{"id":2995,"date":"2022-07-31T12:31:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T11:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clueclinic.com\/?p=2995"},"modified":"2022-08-14T12:47:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-14T11:47:06","slug":"notes-for-azed-2616","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/31\/notes-for-azed-2616\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes for Azed 2,616"},"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\r\n\r\n\r\n

Azed 2,616 Plain<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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Difficulty rating: \"4 (4 \/ 5)\r\n

We find Azed in a very mischievous mood today – he has taken a few liberties here and there, but the puzzle delivers plenty of entertainment. The grid fill is not simple, and fully parsing all the clues takes an extra effort that certainly places the puzzle in the ‘above average’ difficulty range. I originally assessed it as a ‘3’, but a reappraisal based on feedback received has led me to revise the rating upwards.. Since I can’t recall a harder plain puzzle in recent months, I think the amended grading is appropriate.<\/p>\r\n

Setters’ Corner<\/em><\/strong>: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 22d, “Top of helmet I found in Crimea, battered, rear piece missing (6)”. The definition here is ‘top of helmet’, and the wordplay has the letter ‘I’ (from the clue) found inside an anagram (‘battered’) of CRIMEA without its last letter (‘rear piece missing’). Surely there’s not much more to say? Well, the point is that CRIMEA undergoes two cryptic manipulations, with the order of the indicators making it clear that the ‘battering’ should precede the ‘tailing’. This means, in effect, that we need to resolve the anagram as CIMERA and then remove the closing A; but nothing tells us to put the A at the end of the rearrangement. The problem could be very easily be fixed simply by changing the order of the words in the clue, ie “Top of helmet I found in Crimea, rear piece missing, battered”, or by explicitly identifying the letter to be removed, eg replacing ‘ rear piece missing’ with ‘before pulling out’. You could argue that the sequence of operations doesn’t really matter in this instance, but if the first manipulation had been a reversal then it certainly would, since the ‘rear’ would now be the front, and vice versa.<\/p>\r\n

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Across
<\/strong>7a<\/strong> What may be piping hot, making one curse<\/span>? (4)<\/span>
A three-letter ‘literary<\/em> and poetic<\/em>‘ term for a shepherd’s pipe (which would indeed be ‘piping’ if the shepherd were blowing into it) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘hot’. The use of ‘making one’ to link the wordplay and the definition (‘one’ is not part of the definition) is an Azed favourite, although it’s not universally popular among crossword editors.<\/p>\r\n

10a<\/strong> Comic interlude<\/span>, very old, filled with pulp mostly (10)<\/span>
A seven-letter word meaning ‘very old’ (technically speaking, at least 100 years) containing (‘filled with’) a term for ‘pulp’ from which the last letter has been lost (‘mostly’). There are two similar options for the latter term – one has an A as its second letter while the other has a U; it’s the one with an A that is required.<\/p>\r\n

12a<\/strong> ‘Hush’? That’s ‘mum’, put another way<\/span> (5)<\/span>
A two-letter interjection meaning ‘Hush!’ is followed by an anagram (‘put another way’) of MUM, with the whole clue standing as the definition of the answer, this therefore being an ‘&lit’ or ‘all-in-one’ clue. The relevant meaning of ‘hush’ in the definition is shown by Chambers as ‘archaic<\/em>‘.<\/p>\r\n

18a<\/strong> Head of Rugby no lad’s messed with?<\/span> (6)<\/span>
A very nice &lit, an anagram (‘messed with’) of the first letter (‘Head’) of ‘Rugby’ and NO LAD producing the surname of the educator and historian who was Head Master of Rugby School between 1828 and 1841. Perhaps the most famous schoolmaster of all (Principal Skinner notwithstanding) he single-handedly changed the face of English public school life in the space of a few years. He features heavily in Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown’s Schooldays<\/em> (aka Tom Brown at Rugby<\/em>), which describes Rugby School in the 1830s when the Head Master was getting rid of the ‘Flashman’ culture and radically changing the curriculum. The playing of the game supposedly invented by William Webb Ellis at the same school in 1823 was also encouraged, albeit with rather less constraint on the numbers involved – when Queen Adelaide visited in 1839, she was able to watch the 75 members of School House taking on the 225 making up ‘The Rest’. His character in\u00a0 Tom Brown’s Schooldays<\/em> (probably more than the man himself) was a huge influence on the young Pierre de Coubertin, who, following a visit to Rugby School in 1883, made it his mission to introduce sport into the French educational system. This led on to the foundation of the International Olympic Committee and the establishment of the modern Olympic Games; the role in this played by the Head Master is commemorated by a plaque on Rugby School\u2019s Doctor\u2019s Wall, unveiled in 2009 by Lord Sebastian Coe.<\/p>\r\n

24a<\/strong> Road sign needs to be this round start of excavation<\/span> (9)<\/span>
A third &lit in the space of eight clues. This time the answer is the indicator which would need to be applied to ROAD SIGN such that when it is put round the first letter (‘start’) of excavation it produces…the solution. I’m slightly surprised that Azed didn’t choose to italicize ‘this’ in order to give it the appropriate emphasis.<\/p>\r\n

27a<\/strong> In which you’ll see more than one slope<\/span> arms and get drilled (7)<\/span>
A smooth surface reading cleverly disguises the cesura between wordplay and definition. The soundness of the wordplay depends on your view as to whether a sequence of two or more words separated only by spaces (here ‘arms and’) can govern a plural verb (here ‘get drilled’); Ximenes said it was alright, and Azed’s view was shaped by that of Ximenes. I don’t often strongly disagree with Azed, but I can see no justification for the practice.<\/p>\r\n

