Azed reaches a major milestone in his setting career today. We have a plain puzzle from last Sunday to consider first in this blog.
The wordplay in BORAX and CARSE is simila, but I don’t think I have explained it particularly well for either clue in the detailed table below. The common theme is that ‘crated’ in 11 across tells you that RA is in a BOX to form BORAX and ‘as a precaution’ [‘in case’] tells you that R is placed in CASE to form CARSE
I was slightly surprised to see the imbalance between the number of definitions at the beginning of a clue and those at the end. I reckon only 10 out of 38 clues had a definition at the end
I liked the use of two distinct meanings of AY in the clues for ATIMY (12 across, where AY meant ‘alas’) and RENAY (34 across where AY meant ‘forever’).
There were four hyphenated entries this week. I know there has been discussion on this site in the past about whether hyphens should be indicated in the enumeration of the answer.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | US sycophant upsetting parish people, about 50 (13, 2 words)
APPLE POLISHER (North American [US} informal term for a sycophant) Anagram of (upsetting) PARISH PEOPLE containing (about) L (Roman numeral for 50) APPLE PO (L) ISHER* – either L could be the one contained |
| 11 | Lake-shore mineral artist crated? (5)
BORAX (a mineral, hydrated sodium tetraborate, found on alkaline lake shores) RA (member of the Royal Academy of Arts; artist) contained in a BOX (crated), so BORAX represents a crated artist) BO (RA) X |
| 12 | Loss of honour in Athens alas includes distinguished citizen thereof? Not on (5)
ATIMY (loss of honour; in ancient Athens) AY (alas) containing (includes) TIMON (reference Shakespeare’s play ‘TIMON of Athens’) excluding (not) ON A (TIM) Y |
| 14 | Scottish husky that has work breaking up wild riot (6)
ROOPIT (Scottish word for hoarse [husky]) OP (OPus; work, especially a musical one) contained in (breaking up) an anagram of (wild) RIOT RO (OP) IT* |
| 15 | Devout prankster in Amazonian craft? (7)
PIROGUE (S American [Amazonian] dugout canoe, [craft]) PI (pious; devout) + ROGUE (prankster) PI ROGUE |
| 16 | Pomeranian makes drooling noise by the sound of it (5)
SPITZ (a Pomeranian dog) SPITZ (sounds like [by the sound of it] SPITS [drools; Chambers Thesaurus has drool and spit as synonyms when considered as nouns]) SPITZ |
| 17 | Carp from the States I found among a lot of herrings (7)
CRUSIAN (a colourful carp, commonly kept as an aquarium fish) (US [{United} States] + I) contained in (found among) CRAN (measure of capacity for herrings just landed in port, equal to 37½ gallons) CR (US I) AN |
| 19 | Rainy borders of Hungary and elsewhere (6)
HYETAL (rainy) HY (outer letters of [borders of] HungarY) + ET AL (and elsewhere) HY ET AL |
| 20 | Stoup’s content? Namely ‘overflowing’, about to go fast (9, 2 words)
SCOTS PINT (3 imperial pints, the volume of a pint-stoup drinking vessel; stoup’s content) SC (scilicet [Latin, namely]) + (OTT [over the top; overflowing – I suppose this a literal definition of ‘over the top’, rather thamn the more common definition of extreme or excessive] containing [about] SPIN [revolve rapidly; go fast]) SC OT (S PIN) T |
| 24 | Like heavy type whenever included, of two kinds (6)
BIFOLD (a Shakepearean term meaning ‘of two kinds’) IF (whenever) contained in (included) BOLD (like heavy type in print terminology) B (IF) OLD |
| 27 | Sprinkle all over set scattered in beer? (7)
BESTREW (to cover loosely with something; sprinkle all over) Anagram of [scattered] SET contained in (in) BREW (brewage; beer) B (EST*) REW |
| 29 | What may be articulated, right inside parrot (5)
LORRY (reference an articulated LORRY) R (right) contained in (inside) LORY (any parrot of a family with brushlike tongues) LOR (R) Y – either R could be the one contained |
| 31 | Lack of gas? A vehicle running short, awful pain (7)
ACAPNIA (deficiency of carbon dioxide; lack of gas) A + CAR (vehicle) excluding the final letter (running short) R + an anagram of (awful) PAIN A CA PNIA* |
| 32 | A skin condition like this is plugged by a pin (6)
SAPEGO (any spreading or creeping skin disease, specifically ringworm) SO (like this) containing (plugged by) (A + PEG [wooden pin]) S (A PEG) O |
| 33 | Take as a precaution (one might assume) what may run along river
CARSE (an alluvial riverside plain; what may run along river) R (take [Latin recipe]) contained in (one might assume) (IN CASE [as a precaution] where the IN is serving as another containment indicator) CA (R) SE |
