DA Confusion for the 17/18th of December, 2010

Posted on by AS

This week’s DA probably won’t be as mind bending as last week’s, nonetheless I bet there will still be questions.

And here’s where you ask those questions freely.

68 thoughts on “DA Confusion for the 17/18th of December, 2010”

  1. Oh my goodness! – for the first time EVER I managed to get 1A out (i.e. the first clue that I looked at). All downhill from here…..

  2. Am a newcomer to DA, I’ve got 1,6,9,12,22,24A and 7,20D. But other than that I am stumped. Any hints

  3. Almost there. Hints:
    10,27 Across – think of your salad
    2 Down – think about tolling
    25 Across using the letters from 21 Down for an anagram
    18 Down uses a DA trick for a homophone (IN VOICE)
    Need more?

  4. Ted, 29a an anagram (of ten or an) 17d , pocket indicates word is found in middle of simple thoracic. Hope that gives you a nudge.

  5. I am so proud! – 1, 6 (I think), 9, 10, 15, 22, 24, 25, 29A and 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 21D and half of 16D done. (Thanks to some of the hints above). Can’t quite understand second part of 21D.

    Hints on 18 and 19A please? Those joined ones always freak me out.

  8. Thanks everyone, I now have 29a, 17d, 2a, still need help with 10a, 21d. and 1d continues to elude me.

  10. 1 Down is difficult, where I had to look up the word (i.e. cheat!) – think of a chasing game for the first part, and a ship’s diary for the second.

    10 Across – think of the mother of god!

    21 Down – is a ‘soft material’

  11. Aha… 10A, 1D, 9A/8D solved! still need 21D though, and while I have the crossletters for 6D, nothing seems to work

  12. Jonathan – you are TOO cryptic. STILL can’t get 2 down. Hints for 18A and 19A please?

  15. 2D – it’s camp and it’s an ology
    14A – It’s like a globe
    15A – you’ll find them in schools and universities
    18A – Loves are two Os – OO – the annex is a wing….
    19A – Seduce is to get someone into B–, Gold is AU
    28A – Like an owl in colour

  23. 3D – sounds like ICE RAIN
    4D – ‘in nick’ is FIT
    6D – Greek letter is CHI
    13D – think of an extinct bird

    Note sure if I’m allowed do any more?!

  26. 16D – 6 balls + —–
    18D – invoice means IN VOICE – i.e. a homophone – sounds like a word for a scam
    21D – the meat is VEAL
    23D – foremost surfer is the S
    26D – indicator is DRAW

  31. I’m nearly done. Only ones I can’t get are:
    -11A
    -19A (what is last letter?
    -28A
    -18D
    -20D
    -23D
    thanks – alison

  34. 11a: if you are the most dumb, you are the ___
    19a: the last letter is the first from belle
    28a: think of port
    20d: think of actresses with no wrinkles and no expression
    23d: the surfer is Andy Irons, who died last month

  35. 11A – if you are the dumbest, you are the least…..

    19A – last letter is B

    20D – trash is bin, with lout mixed up inside

  36. Had to cheat for 11A. Had the first part, but just hadn’t put those two words together. Will have to wait for Monday’s solutions to figure out 23D and 28A, because neither of Ian’s clues above are making any sense….
    Good news is I had the letters correct for 20D but couldn’t make sense of the world at that early stage of the xword.
    Improvement!

  39. Alison, 28A is a colour and type of owl, 23D is head of surfer + andy. Can you help me with 6D??

  41. Finished my first full DA! Before I read his book I could never get more than 3 clues

  42. thanks for the hints above – was struggling this week… even though Melbournians got it a day early! Still unsure of the word play in:

    18a: what is the ‘or’ doing in the clue?

    And that Jack had me worried in 6a – kept on wanting it to be ab, not ob… finally worked it out.

  43. Is there an error at the end of 6d/start of 12a. It looks like the square should be both K and R.

  44. dg – No, R for both! Consider spoke and russian separately! And spoke doesn’t mean ‘said’.

  46. dg, wasn’t one I was familiar with either, but think Greek alphabet and public transport

  47. 18a – My theory (ahem) My theory is this. “or” is “gold” in heraldry, so put “g”. No, I don’t like it either but can anyone do better?

  48. SR – as Johnathan said: loves in annex gives OO in WING. Lady without notice is LY, so it looks like the ‘or’ is just there to improve the surface reading.

  49. I have completed the crossword but i can’t understand how 6A, 5D and 16D work. I can see the CAR in 6A but I don’t know how the OB comes. I can see the MEN in 5D but can’t understand the model dumped bit and although I have written in a response to 16D I just can’t see what is what at all! However, with your help and hints I have had a good time working out the whole grid

  51. Conny
    6A – ‘chore’ is JOB, throwing jack is to remove the J.
    5D – ‘boring’ is F:AT, ‘model’ is T, so dumping model leaves FLA.
    16D – ‘accomplished’ is OVER, ‘sponsor’ is FUNDER and ‘face’ is F. A two-barrelled shotgun is either a ‘side by side’ or, if it has one barrel on top of the other, an OVER and UNDER (although I thought, more usually, UNDER and OVER).

