19 thoughts on “Confoundings from the DA on the 9/10th of April”
13D: DG, re your query in other thread, I’d never heard of this dance, so I had to Google to confirm it – and none of the references there showed hyphens.
10A: Absolutely brilliant &lit (or very near &lit)! (In my first glance through, I originally pencilled in “peeping toms”, thinking it was a rather ordinary cryptic def).
18A: I don’t like steep/leach as synonyms. Surely leaching is what occurs as a result of steeping.
19A: Somewhat tortured wordplay here I thought. Cows = BULLIES, yes. Manx cows = BULLIE. Mmmmm.
24A: More tortured wordplay here. Can’t decide whether it’s brilliant or dreadful!
3D: siren = bell? Not in my book.
7D: I need help here. My explanation is: “Some” = any, “heaps” = many, but how does “millions” = m (only one m)?
23D: the parenthesised bit seems redundant to me.
At least in Aussie rules the siren and bell are almost synonomous
As for 7d : The mansion sold for $4m OR sold for millions.
Agree with RB’s leach/steep issue. Bellish seems dubious. Struggling to explain 1A and 20D.
20D is gorgeous! Silent(tacit) is one (i) in tact. Said out loud, intact- unscathed.
1 A is , 25 D (yap), madly in Gear (dressed) =Gapyear
24a is crystal meth? how?
24A: As I said above, I can’t decide whether this is awful or brilliant. It’s definitely tortuous. Here we go:
Keen = CRY
swimmer = SALMON
swimmer losing on tight finish kept = SALMON minus ON and containing T (tight finish) = STALM
the club = ETH
drug = CRYSTAL METH
keen = cry? no wonder I didnt get it
Keening is a sort of wailing cry done in some cultures at funerals. Irish, especially.
Perhaps it is bellish as in bell of the ball and siren as in attractive woman. Just a thought ….
whoops, that would be belle :(
Belle = siren is fine. And bell = siren is fine. The trouble with bellish for either belle-like or bell-like is that bellish isn’t a word. If that is okay, then we could have wallish for wall-like, doorish, etc. A bit strained.
Harumph! Still don’t like siren=bell. But, if the two words are used to mean the same thing in AFL (about which I know nothing), I shall have to accept it. I played “real” football myself (back in the days when I was young and vital) and we played to the whistle there.
As for “bellish” not being a word, I’m comfortable with that – after all, it’s a pun and it’s highlighted with a question mark. Admittedly, DA scatters question marks around like confetti but in this case I thought the ? was justified and helpful.
The clue ended as “siren-like?” Where’s the problem?
Good but not great, says I, coming in late because I only started it on Tuesday. Somehow there’s something oddly dissatisfying about doing a crossword when the solution is on the coffee-table across the room.
Happy with EMBELLISH – in fact it was one of my favourites, along with 5A and 20D – but that’s from my form of football.
With RB on CRYSTAL METH. After getting it by its definition, the only bit I got was CRY at the start. The rest is to me desperately obscure – too much of what I call second-order wordplay (wordplay with words that aren’t in the clue and first have to be retrieved by their own definitions – good in small doses but this is OTT). 19A is almost as bad.
Don’t like LEECH either for reasons given above by RB and RNMS.
My question: is 14D just untidy? Is the L from call-back just tossed into the anagram using the not-obvious word “stopping”? Or am I missing something clever?
Well, AG, if you’re missing something, so am I. I read it just as you did. It’s obviously “stop” in the sense of to fill in or plug up a hole, and DA has used it before as a containment indicator. I reckon it works.
I sieged this crossword and the 26th June crossword on a boat up the Amazon a few weeks ago. Despite having 6 days worth of time on my hands I couldn’t get it out, although the availability of cheap beer and Brazilian girls might have had something to do with this.
I agree with RB that 19a and 24a were complete rubbish and had AS had more time on his hands, I’m sure they would have ended up in the DA Bullshit category. However, I had no problem with leech = steep or bell = siren.
Can anyone enlighten me with….
20a Americans allegedly dont forget this atom-bomb holding remedy (3,5)
I have T H E _ L _ M _
17d Accessible retro-art gallery built into triangular wall (3-2-4)
Is it get-to-able ? If so, surely this is another bullshit nomination!?
16a No time for affectionate deed (5)
_ _ I _ _ (If get-to-able is right, then it is _ _ I _ G)
16d Stupidly Scottish sheep swallow this nettle (9)
_ _ L _ _ _ H _ Y
22a Oddball profiled nucleus in obscurity (6)
_ _ _ F _ _ If get-to-able is right, then it is _ _ _ F _ O)
Thanks
I think these were:
The Alamo
Get-At-Able
Doing (doting minus T)
Doltishly
Misfit
Thanks, dg. Damn, cant believe I didn’t get The Alamo and maybe Doing.
Can you explain why 23d Basil categorised (and stored) by another bloke! (4) is HERB? Obviously basil categorised = herb and a bloke could be Herb, but it seems an awkward clue and not particularly &lit. I think I’ve ranted about inconsistency with exclamation marks before.
Thanks again
You’ll see from the first post in this thread that I thought the parenthesised bit redundant. You’ll also see that no-one responded!
My take on the “!” issue has always been that, whilst there is a convention of signposting &lits with “!”, they are sometimes used for other purposes. In this case I think it’s to highlight the “joke” of going from one bloke (Basil) to another (Herb).
