DA Confusion for the 30th/31st July, 2010

12 Responses to DA Confusion for the 30th/31st July, 2010

1. TT | August 1, 2010 at 11:51 am |

   Should 16A include an “1″ for an &lit?

2. TT | August 1, 2010 at 11:51 am |

   Correction!

3. Chicago Tribune | August 1, 2010 at 5:11 pm |

   AG mentioned 20A in the other post. Is the “s” in “fasult” a typo, or did DA overcook the clue? It doesn’t really need the “s”.

4. TT | August 1, 2010 at 5:13 pm |

   Grrrr. I knew I would do that. The CT should be TT.

5. JK | August 1, 2010 at 8:28 pm |

   I assumed fasult must be some obscure science related term. The clue is probably more elegant if it was simply meant to be fault.

6. RB | August 1, 2010 at 8:36 pm |

   Yeah, 20A looks like overkill or a typo. (I’m referring to the word “fasult” as printed in The Age).

   If “fasult” is a typo, then the IST of GEOLOGIST derives from the last word of the clue (“first” = 1st = IST).

   If “fasult” is not a typo, then it looks like we’re supposed to say there’s an S in IT, yielding IST. In this case, the word “first” indicates that GEOLOG is to be placed before IST. Phew! Messy!

7. JK | August 1, 2010 at 8:51 pm |

   I can’t find a definition for “fasult”except in relation to car engine wiring – is it a word? – if it is to do with electrical circuits then geologist doesn’t make sense (which it does if the clue was meant to be fault).

8. jnrj | August 1, 2010 at 9:20 pm |

   No “s” in the word “fault” in the SMH, so you need search for the mystical word “fasult” no longer!

   My favourites were 21D (always like this style of clue) and 18A (appealed to my German language background).

   I’m surprised no one has yet queried the answer to 13A. I would have thought that “nowadays” we are in the tennies/teenies/tweenies, but no longer in the noughties. I know this is likely to provoke a debate such as occurred around the year 2000 about when a decade/century/millennium actually begins and ends, so if anyone begs to differ, let’s just agree to disagree and forestall pedantic arguments back and forth.

9. RB | August 1, 2010 at 10:24 pm |

   Re 13A, jnrj – thanks for confirming that “fasult” was a typo.

   Again re 13A, you’re absolutely right, jnrj. The only reason I didn’t mention it before was that I didn’t have time! And I don’t think anyone could argue that 2010 is the last year of the noughties; just as 2000 (whilst arguably the last year of the 2nd millennium) surely couldn’t be considered the last year of the nineties.

   Here are my other whinges/queries:

   9A: “Travel” as an anagram indicator didn’t work for me. Sure it implies movement, but not mixing up.

   16A: Agree with TT – clue should have a “!” to denote &lit. (I’m sure DA once wrote that he always follows this convention).

   25A: To an old codger like me, Atari is not old! Waddingtons is old!

   4D: I have GUTTERING but can’t explain the wordplay. It seems:
   “Close to going” = G
   “out” = UTTERING…………………….This is the bit I don’t get
   “where leaves gather” = GUTTERING

10. MF | August 2, 2010 at 1:30 am |

    RB, 4D is a double definition : (candle) “close to going out” = guttering = “where leaves gather”. Very nice.

11. RB | August 2, 2010 at 2:35 am |

    Thanks, MF. That’s a new meaning for me. As you say, “gutter vb intr (of a flame) to flicker and be about to go out”.

12. TT | August 2, 2010 at 12:57 pm |

    RB, ditto codgers. The one answer I missed was ATARI, even with the A_A_I.