
I think the idea of 26a is just that you would indeed be playing at CONCERT PITCH if you were giving a public recital, but the surface makes you want to take “What are you playing at?” as meaning “Why on Earth are you doing that?”
Nice Monday puzzle. Many thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
GDU @1.Yankee crops up from time to time in these crosswords. No doubt somebody will describe it in detail. Nho broth of a boy and concert pitch beats me, too. Thanks Eileen and Vulcan
This made my morning, as YANKEE-DOODLE reminded me of the brilliant Jimmy Cagney in this. Great hoofer, not just a tough guy in films.
Does PROMISED LAND mean heaven? I think of it as more earth bound.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
Gentle start to the week, with a good variety of clues, except that the CDs for REALIGN and CONCERT PITCH are somewhat unfocused. OGLED was my favourite.
1ac was my LOI as I have never heard the expression, but BROTH seemed the only likely solution for _R_T_.
Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen
To align is to get something straight. To do it again would be to REALIGN. That’s how I see it. No idea about CONCERT PITCH, though. Thanks, Vulcan and Eileen.
The 1A phrase actually crops up in the ‘Lestrygonians’ episode of Ulysses, as the text follows Bloom’s thoughts just after seeing the inebriated Bob Dolan ‘on his annual bend’:
‘Yes. Thought so. Sloping into the Empire. Gone. Plain soda would do him good. Where Pat Kinsella had his Harp theatre before Whitbred ran the Queen’s. Broth of a boy. Dion Boucicault business with his harvestmoon face in a poky bonnet.’
Normal Monday service is resumed. Thank you Vulcan! A gentle start to the week apart from the NE corner which required a bit more work. LOI was A broth of a boy. Never heard of it and the movie was from 1959! Thanks Eileen for the excellent blog.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
I had the same parsing problems as you, Eileen. OK crossword, but I found the Quiptic to be more fun.
Auriga has already mentioned my potential quibble about 16a!
CARD SHARP has a potential problem. As Michael Quinlon says in his book “Posh” (about language myths and misuses), the predominant expression in the US, and increasingly common elsewhere, is CARD SHARK, and only the crosser distinguishes. I’ll be interested to hear the opinions of US solvers.
Thank you, Eileen.
I struggled too with CONCERT PITCH. The best I could come up with was the symmetry between give and pitch. So if you give a public recital, conceivably you pitch a concert.
Still not convinced but it’s my best defence of the setter’s otherwise enjoyable crossword.
So glad I’m not the only one to have looked at REALIGN and asked “Is that all there is?”
But some good fun this morning, notably some delightful (if occasionally queasy) surfaces, such as 1a, 9a, 24a, 4d.
Apparently this curious expression A BROTH OF A BOY goes back to Byron in Don Juan in 1822. Eric Partridge in his marvellous Dictionary of Slang suggested that it might derive from the effervescence of broth, or perhaps rather ‘the essence of manhood, as broth is the essence of meat’.
Thanks both.
I wasn’t sure OGLED was cryptic. I mean, the number “Googol” is spelt differently.
So I’ve always read the Search Engine “Google” as “Go Ogle”. That’s what the internet was made for in the first place, after all.
My understanding of concert pitch is it’s used to indicate today’s norm of A = 440 Hz. Ensembles specialising in early music might, for instance, choose to tune to, say, Baroque pitch, which was a little lower. Such ensembles may well be asked “What are you playing at?”
A YANKEE bet is on 4 horses. As I remember from working in a bookies as a student, it’s 6 doubles on pairs of horses, 4 trebles, and 1 accumulator on all four to win.
I was familiar with 1a and am a bit surprised at how many here aren’t.
Spooner’s @8: well found… didn’t understand a word of it!
Did anyone else have concert piano for 26a?
muffin@10 I agree the quiptic is more fun today. I usually find them a bit dull.
Also I wondered if PITCH had something to do with a sales pitch, which is given in public and is a concert.
Best description of a Yankee: it’s a mug’s bet.
me@18, oops – as is a concert.
Back to CONCERT PITCH, my wife plays liuto cantabile with 2 groups, one of which plays at 435 Hz instead of the more general 440, and the only way I could get the instrument to play in tune for both, was to cut 2 slightly different bridges.
Crossbar @18: see me @11.
