A plain puzzle that raised my eyebrows in a couple of places.
There are a couple of clues which may or not be classed as & lit: I await the call from the & lit police (copyright Roz) on those. More surprising was the fact that Azed has used a noun anagram indicator, in breach of his own rule. And then there is the unlabelled offensive term at 29 across. I thought 1 down was a splendid clue to an obscure term.
| ACROSS | ||
| 2 | PERISTALITH |
Decay enveloping bones with time in stone circle (11)
|
| TALI (bones) T(ime) all inside PERISH (rot). | ||
| 11 | PARENTERAL |
Dad maybe with age, 50, not concerned with digestive system (10)
|
| PARENT (Dad, maybe) ERA (age) L (50). Chambers’ definition is unusual but explicit: “Not intestinal”. | ||
| 13 | SIMI |
Type of sword, of something not unalike tar abandoned (4)
|
| I think the wordplay here is SCIMI(tar). The etymology of the two words is apparently different, although there is doubt about the derivation of scimitar. | ||
| 14 | BORT |
Abrasive, displaying bits of rude temper (but only bits) (4)
|
| First letters (bits) of “Bits Of Rude Temper”. | ||
| 15 | DEVEIN |
Strip from e.g. prawn almost always involved in first half of meal? (6)
|
| EVE(r) (almost always) inside DIN(ner). | ||
| 16 | OLPE |
Piece of (Greek) pottery found in excavation (not the first)? (4)
|
| P(ottery) inside (h)OLE. There is some overlap here between the wordplay and the definition, but the clue as a whole does not qualify as an & lit (I think, not being a member of the & lit police!). | ||
| 17 | INCUS |
Bone suffers? Take out (5)
|
| INCU(r)S. R is short for recipe, meaning “take”, still used until recently by doctors writing prescriptions by hand. The incus is a bone in the middle ear. | ||
| 19 | HOARDER |
Treasurer increasingly stingy about what’s central to account (7)
|
| (acc)O(unt) inside HARDER (increasingly stingy). | ||
| 21 | DIOPTER |
Old surveyor’s instrument, base in wobbly tripod (7)
|
| E (base) inside *TRIPOD. | ||
| 25 | RE-EDITS |
Improves version of indefinable quality in orchestral section (7)
|
| IT (of indefinable quality) inside REEDS (orchestral section). | ||
| 26 | MESS-TIN |
Sits out among soldiers? All one needs for meals with them (7)
|
| *SITS inside MEN (soldiers). | ||
| 28 | TOBIT |
OT text: short form of it accompanies funeral rites (5)
|
| (i)T, OBIT (funeral rites). It’s in The Apocrypha. | ||
| 29 | ITCH |
Girl switching parts in drive? (4)
|
| CH IT, with the two parts switched. I have a couple of problems with this clue, First, I think that “drive” is a bit of a stretch for “itch”, which can be defined as “a constant teasing desire”, which I consider somewhat weaker than the concept conveyed by “drive”. More seriously, “chit” is labelled in Chambers as a derogatory term for a girl, and I would have expected Azed to reflect this in the clue. | ||
| 30 | SIMONY |
Peter with yen for purchasing living? (6)
|
| SIMON (Peter) Y(en). In fact the term derives from a different Biblical Simon: Simon Magus, Acts Ch.8, according to Chambers. | ||
| 33 | DAMP |
Moisture mark in pump? (4)
|
| M(ark) inside DAP (a dialect term for a gym shoe or plimsoll). | ||
| 34 | AINT |
Translation from Latin left out – it’s not found in formal language (4)
|
| *(L)ATIN. It’s not often that you will find Azed using a noun – “translation” – as an anagram indicator. | ||
| 35 | DISTILLATE |
Liquor is Scotch to put in calendar? (10)
|
| IS TILL (Scottish for “to”) inside DATE. | ||
| 36 | SCATTEREDLY |
Style traced thus? (11)
|
| *(STYLE TRACED). Another possible candidate for the & lit label. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EPIDIDYMIDES |
Thrice I’d my pees malfunctioning in tubes ‘down there’ (12)
|
| *(ID ID ID MY PEES). A clever clue, given the proximity of the urinal tract to these testicular tubes. | ||
| 3 | ERUV |
Rev troubled about half of us appearing in area of special Sabbath licence (4)
|
| U(s) in *REV. It’s an area (sometimes designated by a high-level wire) within which certain activities normally forbidden to Orthodox Jews on the Sabbath are permitted. | ||
| 4 | RETE |
Dry off to hide maze of blood vessels (4)
|
| (sec)RETE. | ||
| 5 | INSISTS |
