A misprint puzzle from Azed that I have completed, but not fully parsed.
I solved this puzzle over four sittings, and have had to give up on the parsing of one answer (1ac) and the ‘misprint’ element of another (9dn). I am confident that one of the commenters will enlighten me.
As I said, it took four sessions, the first of which saw me complete about half of the puzzle without a dictionary to hand. Over the next two sittings, I completed the grid, but still had five or six unparsed. After a fourth go at it, I managed to get all bar the two aforementioned entries sorted out.
The quotation is ” the whole set – a character” dead at every word.” which is from Act 2, Scene 2 of Sheridan’s A School for Scandal (1777). In the entries below, I have started with the word in the definition that needed corrected and the new word after alteration.
Thanks Azed for the mental workout.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BARISTA | One regularly making latkes saving bit of stuff in palm (7) |
| Latkes > lattes
Struggling to parse this – S or ST [bit of] ST(uff) in BARIA or BARITA, but I can’t find either of these in dictionaries or online. |
||
| 6 | STOSS | Mill facing upstream, second with cant? (5) |
| Mill > hill
S (second) with TOSS (“cant”) According to Collins, a stoss described the side of a hill facing the onward flow of a glacier or the direction in which a former glacier flowed |
||
| 10 | OVERSLAUGH | Equivalent of dung in US river? First being removed disguises giggle (10) |
| Dung > dune
[first being removed] (c)OVERS (“disguises”) + LAUGH (“giggle”) An overslaugh is a bar in a river in North America. |
||
| 11 | REMAP | Make net chart for traveller, mum included (5) |
| Net > new
REP (“taveller”) with MA (“mum”) included |
||
| 12 | PORTER | Strong draught? Jumper required (6) |
| Jumper > humper
Double definition, the second referring to one who humps things around. |
||
| 14 | GRASTE | Once treated with gold will jar having shilling thrown in (6) |
| Gold > good
GRATE (“jar”) having S (shilling) thrown in |
||
| 16 | EGGY | Such as crutches contributing to leg gymnastics (4) |
| Crutches > clutches
Hidden in [contributing to] “lEG GYmnastics” |
||
| 17 | PALADIN | Arrant knight, young man in grip of anguish (7) |
| Arrant > errant
LAD (“young man”) in grip of PAIN (“anguish”) |
||
| 19 | STERILISE | Render less peptic Isère silt after treatment (9) |
| Peptic > septic
*(isere silt) [anag:after treatment] |
||
| 21 | HAPPENING | It’s comb to pass untidy nipper mostly, note, in care of old woman (9) |
| Comb > come
*(nippe)(r) [mostly] [anag:untidy] + N (note) in care of HAG (“old woman”) |
||
| 24 | EUCAINE | What’s in superior plantation, we hear? It’s used for shopping sensation (7) |
| Shopping > stopping
Homophone of U (“superior”) CANE which may be found on a superior plantation. |
||
| 26 | LOOF | Chump turned over part of boot just behind the bow (4) |
| Boot > boat
<= FOOL (“chump” turned over) |
||
| 29 | RECIPE | Contents of meal booked executive committee got in ready (6) |
| Booked > cooked
EC (executive committee) got in RIPE (“ready”) |
||
| 30 | TEMPEH | Parliamentarian in the East sorted out what makes some Japanese nosy (6) |
| Nosy > nosh
MP (“parliamentarian”) in *(the E) [anag:sorted out] where E is East Tempeh is fermented soya bean |
||
| 31 | CITAL | Cell to appear? It’s closed by state briefly (5) |
| Cell > call
IT closed by CAL (California, so “state” briefly) |
||
| 32 | ARBALESTER | Rattling sabre, alert, one filed bolts (10) |
| Filed > fired
*(sabre alert) [anag:rattling] An arbalester was a soldier who carried an arbalest ( a kind of crossbow). |
||
| 33 | HOOLY | Sanctimonious about love, Jock’s taking cure (5) |
| Cure > care
HOLY (“sanctimonous”) about O (love, in tennis) Hooly is a Scots word for “gentle” or “careful”. |
||
| 34 | SEAWEED | Regular feature of rooks, origin being about a loch (7) |
| Rooks > rocks
SEED (“origin”) being about (Loch) AWE |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BARGE | Frow, German, coming in stripped (5) |
| Frow > trow
G (German) coming in BARE (“stripped”) A trow is a small barge. |
||
| 2 | ABERGLAUBE | To exist within what could be arguable, cried with no rational basis (10) |
| Cried > creed
BE (“to exist”) within *(arguable) [anag:what could be] Aberglaube is a German-derived word for supervision |
||
| 3 | ROMAGE | Will’s delay – it involves silver in capital (6) |
| Delay > deray
AG (chemical symbol for “silver”) in ROME (“capital” of Italy) Deray and romage are both archaic terms for “tumult”. |
||
| 4 | SEPTATE | Nation guards record divined by partitions (7) |
| Divined > divided
STATE (“nation”) guards EP (extended play “record”) |
||
| 5 | TRUEPENNY | Neuter pony roughly, without love? One remaining foal, as before (9) |
| Foal > feal
*(neuter pny) [anag:roughly] where PNY is P(o)NY without O (love, in tennis) A truepenny is an old word for a loyal or faithful follower |
||
| 6 | SLOG | To work herd, last of timber must be out on top (4) |
| Herd > hard
[last of] LOG(s) must be out on top, so moved to the top to make S-LOG |
||
| 7 | TARSAL | Two salts describing part of penal structure (6) |
| Penal > pedal
TAR (sailor, so “salt”) + SAL (“salt”) |
||
| 8 | OUTED | Durban fellow, dandyish youth with secrets revelled (5) |
| Revelled > revealed
OU (Afrikans word for man, so “Durban fellow”) + TED (“dandyish youth”) |
||
| 9 | SHRINER | Mouse fed with bit of ricotta, one making one’s mark in carinas? (7) |
| We need a T here, but I can’t see what should change.
