Azed No. 2,682 Plain

24 comments on “Azed No. 2,682 Plain”

1. Thanks Cineraria, I too found this hard – much dictionary work involved.
   I share your puzzlements re HAIL THE DULES and LHASA.
   Thanks as ever to Azed.

2. Thanks Azed and Cineraria. I cannot help on 30ac or 34ac either. I wanted to express my surprise at the clue for 22ac, which is a well-known ambiguous clue type: PONK would be an equally valid answer, taking “reflected” to apply to the loop of thread. I thought that sort of thing was completely against Azed’s normal rules for acceptability of a clue.

3. 8dn: I think “wild” is the anagram indicator, as “run” is part of the “comp. anag.” construction. For what it is worth, I first knew this type of clue as an extended anagram, from an article (I think by Don Putnam) in the 1970s incarnation of the magazine Games and Puzzles.

4. It’s possible to read LHASA as the definition being just “dog’s home”, then part of this (dog’s home) is entertaining (HAS), and LA (look) is around it. That certainly makes for an unconventional clue with the definition in the middle!
   I didn’t see that problem about HAIL THE DULES at the time. “Cheer” certainly looks odd and I’ve no suggestions.

5. Just had an idea which may appeal regarding 30ac. The dog is defined as Tibetan, so the dog’s home is the whole of Tibet. Then Lhasa is part of that.

6. Thanks for the blog , very fiddly solve , lots of things to look up and sometimes even three stages to get there.
   HAIL THE DULES I think Azed has simply got it wrong, I also think he should have indicated that 34Ac was under a different headword.
   LHASA I had in the same way as Pelham Barton@5 , also agree @2 for PONK / KNOP , very lazy setting.
   LESSEE was a clever idea.

7. Another puzzle is why Azed asserted in his note that Chambers does not give the verb form at 17 (TASERED). It’s certainly in my electronic version, and it’s also in the 2008 edition.

8. Thanks for the blog and the contributions from other commenters. I had failed to find SERE in Chambers but see now it’s given as an alternative under SEAR. I had also failed to parse LHASO though the answer was clear. I can add “the noo” to my list of Scots indicators.

9. Bridgesong@7: My copy of Chambers 2014 (the 13th edition) has taser as noun (a weapon …) and transitive verb (to use …). However the 2016 revised 13th edition has Taser with a capital T and a registered trade mark symbol, defined as “a brand name and registered trade mark for a weapon …”, without the verb form. I could not find it at all in the 12th edition (2011): that is as far back as I can go.

10. Pelham Barton @9: yes, it appears to have been omitted entirely from the 2011 edition (in error?) but the electronic version that I use is identical to the 2014 edition. I can’t understand why the verb form has been dropped from the 2016 edition, as I can personally vouch for its use in criminal justice parlance. But I do now understand why Azed appended his note, so thank you.

11. I can only assume that the verb form was dropped in the process of recognising the trade mark, whether by accident or design. Until today, I had believed that the only changes from 2014 to 2016 were the reinstatement of the words like taghairm (see note below). This is the first example I have noticed of any other sort of revision.

    Note: In the preface to the 2011 (12th) edition, it says “As always, we have resisted the temptation to discard rare, literary and historical words; in fact, we have gone out of our way to celebrate these and other intriguing or charming words and phrases, most of which you won’t find in other general dictionaries, by highlighting them on the pages.” My understanding is that for the 13th edition (2014), the decision was taken to remove the highlighting, but the highlighted parts were in fact removed completely, and later issued as an interim measure in a separate pdf on the Chambers website, pending the issue of a revised edition. I hope this summary of events is fair, and also of interest to at least some of the readers of this page.

12. Looking at today’s Observer, I wonder if another fifteensquared blogger has won a book token? I was successful a few weeks ago. This time it could be the turn of mc_rapper67, who isn’t even an Azed blogger!

13. Pelham Barton @11: thanks for the historical note. To my surprise, and to pre-empt Roz, TASERED is also to be found in the 1993 edition!

14. From 93 Taser as a registered trademark ( orig and esp US ) n etc….
    later it has – vt and then Tasered as an adjective.
    I suppose with these new words things are changing all the time so the various editions will differ.
    Yes MC has won , this is the second time since the prizes started again, I have only won once.

15. I was away last weekend. I thought I’d cancelled the papers, but they still delivered the Observer, but I ran out of time in the week to get much done.

    I recall an Inquisitor many years ago that was themed around taser, and Tom Swift, from which the acronym came. I recall that the current edition of Chambers didn’t have the word,

16. bridgesong and Roz at #12 and #14 – yes, a lucky draw from the hat for me this week! That £25 book token will be handy for Xmas – either to buy a book for someone, or maybe just to re-gift the voucher!…(I didn’t realise you were keeping a tally Roz, but I’m sure you’ll be joining myself and bridgesong on the podium soon enough…)

17. Tricky but satisfying clues this week.
    Same questions as above with nothing to add to those. Was a little surprised at Azed stepping into a minefield by declaring knowledge of exactly what a trans is. Transgender (adjective) upon which the definition of trans, n, depends is given as ‘relating to individuals who do not identify entirely with the gender into which they were born’, which would seem to rule out any sort of exactness.

18. I had a slightly different parsing for 9ac: BAR (pub) BOLA (a clumsy one overturned). Either would seem to be possible. Re 34ac, ‘hail’ meaning to score apparently came from the player’s shout to claim a goal, so you could argue that ‘cheer’ isn’t entirely wrong (although I suspect there may actually have been some misunderstanding). In the old game of Clacken, the dule was just a line that the ball needed to cross, so I guess that accounts for the definition of reaching the mark.
    I thought the same as Pelham Barton @5 about LHASA.
    15ac: my understanding is that this term is generally regarded as offensive. Azed is not averse to using derogatory terms without indicating that they are such; without wanting to sound too PC, I’d rather he didn’t.

19. 9ac: I am fairly sure that I had the same parsing as MM@18. The one given by Cineraria uses the word “in” as part of the wordplay rather than simply a link word between definition and wordplay. Azed does use link words some of the time, but gives the impression that he prefers not to, so Cineraria’s parsing could well be the one intended by Azed.

    15ac: The definition for shemale in Chambers 2016 (and back at least as far as 2011) is purely anatomical. If Azed had said that Chambers was to be regarded as authoritative, that would, I think, justify his use of the word and the definition given in the clue. However, Azed often points out that Chambers is only recommended, so I think we should look at other dictionaries, which give less precise meanings, some of which are definitely offensive. I therefore sympathise with MM’s comment.

20. Has anyone a link to the latest PDF please?

21. @Gonzo there is a scan copy available on the Clue Clinic

22. Cheers

23. Again a busy Sunday- haven’t even got round to more than a glimpse of today’s Azed.
    Add me to the book token winners though my present worry is getting rid of books to a good home rather than the tip!
    Thanks to Azed and Cineraria for the heavy lifting.
    HAIL THE DULES was certinly an oddity- the unearthing of Clacken made more sense. Certainly a Scottish friend had never heard of it.

24. Following on the discussion of one of the clues in this puzzle, I have had the following slightly wicked thought: has anyone ever written a clue on the lines of the following (needs to be a down clue)?

    Member of most humble order raised note (5)

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