Another NHO 1a here, although the crossers and enumeration were kind. I liked it.
My only explanation for 2d is that the surface reading is supposed to make you think of someone being exasperatedly reminded of something.
muffin @10 – I had both in my mind, so left the last letter until I’d solved 26A. At least it had a crosser!
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
GDU’s explanation @14 is how I interpreted the clue, but I still found the allusion a bit woolly.
S’sC @8: Bravo for remembering 1ac from JJ’s master work. Or did you GoOGLE it? 🙂
A pleasant and not too taxing start to the week (as we’ve mostly come to expect). I found the top half a little more difficult than the bottom, though for some reason I just couldn’t get 25A. Very much a doh! moment. I’d also never heard of 1A, though it couldn’t have been anything else. Thanks to both.
Am I the only one to have trusted in luck rather than judgement and bashed in CONCERT PIANO? Which played havoc with two downs!
It’s good to know I am in esteemed company in not getting CONCERT PITCH or REALIGN. So would foodies now refer to a jus of a boy?
Thanks Muffin @15. Knew I could rely on somebody.
Gervase @24. No, it’s a text I know ridiculously well. When my former department was teaching it in Year 3, I wrote a student’s guide through it, which we were able to sell for £1, considerably undercutting the commercially-published opposition!
Absy no idea how the broth saying rang a bell, but it definitely did. Lamprey, otoh, was, yes, via Henry’s surfeit. The drayman was very familiar, lots of bullock dray delivery in historic outback Oz. And the Yankee bet has been here before. All good fun, ta VnE.
I don’t get the above discussion about chemists, pharmacists and dispensers. My dad was a chemist in the UK, what would be called a pharmacist here in Oz and he had a dispensary where he used to dispense various chemical and pharmacological stuff.
The discussion about YANKEE was had at length in the July cryptic by Enigmatist. As Roz says in that thread it “…is just one up from a treble. A four horse selection for an accumulator plus associated doubles and trebles.”
CONCERT PITCH was a “yeah, OK, sort of” as was REALIGN.
Favourites were INCIDENCE and OGLED.
William@11 we crossed, I was slow typing
And ta for the lamprey link, Eileen; it continues the humour theory, recently raised by Roz.
TimC @31: I have a doctorate in chemistry and admit to being ever so slightly irritated if I tell someone that I am a chemist and they assume I sell 21ac 🙂
For some reason – I’m not even Irish – A BROTH OF A BOY went straight in and I’m surprised it’s so little known. Then again I confidently put CONCERT GRAND, then had to change it to CONCERT PIANO because of CARD SHARP then had to change it again after GO ABOUT. Even so, a very quick solve. Thanks, Vulcan and Eileen
I loved this little gem of a puzzle from Vulcan. And what a treat to have Eileen as our blogger three days running! I agree with favourites already mentioned by Eileen and others, and appreciated some elucidations of the finer points. Many thanks to both, and to other contributors to this site.
Gervase @34 & TimC@31: I’m sure it’s been mentioned on here before but there are plenty of engineers who find themselves being asked to peer under someone else’s car bonnet. Same syndrome.
Good stuff from Vulcan with lots to enjoy including OGLED, DRAYMAN & YIDDISH
It would be nice to see a MARTINI anagram clued with shaken or stirred 🙂
Much like an elderly relative with wind I find it best to just ignore the CDs
Cheers V&E
[That “surfeit of lampreys” story was fascinating, I have to say – thanks to Eileen for the link!]
Gervase @34: I have a doctorate in Engineering and sometimes tell people I’m an Engineer, but if someone asks me if I sell engines, I would explain to them in a most patient manner the difference between an engineer, mechanic, technician and salesperson. 🙂
Thank you Eileen. 3 this week when you’re not well. I also like DRAYMAN and YIDDISH.
I’m with William@11 for CONCERT PITCH.
OGLED got me for a while. ‘found someone online’ had me thinking about some dating site.. It was the ‘someone’ not something that confused me.
Remembered YANKEE from a recent crossword, and GUYED ditto.
PostMark @37, see above, although I tend to describe myself as a Rocket Scientist rather than an Engineer these days. That way II only get questions about whether I sell fireworks. 😉
muffin@10. CARD SHARP is the term I know down here. It was the first to go in, and I didn’t find it all that cryptic.