Swears the government is on limits of trustworthiness (7)
|
| INS (those in government) IS T(rustworthines)S. | ||
| 6 | TEMPORE |
Came across upcoming opening – when? (7)
|
| MET (came across, rev) PORE (opening). It’s a Latin term, meaning “in the time of”. | ||
| 7 | ARITA |
Divine drink maiden’s drained from fine porcelain (5)
|
| A(m)RITA, the drink of the Hindu gods. Arita is a Japanese porcelain. | ||
| 8 | LABORS |
Cal. City guy tops eminent scientist in local tasks (6)
|
| LA (Los Angeles, Californian City) BO (guy) (F)RS (eminent scientist). The US spelling is referenced by “local” which refers back to LA and BO, which are both US terms. | ||
| 9 | TURPENTINY |
Oily punter splashed out very little (10)
|
| *PUNTER, TINY. | ||
| 10 | HETEROSTYLED |
Hostelry teed off with variegated plant parts (12)
|
| *(HOSTELRY TEED). | ||
| 12 | VENICE TALC |
Soapstone that can be bought cold, set with diamonds, tons (10, 2 words)
|
| ICE (diamonds) T(ons) all inside VENAL (can be bought), C(old). | ||
| 18 | COSS |
Spoils set out? Not much of a stretch in India (4)
|
| COS(set)S. Also spelt kos or kosh, it’s about 3,000 metres (which I would say is a bit of a stretch!). | ||
| 20 | DRIB |
Flier turning up – not much is revealed (4)
|
| BIRD reversed. | ||
| 22 | ERINITE |
Salt can when overturning in lake (7)
|
| TIN (rev) inside (Lake) ERIE. | ||
| 23 | RETITLE |
Change label for small bird left in cage of another (7)
|
| TIT (small bird) inside (“in cage of”) REE (a female reeve). | ||
| 24 | ASHPIT |
Feature of grate, hot, in a barbecue? (6)
|
| H(ot) inside A SPIT. | ||
| 27 | TOAST |
What’s a sot drunk – only the first of that? (5)
|
| *(A SOT) T(hat). Again there is an overlap between the wordplay and the definition, but I query whether the clue as a whole can be said to be an & lit clue. | ||
| 31 | MELD |
Blend extract of camel dung (4)
|
| Hidden in “camel dung”. | ||
| 32 | ODAL |
Old and young one reared in Orcadian estate (4)
|
| O(ld) LAD (rev). It relates to a feudal form of land ownership in Orkney and Shetland. |
Thanks bridgesong. Quite hard I found.
I think ‘translation from’ is fair enough as an anagram indicator.
Was more puzzled by the definition of AINT.
I couldn’t find ERINITE definitely refered to as a salt – can it be produced from arseneous acid by reaction with a metal?
In RETITLE, I noted that ‘ree’ can also be an enclosure, which made me wonder if the cage reference was deliberate.
I enjoyed the ‘almost &lit’ ones after the fact.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
Good blog. I had the same &lit question marks.
AINT (Gonzo is puzzled at the def. So am I)
How do you stretch the def to work? ‘It’s not’ found in formal language: In the formal language this means it’s not?
RETITLE
Change label for
(Gonzo’s question about the ‘cage’ is interesting. Just there for the surface or to mislead?)
SIMI
SIMItar (SCIMI must be a typo)
SCATTEREDLY
The other two near &lits (OLPE (The ‘Greek’ seems outside the WP) and TOAST (the ‘what’s’ seems outside the WP)) are the types we come across regularly in some puzzle or the other. This one is difficult to categorise. Is it a reverse wordplay (unable to think of it as &lit) of a special type?
Of course, experts will give their verdict. I have this itch (or drive?) to say something.
Thanks bridgesong for the super blog!
Agree with Gonzo @1 that ‘translation from’ in AINT is OK as an anagram indicator. This is something I struggle with when setting at times. Apparently the preposition makes it good, so Latin mixture is not OK (as apparently it cannot grammatically mean ‘mix the letters of Latin’) but mixture of Latin is OK.
Thanks for the blog , I found this much harder than a usual Plain, could not get the long ones down the sides until I had lots of letters sticking in. BORT was very sneaky also TURPENTINY with the “fake” anagram at the front.
I am told that ERINITE is a salt , for RETITLE , ree is still used for a sheep enclosure in the North but I prefer the blog explanation.
AINT, I am unsure , the definition is literally true , but could have been – it’s not found in INformal language.
ITCH why use an offensive term at all when there are alternatives ?
