{"id":2670,"date":"2022-03-06T13:16:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T13:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clueclinic.com\/?p=2670"},"modified":"2022-03-20T13:02:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T13:02:02","slug":"notes-for-azed-2595","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/06\/notes-for-azed-2595\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes for Azed 2,595"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question\/comment is not publicly visible, by email<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\r\n

While I \u2013 of course \u2013 believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don\u2019t intend thereby to stifle discussion \u2013 I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known\u2026I shall not be offended!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Azed 2,595 ‘Looking Back’<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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Difficulty rating: \"6.5 (6.5 \/ 10)\r\n

The focus this week, I think, should be on celebrating Azed’s extraordinary achievement in having reached his golden jubilee, about which I will say a little more below. As for this puzzle, it will not linger long in my memory, and I hope I will not offend anyone by saying that it looked as though it has been thrown together in a bit of a hurry. The construction is pretty basic – take any ordinary puzzle, change some letters in the completed grid, and write clues wherein the definition leads to the old answer and the wordplay to the new one. But let’s be fair here – Azed has earned the right many times over to have a bit of an easy ride on his 50th<\/sup> ‘birthday’. Solving the puzzle wasn’t trivial, and I can’t say that I found it particularly enjoyable, but I was gratified to find that the message appeared without any glitches.<\/p>\r\n

Underneath the notes on individual clues I have added a checklist of the letters (there could be none, one, or two) which have been displaced from the defined solution in each clue, followed (for those who may still be struggling) by the positions in the entries where the substitutions are made. Note that there is an error in the clue for 24a – the last three words should be ‘knocking off drink’ rather than ‘knocking of drink’.<\/p>\r\n

PS When Azed refers to the misprints which deliver the message he is clearly referring to the letters in the grid which are indicated by the wordplay but not the definition. The message should become clear if you put a circle or similar in pencil round these letters in the completed grid.<\/p>\r\n

Setters’ Corner<\/em><\/strong>: Having done the Mephisto every Sunday for more years than I care to remember, I started tackling Azed puzzles around 14 years ago. I was immediately charmed by their wit and ingenuity, at a level I had only previously seen achieved by John Graham (Araucaria) and Mike Laws, and even then with less regularity. From that point on, I was hooked; when I started doing a weekly blog of the puzzles two or three years later it only served to further increase my appreciation of their excellence.<\/p>\r\n

For some time I had wanted to have a go at setting crosswords myself, but didn’t possess the confidence to submit a puzzle to a crossword editor, knowing it would probably get torn apart; the Azed clue writing comps, however, gave me the opportunity to submit single clues and then see how more experienced setters had tackled the same words. I realised pretty quickly that my initial lack of positive results was due in part to problems with soundness, a requirement which Azed regularly highlighted in his result slips, and consequently I started looking at clues very differently from how I had when I was just solving puzzles. Having overcome this issue, I met with some modest success which encouraged me to set and submit complete puzzles, so I have Azed to thank not only for a wonderful weekly cruciverbal treat of a remarkably high standard but also for getting my setting career started. Thank you! And I can tell you that I was greatly chuffed a couple of years ago when John Green informed me that one of the entries for a Listener puzzle of mine had come from the great man himself.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n

12a<\/strong> NY bum<\/span>, male knife wasted, head cut off (6)<\/span>
A two-letter word for a male is followed by an anagram (‘wasted’) of KNIFE without its first letter (‘head cut off’). The ‘NY’ indicates that the word to be misprinted in the grid is of US origin, and the ‘bum’ is the BTM rather than a hobo.<\/p>\r\n

16a<\/strong> Garden shrub<\/span>, single one, ordinary, found round fringes of Italy (8)<\/span>
A five-letter word for a person who prefers to act on their own and the usual abbreviation for ‘ordinary’ are placed round the first and last letters (‘fringes’) of ‘Italy’.<\/p>\r\n

22a<\/strong> Roundabout abroad<\/span> is booming – about time (6)<\/span>
A five-letter word meaning ‘is booming’ (thinking lion rather than business), containing (‘about’) the usual abbreviation for ‘time’; ‘abroad’ in this instance refers to North America.<\/p>\r\n

24a<\/strong> Pin disposed of in knocking off drink<\/span> (4)<\/span>
A seven-letter word for ‘knocking off’ (in the stealing sense) has the consecutive letters PIN removed (‘disposed of’).<\/p>\r\n

25a<\/strong> One of bases for mast<\/span> with cap on shaped with copper lining (8)<\/span>
The standard one-letter representation of ‘with’ is followed by an anagram (‘shaped’) of CAP ON which has the chemical symbol for copper inside (‘lining’). The ‘mast’ here is the sort that might be found on the forest floor.<\/p>\r\n

28a<\/strong> Wild goat<\/span> I’m surprised to see in bitter herb dish (7)<\/span>
A two-letter interjection denoting surprise is contained by a five-letter term for a dish of bitter herbs eaten during the Jewish Passover.