I must admit that the ‘P’ helped with 26A.
A very gentle start to the week, although I did like DRAYMAN and OARSMAN.
I vaguely recalled 1a (Irish parentage) but am left mystified by CONCERT PITCH. I had piano first until YIDDISH destroyed that theory. Shrugged my shoulders and bunged it in.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
New: YANKEE = a bet; A BROTH OF A BOY; ALL READ = the Liverpool strip (for 1d – thanks, google)
Liked GUYED.
I came here to check the parsing of 26a, 2d.
Thanks, both.
Another one who wrote in A BROTH OF A BOY, and wondered about REALIGN. I heard the phrase at 1A in an Irish accent in my head as I wrote it down, but I don’t know why I know it. CONCERT PITCH was one of my last in, when I had the crossers to guide me, and I did vaguely know that different pieces are played at different pitches having seen quite a few performances with ancient instruments.
Thank you for the link to Henry I and lampreys, Eileen, that was worth a read, as was the clip of Jimmy Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy from Crossbar @5.
Thank you to Vulcan and Eileen.
grantinfreo @39 DRAYMAN was an easy one for me, having lived and worked for a while in south-east London in the range of the Young’s Brewery drays, while they were still there, and having admired the horses many times and heard the repartee from the draymen (usually comparing themselves favourably with the horses). The one thing I don’t miss is having had a night on the bitter, walking into work into the smell of a new brew mashing.
Brendan Behan had a short story collection “Broth of a Boy”. Very entertaining.
Nice start to the week, thanks both.
Thanks for the excellent Henry I /lamprey link, Eileen. I was vaguely familiar with the story, but remember the phrase mostly because it was the title of an Ngaio Marsh Roderick Alleyn detective story which I read many decades ago.
I’ve added Henry’s death to my store of bizarre deaths of royals, which includes the Duke of Clarence’s supposed demise in a vat of Malmsey.
Crossbar @49 – not quite so bizarre but I presume you have William III’s, from complications following a fall from his horse, which had tripped on a molehill – hence the Jacobite toast to ‘the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat’.
[I’m not so familiar with that one Eileen@50, but there’s also William Rufus’s hunting accident, marked by the Rufus Stone not a million miles from where I live.]
Yes, I remember that one from primary school, Crossbar.
On 26A, if you give busk in public you have a “pitch” on which you can perform. You could therefore give a concert to the public on your pitch, while playing your instrument (possibly a concert piano) at concert pitch……..
Another thought about 26A is that a CONCERT PITCH might also be the place where you would play a concert (if you’re a busker).
[Crossbar @49, Eileen @50, don’t forget Harthacnut, who passed away suddenly, literally dead drunk, at a wedding in Lambeth. There’s a surfeit of Lambrusco joke trying to get out there, but I’m sure in those days they served something a bit stronger at south London weddings.]
I couldn’t comfortably account for ‘join’ in 25ac. I can see it’s needed for the surface but it feels surplus to the wordplay
Thanks both.
I’m waiting for a much delayed BA plane in Linate airport so I would have welcomed more of a challenge. I learned of lampreys from Sellers and Yeatman’s ‘1066 and All That’. It is the source of a surprising amount of what counts as my historical knowledge.
Thanks Vulcan and thanks Eileen (although I didn’t need your help much today I very much appreciate you’re taking the trouble to spell out your favourites e.g. ‘3dn TESTIFIES’ which saves having to ping-pong between the blog and the puzzle – would that other bloggers (and contributors) would follow suit).
A BROTH OF A BOY is not used in everyday speech and is merely a device used to indicate that “I am now speaking like an Irish person”. Paddywhackery in other words (I wonder if that’s in the dictionaries). Behan’s usage – if indeed he used it – would have been ironic.
On the ‘broth’ sale REALIGN is a bit thin but has the saving grace that the surface leads us to think something else is going on. While barely cryptic it illustrates how difficult it must be for a master setter to thin down their offerings for the target newbie.
Bayleaf@56: I think you have a point, begorrah.
A normal Monday for me. Finished Paul’s prize at the weekend and Everyman on Sunday but can do little of this. Vulcan’s clues are a total mystery.
Yet many observe that Mondays are too easy, not for me.