Slow to start owing to problems with 2 ac and 1d, but otherwise straightforward. Loved 1d. Any quibbles with the clues very minor. Thanks as always to Azed and to bridgesong who cleared up a few difficulties with the parsing
Counsel for the defence and prosecution this week, but possibly worth discussing:
Just because Chambers says a word is ‘dialect’ or ‘obs’ or ‘derog’ does not, in my opinion, require Azed to give such an indication in the clue, especially if it mars the surface.
“Paddy’s temptation: a drink along the way (4)” [Azed, from about 1981.]
If Azed chooses to, let’s just say thank you. Then there’s the problem of how authoritative Chambers is. I have travelled the length and breadth of Australia, a pretty big space, and I (and I know other Australian solvers) are mystified that Chambers tells us that a ‘schooner’ is a large beer glass. Then you get ‘(Aust and NZ)‘. I happen to be British but you could tell one of those jokes: ‘There was a Pom, an Aussie and a Kiwi…” We all speak English, of a sort. So why is it that we’re all standing in the pub having a natter and not one of us can understand what the other is saying? I’m from the Midlands of England and I’m quite certain my grandfather, and probably my mother, would have called me (a male) a “young chit” at some stage. There might have been a rascally implication to it but not ‘derog’. This type of thing has worried me lately, specifically in relation to words used of prostitutes and what words in general Azed might and might not be allowed to employ.
The 1 Dn made me laugh. I am about Azed’s age so I’ll pass it (as it were), but it’s dangerously close to the indirect anagram. 36 Ac is not acceptible. It is not an &lit. If it is, it’s so crude it’s not worthy. Read the clue: ‘Style traced scatterdly’. The clue is not the definition, which is what &lit is all about. The definition can only be the clue itself. For me it’s a non-clue and not excusable even by humour.
Stefan
Thanks for the blog, bridgesong. I found this a bit of a drag, with all the reservations that have been expressed, and couldn’t be bothered to finish it. I’m about the same age as Azed, I think, and wouldn’t have thought of CHIT as offensive, just very, very old-fashioned. Minor point, but in your parsing of 23D you’ve omitted L[eft] after TIT.
I’m away from home today with limited internet access, so won’t attempt to edit the blog, but I accept that I may have been somewhat harsh in my criticism of “translation from” as an anagram indicator. I accept that there are a couple of typos which have been identified, for which I apologise.
Kva @3: SCIMI isn’t a typo; scimitar is the more common spelling.
Roz @5: if this puzzle was harder than usual, I suspect that it is because it has a higher than normal number of four-letter words, which are often harder to solve.
My Chambers 98 (before the present age of PC) defines chit as “a child; a girl (disparagingly)”. Azed seems increasingly prone to using disparaging or derogatory terms without giving any indication. I’m afraid I disagree with Stefan@7 that spoiling the surface reading of a clue is an excuse not to indicate that a word is derogatory; if no indication is given, it suggests that the term is entirely acceptable. In the case of this particular clue, it’s not great anyway – as others have said “drive” is not a good definition for ITCH. So why not just come up with something different – as Roz@5 says, there are alternatives?
Bridgesong @9 yes partly the short entries which are harder , but also the perimeter . I am used to getting the perimeter answers very quickly and they are so useful , especially the top and left side. Here I only got the bottom row so had to work through lots of clues without knowing first letters.
bridgesong@9
SIMI
I should have said the ‘SIMItar’ spelling was considered by the setter rather than ‘scimitar’ (not a typo. apologies).
Good one Azed.
You go right ahead and use any words you damn well like – like ‘sot’ and ‘stingy’.
No one has the right to not be offended, and it’s all subjective anyway.
You can always rely on the gammon community to be entirely ptedictable.
Didn’t make it last week as I was celebrating a landmark.
Found this a reasonable solve.
Thanks to Azed, as always, and to bridgesong for thorough blog.
AINT clue bothered me . “IT’S NOT” seemed to be needing repetition to tell us it’s NOT used in formal language.
Mr Thomas!
I believe I’ve found what landmark you are celebrating. I’m trying to catch up, if you need further enthusiasm to keep going. And ‘brian-with-an-eye’ has surfaced. I’m not very good at oneupmanship (‘man’, notice). I say this because I think my post @7 was misconstrued. It was not meant to be offensive; it was a simple comment about words appropriate for crossword-setters in general to use, and do they need to indicate what Chambers, of all people, says? Are Chambers decision-makers in making a word like ‘chit’ insulting or not? It isn’t to me. Does Azed need to put in his clues what Chambers, rightly or wrongly, sez is correkt?
Again, no oneupmanship, but I wonder how many of us can say we honed our toenails on Ximenes. Before this young upstart Crowther came along with his newfangled ideas?
Golly gosh!
Stefan