DA Confusion for the 6/7th of August, 2010

23 Responses to DA Confusion for the 6/7th of August, 2010

1. Mr X | August 6, 2010 at 4:51 pm |

   I suspect the Age solvers will have a tougher time with this one than the SMH ones.

2. MF | August 7, 2010 at 7:43 am |

   Amusingly, I am normally an Age solver but yesterday picked up an SMH in Canberra. The page opposite the crossword has been exceptionally helpful.
   (I think I would have been _very_ grumpy without it.)

3. AG | August 7, 2010 at 12:35 pm |

   I’m a Victorian but (as I said in other thread) solved this one in a personal record time.

   Complaint: ‘fleece’ as a definition in 24D is poor – like using ‘wheat’ as a definition for ‘bread’.

   I have two clues where the wordplay eludes me: 23A (I get WAG but no further) and 21D. Help, please?

4. JJ | August 7, 2010 at 12:56 pm |

   AG, there are two comedians, blind = gaga

5. Ian | August 7, 2010 at 11:05 pm |

   As for 21d, I had re-ally

6. RB | August 8, 2010 at 12:14 pm |

   Relatively easy this week, even for a Victorian.

   Agree with AG on 24D.

   Don’t get 11A, maybe because I’ve never watched the show. Was a woollen gong employed in the show?

7. AG | August 8, 2010 at 1:02 pm |

   RB, there was (is?) a gong in Red Faces, which would thus be effaced. Clue itself slightly woolly, but probably OK.

   Thanks to JJ and Ian for those explanations. 21D still seems a bit woolly to me (I like that word now, for the kind of inelegance that annoys).

8. TT | August 8, 2010 at 8:05 pm |

   1D. “Buff opening a clay oven”

   Oven = Tandoori is NQR.

   Tandoori chicken is cooked in a tandoor. Tandoori is plural.

9. mic | August 9, 2010 at 12:46 am |

   can someone please explain to me the first three letters of 25A?

10. JJ | August 9, 2010 at 9:48 am |

    mic, LB compiled cryptics for the Telegraph

11. JK | August 9, 2010 at 12:39 pm |

    I would have been happier with muffled or blurred rather than effaced re a woollen gong.

    I thought Mailer novel was an excellent feint, particularly as last week included an answer that actually was a Winton novel.

    DA did a themed crossword a while back with names of Sydney beaches and I think that helped us Melbournians onto the right track very quickly.

    No obscure words.

12. RB | August 9, 2010 at 2:19 pm |

    I think LB (Lindsay Browne) compiled cryptics for the SMH and The Age as well.

    Still can’t get my head around “woollen gong” in 11A. The clue makes no sense to me. JK’s suggestions (“muffled” etc) make more sense.

    TT makes a good point about Tandoori being plural.

    AG, I thought 21D REALLY was quite clever. But I agree that the woolliness of which you complain can be annoying. The “?” key on DA’s keyboard gets a good workout, and one of its uses seems to be to signify this “woolliness”.

13. BS | August 9, 2010 at 10:19 pm |

    Hey folks, have just discovered this forum – thanks in advance for your help.

    Can someone please explain to me the *last* 3 letters of 25A?

    Also- first three letters of 4D? I had tried Idolate, thinking IDO was possibly 1 Dozen = regular handful.

    And – 19D – I get LE and THY – but don’t understand NG.

14. RB | August 9, 2010 at 11:12 pm |

    Hi BS.
    In 25A, “quirky periodical” = every alternate letter of “quirky”.
    4D uses a similar ploy: “regular handful” = every alternate letter of “handful”.
    In 19D, “dale lowered head” = GLEN with the first letter “lowered” = LENG.

15. jnrj | August 11, 2010 at 4:33 pm |

    Is it possible for 11A that the homophone is “wool on gong”, as I seem to recall that Red Symons used a big stick with a woollen end on it to hit the gong and thus “efface” (ie eliminate, or at least bring to an end the performance of) contestants who did not pass muster. Muffle or blur doesn’t really work for me if this is the intended meaning … and I’m not sure that “woollen gong” makes sense, since the gong itself was a large lump of metal with no obvious material on it to muffle or reduce its sound. My dictionary gives “rub out” or “obliterate” as synonyms for ‘efface’, which seems quite apt given the maniacal glee with which Red Symons used to wield his woollen stick to dismiss unworthy contestants. I think DA also chose this word for the sound repetition of the syllable “face”.

16. dean martin | August 11, 2010 at 10:34 pm |

    Remember those 3D pictures—you look at a series of squiggles and suddenly there is a fish riding a bicycle, or 12 lions in tutus? I think of cryptic clues in the same way–there is a technique for working them out, but mostly the answer just pops into focus, and if you analyse it too closely the image disappears again. There is art as well as logic at work—and in the case of DA a fair bit of magic, too.

17. JK | August 12, 2010 at 5:41 pm |

    Wool on gong makes more sense than woollen gong I agree jnrj & I accept that there may have been wool on Red’s stick but I would never have thought about a stick in relation to the word wool in any other context. Happy not to have to think about Red Faces (or Red Symons) too much in any case. Instead, looking ahead, only 2 days for us Melbournians until the next installment.

18. kk | September 3, 2010 at 2:41 pm |

    hi, i kept this crossword and only found in today. cannot get 15A or 26A, 13D, am too impatient and hoped to find answers here. any help? thanks k

19. JD | September 3, 2010 at 5:28 pm |

    What are the clues?

20. RB | September 3, 2010 at 11:10 pm |

    kk, you’ve obviously got the theme by now, so I’ll give you hints on the wordplay for 15A (“about” is the containment indicator, so you want a short word meaning “learning” wrapped around a short informal word meaning “philosophy”), and 26A (word meaning “tolerate” with a syllable that’s a homophone of a synonym of “vent” placed before it).

    As for 13D, you need:
    “Making a splash” (7)
    “dismissed” (3)
    “failing” (7,3)

21. RV | September 3, 2010 at 11:24 pm |

    Hi kk.

    15A Learning about philosophy (Lismore, Lore about ism).
    26A tolerate vent mentioned before (Holbrook, Hole brook).
    13D making a splash, yet dismissed as failing (Bombing out).

    depressingly I had to look at the answers for 26A and 13D as I couldn’t solve them only 4 weeks after solving the puzzle.

22. RV | September 3, 2010 at 11:27 pm |

    Beat me to it RB and a lot more subtle too!

23. kk | September 4, 2010 at 12:14 pm |

    thanks heap, have been inspired to look at yesterday’s now.