A much tougher week than the last one I blogged, I thought. To the extent that I’m still unable to complete the puzzle as I cobble together a blog post.
33 across and 27 down have me beaten completely. I’m reasonably confident I have the right answer at 25 down, but I can’t explain it.
Over to you.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Hover to expand abbreviations.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TRACING PAPER – (RACING + P) in TAPER. |
| 12 | KENO – ONE + K. |
| 13 | CARAVANER – C + (AN in A RAVER). |
| 14 | INDIGN – DIG in INN. |
| 15 | PESETA – SET in PEA. |
| 16 | JARGONEER – JAR + (E in GONER). |
| 18 | NORMANS – AN in NORMS. |
| 19 | OGAMIC – 0 + GAMIC. |
| 21 | WEBCAM – WE + B[e]CAM[e]. |
| 23 | PEDALER – DALE in PER. |
| 29 | MOORE’S LAW – (ROLES + A)* in MOW. |
| 30 | REMUDA – MUD in [a]REA. |
| 31 | ABOARD – [cant]O in A BARD. |
| 32 | DRAGONESS – ONES in DRAGS. |
| 33 | BI?? – . |
| 34 | ANAMORPHOSIS – (AIMS HARPOONS)*. |
| Down | |
| 2 | RENAL – (LANE + R. |
| 3 | ANDREA – DRE[w] in ANA. |
| 4 | COIGN – (I + G) in CON. |
| 5 | NANNY – (N + N) in NAY. |
| 6 | GREENGROCER – (NG + R) to invest in (GREECE + R). |
| 7 | AVERRED – ERR< in DEVA. |
| 8 | PASHM – SH in PAM. “Pam” is apparently the jack of clubs, which was new to me. As was the entry itself, though it seemed likely given that the pasmina exists. |
| 9 | ENEW – E + NEW. |
| 10 | RETINA – RE + T + IN + [oper]A. |
| 11 | TRANSMEW – (WATER M[ai]NS)*. The “ai” to be removed is A1, as in “excellent”. |
| 16 | JEOPARDY – Conserve missing lines – Shakespeare’s certainly – from such hazard?. |
| 17 | FILMDOM – (MD in FILO) + M[ovie]. |
| 20 | GENERA – GEN ERA. |
| 22 | CALAIS – I in CALAS[h]. |
| 24 | AJUGA – JUG in (A repeated). This was tough. “Jug” is the sound of a nightingale, while “bugle” isn’t a musical instrument, rather the Bugleweed. |
| 25 | GRASP – Probably OK to eat a bit of pie, understand?. |
| 26 | DSOBO – SOB in DO. |
| 27 | ?AR?I – One’s endless skill making turnover with stuffing. |
| 28 | G-MAN – [le]G-MAN. |
Don’t recall much about solving this, but I think I can help.
33ac is BICE which Chambers gives as pale blue or green paint. Ambrose Bierce was an American writer.
25dn, Chambers gives GRAS as an acronym, Generally Recognised As Safe, used to designate food additives.
27dn is FARCI, craf(t) reversed plus I (one).
24dn defeated me. I guessed ARUGA, which the Urban dictionary gave as imitative of the sound of a submarine klaxon as it’s about to dive. Seemed plausible, although I couldn’t parse it.
Oh, and I think 16dn down is JE(LL)O + PARDY, where pardy is an alternative spelling of perdie, meaning certainly. But I wouldn’t think of jello as a conserve.