| 34 | Abjure former race forever (5)
RENAY (abjure) REN (old [former] word for run or race) + AY (alternative spelling of AYE [forever]) REN AY |
| 35 | Seeds we scattered with genera, source of all higher plants (13, 2 words)
GREEN SEAWEEDS (chlorophyceae [one of the main divisions of the Algae from which plants higher in the same structure are derived – I think!]) Anagram of (… scattered with …) SEEDS WE and [with] GENERA GREEN SEAWEEDS |
| Down | |
| 2 | Shoot on grouse moor? There’s nothing in what’s to cook (4)
POOT (shoot at young partridges or young grouse; shoot on grouse moor) O (character representing zero or nothing) contained in (in) POT (the contents of a cooking pan, e.g. grouse for the purposes of this clue) PO (O) T – either O could be the one included |
| 3 | Association for business types in favour of transport (6)
PROBUS (an association that provides regular gatherings for retired professional and business people) PRO (in favour of) + BUS (a form of transport) PRO BUS |
| 4 | Stone I found in hollows (5)
LAPIS (Latin for stone) I contained in (found in) LAPS (hollows) LAP (I) S |
| 5 | Knock to indicate needing lift? Tapping noise (6)
PIT-PAT (knocking noise) (TAP [gentle knock] + TIP [indicate]) all reversed (needing lift; down entry) (PIT–PAT)< |
| 6 | Rock plant for rearing at home (5)
ORPIN (purple-flowered, broad-leaved stonecrop; rock plant) PRO (in favour of; for) reversed (rearing; down entry) + IN (at home) ORP< IN |
| 7 | Strip of wood I held in middle? Jock’s averse (5)
LAITH (Scottish [Jock] word for loath or averse) I contained in the middle of [held in middle] LATH (strip of wood) LA (I) TH |
| 8 | Tinware in its material, hot (6)
STOLEN (hot, in slang criminology terms) TOLE (painted, lacquered or Japanned tinware) contained in (in) SN (chemical symbol for stannium or tin) S (TOLE) N |
| 9 | Elevation of rank by the sound of it once promised in Scotland (5)
HIGHT (archaic [once] Scots word for ‘promised) HIGHT (sounds like [by the sound of it] HEIGHT [elevation in rank]) HIGHT |
| 10 | Charm with minor switch, English copy (7)
EMULATE (copy) AMULET (charm) with the A and E swapped (with minor switch) to form EMULAT + E (English) EMULAT E |
| 11 | Knick-knacks I caught in two bits of underwear, see (9)
BRIC-A-BRAC (knick-knacks) (I + C [caught]) contained in (in) (BRA [bit of underwear] + BRA [a bit of underwear] giving two bits) + C (see) BR (I C) A BRA C |
| 13 | Old gold coin to cheer buckaroo, not the first (9)
YELLOW-BOY (old gold coin) YELL (rhythmic cheer or chant) + COWBOY (buckaroo) excluding the first letter (not the first) C YELL OW BOY |
| 18 | One travels via Amtrak, arrival affected, velocity becoming constant (7)
RAILCAR (American term for a railway carriage that can be found among Amtrak rolling stock [Amtrak is an American company responsible for passenger railways between US major cities]) Anagram of (affected) ARRIVAL with V (velocity) replaced by (becoming) C (a constant in mathematics) RAILCAR* |
| 21 | Stiff rule in wood (6)
CORPSE (stiff is a slang term for a CORPSE or dead body) R (rule) contained in (in) COPSE (a small thicket of trees; a small piece of woodland) CO (R) PSE |
| 22 | Home for cats? Some copper Siamese (6)
PERSIA (reference a PERSIAn cat, which presumably has Persian roots) PERSIA (hidden word in [some] copPER SIAmese) PERSIA |
| 23 | Chemical compound, form of nitre containing electric field strength (6)
TRIENE (any chemical compound containing three double bonds) Anagram of (form of) NITRE containing (containing) E (electric field strength) TRI (E) NE* |
| 25 | Liberal food’s passed round in spread (5)
FLARE (spread) FARE (food) containing (passed round) L (Liberal) F (L) ARE |
| 26 | I’ll be included by fellows in self- administered massages (5)
DO-INS (forms of self-applied acupressure massage, originating in China, used preventatively and therapeutically) I contained in (will be included by) DONS (fellows) DO (I) NS |
| 27 | Harrow fern thicket (5)
BRAKE (harrow) BRAKE (fern) BRAKE (thicket) triple definition BRAKE |
| 28 | Drink a lot round Spain in tropical headgear (5)
TOPEE (pith helmet; tropical headgear) TOPE (drink hard regularly; drink a lot) containing (round) E (International Vehicle Registration for Spain) TOP (E) E |
| 30 |
Mild expletive exemplified by commercial (4) EGAD (mild oath or expletive) EG (for example; exemplified by) + AD (ADvertisement [commercial]) EG AD |
Aha thanks duncanshiell. Foxed by having DENAY for RENAY (plausibly from the definition). Curses Azed!
