How splendid to blog another Azed.
I have marked a few points that I could not quite resolve below, none of which ultimately prevented completion of the grid.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPEED COP |
One checking road crime, special vigour limiting breaking of code (8, 2 words)
|
| S (special) + PEP (vigour) around (limiting) anagram of (breaking of) CODE | ||
| 7 | NOBS |
Swells kicked the bucket after end of celebration (4)
|
| I think there is a problem here: Last letter of (end of) [CELEBRATIO]N + OB. (kicked the bucket = obiit, died) + S (???) or: Last letter of (end of) [CELEBRATIO]N + OBS (kicked the bucket = obsolete???) | ||
| 11 | CRACK |
Expert creating flaw (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | HARD BOP |
Jazz type making poet dance switching parts (7, 2 words)
|
| [B]ARD (poet) + [H]OP (dancing) switching the first letters (switching parts) | ||
| 13 | AEROSIDERITE |
A tide rose, i.e. somehow about right, indicating heavenly body (12)
|
| Anagram of (somehow) {A TIDE ROSE I.E.} around (about) R (right), specifically, an iron meteorite | ||
| 16 | STOL |
It involves take-offs and landings, many returning (4)
|
| LOTS (many) reversed (returning), an aeronautical acronym | ||
| 17 | STEGOSAUR |
Jurassic creature, sort e.g. roaming round USA, wild (9)
|
| Anagram of (roaming) {SORT E.G.} around (round) anagram of (wild) USA | ||
| 18 | ERHU |
One’s bowed, displaying dowager hump in part (4)
|
| Hidden in (displaying . . . in part) [DOWAG]ER HU[MP], according to Chambers: “a Chinese two-stringed musical instrument, played with a bow” | ||
| 20 | URGE |
Ballot-box information twice yielding names to press (4)
|
| UR[N] (ballot-box) + GE[N] (information) twice minus (yielding) N (name[s]) | ||
| 22 | ALEE |
Indicating port side, outer bits cut from whale bone (4)
|
| I think there is a problem here: The wordplay leads to: [B]ALEE[N] (whale bone) minus (cut) outside letters (outer bits), but “alee” means “on or toward the lee-side,” according to Chambers. I wonder whether Azed’s glance skipped down to the next entry, “aleft,” defined in Chambers as “on or to the left hand.” | ||
| 23 | OBIA |
Charm I discerned in African chieftain (4)
|
| I inside (discerned in) OBA (African chieftain), this spelling indicated as “obsolete” in Chambers | ||
| 25 | REBELLION |
Dance round baron, brave one in activity involving boxers? (9)
|
| REEL (dance) around (round) B (baron) + LION (brave one), with a non-capitalization misdirection, referring to the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 | ||
| 26 | DADO |
Trouble going after depth in border (4)
|
| D (depth) + ADO (trouble) | ||
| 30 | ELECTROMOTOR |
Picked for office tomorrow? Almost, in a way, as power source (12)
|
| ELECT (picked for office) + anagram of (in a way) TOMORRO[W] minus last letter (almost) | ||
| 31 | CORTÈGE |
Sheep occupying centre in procession (7)
|
| TEG (sheep) inside (occupying) CORE (centre) | ||
| 32 | DRUSE |
Doctor given exercise for cavity (5)
|
| DR (doctor) + USE (exercise) | ||
| 33 | KOSS |
Digger on ship a short distance from India (4)
|
| KO (“digger,” i.e., a Maori digging stick) + SS (ship). I am not sure about “a short distance,” in that this is defined in Chambers as “about 1 3/4 miles.” See also KVa@2. | ||
| 34 | SEA LEMON |
Fish twice interspersed with English marine slug (8, 2 words)
|
| SALMON (fish) twice interspersed with E (English) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCAG |
Junk, cold, dumped in sink (4)
