Easier than usual I thought, but no less enjoyable. Thank you Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GROWING PAINS | Wound dad received in private parts causing initial problems? (12, 2 words) |
| WING (wound) PA (dad) inside (received in) GROINS (private parts) | ||
| 9 | LAMAZE | A lack of exercise restricts mother in the way of coping with childbirth (6) |
| LAZE (a lack of exercise) contains (restricts) MA (mother) | ||
| 11 | FREET | Poetic lines about king, bad sign for Macbeth? (5) |
| FEET (poetic lines) contains (about) R (rex, king) – for Macbeth indicates a Scots word | ||
| 13 | BRUGES | Seen this city? It can be seen travelling round in green buses (6) |
| an anagram (it can be seen travelling round) of SEEN and BRUGES (this city, the solution) is GREEN BUSES | ||
| 14 | DUNDER | Mother dead and buried? (6) |
| D (dead) and UNDER (buried) | ||
| 15 | ANKA | Singer/songwriter, alibi protecting name (4) |
| AKA (alibi) contains (protecting) N (name) – Paul Anka | ||
| 16 | PUNCHLINE | Number tucked into cooked lunch pie, effective finishing touch (9) |
| N (number) inside anagram (cooked) of LUNCH PIE | ||
| 17 | OUTSAIL | Leave behind at sea a suit, tattered, in middle of hold (7) |
| anagram (tattered) of A SUIT inside (in) hOLd (middle of) | ||
| 19 | DIG | Taunt US swot, bilingual, lot neglected (3) |
| DIGLOT (bilingual) missing LOT – two definitions given | ||
| 20 | MAE | E.g. West Scotland’s merrier (so it’s said) (3) |
| MAE is”more” in Scots (it is said “the more the merrier”) – actress Mae West for example | ||
| 23 | CALTECH | Form of cachet surrounding lecturer in US research uni (7) |
| anagram (form of) CACHET contains L (lecturer) | ||
| 24 | COTENANTS | Fellow lodgers? See granny with tons in outhouses (9) |
| NAN (granny) with T (tons) inside COTES (outhouses, eg a dovecote) | ||
| 26 | NIRL | Jock’s stunt, his race backwards alongside loch (4) |
| RIN (race, Scots, for Jock again) reversed then L (loch) – a Scots word | ||
| 27 | ADNATE | Head of nursery implanted a fruit from palm organically grafted? (6) |
| A DATE (fruit form palm) contains (with…implanted, we have…) Nursery (first letter, head of) | ||
| 29 | AVATAR | How a variant may manifest itself – in this movable image? (6) |
| an anagram (how…may manifest itself) of A VARIANT is IN AVATAR (this, the solution)) | ||
| 31 | STANE | Essential for Scots curling in contest – an eye (5) |
| found inside conteST AN Eye | ||
| 32 | EPILOG | American envoy, say, circumventing guide mostly (6) |
| EG (say) contains (circumventing) PILOt (guide, mostly) | ||
| 33 | SEASIDE GRAPE | I grease spade for distributing tropical fruit tree (12, 2 words) |
| anagram (for distributing) of I GREASE SPADE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GLADSOMENESS | Feeling of joy produced by G & S – boys sign in (12) |
| G and ESS (the letter S) contains (with…in) LADS (boys) OMEN (sign) | ||
| 2 | RAG UP | Dress for old-style Yankees – it suggests Civil War veterans (5, 2 words) |
| RAG UP (reversed) suggests GAR (Grand Army of the Republic, association of civil war veterans) | ||
| 3 | WALD | Scentless flower seen in highland lawns (all over) (4) |
| found reversed (all over) inside highlanD LAWns | ||
| 4 | NEB | Bill climbing mountain peak (3) |
| BEN (mountain peak) reversed (climbing) | ||
| 5 | GORILLA | Jungle creature, at being released by alligator, running free (7) |
| anagram (running free) of ALLIGatOR missing (…being released) AT | ||
| 6 | ARGAND | Lamp: as lacking in gas inside one functioned then died (6) |
| AS missing from (lacking in) Gas inside A RAN (functioned) then D (died) | ||
