I haven’t seen it yet (DAs are published on Saturdays in Melbourne), but by all reports it’s a thematic cracker, and I’m betting there’s gonna be a little bit of confusion.
Here’s where you have your confusions sorted out.
I haven’t seen it yet (DAs are published on Saturdays in Melbourne), but by all reports it’s a thematic cracker, and I’m betting there’s gonna be a little bit of confusion.
Here’s where you have your confusions sorted out.
Dodgy definition: 7d was never what you would call a guitar hero, not in the way Hendrix or Clapton were.
Mistake: 24d: the mounting metal has to be misspelt to get the answer and fit the grid
Agreed. But I cannot get the theme. I have all but 6 – I hope:). 18d?
It’s a country. The spies are American
11,14A: Have the answer but I don’t understand the significance of “four times”
17A: Shouldn’t “swapping sides” be “swapping side”?
Complete the grid, and look again. 19a-ly.
17a: You’re right, only one side.
Visiting mom, anfd we did this one together, which is always wonderful.
17A No, there are two sides, you swap one for the other?
We had a good belly-laugh with 16D relaxed mistress.
Need a little help. Don’t entirely understand wordplay for 27a. Don’t understand the need for “Cockney’ in 10a (ie clue is fine without it). Don’t get the joke in 16d (unless relaxed…ah, do get the joke, very good!). How amazing is 6-19-across four times!
24D- oh yeah, i never noticed that! i guess DA didn’t either! (or else, we’re interpreting it wrong?)
17A- without spoling the answer, i think it depends on how you interpret the clue. i think “swapping sides” still works.
16D was awesome =D
11, 14A- he has four books, but is that what DA is referring to? not sure.
27A is brilliant. the “love guided” bit is “westwards”.
10A the word for “diviner” is said with a cockney accent.
now, hoping someone can help me with the last one 28A?! please?! it’s driving me insane!
11, 14A (The clue has been given above, but here again in different words) from the first letter, read the next four letters diagonally down to the right.
28A Bottle indicates the clue is bottled in there somewhere; spun tells you it is spun around.
11, 14A ZOMG! that’s the coolest thing, ever!!
28A and, man, i can’t believe i didn’t get that. i even had that “bottled” idea too. thanks very much =)
JK, key word in 27a is “westward” – but not for the whole clue!
By my reading “Cockney” is needed in 10A. I had to think about dividing with the other one to see the wordplay.
Agree with you that 6-19-across four times is very clever. Working that one out was an added bonus!
The well-hidden “theme” in four places was absolutely brilliant. (I would have said “awesome” but that word has been devalued somewhat).
I liked 7D (Lady Gaga) despite Dylan not really being a guitar hero. And also 16D (relaxed mistress) – but why the “perhaps” in this clue? It seems superfluous.
JK: Re 10A, as star and mrigeoy have pointed out, diviner = more divine = holier = ‘olier in Cockney.
Re debate on side-swapping in 17A: I think “side” or “sides” works. If you “go over to the other side”, you “swap sides”, even though only one side is being exchanged for the other.
7D has to be Dylan Thomas, who Robert Zimmerman named himself after, and who once smashed a guitar over a barman’s head. No? Well, it’s more plausible than Bob Dylan being a guitar hero, despite “going electric” at Newport.
Thanks Mrigeoy & RB – I initially thought a diviner (noun) was someone who divined for water, metal or even oil, and therefore could be termed an “oiler” needing only the addition of the letter i to give the answer. (I think I somehow also mixed up divining with refining in my brain). Using Cockney “holier” (adjective) & putting the i in a different place is much more elegant (even if the end result is the same).
DA is on record as a Radiohead fan, therefore interested in music and it surprises that he would use guitar hero in relation to Dylan – the clue would have been fine if he had used “folkie”, songwriter, poet or even visionary rather than guitar hero.
I’m a bit unsure about the wordplay on 23a – how does ‘hummed in ear’ become word (or is it just ‘a word in your ear’)? 16d was great after much agony, and I’m afraid for 27a I had to go through all the cities beginning with M and having a double l in them (thanks to an avuncular Wally) only to work the wordplay out afterwards. Also thought 28a was a good one.
Re 23A – ‘whirred’ methinks; but not sure as not sure about 24D and still haven’t got 28A
Sam, I think “in ear” is a homonym signifier & the homonym is whirred for hummed.
Thanks LJ and JK :) My take on 28A is the same as Peter’s above – a reversed container clue with martyr in “beery tramp.”
Finally got 24D and after checking above have 28A, but still not sure about 6D – if I’ve got it, I don’t understand it.
What a great theme – picked it very late in the piece, just in time to give me a couple of useful Ls in words I had yet to get.
Pity about the 24D flub, and I have a couple of gripes about the precision of 13A and 6D. I didn’t like “guitar hero” for Dylan at first either, but on reflection perhaps it works as a deliberately misleading definition, given that the man does play the guitar (less so these days, standing at the keyboard most of the night) and is a hero.
Spoilers:
28a: reverse hidden word
24d: lead backwards + T from tin = DAELT. The consensus is that this is a mistake.
Is 6d HOOP-LA and if so why? I have yet to fathom out 16D – help please.
6D: “Bear to put up” = POOH to put up = HOOP
Hollywood = LA
hype = HOOP-LA
16D: I loved this one. How much help do you want? The definition is the first two words of the clue, and “relaxed mistress” gives the first two letters of the answer.
Thanks RB
Thanks RB for the explanation of Hoop-la and for the tip on 16d which I now have.