What’s Dac doing on a Tuesday? Something’s afoot. Oh yes, today must be special – look at the outer unches – in which case many congratulations.
A typical Dac, as usual excellent, but there were one or two answers I wasn’t quite comfortable with (a nice ambiguity: not comfortable because I didn’t like the clues or because I couldn’t understand them?).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | BEG d(INNER) – ‘Here’s one’ refers to ‘starter’ and is the definition |
| 9 | ONE-WAY – (y(ou) awe no)rev. |
| 10 | L AMP – I think this is an &lit., where l is the abbreviation for ‘live’ (?? Not in chambers or the COD) |
| 11 | TABLE D’HOTE – (bloated the)* |
| 12 | ILKESTON – (likes to)* round n |
| 13 | PRIOR – 2 defs, the American reference new to me |
| 14 | PLIGHTS – 2 defs |
| 16 | BARSAC – (scarab)* |
| 19 | SAROS – o in SARS – not sure about ‘globe’ for ‘o’; saros is a word new to me |
| 20 | C(A STILL)A – it’s an old region of Spain, I think |
| 22 | S(ANT)AM A RIA – (air)rev. – easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘SA’ is ‘South America’ and then wondering how he gets the m |
| 24 | DEAR – “deer” |
| 25 | S OFTEN |
| 26 | B REACHES |
| Down | |
| 1 | TERAFLOP – (fear plot)* – so that’s why they’re called floppy disks – I’d always wondered, because they’re anything but floppy; for a while I had FLOPRATE, which didn’t help |
| 2 | HIP PIE |
| 3 | IN S(how) TITCHES |
| 4 | pROPErly |
| 5 | TECHNICS – “tec nix” |
| 6 | YATTER – (Ramsa)y (treat)* |
| 8 | RIBAND – (Ir)rev. band |
| 13 | PEAR-SHAPED – 2 defs |
| 15 | IR R(IT)ATE |
| 17 | COLLARED – 2 defs |
| 18 | SCAR A B |
| 19 | SH(AD)OW |
| 21 | IN DUCE – referring to Mussolini |
| 23 | MIND – 2 defs, although I’m not sure about ‘will’ = ‘mind’ |
Indeed, many congratulations to Dac and MrsDac.
Good puzzle as usual for Dac, although I found it a bit harder than usual.
Though Chambers (1998) itself does not have l = live, Chambers XWD, A Dictionary of Crossword Abbreviations has it.
No, floppy disks really are floppy (at least the bit inside the case is – take one apart and see), in distinction to hard disks. Older readers will remember 5.25 inch floppies, which had a much flimsier sleeve. (Even older readers may remember 8 inch floppies used in what we used to call “minicomputers”. And younger readers may never have seen a floppy disk at all…)
The “flop” in TERAFLOP is unrelated to floppiness, being an abbreviation of FLoating-point OPeration.
I found this one a little tricky too, and was eventually defeated by 8D. I never think to look for anything untoward in Dac’s puzzles and completely missed the Nina on my first pass, but it helped with a few missing answers when I eventually spotted it. Congrats to the happy couple.
Congratulations Dac, I’m sure this will mean more than flowers (oh, what – as well as? Of course).
I’d say Castilla is still a region of Spain – possibly two regions, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla-Leon.
Surely “having prior” means the same in the UK these days, (i.e. “having form”) or am I mis-remembering what I hear on the cop shows?
The Saros cycle is well known to us eclipse nuts and worthy of a link – which I would put here but I suspect it is the inclusion of a link that is sending my comment into the spam bucket – I suggest googling “saros” and choosing the NASA pages.
I certainly liked this new Daconian concept – instead of “say it with flowers” – “say it with outer unches”!
Congrats, Dac, an excellent puzzle as normal – just a little harder cos of the constraints. I spotted the message only very near the end. Though I don’t think Merlin will like globe = o in SAROS.
I think we say “‘e’s got previous”, rather than “prior”.
I think the L = live issue came up on this board before. It’s definitely OK, I think, given in Collins (ref:electricity, I guess). The ‘prior’ in that American sense was new to me too, but my COD gives it. While I know it’s not continuous, guys, ‘perimeter’ sounds better than ‘outer unches’ certainly among ladies of my acquaintance anyway.
You’re right Michod, “previous”.
You’re five years behind us, Dac, but heartiest congratulations to you both!
I really enjoyed this and completely missed the anniversary message until I saw earlier comments – congratulations Dacs! Ashamed to say I didn’t get 5d – oh well, there’s always the next one.