Comments on: Confusions from DA’s 19/20th Feb Edition

By: RB

RB — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:14:18 +0000

Not sure if I followed all of that canal stuff! But I’ve just looked at the clue again and noticed the little word “in”. So the defintion might not be “ear canal”, but “in ear canal”.

By: MF

MF — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:55:12 +0000

Yes, JG, but A canal in the ear is not the same as THE ear canal. The latter is the “tube running from the outer ear to the middle ear”. In contrast, the ampullae are various thingies within the inner ear. (Wikipedia is your friend.)

… actually, looking at the strict definition of ampulla, this may be a DA error (cf. emirate/sultanate):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampulla says:
[...] By extension, in scientific contexts, it may mean a dilated segment in a tubular structure. [...]
which means — backed up by the page on “Inner ear” — the ampullae are at the end of canals, but are not canals themselves. So the definition part of 21D seems bogus.

But I doubt any of us really care anymore …

By: JG

JG — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:20:01 +0000

MF, my Chambers has “the dilated end of a semicircular canal in the ear”; we need help from an ENT man!

By: MF

MF — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:01:13 +0000

> 21D: AMPULLA is part of the ear canal and an anagram of “up llama”.

Almost. An “ampulla” is a canal in the inner ear i.e. AN ear canal, not part of THE ear canal.

(Thank you, wikipedia … one of the many answers I had to double check for this DA :-)

Apologies for the pedantry!

By: JG

JG — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:53:48 +0000

20A: in ’04, CB performed as Hedda GABLER, and GABLER = (Clark) Gable, the “actor”, + R =”right”.
21D: AMPULLA is part of the ear canal and an anagram of “up llama”.

By: JJ

JJ — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:25:33 +0000

need answer for 20A and 21D.

By: TT

TT — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:31:34 +0000

Request for DA. How about Klaus Kinski, Warren Oates or Ennio Morricone instead of Aussie Cate?

By: TT

TT — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:29:29 +0000

6A: Is it really EGGS? Damn! Yet again I fall into a right-but-wrong trap.

Spurs, say, take the stuffing out of gunners (4)

“take the stuffing out of gunners” = GS

“say” = GEES = “spurs”

1D: Had it arse-about with TOGGLED instead of BOGGLED. No wonder I couldn’t find a film called BHE AVIATOR.

By: RB

RB — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:36:11 +0000

DA has chosen three different ways to refer to Cate Blanchett. Most references are to 15D, a couple are to 29A, and one is to 29A 15D. Why the variation?

By: RB

RB — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:17:11 +0000

6A is pretty good too.
Spurs = EGGS
say = EG
take the stuffing out of Gunners = GS