|
| C (cold) inside (dumped in) SAG (sink), both slang for heroin | ||
| 2 | PRESTEL |
Viewdata system was still mostly in programming language (7)
|
| RESTE[D] (was still) minus last letter (mostly) inside (in) PL (programming language) | ||
| 3 | EAR DEFENDERS |
Muffs organ and delays involving consequence (12, 2 words)
|
| EAR (organ) + DEFERS (delays) around (involving) END (consequence) | ||
| 4 | ECOD |
Crack that’s devoid of extremes? It was a mild oath (4)
|
| [D]ECOD[E] (crack) minus (devoid of) outside letters (extremes) | ||
| 5 | CHID |
Ticked off flower without tincture? (4)
|
| [OR]CHID (flower) minus (without) OR (tincture) | ||
| 6 | PRENUBILE |
Dancing in pub reel, not yet ready to get hitched (9)
|
| Anagram of (dancing) IN PUB REEL | ||
| 8 | OBITER DICTUM |
Passing remark, one taking effect in blame around court (12, 2 words)
|
| BITER (one taking effect) inside (in) ODIUM (blame) around CT (court) | ||
| 9 | BOTOX |
Something for treating complexion to put in receptacle (5)
|
| TO inside (put in) BOX (receptacle) | ||
| 10 | SPELAEAN |
Like a caveman, tumbling asleep if old (8)
|
| Anagram of (tumbling) ASLEEP + AN (if, old, indicated in Chambers as “archaic”) | ||
| 14 | CORVETTES |
Old vessels? One experienced in military service in Spanish parliament (9)
|
| VET (one experienced in military service) inside (in) CORTES (Spanish parliament). A modern class of ship called “corvette” also exists. | ||
| 15 | DAUB |
Smear in meat stew, French, not English (4)
|
| DAUB[E] (meat stew, French) minus (not) E (English) | ||
| 17 | SPAR DECK |
Electrician consumes rotten matter, ay lost, in temporary part of vessel (8, 2 words)
|
| SPARK (electrician) around (consumes) DEC[AY] (rotten matter) minus (lost) AY | ||
| 19 | HOBO |
Tramp perished in wartime service (4)
|
| OB. (perished, obiit) inside (in) HO (wartime service, defined in Chambers as “hostilities only, used to designate service in the Royal Navy during wartime”) | ||
| 21 | GIOCOSO |
Sound made by Scotsman, exceedingly jolly (7)
|
| Homophones of (sound made by) JOCK (Scotsman) + OH SO (exceedingly) | ||
| 24 | BALOO |
Bear black tuber (5)
|
| B (black) + ALOO (tuber), |
||
| 27 | ZOEA |
Crab larva, ordinary, found among maize (4)
|
| O (ordinary) inside (found among) ZEA (maize) | ||
| 28 | GORE |
Try on old-fashioned skirt (4)
|
| GO (try) + RE (on), indicated in Chambers as “obsolete,” thus “old-fashioned” | ||
| 29 | WREN |
Serving girl, fresh up, taking recipe in (4)
|
| NEW (fresh) inverted (up) around (taking . . . in) R (recipe), defined in Chambers as “a member of the WRNS,” “formerly, Women’s Royal Naval Service” |
I didn’t find this puzzle was too hard. There were a few answers like HARD BOP, AEROSIDERITE, DRUSE and PRESTEL that I didn’t know but could work out from the wordplay, and some others like SEA LEMON, EAR DEFENDERS and PRENUBILE that I didn’t really know but seemed reasonable. I couldn’t think how ‘digger’ could be KO in the clue to KOSS and, being from New Zealand, I was annoyed to find it was a Maori word I didn’t know. I thought the homophone of GIOCOSO was funny.
I had the same ideas about NOBS as in the blog, and also wasn’t happy with the definition of ALEE. Seeing BALOO always makes me think of the Jungle Book character, but it is in Chambers with the definition ‘In India, a bear’. I imagined that a member of the Boxer movement could be called a boxer with a lowercase b, but reading the blog made me search for and fail to find justification for it.
