The closing date for Beelzebub was postponed until today for the obvious festive reasons, hence the delayed blog post.
I don’t have a great deal of notes as it’s been a fairly long week, but I think I at least understood everything this time, suggesting I found it less of a struggle than sometimes.
Some nice long words in there though, and I enjoyed unteasing the wordplay for them, in particularly 9 down and 30 across.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Hover to expand abbreviations.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | USUCAPT – CAP in (US + UT). It took me a while to spot the wordplay, but “ut” and “do” are both names for the same musical note. |
| 7 | ABBOT – B in A BOT. |
| 12 | NONE – from NEON, but with the E shifted. |
| 13 | AWEIGH – AWE + [h]IGH. |
| 14 | SUBSCRIBABLE – (AS CLUB BRIBES)*. |
| 15 | EREWHILE – WERE< + (L in HIE). |
| 17 | ILLUSIVE – IV in ILL USE. |
| 19 | CYTISI – C + Y + (I + SIT)<. |
| 20 | MOSS – MO[ra]SS. |
| 21 | AHEM – A HEM. |
| 23 | SHAMBA – SHAM + BA. |
| 25 | MORESQUE – MORES + QU[it]E. |
| 28 | QUIRINAL – QUIR[k] + IN AL[l]. |
| 30 | LIBIDINOSITY – LIB + (IN IDIOTS)* + [sagacit]Y. |
| 31 | ROLLER – two definitions. |
| 32 | HAET – A in HET. |
| 33 | YRENT – [par]TNER Y[ou]<. |
| 34 | RECYCLE – CYCL[amen] in REE. |
| Down | |
| 1 | UNSEX – ‘UNS + EX. |
| 2 | SOURLY – from HOURLY, swapping H for S. |
| 3 | UNBETTERABLE – (BUTLER BEATEN)*. |
| 4 | ANCHISES – (HAS SINCE)*. Father of Aeneas. |
| 5 | PURI – PURI[tan]. I had one just this evening. |
| 6 | TAILLE – IL in TALE. |
| 8 | BEADSMAN – DSM in BEAN. |
| 9 | BIBLIOMANIAC – BIB + (MA in LION) + I + AC. |
| 10 | OGLE – [b]OGLE. |
| 11 | THERESA – T + HERE + SA. |
| 16 | LIMEKILN – LIKE< in LIMN. |
| 18 | UNHEROIC – (OUR NICHE)*. |
| 19 | CAMELRY – CAME + L + RY. |
| 22 | SQUIRR – (QU in SIR) + R. |
| 24 | BOATEL – BO + A TEL. |
| 26 | FLYTE – FLY + T’ + E. |
| 27 | DIOR – I in ROD<. |
| 29 | IN RE – N in IRE. |
I can’t remember much about this, especially with Christmas intervening, but I did have a note that I couldn’t parse 1ac, so thanks for the explanation. Having seen it, all I can say, “D’oh!”