<\/span>click to reveal the five-letter element<\/div>
MAROR<\/div><\/div>\r\n

30a<\/strong> JM’s appalled<\/span> at having to hug girls regularly (5)<\/span>
‘JM’ is John Milton, the word defined being his spelling of an adjective normally seen with an ‘H’ included. The wordplay has AT (from the clue) containing (‘to hug’) three letters taken at regular intervals from ‘girls’.<\/p>\r\n

31a<\/strong> Scottish snob<\/span> mostly irritated about the States (6)<\/span>
A four-letter word meaning ‘irritated’ has its last letter removed (‘mostly’) before being placed around a three-letter abbreviation for the United States. ‘Snob’ is an Azed favourite, being an old informal term for a shoemaker’s apprentice or cobbler.<\/p>\r\n

34a<\/strong> Ointment<\/span> made with egg on inside, all over (6)<\/span>
A three-letter abbreviation for a Latin word meaning ‘made’ or ‘did’ has a three-letter word for ‘egg on’ or ‘incite to fight’ inside, the whole lot being reversed (‘all over’).<\/p>\r\n

2d<\/strong> Venetian painter replacing bit of pain with mark having quivery effect<\/span> (7)<\/span>
The seven-letter surname of a Venetian artist (with forenames Giovanni Battista) from the eighteenth century has the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘pain’ replaced by the usual single-character abbreviation for ‘mark’.<\/p>\r\n

3d<\/strong> Kidney secretion<\/span> on hand (5)<\/span>
The wordplay here is a charade of the standard bit of commercial jargon for ‘on’ and a three-letter informal term for a hand or arm which has fishy connotations.<\/p>\r\n

5d<\/strong> Typical of old hound<\/span> to move swiftly catching sheep (6)<\/span>
A three-letter word meaning ‘to move swiftly’ containing (‘catching’) a three-letter word for a sheep, the word defined being a Shakespearean term used to describe a dog having a pendulous upper lip of a particular quality.<\/p>\r\n

8d<\/strong> A copper initially is often right in arguing from cause to effect<\/span> (7, 2 words)<\/span>
The letter A (from the clue) is followed by a two-letter abbreviation for a police officer of relatively modest rank (‘copper’) and the first letters (‘initially’) of ‘is often right in’. The defined solution is divided (1,6).<\/p>\r\n

18d<\/strong> Make a mistake dividing bears, looking up pedigrees<\/span> (7)<\/span>
A three-letter word meaning ‘to make a mistake’ is put inside (‘dividing’) a four-letter word for ‘bears’ (in the sense of ‘weighs’ or ‘presses’) and the result is reversed (‘looking up’).<\/p>\r\n

20d<\/strong> Wild ass<\/span>, male, one admitting sloth (7)<\/span>
The word for a male already seen at 12a is followed by the letters ONE (from the clue) containing (‘admitting’) a two-letter word for a sloth which will be familiar to regular solvers.<\/p>\r\n

21d<\/strong> Uncle Sam going into origin, rising like a bird<\/span> (7)<\/span>
A three-letter abbreviation for a country (which has already put in an appearance at 31a) embodied by Uncle Sam is contained by a four-letter word for an origin (and the surname of the England test cricket captain, at least for the moment). The defined word is a heraldic term with which I was unfamiliar.<\/p>\r\n

(definitions are underlined<\/span>)<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Checklist of displaced letters<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Across:<\/p>\r\n

1<\/strong>: the letter S has been displaced from the defined solution; in 6: the letter E; 11<\/strong>: R; 12<\/strong>: I; 13<\/strong>: I; 15<\/strong>: D; 16<\/strong>: C and A; 17<\/strong>: no change; 19<\/strong>: G; 22<\/strong>: Y; 24<\/strong>: no change; 25<\/strong>: A and R; 28<\/strong>: K; 30<\/strong>: A; 31<\/strong>: T; 32<\/strong>: E; 33<\/strong>: U; 34<\/strong>: E<\/p>\r\n

Down:<\/p>\r\n

1<\/strong>:\u00a0 the letters S and E have been displaced from the defined solution; in 2<\/strong>: the letter R; 3<\/strong>: N; 4<\/strong>: T; 5<\/strong>: D; 6<\/strong>: no change; 7<\/strong>: T and T; 8<\/strong>: R; 9<\/strong>: R; 10<\/strong>: M and E; 14<\/strong>: V and I; 18<\/strong>: P; 20<\/strong>: M; 21<\/strong>: N; 23<\/strong>: C; 26<\/strong>: no change; 27<\/strong>: L; 29<\/strong>: O<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Checklist of positions<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Across:<\/p>\r\n

1<\/strong>: the letter replaced is in position 1 \/ in 6<\/strong>: position 6 \/ 11<\/strong>: 2 \/ 12<\/strong>: 3 \/ 13<\/strong>: 3 \/ 15<\/strong>: 4 \/ 16<\/strong>: 5 and 8 \/ 19<\/strong>: 1 \/ 22<\/strong>: 6 \/ 25<\/strong>: 1 and 4 \/ 28<\/strong>: 4 \/ 30<\/strong>: 3 \/ 31<\/strong>: 4 \/ 32<\/strong>; 8 \/ 33<\/strong>: 1 \/ 34<\/strong>: 6<\/p>\r\n

Down:<\/p>\r\n

1<\/strong>: the letters replaced are in positions 1 and 12 \/ in 2<\/strong>: position 2 \/ 3<\/strong>: 3 \/ 4<\/strong>: 5 \/ 5<\/strong>: 6 \/ 7<\/strong>: 4 and 9 \/ 8<\/strong>: 3 \/ 9<\/strong>: 2 \/ 10<\/strong>: 1 and 12 \/ 14<\/strong>: 1 and 6 \/ 18<\/strong>: 5 \/ 20<\/strong>: 3 \/ 21<\/strong>: 6 \/ 23<\/strong>: 1 \/ 27<\/strong>: 3 \/ 29<\/strong>: 3<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span> Post Views:<\/span> 1,081<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n

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<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Azed on reaching an extraordinary landmark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azednotes"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2670"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2690,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670\/revisions\/2690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}