Another low- to medium-strength Azed, which didn’t keep me from my Easter eggs for too long, but provided good entertainment on the way. There seems to have been a rare lapse from strict Ximenean principles in 5d.
| Across | ||
| 1. Legume that makes you smart, hot (5) | ||
| CHICH | CHICH + H – another name for the chickpea | |
| 5. Cross feline, best avoided? (7) | ||
| CATTABU | CAT + TABU – a cross between domestic cattle and the Indian Zebu | |
| 10. Icelandic money, gold, cut thin (5) | ||
| AURAR | AU + RAR[e] – plural of “eyrir”, one-hundredth of an Icelandic krona. Of historical interest only, as the krona is itself a very small unit (currently 184 to the pound sterling) | |
| 11. One given company housing … poky, ill-fitting, unpleasant (7, 2 words) | ||
| ICKY POO | POKY* in I CO | |
| 12. Gallery in favour of accepting a bit of promotion (5) | ||
| PRADO | AD in PRO – the Prado is a major art gallery in Madrid | |
| 13. Proceed with difficulty, as tiro in AZ challenge? (5) | ||
| CLOMP | L (leaner) in COMP[etition] | |
| 15. Peeled potato cakes, part of salade verte? (8) | ||
| ROQUETTE | [c]ROQUETTE[s] | |
| 16. Something produced by TV chef, say, vaguely anoretic (8) | ||
| CREATION | ANORETIC* | |
| 17. Old clown, log splitting head (9) | ||
| PATCHOCKE | CHOCK in PATE – a Spenserian word, which Chambers only defines as “perh[aps] a clown | |
| 21. E.g. Boater in Blanket, name for a cocktail (9) | ||
| MANHATTAN | HAT in MANTA + N – “manta” is a Spanish word for blanket or cloak, as also seen in the name of the Manta Ray | |
| 23. Talk idly about high honour – it affects nothing (8, 2 words) | ||
| NO MATTER | O.M. (Order of Merit) in NATTER | |
| 27. Graf duel disfigured – did it distinguish him at the front? (8) | ||
| FELDGRAU | (GRAF FUEL)* – meaning “field-grey”, and the colour German military uniforms 1910-1945 | |
| 28. Thin sod, hard to read, led away (5) | ||
| SCRAW | SCRAW[led] | |
| 29. Accompaniment for curry, hot, swallowed by airhead? (5) | ||
| DHOLL | H in DOLL – an Indian dish made from pulses, also spelt “dal”, “daal”, “dahl” and “dhal” | |
| 30. Commando, no gent certainly, holding rear (7) | ||
| CHINDIT | HIND in CIT (archaic slang: term of contempt for a townsman, not a gentleman). The Chindits were a commando force in Burma during WW2 | |
| 31. Burden, extra-large? Offload some packing (5) | ||
| TRA-LA | HIdden in [ex]TRA LA[arge] – “burden” in the sense of “chorus”, “refrain” | |
| 32. Loan intended to include closure thereof (7) | ||
| FINANCE | [loa]N in FIANCÉ | |
| 33. Leggy bird? Got ’er measure by the sound of it (5) | ||
| WADER | Homophone of “weighed ‘er” | |
| Down | ||
| 1. Tapered longs for madam, unusually scant pair with soft lining (10, 2 words) | ||
| CAPRI PANTS | P in (SCANT PAIR)* for this fashion item | |
| 2. Lake runs into Tasmanian river (5) | ||
| HURON | R in HUON (Tasmanian river), giving one of the Great Lakes | |
| 3. Misread quiz – every other to be written out in form of Arabic (5) | ||
| IRAQI | Alternate letters of mIsReAd QuIz | |
| 4. Former errand boy half caught up in casualty (6) | ||
| CADUAC | CAD (obsolete word for “one who runs errands”) + reverse of CAU[ght]. Obsolete Scots word for “casualty or windfall” | |
| 5. Off-key cornist controls only one function (7) | ||
| CISTRON | CORNIST*. Cistron is “a section of a chromosome which controls a single function”. The definition here would seem to go against Azed’s usually strict conformance to the rule of using the right parts of speech. “Off-key cornist that controls only one function” would perhaps be a way to fix the problem without upsetting the surface reading. | |
| 6. Penetrating wound in outer parts of ankle (5) | ||
| ACUTE | CUT (wound) in A[nkl]E | |
| 7. Part of sponge from set in washing trough (6) | ||
| TYLOTE | LOT in TYE | |
| 8. Impact poorly where love’s involved – there’s no sex in its production (7) | ||
| APOMICT | O in IMPACT* | |
| 9. Fiasco damaged oar in current down under (7) | ||
| BOMBORA | BOMB + OAR* – Australian word for a reef or dangerous curent | |
| 14. Spurn a line at sea, dealing with old land campaign (10) | ||
| PENINSULAR | (SPURN A LINE)* – presumably a reference to the Peninsular War | |
| 18. Rodent I found under a bed (7) | ||
| ACOUCHI | A COUCH + I – South American rodent | |
| 19. Monkey mum kept in train, disciplined (7) | ||
| TAMARIN | MA in TRAIN* | |
| 20. What’s leech at messing about in e.g. haemoglobin? (7) | ||
| CHELATE | (LEECH AT)* – chelation is a chemical process that haemoglobin is involved with, but I’m not qualified to explain further | |
| 21. ‘Hoy’ precedes this dam fool (6) | ||
| MAÑANA | MA (mother, dam) + NANA (fool), and hoy and manaña are Spanish for today and tomorrow respectively | |
| 22. Ornamental monogram that’s horrible in pictures put up (6) | ||
| TUGHRA | UGH (that’s horrible!) in ART< | |
| 24. Crack marksman historically not left in charge regarding aim? (5) | ||
| TELIC | [William] TEL[L] + I/C. TELIC is the adjective from “telos” = aim, purpose, etc; its derivative “teleological” is used to describe the “Argument from design (for the existence of gods). | |
| 25. Tense travelling? Lost footing (5) | ||
| TROAD | T[ense] “on the ROAD” – another Spenserian word, related to “tread” | |
| 26. Ornamental tile, part of mantel lady erected (5) | ||
| DALLE | Hidden in reverse of mantEL LADy | |
Thanks for the blog, Andrew.
I don’t like 5d either, but Azed gave his opinion in Azed Slip 354:
“I’ve said before that an adjective is an inaccurate (because unfairly misleading) way of indicating a noun (and vice versa of course). I do accept however that a verb (in the appropriate person) can indicate a noun. ‘Barks and is man’s best friend’ defines DOG far more clearly than, say, ‘Furry and domesticated’.”
Thanks to Azed and Andrew.
Although the answer was clearly TROAD, I couldn’t see how “travelling” equated to “road” so there was a big D’oh moment when I checked your blog.
Sorry to be slow (again!) but I don’t understand the objection to 5d or how the addition of “that” makes any difference.