Thanks both.
[Poor Henry I, remembered for little more than his dubious dietary habits. He was considered by his contemporaries to be unusually learned (for a king) and hence was known by the medieval chroniclers as Henry Beauclerc. It’s a pity that so few of our monarchs have retained their soubriquets, unlike their continental counterparts, eg Pepin the Short, Charles the Bald, Charles the Fat and, of course, Philip the Handsome and his wife Joanna the Mad]
[Another famous allusion to that primitive jawless vertebrate, the LAMPREY, is in this piece or ribald banter from ‘The Duchess of Malfi’:
Ferdinand: And women like that part which, like the lamprey,
Hath ne’er bone in’t.
Duchess: Fie, sir!
Ferdinand: Nay,
I mean the tongue: variety of courtship:
What cannot a neat knave with a smooth tale
Make a woman believe? 🙂 ]
Gervase @ 60: Apart from the manner of his death, I suppose Henry’s reign is mostly remembered for the White Ship disaster when his son and heir, yet another William, drowned. The throne was then left to his daughter Matilda and after his death this was the spark for a civil war (The Anarchy) which did not resolve itself until Stephen took the throne but agreed to recognise the future Henry II (he of The Lion in Winter) as his heir. I believe there is a fairly recent book on the White Ship Disaster by Princess Diana’s brother, though I haven’t read it. Has anyone here? And would you recommend it?
[Nuntius @62
I’ve read The White Ship. It gives a surprising amount of detail on what was supposed to have happened that night, but the rest wasn’t memorable.]
Muffin @ somewhere up there: yes, the US phrase is CARD SHARK. But I didn’t put it in, for the same reason that I always substitute -ise for -ize in these puzzles. I consciously thought, “the British phrase is CARD SHARP–that’s what it’ll be. Probably.”
I had never heard of BROTH OF A BOY, it goes without saying.
I think we can count REALIGN as (barely) cryptic–the clue reads like (e.g.) a math teacher near the end of her patience, not a reference to literally straightening something.
Lastly, I’ll take this opportunity to call your attention to the fascinating history of YANKEE DOODLE.
I tried to follow your link, mrpenney, but it asked me for money!
muffin@65 That’s odd, it didn’t ask me for any.
Muffin @65, here’s a summary of the article from elsewhere (specifically Logo, an LGBT cable channel, so their emphasis is a bit different).
crossbar@5 Negro spirituals were often about “headin’ to the Promised Land” and I’m sure they sincerely hoped this wasn’t earth-bound!
True Deezzaa@68. I’d forgotten about that. I withdraw my quibble.
Nuntius @62 I can recommend Helen Castor’s She-Wolves for 11th and 12th century history.
And later history, in fact.
And, Nuntius @62, yes, that period–the White Ship and then Matilda (aka Maude) v Stephen–is the focus in one of the late mrs ginf’s historical series (Ellis Peters, maybe?) somewhere on the shelves here…
I don’t contribute very often here, although I love this site for the (not so) occasional parsing difficulty, but today I just wanted to mention one advantage of spending many many years on this planet. I was in the camp that saw BROTH OF A BOY pretty quickly, but I had no idea why I knew it or where I’d heard it. Apparently I have picked up some knowledge, useless or otherwise, during my lifetime.
[GinF @72
Yes, the anarchy period is the backdrop to the Brother Cadfael stories. Matlida was known as (Empress) Maude to avoid confusion, as Stephen’s wife was also callled Matilda.]
[Ah yes of course, muffin, the loveable Cadfael (later played by the loveable Derek Jacobi) … I might read them again]
I think William @11 has it for CONCERT PITCH, which it had to be once I had found YIDDISH (probably my clue of the day). The clueing of ASOCIAL at 25A seems a bit clunky to me – the ‘Join’ in the clue being clear enough as an instruction but rather damaging the surface, I thought; and as for the BROTH, I’ve never heard of it but I couldn’t find anything else after an alphabet trawl. An OK puzzle otherwise, but not particularly noteworthy.
