Only in health do I thee wed, DA, and I could hardly bear looking at you on Friday.
The cough is abating, the sleep not so prolonged now; the coming Friday should see a reacquaintance.
I’m supposing, though, that others made a good fist of it. Explain said fist, please.
I found this (5 Sep) much harder than 29 Aug. This baby took all day Friday and Saturday to get all but four out, albeit with plenty of DA confusion material to go with it.
I don’t feel too bad about not getting it all out though. Three of the last four clues were things (and a person) I had never heard of, to wit:
21 down: Top military detail call for peace before a major strike (5). Answer = SHAKO. My dictionary advises that a shako is a cylindrical hat worn by soldiers. I presume call for peace = sh, a=a, major strike = ko; leaving “top military detail” as the direct clue.
6 down: US novelist needing help to carry party hot-tubs (3,6).
Answer=DOS PASSOS. Again, Wikipedia to the rescue. In 1936, Jean Paul Sartre called him “the greatest writer of our time”. Party = do, hot-tubs = spas, help = sos.
29 across: Next block further, practically, for Javanese poison source (4,4).
Answer=UPAS TREE. Wikipedia confirms it as a tree that produces a poison and grows in Java (among other places). How the wordplay works I have not the faintest idea.
I have plenty of DA confusion I will ask for help about shortly.
The cleaner ran off with my copy of the paper, which I foolishly left at the office on Fri arvo. No DA for me. Who’d have thought the cleaner was a cryptic fan?
By the sounds of things, this one was a good one for me to miss.
And Dos Passos is one of those stream of consciousness writers. I hate stream of consciousness writers, and the fact that he’s largely forgotten these days makes me ever so happy.
Before long, I’m hoping Kerouac will be expunged from the collective literary memory too (sorry, TH).
Bah. Kerouac is one of the great writers of the 20th century, and yah boo sucks to anyone who says otherwise.
:)
Lest it be thought this DA was no fun, I would like to say that on the contrary, I found it to be very entertaining as a whole, and delightful in parts.
My favourite clues were:
9 across: They make nastiness depart (15)
23 across: [?????] (1,5’1,3,1,4)
and
12 down: Swell welfare invoice a comfort for the prurient loner (4-2,4)
This last is typical of the DA we have come to know and love.
All three elicited in me the a-ha in the brain and the groan in the chest that the best cryptic clues do.
I won’t give away the answers in case someone who hasn’t tackled last Friday’s DA wants to have a go and experience the same pleasure I did (without the benefit of cross clues though).
A little hint for 12 down: “invoice” is the same sort of trick as “interstate” was for 2 down in the 22 August DA that I nominated for DA Gold.
My confusions from 5 Sep. Any thoughts appreciated.
1 across: COE’S QUAILS? (5) Answer = cringes
18 across: Becomes aware of switch function in lock … (5,2)
Answer = wises up
19 across: … in cored deciduous (6) Answer = poplar
20 across: answer = upas tree (clue given in previous post, erroneously cited as 29 across).
3 down: He stood up Vladimir to worry about … (5) Answer = Godot
Just in case the … is significant, the next clue is
4 down: … American sewage system (6,4) Answer = septic tank
Wow – they’re all nasty.
I can’t even get the clues you listed as quality.
The only help I can offer is that “he stood up Vladimir” is a reference to Godot, the person who Vladimir was waiting for but who never arrived in the play “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett.
“to worry about… (septic tank)” as “Godot”: I ain’t got nuthin’.
Dog = worry, so “to worry about” = “to dog” reversed = GODOT. I guess the septic tank isn’t significant.
Is the clue for 23 across just “[?????]”… ?
Goddamn it, I often miss answers when a portion of the answer is directly in the clue. Good work, TH.
I just got 19 across.
The ‘in’ thing is “popular”, which when cored, gives “poplar”.
9 across is gold for an anagram clue.
Who’d a thought “nastiness depart” is an anagram of “antidepressants”?
I just kinda got 1 across.
To quail is to cringe.
If O = ring, then coe’s = cringes.
But why the words are capitals, I don’t know.
Well done all!
I just now came to understand 29 across: Next block further, practically, for Javanese poison source (4,4). Only ten weeks later, never mind.
Next block further = up a street!
Next block further, practically = up a stree = UPAS TREE = Javanese poison source.
Your dedication to the DA’s further understanding truly astounds.
Well done!