  54. 6A: chore = JOB, throw the J(ack) away
    5D: boring = FLAT, get rid of the model T
    16D: accomplished = finished or done = OVER; sponsor = FUNDER, lose the face
    28A: buff = shade of brown (think frogmouth rather than owl), and say it slowly out aloud
    @Jonathan, for tracks railroad is better than roads, and ‘iced’ rather than ‘ice’

  55. Sorry for the double posting, the previous handful of comments did not show on my screen until after I had submitted mine

  56. Thanks GB and Peter. I hadn’t thought of barrel referring to shot guns. Somehow I was stuck on wine barrels!! Both of your comments were very helpful. Cheers

  57. Only just finished so only just reading all the comments above- to Ian – does the sun move? Is DA a denier of Gallileo? Does this make the clue for 26D just a tad unfair?

  58. Hi all… only found out about DA Trippers a month ago… then found out I was with the legendary GB and JK (and Mrs JK) at a BBQ on Monday! So thought I’d better contribute something.

    @JK… agreed… maybe if the clue was something like “Draw how sun appears to move”…

    I enjoyed 3D… but wasted an hour on 1D because I got the TAG bit then tried to work on “TAGEBUCH”, which is “diary” in German (the foreign language). Oh well!

  60. I thought the ‘OB’ in 6A is the rear of car, 1st two letters backwards.

    I don’t understand the wordplay from Act II in 13D. Or what 23D means other than the beach! – or is that the answer? I also don’t understand 18D wordplay. Other than that good fun.

  61. I think 13D works like this: ‘Very stiff’ is the indicator
    ‘negotiation curtailed’ is DEAL without the L
    ‘one tragic’ is A SAD – upshot is to put it up – i.e. reversed
    ‘by Act II’ – is DO and DO, i.e. act is DO.

  62. Alison, 18D is very nice, WROUGHT sounds like (“in voice”) ‘rort’ = ‘scam’, and ‘wrought’ means ‘worked’, as in wrought iron.
    23D was explained earlier, Andy Irons was a surfer.

  63. I’d just like to say that I really appreciate this site and everyone’s contributions. I have struggled with DA and thought of giving up but with the little nudges you people provide I am really enjoying it. I hope that I’ll be able to make useful contributions in following weeks.

  65. GB – hey thanks. I had “WIN” for “annex” – now I see that that was a bit strained, I could have just added the G, to get a different meaning of “annex”. This is what comes of getting the answer first (by psychic means, or at least some mental process that I do not fully understand) and then seeing whether the clue fits it. I don’t like “or” when DA could have used “and”, “with”, “by” etc

  66. Yes, SR, I think ‘with’ would have been better. But then I’m never quite sure how clues with ellipses are supposed to read.

  67. I liked 12A RADII and 13D DEAD AS A DODO, but overall I didn’t rate this crossword highly. To me there were too many irritating things which weren’t quite right. For example:
    1A: Why use the newer American meaning of “ticked off” when there’s an older non-American meaning?
    14A: This seems to be a double definition clue. But “all humans” = GLOBAL just doesn’t do it for me. Can anyone justify it?
    28A: This is a terrible homonym. It only works if you stress the (usually unaccented) second syllable of TAWNY. IMO the first syllable is not right either. I’m not sure whether it’s meant to sound like “torn knee” or “tore knee”. Neither works for me but I realise (having in the past discussed things like LAW v LORE) that others might not have a problem with this first syllable.
    4D: “in nick” = FIT doesn’t quite work for me. It needs to be “in good nick”. Alternatively, if “nick” is meant in the sense of “arrest”, and “fit” is meant in the sense of “frame” it still doesn’t quite work.
    6D: Never heard of CHIRR, but I see Google has, so I’d better let this one pass.
    16D: Ditto with OVER-UNDER.
    18D: “rort” as homophone for “wrought” is close, but not close enough for me. That pesky little “r” (third letter of “rort”) just spoils it. Once again, I realise that many will not make this distinction.
    20D: Can’t decide about “hurled” as anagram indicator. Maybe it’s OK?
    21D: Didn’t like “treat” = VET, whatever Google might say.
    26D: I quite liked this clue, but it is inaccurate, as JK has already pointed out. The sun does not move from east to west – it merely appears to move that way because of the earth’s rotation.

  68. I agree with you GB
    Just want to say that being a shot-gun shooter, never heard of “OVER- UNDER” it is an” UNDER and OVER”.

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