Category Archives: DA Bullshit

3 down: Place in aviary holds our egg (9)

This was the last clue I got, and no wonder – the use of “egg” as a  synonym for “encourage” as the direct clue is drawing a very, very long bow.

5 down: I can’t tell you if tanks crash into stadium (3’1, 3, 2)

Not so much  bullshit as an uncharacteristically inelegant clue. “Dome” as stadium, “I can’t tell you” as the direct clue… it’s a bit of an NS clue, really. We expect better from the master!

19 across: Hungarian scorer’s tip for audience? (5)

And another hat-tip to Michael Fuller for explaining this one as well, which is exceptionally well-deserved considered this just isn’t a very tidy clue. What we’ve got here is: tip = list (a nautical term I had no idea about), which gives tip for audience (for audience is the aural indicator) = Liszt = Hungarian scorer’s.

What I just can’t abide is Hungarian scorer’s = Liszt. The unaccounted for possessive just makes the whole thing messy.

19 down: They take seconds to fight? (8)

Although I liked this clue, to my mind, it’s not quite right.  The answer is duellers, but although duellers = they take seconds is fine, duellers = to fight ain’t. Expressed alternatively, it could be that duellers = they take seconds to fight, but then that’s not much of a cryptic clue.

Either way, me say bullshit.

Update: OK, so I don’t think it’s bullshit anymore.

19 down: Not moved during Nazi summer? (7)

Disappointing effort, although, thankfully, it did not adversely affect the answering of this clue. Here, Nazi = Hess and not moved = otn so that not moved during Nazi = hotness = summer. That hotness = summer, though, is just not good enough.

28 across: How an echidna detects classic sob or pulse repelling some (9)

I’m really not sure how this one works, but how an echidna detects = proboscis is a terrible direct clue that I consider bullshit.

1 down: Makin’ a blue roll (6)

Making a blue = muffing so makin’ a blue = muffin, but a muffin ain’t a roll! You might be able to get muffins and rolls from the bakery, but you can get meat pies there too and such a flimsy connection is most definitely not grounds for synonymity.

15 down: Wrung out? Old had this! (9)

This one is almost brilliant. The out looks like the anagram notifier, but out is in fact part of the anagram and wrung is the anagram notifier, so that wrung out? old had = adulthood. The problem is accounting for this! And to make matters worse, Old had this! is a terrible direct clue for adulthood. This clue is just messy — pedants be warned!

And so I inaugurate a new category: DA Bullshit.

This category is for the odd clue that frequents a DA which, whilst not exactly an error, owes too much to poetic licence.

Friday-just-past’s frequently ridiculous cryptic, which I will report on shortly, also had something to do with the creation of this category as well.

But here, as reported by NC, is the first piece of documented DA bullshit:

12 across: Pan author after good chapter’s climax that most jetsetters go through? (5,7)

(Peter) Pan author =Barrie, good = sound, chapter’s climax = r giving Pan author after good chapter’s climax = sound barrier = that most jetsetters go through.

But as NC noted, jetsetters don’t go through the sound barrier anymore. DA, we expect better!