Bert has blogged the last few puzzles so it’s definitely my turn to take on the Phi blog today.
After the clash in our answers for 3d and 12ac which we solved at the same time (Bert was right) – the rest went in fairly easily. We’d never heard of the Peruvian city despite it being the 3rd largest in Peru.
At the end, we were looking for a Nina or theme. We both laughed at the prospect of QUAOAR and WEYWOT being part of a Nina. How wrong could we be?
Weywot is a natural satellite of the trans-Neptunian dwarf planet Quaoar discovered using images from the Hubble telescope in 2006. Did anyone spot this or is Phi the only one who knows this fact?
A clue-as-definition – an anagram (‘turn’) of CLUED CARS you could get CUL-DE-SAC around or ‘about’ R (right) – you would have to turn cars round in a cul-de-sac. This clue took longer to write up in the blog than it took to solve!
POUR (discharge) behind VA (V&A)
A reversal (‘rebounding’) of NUTS (off the wall)
COVER (envelope) POINT (meaning) – a fielding position in cricket
B (black) ROW (line) N (last letter in turn). As Bert solved 3d, Joyce solved 12ac – they clashed. Bert was correct and I had to accept that B (black) L (line) END (last) giving BLEND – to turn a different colour, didn’t quite work.
J (judge) ILL (badly) inside a reversal (‘back’) of OUR T (time). Our last one in which also needed checking.
B (British) ignored (‘sent packing’) from bENIGN (gracious) around or ‘imprisoning’ S (singular)
PEN (author) + a reversal (‘returning’) of PUT (set)
CHAp (fellow) missing last letter or ‘trimmed’ and an anagram (representation or ‘re-presentation’) of CORAL
The last letter in radio is O – OSCAR in the phonetic alphabet. Actually, it’s the International Radio-Telephony Spelling Alphabet which makes the use of Radio very appropriate.
BROAD (vulgar) SET (group) around HE (that guy) – we had to check that broad and vulgar were synonyms.
S (special) + a reversal (‘backing’) of ADO (activity)
P (quietly) inside or ‘sheltering’ in POLAR (very cold)
NEAR (miserly) MISS (spinster). If that is correct, ‘marriage’ which is needed for the surface reading has to be part of the definition – you certainly have to have something to avoid. In this case, someone who is getting married, could be a spinster. Another clue that has taken longer to write up than solve! Bert here – we really don’t get the definition here – to me, a NEAR MISS is a shot in sport that doesn’t quite hit the target, not a deliberate avoidance as Phi seems to be inferring – perhaps he will drop in later to elucidate – we must be missing something!
QUO (popular name of the rock band Status Quo) TABLE (board)
DO (party) inside or ‘hosted by’ UN (French for a)
A SCAN (quick survey) around or ‘taking in’ H (hot) – yes, this is the one that Bert solved and clashed with my parsing of 12ac. Both parsings for 12ac made sense, but Bert’s worked with the the ‘n’ here.
OVERT (very plain) pURE (clean) without or ‘eschewing’ p (piano)
An anagram (‘variety of’) RICH PATOIS
R (river) tUNNEL (culvert perhaps) without the first letter
AV (Bible as in Authorised Version) in CITY (urban)
B (bowled) in an anagram (‘wayward’) of OVERS + B (bowled) in ALE (drink)
ASS (fool) reversed or ‘turning up’ in GLORY (splendour)
An anagram (‘travelling’) of ROAD TIPS
N (name) after ALLEY (passage) – the detective in the nine Ngaio Marsh novels and the TV series based on the books
HARd (difficult) missing last letter or ‘most of’ + ROW (dispute)
OU (Open University) + a reversal (‘upset’) of WALT (as in Walt Disney)
SUM (problem) O (over)
I took 26 ac as a cad. Something you might say if you had got out of the marriage. “Phew, that was a near miss”. I’d heard of the dictator but not the city, but it was a pleasant change from Lima. Thanks all.
I enjoyed this a lot, and I think it was my quickest ever solve since I started this aventure a few months ago. I was helped by the fact I’ve been to Peru and knew Trujillo… I can imagine that one could be difficult for many, although it’s cleanly clued.
I interpreted NEAR MISS as per Bertandjoyce, and the clue works for me… “phew, that was a near miss! / I dodged a bullet!”
Favourite was QUOTABLE.
Thanks all
Haha great minds think alike 😛
Lovely solve. I did know names in Nina. Btw discovered by Trujillo and Brown . Probably more drawrf planetoid theme in there too
Thanks Phi and Joyce
Looking for Tongvar which are the people who gave rise to two names
There is a little more. Quaoar (only one letter astray from QUASAR, I note) was discovered by a pair of astronomers called Trujillo and Brown, the latter going on to discover Weywot (which autocorrect is determined to turn into Weymouth).
Ha! Crossed with no. 4
This was somewhat of a relief, coming after Enigmatist in the G, even though I was comprehensively beaten by Phi’s nina. Funnily enough, given what a write in it was for our bloggers, CUL DE SAC came rather late on for me – probably because I couldn’t think of QUO. I got stuck on REM for a while and then was staring at a three letter space for ages, racking my brain. I guess they do qualify as a rock band – just!
Not sure about TRUJILLO as one of the astronomers though. Matthew @4 may have specialist knowledge – good ol’ Wiki names Brown and Suer as discoverers.
BROWN, CHARCOAL, RADIO, OVERTURE, GLOSSARY and PARODIST my faves today.
Thanks Phi and B&J
Loved CUL-DE-SAC.
Liked NEAR MISS (despite not understanding it fully). Maybe there’s a proverb linking a marriage to an accident?
As the blog says it could be a missed shot
…or a luckily avoided accident.
Thematically speaking, it could be about an asteroid which didn’t hit our planet.
Thanks both.
I understand that the dwarf planet Quaoar and its moon Weywot are named after mythological figures from the Native American Tongva people of Southern California. Quaoar is the creator deity in Tongva mythology, while Weywot is his son. Much enjoyed, so thanks Phi and B&J.
The Ninas would’ve gone nicely in Wednesday’s G by Ludwig, as would Inspector 19d ALLEYN and Father 12a BROWN, to annoy people even more.
Took 26a as a CD, but compare oed.com:
‘NEAR MISS 1940– a. A shot that only just misses a target; also in extended use; b. a situation in which a collision is narrowly avoided.’
with Chambers (1993):
‘— near miss (lit and fig) a miss that is almost a hit’. Is that supposed to be a definition? Or is it a joke? …
… Even the free online Chambers 21st Century Dictionary does better:
‘near miss noun 1 something not quite achieved, eg a shot that almost hits the target. 2 something (eg an air collision) only just avoided.’
Thanks Φ & B&J
Only got CUL-DE-SAC after I gave up on trying to fit DO in the middle and decided it had to be DE. I’m not well acquainted with Peruvian cities, but there’s a TRUJILLO nearer to home here in Spain. Talking of home, my HA is Harrow.
Thanks Phi and B&J.
Loved the puzzle, but no idea of the nina.
Phi did drop out of a Phd in Astronomy or Astrophysics, so it’s not a surprising seam for him to be mining.