The first Carte Blanche for 18 months.
Because the grid is completely blank, no enumerations are given (otherwise inserting the bars would be relatively straightforward), which adds considerably to the difficulty, at least initially. A certain amount of cold solving is inevitable. However, the fact that we are told that the grid is 180 degrees symmetrical is very helpful. In my case, I was lucky to get HERM and HENOTIC fairly early on, and guessed that they crossed at the intersecting E. That gave me the beginning of the north-west corner and I was therefore able to deduce that the pattern in the south-east corner was going to be identical. There I had UNBARKS and ILKA which intersected in the same way and that gave me a foundation on which I could build.
I was misled for a while by the fact that the word WONGA appears in the north-west corner, but without a clue associated with it. Just an accidental red herring, I suppose.
For the purposes of the blog, I have added not just the bars in the grid but also the clue numbers, even though they were not required for submission.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WHEW |
Women chop wood etc and bustle around locally (4)
|
| W HEW. Chambers just labels this as “dialect”. | ||
| 4 | SALTLESS |
Unseasoned sailor given instruction on being discharged (8)
|
| SALT (sailor) LESS(on). I knew the answer had to be “saltless” but I struggled to explain the “less” part until I realised what was going on. | ||
| 10 | HENOTIC |
Tossing the coin, tending towards reconciliation (7)
|
| *(THE COIN). | ||
| 11 | ESTH |
Short book, one of E. European origin (4)
|
| Double definition, referring to the Book of Esther and to the original Estonian citizens. | ||
| 12 | NANOMETRE |
Number encountered within earn terribly tiny measure (9)
|
| NO (number) MET inside *EARN. | ||
| 13 | SMUG |
Sticks around, being rather too fond of oneself (4)
|
| GUMS (rev). | ||
| 15 | CREEP |
Fungus holding on in narrow passage (5)
|
| RE (on) in CEP. I wasn’t familiar with this sense of “creep”. | ||
| 16 | KAMADEVA |
Love goddess scored, with narcotic drink around (8)
|
| MADE (scored) inside KAVA (narcotic drink). | ||
| 19 | BASKET CASE |
Nervous wreck when beset by withering beaks etc (2 words) (10)
|
| AS (when) inside *(BEAKS ETC). | ||
| 21 | RHEUMATICS |
Nasty pains I cast off after rhubarb (10)
|
| *(I CAST) after RHEUM (rhubarb). | ||
| 25 | ZIONWARD |
On being embraced by wizard totty, heading for heaven (8)
|
| ON inside *WIZARD. “Totty” here is of course an adjective, meaning unsteady. | ||
| 27 | NEHRU |
Erstwhile statesman? He’s where ashes are returned (5)
|
| HE in URN (all rev). This is the proper name referred to in Azed’s note as not appearing in Chambers. It’s surprising that Azed bothers to mention this, given his comments on this topic in the current Azed slip. Perhaps it’s to compensate for the additional difficulty inherent in a Carte Blanche puzzle. | ||
| 28 | VRIL |
Origin of forces in sci-fi volume right and left I absorbed (4)
|
| I in V(olume) R(ight) L(eft). This is defined in Chambers as “Electric fluid represented as the common origin of the forces in matter, in EGL Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race, 1871″. Not the only example of a word from science fiction finding its way into the dictionary (see, e,g. grok) but one has to question why this one is still there. | ||
| 30 | DAVENPORT |
Rabbi’s to recite prayers having left desk (9)
|
| DAVEN (to recite prayers) PORT (left). | ||
| 31 | OCHE |
Response when changing ends? It should not be overstepped (4)
|
| ECHO with the ends transposed. | ||
| 32 | UNBARKS |
Strips in the woods? Sunk with bra getting twisted (7)
|
| *(SUNK BRA). | ||
| 33 | SHAMUSES |
Impostor exercises gumshoes (8)
|
| A simple charade of SHAM (impostor) USES (exercises). | ||
| 34 | BAAS |
‘The car is back’? Such may be heard among the Cotswolds (4)
|
| SAAB (rev). Cotswold is a breed of sheep as well as a range of hills. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WHISKERANDOS |
Beardies mostly adorned fuzzily in tufts (12)
|
| *(ADORNE)d inside WHISKS (tufts). | ||
| 2 | HERM |
The lady’s medium bust (4)
|
| HER M(edium). | ||
| 3 | ENCUMBER |
* Embarrass (8)
|
| The competition word. | ||
| 4 | STANDS |
Treats for bears (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 5 | AINEE |
Like senior girl at lycée, student missing translator initially (5)
|
| (tr)AINEE. | ||
| 6 | TOMCAT |
It may be beside rug devouring scrap of chicken (6)
|
| C(hicken) inside TO MAT. I suppose that this just about qualifies as an & lit clue, although the definition is somewhat vague, and why is it “it” and not “he”, given that tomcats by definition are male? | ||
| 7 | LEERY |
Cunning delivery’s last spinner tossed up (5)
