This was a pretty good ‘un all round, but I particularly liked these:
1 across: When the cup runs over, men scramble to protect beer’s head (8)
The “to protect” bit is a bit clumsy, but I do like “When the cup runs” as a direct clue for NOVEMBER. It mighta confused the Sydneysiders, though!
25, 26 across: Alien race signals for us to walk? (6, 5, 3)
A nice double meaning clue – LITTLE GREEN MEN!
4 down: estiMAte? (8, 5)
Only DA woulda come up with this one. It did remind me a little of a clue from a few weeks back, to which the answer I think was also EDUCATED GUESS, or something very similar – does anyone remember it? But anyway, this is one of those clues that elicits bewilderment when you first look at it, and a delighted chuckle when the answer first jumps out.
No real DA bullshit this week, although that may change once I’ve seen the answers!
Please consider 7D for the DA bullshit category. See under Late Early Bird. I thought 12A was pretty good.
I don’t like 4D at all. The clue you might be thinking of was from 14 November 2008: C+H-AxN+CE (“calculated risk”). I liked that one because chance = risk, and chance sprinkled with arithmetic symbols is *calculated* risk.
But for 4D to wotk like that one would have to have estiate = guess and estiate with an MA = educated estiate = educated guess. Otherwise estimate has to do double duty and mean both “guess” *and* “estimated guess”.
If this is intended I think this is the worst DA clue in memory & a candidate for DA bullshit in my opinion. But maybe I am missing something. I would so like estiate to mean guess & restore my faith in DA.
Nah, I think you’re over-analysing it. The whole clue is estimate = GUESS, and the presence of an MA gives you EDUCATED GUESS. It’s a bit contrived, perhaps, but it’s unusual and I like it.
And yeah, CALCULATED RISK was the one I was thinking of.
Point taken, TH. I have to try to lighten up a little. I like to take my battles with DA seriously, but they are a lot of fun too.
Serious fun! Maybe that is a definition of a cryptic crossword (and particularly a DA)…
I reckon 19A “Sculptor and noble eatin'” = Auguste Rodin deserves a medal.
4D: I’m positioned somewhere between NC and TH on this one. I guess I disagree with both of you! I feel it’s worthy of neither gold nor bullshit.
I’m definitely in the NC camp on 4D …