I’ve just looked in to see further comments and I’m a bit surprised to see that 26a still seems to be causing puzzlement. It seems quite straightforward to me, and I don’t think it has anything to do with “pitching a concert”, or a busker’s “pitch” or site. As I was trying to say @3, the surface wants to make us think it’s saying “Give a public recital? Why on earth are you doing that?” (the colloquial meaning of “What are you playing at?”). The cryptic(ish) meaning is just that if you’re giving a public recital you will be playing at concert pitch (as in Eileen’s link).
[Another book set in the time of the White Ship and the Anarchy is Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, later made into a TV series, both of which I enjoyed.]
Mr Penney @64 and Muffin @10: as a New Yorker I am in the shark column, whose teeth may be sharp but who is not actually SHARP. And I agree with Crossbar @5 that PROMISED LAND is not heavenly: the land of milk and honey that the children of Israel were promised as a home when they were crossing the Sinai Desert. It’s decidedly earthly and contentiously disputed ever since.
[Deezzaa @68: just saw your reference to Negro spirituals. Surely they were referring to delivery from slavery on an analogy with the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt…and therefore a temporal PROMISED LAND for them too]
[AT @79: From ‘Bound for the Promised Land’
O’er all those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.
No chilling winds or poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.
When I shall reach that happy place,
I’d be forever blest,
For I shall see my Father’s face,
And in His bosom rest.
It wasn’t just African American spirituals that made the link between the Israelites’ journey to Canaan and the spiritual quest for heaven – “When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside… Land me safe on Canaan’s side.”]
This was the first time I got GUY…as seen in crosswords…well I’ve not seen elsewhere. I was chagrined to see BROTH OF A BOY appears in Ulysses but then it’s hard to remember so much.
Thanks both
Really liked ASPIRIN, couldn’t get loi ASOCIAL for ages, convinced that it must begin with the letters A DO for “a party”.
When I first posted, I deleted a comment that I thought ASOCIAL was a weak clue, as I didn’t want to get into another argument!
had not heard of lam = beat. would a broth of a boy be a stocky young chap?
Wonderful links
The betting meaning of Yankee is new to this New Englander. And I’ve never heard of a card shark — it’s CARD SHARP all the way. Sharks make loans.
I did know “broth of a boy,” heaven knows why, and I did some etymological rootling to not much effect. I’d thought it might come from a word in Irish, and somebody gives “bruth” as an Irish word for “heat,” while somebody else gave an Anglo-Saxon root, so I gave up. Nobody seems to know for sure.
Thanks, Vulcan and Eileen
Did I say just a puzzle or two ago how much I enjoy Eileen’s wonderful links? And now she’s done it again! Thanks ever so, Eileen. I do remember the Ngaio Marsh story crossbar@49 mentions. It’s about a family whose name is Lamprey.
Re the PROMISED LAND, well said essexboy@80. Some of us tend to look down on what we see as a superstitious belief in the afterlife, but for African-American slaves it was an important way of reconciling the beauty of life and the horrors of life on earth.
I too came to the phrase “a surfeit of LAMPREYs” via my favourite Ngaio Marsh novel, from whence I learned about Henry I’s demise.
Thanks, Vulcan for the fun and Eileen for leading us to some fascinating discourse on the meaning(s) of the YANKEE DOODLE song, and the history of 26a CONCERT PITCH. We learn so much from this site, especially when Eileen blogs with her always interesting links.
Thank you Eileen. Posting very late in the proceedings in the hope you might read this. Mr K and I cannot fathom the BOUT = FIT synonym after scourung various online sites. Your help with this much appreciated. We don’t think we have missed a similar query after reading all the interesting comments above.
To this American, card sharp and card shark seem equally in use.
And this is how Google got its name: https://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html
Hi joleroi @87 – I’m sorry, I’ve only just seen your comment.
My immediate thought was a bout / fit of coughing, for example.
Chambers has, for ’bout’, ‘a fit or attack of an illness’.
Thanks for that, Minda @88.
Playing catch-up with old crosswords. So this comment may fall on stony ground, but…First, ‘concert pitch’ – I think the pitch combined with ‘what are you playing at’ was supposed to evoke football as well as music – ie ‘what ground/ pitch are you playing at?’ Second, ‘realign’ is cryptic-ish in the ‘re’ = ‘once more’ and ‘a-lign’ (sounds like ‘a line’ ie ‘let’s get this straight’. Probably known by all here just thought I’d do the grunt work of spelling it out.