|
| (deliver)Y REEL (spinner) (all rev). | ||
| 8 | STRESSOR |
Spades in resorts getting broken – cause of strain? (8)
|
| S in *RESORTS. | ||
| 9 | SHEPHERDLESS |
Swinging crowd left in short session lacking a pastor? (12)
|
| HEP HERD (swinging crowd) L(eft) inside SESS(ion). | ||
| 14 | EVET |
Ask what goes into late vehicles turning up (4)
|
| Hidden and reversed in “late vehicles”. An ask is a newt, or eft. | ||
| 17 | ASH-LEACH |
Tub for dissolving salts heals throbbing pain mostly (8)
|
| *(HEALS ACH)e. | ||
| 18 | SASARARA |
Localized blow shows sandbank in its shifting form (8)
|
| I’m struggling to explain this clue. An ås means a kame or esker (a ridge of gravel or sand); the plural of ås is åsar but the clue refers to “sandbank” in the singular. | ||
| 20 | KAID |
African chief, one taken in by hoax (4)
|
| A in KID (hoax). | ||
| 22 | MZUNGU |
White man in Zambia scattered gnu in frenzy throwing stone (6)
|
| Z(ambia) *GNU in MU(st) (frenzy). It’s a Swahili word, so more likely to be used in Kenya than Zambia. | ||
| 23 | INORBS |
Ill-conceived, is born in poetic circles (6)
|
| *(IS BORN). | ||
| 24 | BREEM |
Eager to be found in poetry of yesteryear? Sounds fishy (5)
|
| Sounds like “bream”. | ||
| 26 | OZONE |
Belt supporting middle of abdomen? It’s bracing (5)
|
| ZONE (belt) under (abd)O(men). | ||
| 29 | ILKA |
Each Scotch stimulated alkie endlessly (4)
|
| *ALKI(e). |
Thanks bridgesong.
I think 18 is indeed ASAR in an anagram of same, and just a slip.
BASKETCASE, STRESSOR and NANOMETRE were the intersecting words I was first to commit to the grid.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
I think you’re correct with the parsing of SASARARA. It’s ASAR in an anagram of itself. The singular “sandbank” rather than sandbanks is unfortunate. We’ll see if it gets mentioned in the slip.
These Carte Blanches are always less daunting than at first glance once you get a few solutions, and I think Azed kindly makes the clueing slightly easier to compensate a bit for the difficulty of the ‘jigsaw’.
I think VRIL hangs on to its place because it hasn’t quite disappeared.
Not my cup of (beef) tea, but VRIL lives on in Bovril.
In 16a, curiously, Kamadeva is a love god, not a goddess (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamadeva). Since the clue would have worked equally well with “Love god..”, I don’t quite know what’s happened here.
AR@4
KAMADEVA
Agree. Dev/Deva is a god and Devi is a goddess.
MZUNGU
A very interesting clue with a nice mixture of Swahili (You can hear Mzungu or a variant like Muzungu, musungu etc., in East Africa and Zambia in many Bantu languages), Farsi (must/musth) and Xhosa (gnu-a wildebeest).
SASARARA
With other commenters and bridgesong.
TOMCAT
Why ‘it’ instead of ‘he’? Is it wrong to say ‘it’?
The clue works more like an extended def, I think (bridgesong meant the same?)
Thanks for the blog, I do love these but I would prefer the clues in a random order to give less away. Started with SALTLESS , NANOMETRE, STANDS and STRESSOR . I could not make SALTLESS fit in the second row so got the structure pretty much straight away, The two long Down answers help a lot.
SASARARA has the problem with the plural which we have had a few times recently, I do not know who dares to check puzzles for Azed but it is not working.
EVET is very sneaky with the “ask” , BAAS is a lovely clue.
Wonderful what you learn not only from Azed but also these comments. I didn’t know the Bovril story but went looking for it and was reminded of the similar Parwill (an aside just for your amusement).
I thought I was doing well by getting SALTLESS and HENOTIC straightaway—obviously they couldn’t fit on the same line. The NW corner fell quickly. I too noticed “Wonga” but I also noticed SMUGNE—. And I’d found on the net “Vorandil” for its mate in the SE; I wondered if it could be the proper name Azed referred to. I couldn’t parse “Smugness” or “Vorandil” at the time but that could wait. So it took me longer than usual despite many kind clues.
Re Azed’s referral to revealing the use of proper names and this week’s slip for 2668 which bridgesong refers to. I should prefer it if Azed does so, but more important to me is that he is consistent in either mentioning their use always or not mentioning them at all. Azed implies that the recent SOCOTRA is “surely not” very obscure. I’d never heard of it and Andrew in his blog refers to it as “rather obscure”. I wonder how many of us knew it without having to look it up. Azed also refers to Nadine Dorries. These references to people I’ve never heard of (and have no wish to hear of) impart a parochial air about Azed and that is wrong: he is a worldwide institution. If he is going to use these remote references, then I feel he must tell us.
