Azed No. 2,763 plain – competition puzzle

13 comments on “Azed No. 2,763 plain – competition puzzle”

1. I think these parsings/comments look fine. I marked 20D as “double definition.”

2. 13ac
   For those who appreciate Azed’s fine knowledge of the Scots language, this entry may be of interest.

3. Thanks for the blog , for HORNIE I thought the Auld was a neat touch to indicate the Scottish , IASTIC is in Chambers93 as Ionian , a deceptive definition ( asti is Italian ) .
   ORSINO , is a Duke a Count ? I have not checked the play but they are usually different , the Count is there to mislead but it should not be wrong .

4. I still don’t really understand the parsing of PROVISO

5. Power = VIS
   Demonstration = PROOF , not quite = PROO
   VIS put into PROO
   Definition is condition .

6. Roz@3: Orsino is definitely a duke and I can’t find anything that suggests a count is the same thing, either in the play or in Chambers. I don’t think Count really misleads here (apart from being wrong!), as the “enumerate” meaning wouldn’t make sense in the surface, so I think this is just an error. 24dn IASTIC: as you say, it means Ionian, but my Chambers suggests Iastic refers specifically to music, so “Like some old Greek” is a bit of a stretch. (Asti is definitely Italian, but the parsing in the blog seems correct.)

7. Thanks Roz. I had put in PROVISO on definition, but couldn’t parse it.

8. MunroMaiden @6 , I thought -Count calling for more music – could be – 1 2 3 4… as a deception .
   I am no expert but I think a Count in Europe equates to an Earl , ORSINO is definitely a Duke so it does seem a bit of a stretch .
   IASTIC , did not notice the music bit , perhaps Azed did the same as me .

9. Thanks, Roz – I understand “count” now! That’s clever – pity it wasn’t what the clue was about!

10. A minor thing but strange , the answers to Azed2761 in the paper today with very brief notes .

    21D – SERENE
    The clue was – Bad fall in the night ? Catch one deprived of oxygen
    Serene is an unhealthy dew , catch = sear =sere , one minus o = ne .
    A bit obscure but works fine .

    Notes today – ener(GI)es (rev) . implying the wordplay is energies reversed with gi subtracted ????

11. A DID NOT FINISH for me and I dislike those. I missed ‘Hornie’. Azed is wonderful at finding these ‘hidden’ words.

    I know there are people in my part of the world who will have read Horrie the Wog Dog. It’s a lovely story and you should all seek it. It was later rewritten as Horrie the War Dog because we have to be so-so correct nowadays. ‘Horrie’ was both devil and angel, and I wondered why a British crossword setter would come up with Horrie. But the bounder does these things from time to time. Remember ‘Socotra’?

    I thought ‘luthern’ was borderline.

    Thank you, John, for ‘proviso’: I didn’t understand it.

    Stefan

12. Something I’d not noticed before — the full text of Twelfth Night does have Orsino more often referred to, and by more characters, as a count rather than a duke. The duke references are actually very few, and mostly in the introductory scenes. And Olivia’s called a countess, which she seems to have acquired here simply by being the daughter of a deceased count. I’ve no idea why either of these is so, but I suppose they might possibly be tossed onto the mitigation side of the scale.

13. Thanks Lemming @12 , if he gets called a Count in the play that is more than enough cover .

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