If Easter’s DA is frustrating you, here’s where you find release.
Ask away.
20 thoughts on “Confusions from the Easter DA (2nd/3rd of April)”
DG: 12A is indeed AEROSPACE: quickly = APACE, which embraces god = EROS to give the direct clue “in the sky”
Thank you!!! Sorry about being in wrong thread
Just checking – I assume that “nothing after opening” in 21D should be interpreted as “(s)quat”. Like Haiku in the other thread, thought 16D was a bit of a stretch. Took ages to work out what the first part of the Spoonerism was supposed to be referring to. Less of a laugh and more of a groan when I finally worked it out.
21D – yes, as in diddly squat.
for the spoonerism, I had “anchored nigh” spoonerised to NAKED EYE. “Raw observer” a nifty combination though!
OK, that’s not what I ‘landed’ on for 16D – there’s one too many ‘n’ sounds in there for my liking, though I’m by no means an expert in how spoonerisms are supposed to work. I thought he must mean “acred nigh” – which I admit doesn’t make any sense as a phrase in itself, but seems cleaner as a spoonerism – relying on a different meaning of “landed”. Interested to see what others concluded.
ah, thanks – “acred” seems much more sensible in that context … but to my mind it makes the clue even more BS!
Most clues make sense, but struggling to see the cryptic derivations for 1D & 19D. Education for a newby on either of these would be welcomed!
Bottom of thE = E
bill (pt it on my bill/slate) =slate
roughly = circa = ca —-> is included in e+slate= escalate <—- rise
Truism = Saw
Altruism = charity
A + L (for learner) are removed from altruism
Of course!! – Thanks heaps for the clarification!
No problems. You know DA has a blog (Cassowary Crossing) and sometimes he asks his readers to explain obscure clues and reacts the same way you did.
I only started this one yesterday. Got half out quickly and then almost ground to a halt. Struggled with a few in the top half. Agree with jnrj’s interpretation of the “acred” Spoonerism, but didn’t like it. My favourites were 19/23A and 4D.
Queries:
13A: I have SAPPY but why “oversweet”? (It’s surely not SOPPY, is it?)
14A: I get the cryptic explanation for ME A TINT, and I guess “macho” -> HE, but how does “yellow” -> SANDWICH?
5D: I guess this is IPHONE. Never heard of it, but then I don’t even have a mobile phone! Anyway, it seems “Joint opener demoted” -> IPH, and presumably “a” -> ONE. Is that it?
Yellow is Sand and wich is “which” announced.
Good on you for not having a mobile phone. Yes, an i phone is a new fangled gadget.
Thanks, JD. I should’ve spotted that DA ploy of splitting sandwich into two parts. But I can’t get my head around yellow = sand. That’s awful! Sure, sand is sometimes a yellowish colour, but it’s also brown, grey, beige etc. In any case to equate something with its colour is dodgy in my book. It smacks of desperation. It’s like saying green = grass, or white = paper, or brown = business! (Expect to see that last one soon from DA). Or am I unaware of some obscure meaning of “sand”?
My only defense for DA would be that he was trying to create one of those evocative paint colour descriptions (Like ‘marshmallow sunset’), to follow up from tint, and came up with the oxymoronic ‘macho yellow’. Who really knows how his mind works?
JD, I think you’re right. DA’s been looking at too many Dulux colour charts!
Sand IS a colour, same as cream or apricot or lime.
I followed that link of yours – unfortunately the colour shown is not yellow!
Got most of it out over the course of the week. But can’t quite work out why ‘grave details’ = sever in 1D, and can’t get 18D (I assume it’s ‘Col de XXX’ cold being loveless? Perhaps col de gar?)
You’ll kick yourself, JR. Grave details is SEVERE without its tail!
And 18D is CUL DE SAC, but I can see why you thought you were on to something with COL DE XXX.
DG: 12A is indeed AEROSPACE: quickly = APACE, which embraces god = EROS to give the direct clue “in the sky”
Thank you!!! Sorry about being in wrong thread
Just checking – I assume that “nothing after opening” in 21D should be interpreted as “(s)quat”. Like Haiku in the other thread, thought 16D was a bit of a stretch. Took ages to work out what the first part of the Spoonerism was supposed to be referring to. Less of a laugh and more of a groan when I finally worked it out.
21D – yes, as in diddly squat.
for the spoonerism, I had “anchored nigh” spoonerised to NAKED EYE. “Raw observer” a nifty combination though!
OK, that’s not what I ‘landed’ on for 16D – there’s one too many ‘n’ sounds in there for my liking, though I’m by no means an expert in how spoonerisms are supposed to work. I thought he must mean “acred nigh” – which I admit doesn’t make any sense as a phrase in itself, but seems cleaner as a spoonerism – relying on a different meaning of “landed”. Interested to see what others concluded.
ah, thanks – “acred” seems much more sensible in that context … but to my mind it makes the clue even more BS!
Most clues make sense, but struggling to see the cryptic derivations for 1D & 19D. Education for a newby on either of these would be welcomed!
Bottom of thE = E
bill (pt it on my bill/slate) =slate
roughly = circa = ca —-> is included in e+slate= escalate <—- rise
Truism = Saw
Altruism = charity
A + L (for learner) are removed from altruism
Of course!! – Thanks heaps for the clarification!
No problems. You know DA has a blog (Cassowary Crossing) and sometimes he asks his readers to explain obscure clues and reacts the same way you did.
I only started this one yesterday. Got half out quickly and then almost ground to a halt. Struggled with a few in the top half. Agree with jnrj’s interpretation of the “acred” Spoonerism, but didn’t like it. My favourites were 19/23A and 4D.
Queries:
13A: I have SAPPY but why “oversweet”? (It’s surely not SOPPY, is it?)
14A: I get the cryptic explanation for ME A TINT, and I guess “macho” -> HE, but how does “yellow” -> SANDWICH?
5D: I guess this is IPHONE. Never heard of it, but then I don’t even have a mobile phone! Anyway, it seems “Joint opener demoted” -> IPH, and presumably “a” -> ONE. Is that it?
Yellow is Sand and wich is “which” announced.
Good on you for not having a mobile phone. Yes, an i phone is a new fangled gadget.
Thanks, JD. I should’ve spotted that DA ploy of splitting sandwich into two parts. But I can’t get my head around yellow = sand. That’s awful! Sure, sand is sometimes a yellowish colour, but it’s also brown, grey, beige etc. In any case to equate something with its colour is dodgy in my book. It smacks of desperation. It’s like saying green = grass, or white = paper, or brown = business! (Expect to see that last one soon from DA). Or am I unaware of some obscure meaning of “sand”?
My only defense for DA would be that he was trying to create one of those evocative paint colour descriptions (Like ‘marshmallow sunset’), to follow up from tint, and came up with the oxymoronic ‘macho yellow’. Who really knows how his mind works?
JD, I think you’re right. DA’s been looking at too many Dulux colour charts!
Sand IS a colour, same as cream or apricot or lime.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_%28color%29#Sand
I followed that link of yours – unfortunately the colour shown is not yellow!
Got most of it out over the course of the week. But can’t quite work out why ‘grave details’ = sever in 1D, and can’t get 18D (I assume it’s ‘Col de XXX’ cold being loveless? Perhaps col de gar?)
You’ll kick yourself, JR. Grave details is SEVERE without its tail!
And 18D is CUL DE SAC, but I can see why you thought you were on to something with COL DE XXX.