Thanks, Cineraria and Azed.
ALEE
Does it also indicate how a harbour/port is located (with respect to an island, maybe)?
Could get any dictionary support for this. Just asking.
KOSS
The original Sanskrit word ‘krośa’ (from which koss is derived) is used as a unit of measurement, and it means
‘call’/”shout’ as well. KOSS was earlier used to mean ‘a calling distance’. A short distance historically.
Thanks for the blog , a lot of four-letter answers in the middle again .
ERHU not in Chambers93 but we have had it three times recently .
Thanks to Matthew@1 for BALOO and KVa@2 for the extra on KOSS although 1 3/4 miles is a very short distance .
AEROSIDERITE – it WAS a heavenly body but by definition has landed , perhaps the most famous example is the dagger of Tutankhamun .
GIOCOSO would have sent the Guardian blog into meltdown .
A WREN is a woman .
Thanks for the blog; I shared your doubts about the clues to NOBS and ALEE. Given that Azed now has an experienced setter (John Grimshaw) as a checker, these are surprising errors to have slipped through the production process. One further error was that the clue to OBITER DICTUM appeared as “Passing remark” in the online version, almost as if it was the competition word for us to clue. But the pdf (and the version in the printed paper) had the clue in full, so that was clearly a production error.
Me@2
Correction:
*Could not get any dictionary support.
Well, I sort of completed it. Even though I looked up the spelling, I entered 8dn wrong and ended up with EROSE for 32ac, I couldn’t work out why.
I got confused and thought the leeside was the left side and didn’t query 22ac.
I had the same thoughts about NOBS and ALEE as the blog and others. Obs = obsolete is supported by Chambers, but obsolete isn’t a synonym for “kicked the bucket”, whereas ob (= “died”) is.
Thanks to Roz@3 for the comment on AEROSIDERITE; I thought “heavenly body” wasn’t quite right, but couldn’t be bothered to check in the dictionary. Also agree about WREN (although in Scotland, both boy and girl may be used to refer to adults, so at least there’s some sex equality!).
8dn: I’m not a fan of clues where one word is inside another that, elsewhere, contains something else. Just messy.
For KOSS, I was probably influenced by the old cigarette ads that boasted: “I’d walk a mile for a Camel,” suggesting that that was a long distance.
I think a lot of the Jungle Book characters are just the Hindi names for the animal. I wondered whether the side of a ship that was closest to the port would offer more shelter??
Strange that I knew the word but I thought baleen was the whale, not the bone. How you can still learn as you approach the grave! I happen to think that ALEE was not too bad a clue because, in general, when you come into port, your master should be bringing you in ‘alee’, that is: to leeward. Because, if you try to sail into port to windward, as I have (because I am bonkers and still think I can solve Azeds, and used to sail boats) you will find that you have a battle on your hands and all hands who happen to be on the boat will be at sail and under my command!
I think NOBS was just a mistake. Years ago, Azed owned up to mistakes and there was no problem: he was honest and we just looked forward to next week. He doesn’t seem to be quite so open nowadays.
I know there are Scots amongst us. I knew the answer to 21 Dn but I couldn’t help wondering. There is a wonderful song Mo Ghile Mear (find The Dublin Scholars singing it). Well, I used to sing that in pubs, when I could sing, and the chorus line was O Hó-ró the Gilly Mor! So I had to double-check that ohoroso was not a real word. It isn’t, but I think I might invent it.
Stefan
I’m not convinced about the Boxer Rebellion at 25ac. Surely it should be Boxer not boxer? Azed has been very clear about this in the past and said that if it needs a capital (which apparently it does) then it shouldn’t be lower-case. It looks as if he’s breaking his own rules.
Stefan@10: I salute your efforts to justify ALEE, but if it’s not supported by Chambers, it’s not really fair usage in a clue (we’re not all sailors!). Wil@11: I agree – Azed said deceptive upcasing was acceptable – just, but not deceptive downcasing.