There is also the related matter of words in common use but not yet in Chambers. If EMOJI is in 2014 and 2016 but is not in the edition Azed is using, then what edition is he using? Surely the publishers can afford to let our Azed have the up-to-date edition. (But Chambers is wilfully awkward: NANOMETRE is not in my 2006 Chambers. It’s obvious. In defining “nano–“ Chambers uses the examples “nanogram” and nanosecond”, yet neither of these words themselves appear as subheads. I love my Chambers as much as I love Azed.)
Stefan
Stefan you make some good points and I agree about SOCOTRA , very obscure for me.
NANOMETRE is actually in Chambers93 , I would accept nano- any unit, it is a standard SI prefix so you can put any SI unit next to it.
Stefan @7: I also agree that the comments on these blogs can be educational, and am grateful to Phi for pointing out the connection between VRIL and Bovril.
NANOMETRE is in my electronic Chambers twice: once under Nano-, and once as a reference under the obsolete Micromillimetre.
I agree with your comment about Azed’s inconsistent signalling of proper names. SOCOTRA was new to me as well.
NANOMETRE is not in my C83 under nano- (but is as a reference under micromillimetre). It is in my C2016 under nano- (and in the micromillimetre reference).
I’m surprised that it’s in Roz’s C93 but not in Marmite Smuggler’s C2006.
I’m also surprised by Azed’s comment in the latest slip about Emoji, and would be even more surprised if he didn’t have C2016 and quite a number of previous editions on his bookshelf.
Re 15ac, I’ve occasionally come across a ‘sheep creep’ along hill paths or hiking routes – a small tunnel allowing animals (and humans prepared to duck) to pass under a railway or road.
Agree about SASARARA and KAMADEVA. There seem to have been a few similar small errors lately (perhaps, Roz@6, no-one dares check Azed!)
Like others, I thought Socotra was pretty obscure.
Well, I gave this a try and got four clues by the end of Sunday and decided to give up at that point. That’s one more than the last Carte Blanche, but still not enough to start filling in. Just can’t do a large amount of cold solving, I need crossing letters to work on.
VRIL was the first clue I got. I didn’t think it was that obscure. There was a Radio 3 documentary about the cult of Vril a few years ago. Theosophists thought it was real. It turned up in the 2019 film, Iron Sky: The Coming Race (not a patch of the first Iron Sky film).
Hello early-birds (and Antipodeans) I did this on the day and agree with most of bridgesong’s route to the solution.
As always thanks to Azed and to b-s.
Re-jigging the brain-cells for the specials takes a bit of doing these days but it was worth doing. I can’t agree that the TOMCAT clue doesn’t qualify as &lit, though “he ” would have been better than “it”.
WONGA being there but unclued was odd! WVIAB would have been its image!
MarmiteSmuggler@7, I agree with your general comment on proper names, but our inimitable Nadine was only mentioned as a comment on the submitted clues. For better or worse, Azed likes a topical clue, although, as the published ones show, it is not a requirement.
Yes, TimSee; I ‘d never suggest that Azed tell us how a clue works so if your Nadine turned up in the clue, I’d put up with it (reluctantly, unless it was one of Azed’s rippers). If she turned up as an answer, I think the points I made above should apply. Then again, I may be wrong:
As a measure of how awkward it surely is we recently had TESLA. Now that is in the dictionary but Azed chose to clue it as the car, which is not. Are we going to get in a tangle with Azed trying to indicate a proper noun the spelling of which is in Chambers but in a different sense? I’m sure Azed made the right call there by not mentioning it. And compare SOCOTRA with another recent: IONIA. We all know Ionia, don’t we? No special mention required. In 2668 Azed points out three special answers (two not in Chambers—these even given clue numbers— and an abbreviation) but SOCOTRA is a fourth and he makes no reference. I think he made the wrong call there as we’re led to the three referred to then another pokes its head up. I think that’s at least dodgy and borderline unfair. I don’t understand why NEHRU gets a reference but SOCOTRA doesn’t. I’m old enough to remember the Aden emergency but I’ve no recollection of SOCOTRA. Should I have? What about our younger solvers? Too-hard basket for me.
NANOMETRE. It is not in TimC’s 1983. I decided to check my C1988 and there it is, though only as an example. It is not in Roz’s 1993; it is in my 1998; it is not in my 2006; it is in TimC’s 2016. Furious argument around the editorial team’s table: “Shall we put it in this time or leave it out?” A dictionary designed by committee.
Stefan
Well, the slip is now out and congratulations are due to Phi for his winning clue. No mention in the slip of any of the controversies discussed above: there may be some further information to be gleaned from the notes, which should appear on Sunday.