(But pleased to get APPLE POLISHER from the anagram fodder despite never coming across it before).
Thanks for the blog, your explanations for BORAX and CARSE seem fine to me .
Chambers93 does not have PROBUS but I have heard of it , or DOINS which was very obvious .
HIGHT seems very confusing in my Chambers , different meanings for Scottish but also different spellings (hecht) ?
Does anybody know what will happen to AZED when the Observer has been hived off behind a paywall?
I thought the same as Roz@2 about HIGHT/Hecht. CARSE: I didn’t think “one might assume” was a containment indicator; I thought it meant Take (R) appearing “in case” (ie contained by CASE) could be assumed to be “Take as a precaution” – a sort of double cryptic indicator.
Re SCOTS PINT, a Scots “large pint” was about 3.25 imperial pints and the official measure of it was the Stirling Jug. The last such jug was cast in 1513 and is now held in a museum in Stirling. Copies of it were used around the country to ensure drinkers (and others) got what they paid for; buying a round must have been an expensive business if everyone was having “a large pint”!
Thanks duncanshiell for clearing up a few problems, and as always to AZED for the entertainment. Regarding hyphens. I don’t remember any previous discussion, but please leave the present system alone. Like not knowing the length of words in multi-word solutions, it all adds to the fun, and helps to differentiate AZED from weekday offerings.
[ A Probus group used to meet in the pub my father treated as his local. When Dad asked the landlord who they were he got the answer: Prosh Retired Old Bastards Up Stairs.]
Just popped in to say “hello” before setting off on 2750. Failing sight means I have to print enlarged. “Guardian” group open access has been brave but the hoovering AI men have blown it away. The 2749 was a kindly precursor. Thanks to duncanshiell for the heavy lifting and the anniversary man too.
For me, a slog, despite getting 1 Ac and 11 Dn and the NW corner falling quickly.
Yes, our Scottish friends are right regarding HIGHT/HECHT. Azed has this occasional moment, as well he is allowed. I have my glasses and my reading glasses. On Sunday mornings I have my special ‘Azed–Chambers’ glasses. And I need my good magnifying glass to hand to boot!
I am overseas and the Grauniad is already behind a paywall. I get to Azed through guim. I assume all of us do. If any musk-type came along wanting money, I bet Azed would be the first out of there so we can look forward to 2750 and, who knows 3000?!
Notice I have used ‘Azed–Chambers’. This is not hyphenated. It is two nouns connected by the en dash. Read Hart’s Rules. I cannot find an example in my Chambers (2006). If Azed did try to clue some construction like this, I think I’d expect an indication. On the other hand, ‘musk-type’ is a hyphenated word. ‘Sino-Tibetan’ is in my Chambers. By definition, these are single words. As we approach 2750, none of us need Azed to tell us that.
Stefan
The Observer has had dodgy owners before and the crosswords carried on as normal , different times though , just in the actual paper then . I can see no change in the paper so far but not sure if ownership has actually changed yet .
Stefan@8 , I am not blaming Azed for HIGHT , Chambers is a real mess here with different Scottish meanings and spellings plus some archaic . Should have two separate entries .