SHINER (“mouse”) fed with [bit of] R(icotta) “Shiner” and “mouse” are both words for a black eye. |
||
| 13 | EPISCOPATE | Set device for projecting images, including appropriate technology (10) |
| Set > see
EPISCOPE (“device for projecting images”) including AT (appropriate technology) |
||
| 15 | MARIE ROSE | It may enhance dish of elders I love, caught in sea abroad (9, 2 words) |
| Elders > elvers
I + EROS (“love”) caught in MARE (Italian for “sea”, so “sea abroad”) |
||
| 18 | CHEETAH | Blast covering the ground fast, the ache getting worse (7) |
| Blast > beast
*(the ache) [anag:getting worse] |
||
| 20 | INSECTA | Rock antics, energy-filled? Coaches are included in them (7) |
| Coaches > roaches
*(antics) [anag:rock] filled with E (energy) |
||
| 22 | PALPAL | Mate repeatedly feeling like flu? (6) |
| Flu > fly
PAL (“mate) [repeatedly] Palps or palpi are sensory appendages that arise from the mouths of insects, so “palpal” is the adjective describing how flies sense things. |
||
| 23 | GOITRE | Gland’s smelling – it’s coated in blood (6) |
| Smelling > swelling
IT coated in GORE (“blood”) |
||
| 25 | COMBO | Mob dancing in company stumping performers (5) |
| Stumping > stomping
*(mob) [anag:dancing] in Co. (company) |
||
| 27 | FELID | Sex? It’s messing about in field (5) |
| Sex > Rex
*(field) [anag:messing about] A felid is a cat and a Rex is a type of cat. |
||
| 28 | EELY | English cathedral city attractive to those keen on ribbing? (4) |
| Ribbing > dibbing
E (English) + ELY (“cathedral city”) |
||
I can help with 9dn – ‘caritas’.
I think I was unable to explain 1ac same as yourself.
Lots of online help needed – it took me a long time to work out ‘deray’ for 3dn.
Thanks Azed.
BARISTA is ‘saving’ (BAR) / ‘bit of stuff’ (S) in ‘palm’ (ITA). ‘Saving’ is deceptive because it looks like part of the insertion indicator.
Typo in 2dn – ‘superstition’.
Thanks loonapick.
Nice one Blorenge. Perhaps I did get that after all, it rings a bell.
Gonzo, it had me similarly fooled for a while, scouring Chambers for words that didn’t exist.
The puzzle was a lot of fun though, and the torturous process of writing just one misprint clue for the competition made me appreciate Azed’s ability to fill a grid with them.
Thanks for the explanation of BARISTA. The solution had to be that but we had no idea why.
Thanks to Azed and loonapick
I usually give up on the special instruction Azed crosswords – in fact it often takes me a while to understand the instructions. But I enjoyed this greatly: the biggest challenge was sorting out the (beautifully apposite) quotation, with which I was unfamiliar, once I had competed the grid, having got a number of the misprints wrong.
Misprints are one of the easier specials, I find. Some clues, such as 17ac, leap out at you as soon as you see them and you know what the correct word should be. But there were several that I could get the answer from the word play but couldn’t see what the correct word was, even after I’d googled the quotation to get it in full and knew what letters I needed.
Dormouse @8 – I was held up by misunderstanding the instructions (see confession above), thinking that the fifth word was missing. So googling at first didn’t work, and I got stuck thinking that “actor” might be in there somewhere.
As always a treat in these dark times. I was with the crowd in being puzzled by barista, “saving”=bar didn’t click. We were given a lot of scope for invention by not having any limitation in the misprint.
I agree with Dormouse @8 that some of the correct words were hard to spot-“feal”,”trow” etc but all eventually became clear. Thanks to Azed and loonapick and best wishes to all Azed-ers.
In 9 down carinas becomes caritas, giving the T.