Confoundings for the DA on 23rd/24th of July, 2010
Here's where you can get yourself out of a spot of bother.
DA DA for the 23rd/24th of July, 2010
Three cheers for a quality DA.
Yay or nay?
(No spoilers in the comments of this post until Monday)
DA and the Confusions for the 16/17th of July, 2010
Perplexed? Confused?
Get your DA issues sorted here.
DA for the 16/17th of July, 2010
How do we rate this week's array of sleights of hand?
(No spoilers in the comments of this post until Monday)
Update: I got two in less than two minutes, and then for the next twenty minutes or so, nothing, which is pretty much where things remained.
Given the theme and some of the answers (wop, sod's law), I'm kinda glad I didn't stick with it.
Further update: My cryptic research has uncovered that Finagle's law is also a synonym of Murphy's law and sod's law.
Before today, I'd only heard of Murphy's, and the hilarious Muphry's law.
An NS Query
Although I know there's a plethora of cryptics available online, whenever I want some cryptic fun I still do what's available in The Age.
And today was NS for my cryptic hit, but I can't for the life of me figure out the reasoning behind this one:
18 across: Note the sharp edge on the military post (8)
The answer looks like it has to be GARRISON, but other than G = note and ON = on, I can't explain it.
Have I missed something simple and am now embarrassing myself?
DA Let Down on his Crossword from the 9/10th of July, 2010
A new category for a phenomenon newly discovered: the editorial mistake.
DA's hard work has been mangled in both The Age and the SMH, and, echoing Anna Karenina, each in their own way.
8 down reads PERSONAL WEANKESS in the SMH -- a delightful little pun for character flaw -- that in the hands of an artless Age editor became PERSONAL WEAKNESS. I'm a Melbourne boy myself, so I was a little surprised to see what seemed to be an uncharacteristically simple DA clue. Of course, I didn't read a DA clue, but rather a bowdlerised replica of punny extravagance.
17 across was a typical, if somewhat clunky, DA clue that was rather easy for those reading The Age -- the ungrammatical article sticking out like a sore thumb in ARREST A AUDITORY DISEASE made at least part of the solution pretty obvious. SMH readers, on the other hand, must have felt quite uncomfortable trying to work out how the "corrected" version of the clue that they were presented with, ARREST AN AUDITORY DISEASE, could ever be elegantly transformed into what looked like it had to be cholera.
So for the first time that we've ever noticed, no one in Australia got the DA as it stood originally, and much like the scholars who compare and contrast the various editions of Shakespeare's plays, we've had to reconstruct what was the master's intentions from the sullied material at our disposal.
DA’s Perplexities for the 9/10th of July, 2010
Confused? In need of some help?
Here's where you have you questions answered.
Update: Put me out of my misery and answer me these queries:
15 down: Hear wretched dog followed shark (9)
So what's the shark I'm missing?
13 across: Shapelier style of volcanic glass? (4, 5)
And what's the volcanic glass I'm missing here?
9 down: Timely antique bearing clobber (8, 5)
And on this occasion, what's the timepiece I'm missing here?
DA for the 9/10th of July, 2010
Do we approve of DA's cryptic love note this week?
(No spoilers on this post till Monday)
Update: An everyday DA, which amounts to a very good crossword indeed:
Some excellent red herrings, but I'm still one of those who prefers to avoid using a dictionary or Google, hence a few blank spaces.
DA Speaks on a Stage!
How odd: I'm gonna go see an interview not because of the interviewee, but because of the interviewer.
Sure, John Birmingham is alright I suppose, but DA is the really big drawcard when the latter interviews the former at the Wheeler Centre next week!
DA Speaks!
The wonderful Wheeler Centre has an enjoyable clip of David Astle, who is DA by the way, showing how he works words.
And if you don't know already, here's DA's own website, Cassowary Crossing, which will soon make way for davidastle.com.