13D: DG, re your query in other thread, I’d never heard of this dance, so I had to Google to confirm it – and none of the references there showed hyphens.
10A: Absolutely brilliant &lit (or very near &lit)! (In my first glance through, I originally pencilled in “peeping toms”, thinking it was a rather ordinary cryptic def).
18A: I don’t like steep/leach as synonyms. Surely leaching is what occurs as a result of steeping.
19A: Somewhat tortured wordplay here I thought. Cows = BULLIES, yes. Manx cows = BULLIE. Mmmmm.
24A: More tortured wordplay here. Can’t decide whether it’s brilliant or dreadful!
3D: siren = bell? Not in my book.
7D: I need help here. My explanation is: “Some” = any, “heaps” = many, but how does “millions” = m (only one m)?
23D: the parenthesised bit seems redundant to me.
At least in Aussie rules the siren and bell are almost synonomous
As for 7d : The mansion sold for $4m OR sold for millions.
Agree with RB’s leach/steep issue. Bellish seems dubious. Struggling to explain 1A and 20D.
20D is gorgeous! Silent(tacit) is one (i) in tact. Said out loud, intact- unscathed.
1 A is , 25 D (yap), madly in Gear (dressed) =Gapyear
24a is crystal meth? how?
24A: As I said above, I can’t decide whether this is awful or brilliant. It’s definitely tortuous. Here we go:
Keen = CRY
swimmer = SALMON
swimmer losing on tight finish kept = SALMON minus ON and containing T (tight finish) = STALM
the club = ETH
drug = CRYSTAL METH
keen = cry? no wonder I didnt get it
Keening is a sort of wailing cry done in some cultures at funerals. Irish, especially.
Perhaps it is bellish as in bell of the ball and siren as in attractive woman. Just a thought ….
whoops, that would be belle :(
Belle = siren is fine. And bell = siren is fine. The trouble with bellish for either belle-like or bell-like is that bellish isn’t a word. If that is okay, then we could have wallish for wall-like, doorish, etc. A bit strained.
Harumph! Still don’t like siren=bell. But, if the two words are used to mean the same thing in AFL (about which I know nothing), I shall have to accept it. I played “real” football myself (back in the days when I was young and vital) and we played to the whistle there.
As for “bellish” not being a word, I’m comfortable with that – after all, it’s a pun and it’s highlighted with a question mark. Admittedly, DA scatters question marks around like confetti but in this case I thought the ? was justified and helpful.
The clue ended as “siren-like?” Where’s the problem?
Good but not great, says I, coming in late because I only started it on Tuesday. Somehow there’s something oddly dissatisfying about doing a crossword when the solution is on the coffee-table across the room.
Happy with EMBELLISH – in fact it was one of my favourites, along with 5A and 20D – but that’s from my form of football.
With RB on CRYSTAL METH. After getting it by its definition, the only bit I got was CRY at the start. The rest is to me desperately obscure – too much of what I call second-order wordplay (wordplay with words that aren’t in the clue and first have to be retrieved by their own definitions – good in small doses but this is OTT). 19A is almost as bad.
Don’t like LEECH either for reasons given above by RB and RNMS.
My question: is 14D just untidy? Is the L from call-back just tossed into the anagram using the not-obvious word “stopping”? Or am I missing something clever?
Well, AG, if you’re missing something, so am I. I read it just as you did. It’s obviously “stop” in the sense of to fill in or plug up a hole, and DA has used it before as a containment indicator. I reckon it works.
I sieged this crossword and the 26th June crossword on a boat up the Amazon a few weeks ago. Despite having 6 days worth of time on my hands I couldn’t get it out, although the availability of cheap beer and Brazilian girls might have had something to do with this.
I agree with RB that 19a and 24a were complete rubbish and had AS had more time on his hands, I’m sure they would have ended up in the DA Bullshit category. However, I had no problem with leech = steep or bell = siren.
Can anyone enlighten me with….
20a Americans allegedly dont forget this atom-bomb holding remedy (3,5)
I have T H E _ L _ M _
17d Accessible retro-art gallery built into triangular wall (3-2-4)
Is it get-to-able ? If so, surely this is another bullshit nomination!?
16a No time for affectionate deed (5)
_ _ I _ _ (If get-to-able is right, then it is _ _ I _ G)
16d Stupidly Scottish sheep swallow this nettle (9)
_ _ L _ _ _ H _ Y
22a Oddball profiled nucleus in obscurity (6)
_ _ _ F _ _ If get-to-able is right, then it is _ _ _ F _ O)
Thanks
I think these were:
The Alamo
Get-At-Able
Doing (doting minus T)
Doltishly
Misfit
Thanks, dg. Damn, cant believe I didn’t get The Alamo and maybe Doing.
Can you explain why 23d Basil categorised (and stored) by another bloke! (4) is HERB? Obviously basil categorised = herb and a bloke could be Herb, but it seems an awkward clue and not particularly &lit. I think I’ve ranted about inconsistency with exclamation marks before.
Thanks again
You’ll see from the first post in this thread that I thought the parenthesised bit redundant. You’ll also see that no-one responded!
My take on the “!” issue has always been that, whilst there is a convention of signposting &lits with “!”, they are sometimes used for other purposes. In this case I think it’s to highlight the “joke” of going from one bloke (Basil) to another (Herb).