29a<\/strong> Old philosopher<\/span>, one mostly kept in readiness (5)<\/span>
The Roman numeral for ‘one’ is followed by a (2,3) phrase meaning ‘kept in readiness’ from which the last letter has been omitted (‘mostly’).<\/p>\r\n

32a<\/strong> What’s associated with Milton (centrally)? Blindness may have affected such<\/span> (4)<\/span>
One needs to be thinking geography rather than poetry in order to identify the six-letter word ‘associated with Milton’ from which the outer letters must be removed (‘centrally’). The solution is shown by Chambers as archaic<\/em>, as befits Milton J.<\/p>\r\n

33a<\/strong> Search Scots in quick movement? They may do that<\/span> (8)<\/span>
A four-letter Scots word for ‘search’ (along the lines of ‘scour’) is put inside another four-letter word, this one being the quick movement of a Hungarian cs\u00e1rd\u00e1s. You’re probably wondering what the slow movement of that particular dance is called – it’s a lassu.<\/p>\r\n

Down
<\/strong>1d<\/strong> Deer<\/span> e.g. avoiding marshy ground (4)<\/span>
The letters EG are lost from (‘e.g. avoiding’) a six-letter Canadian term for a swamp, bog or marsh.<\/p>\r\n

3d<\/strong> Dance<\/span> making you miss work (5)<\/span>
I rather like this one, a charade of a three-letter ‘miss’ and the usual two-letter abbreviation of a word meaning ‘work’. The ‘making you’ here is leading from the definition to the wordplay, rather than the other way round, but I think it’s just about ok as there is no manipulation of the wordplay elements.<\/p>\r\n

4d<\/strong> Troubled pal taken in by jocular Australian subtitle<\/span>? (9)<\/span>
An anagram (‘troubled’) of PAL is ‘taken in’ by the name jocularly given to Australian English.<\/p>\r\n

6d<\/strong> Talisman<\/span>, a cross with letter associated with one (6)<\/span>
The letter A (from the clue) is followed by the four-letter term applied to a hybrid animal (specific or generic) and the letter associated with a particular sort of (non-animal) cross.<\/p>\r\n

9d<\/strong> Male sitter, recognized locally? One deserved hanging<\/span> (8)<\/span>
This is a (2,2,4) charade of a male, a sitter (in the sense of someone who holds a seat in parliament), and a dialect past tense of a word meaning ‘recognize’ or ‘observe’. The solution is an interesting one – both Chambers and OED ascribe to it the meaning ‘gallows-bird’ (ie someone who deserves to be hanged), but this interpretation seems to be based on a single appearance in Henry IV Part 2 where Mistress Quickly says:<\/p>\r\n

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Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou wo’t, wo’t thou? Thou wo’t, wo’t ta? do, do, thou rogue! do, thou ****-****!<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

It would seem more likely that the word is a malapropism for ‘homicide’ (she also speaks malapropos of a ‘honeysuckle villain’).<\/p>\r\n

16d<\/strong> Follower of Huss<\/span> curtailed forbidden liturgy (8)<\/span>
A\u00a0 five-letter word meaning ‘forbidden’ with its last letter removed (‘curtailed’) is followed by a term for a liturgy or ceremony, the outcome being a member of the extreme section of the Hussites.<\/p>\r\n

23d<\/strong> Sailor joining middle of sail, not all at once<\/span> (6, 2 words)<\/span>
I do think Azed has been a little naughty here in using ‘joining’ to indicate that one wordplay element (the four-letter word for a sailor) is to be put inside the central part (‘middle’) of ‘sail’. I think ‘joining pieces in middle of sail’, or something along those lines, would have been preferable.<\/p>\r\n

25d<\/strong> Perch<\/span> causing head of splinter to pierce bottom (5)<\/span>
The perch that’s required turns out to be the fishy sort. However, as\u00a0\ud83c\udf4a points out below, ROOST would be an equally good alternative with the same basic structure, ie the first letter (‘head’) of ‘splinter’ being inserted into (‘piercing’) a four-letter word for ‘bottom’. Does that make the clue a \ud83c\udf4b?<\/p>\r\n

26d<\/strong> Eponymous hero<\/span> appearing in early page (not English)? (4)<\/span>
If anyone got this without having any checkers, kudos! The wordplay involves the usual abbreviation for ‘page’ being followed by a number (a relatively low one, hence an ‘early page’) from which the standard abbreviation for ‘English’ has been removed. The answer is the last name of\u00a0 the lead\u00a0 character in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel which, published in the US the year before Lolita<\/em>, first established the author’s reputation there. Timofey **** is a Russian \u00e9migr\u00e9 lecturer who suffers from chronic disorganization and struggles with the challenges of everyday life:<\/p>\r\n

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If he failed the first time he took his driver’s licence test, it was mainly because he started an argument with the examiner in an ill-timed effort to prove that nothing could be more humiliating to a rational creature than being required to encourage the development of a base conditional reflex by stopping at a red light when there was not an earthly soul around, heeled or wheeled. He was more circumspect the next time, and passed.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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

\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span> Post Views:<\/span> 1,234<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n

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

A plain puzzle liberally sprinkled with trademark touches<\/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-2995","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\/2995","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=2995"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3010,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995\/revisions\/3010"}],"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=2995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}