| 7 | NESKHI | Inks he mixed for cursive script (4) |
| anagram (mixed) of INKS HE | ||
| 8 | STRAIGHTEDGE | Ruler, corrected about answer, gets confused about it (12) |
| RIGHTED (corrected) containing (about) A (answer) all inside anagram (confused) of GETS | ||
| 10 | MINUTE | Short note: last pair in musical piece transposed (6) |
| MINUET (musical piece) with last two letters transposed | ||
| 11 | FUSILLADE | Multiple shots become less, having restricted us being off colour (9) |
| FADE (become less) contains (having restricted) US ILL (being off colour) | ||
| 12 | DECANTATE | The old keep talking and pour out tea when it’s brewed (9) |
| DECANT (pour) then anagram (when it’s brewed) of TEA – the old indicates obsolete | ||
| 18 | ICELAND | Country album maybe full of panache I put at No. 1 (7) |
| CD (album maybe) containing (full of) ELAN (panache) all following (with…put at No. 1) I | ||
| 19 | DETAIL | Part that’s unimportant to dock? (6) |
| double definition – detail and de-tail, the question mark indicates the implied hyphen | ||
| 21 | AVIATE | Go by plane steered round Latvia heading off east (6) |
| anagram (steered round) of LATVIA missing first letter (heading off) then E (east) | ||
| 22 | VOLANS | Short book on an unspecified constellation (6) |
| VOL (volume, book, short) on A NS ( a not specified, an unspecified) | ||
| 25 | STOOP | Condescend to being taken in by bribe (5) |
| TO inside SOP (bribe) | ||
| 28 | NAIR | New look for Indian from the south-west (4) |
| N (new) AIR (look) | ||
| 30 | REE | Gal excluded from feast enclosure (always up for it) (3) |
| two word plays: REgalE (feast) missing GAL and E’ER (ever, always) reversed (up) also gives you the solution (for it) | ||
Thanks PeeDee. Surely in 15 Azed meant ‘alias’?
Good point, Gonzo.
Couldn’t see 2dn, which is annoying as I’ve an interest in the American Civil War and if I’d ever heard of the Grand Army of the Republic, I’d totally forgotten it and RAG UP doesn’t appear to be in Chambers.
It took a while to find, but under RAG 1 there is ‘to dress (with up or out) (Old US slang)’. In the print edition at least.
So there is, but it doesn’t show up if you type “rag up” into the electronic version.
Is the parsing for 17 across somewhat astray it does not include the A or then again I could be wrong? just getting into Azed as he is one of setters I have admired from a far..
Well spotted worworcrossol – that was a typo in the blog. Fixed now.
Gonzo @1 – I wondered about alibi in 15 too, it isn’t obviously supported by Chambers. But I know nothing about law so I passed over it.
Can anyone expand on where/when “dunder” means “mother”? The wordplay was clear but I hesitated to write it in, as the only definitions I can find are cane juice dregs, or (Scots) thunder, while popular search engines just return trivia from The Office.
My convincing wrong answer of the week was 11a: FIFER (referring to Macduff; “FE, FI” being a fairy tale’s approximation of poetry). It was only once 8d jumped out at me that I realised Macbeth could be just another Scots indicator.
It took me a while to track down the Chambers entry for RAG UP.
Length indication for 7 was wrong (in the print edition).
BiglyNifty@8: from Chambers:
DUNDER – lees, dregs of sugarcane juice.
MOTHER [2] – dregs
See mother2, BiglyNifty. I’ve had a vinegar mother going for a few years.
I didn’t enjoy this one. It wasn’t difficult to fill in the grid but there were clues I couldn’t explain and you feel as if you haven’t quite finished the puzzle. I’ve just about given up with compound anagrams. I didn’t work out REGALE; A NS for “an unspecified”; de-tail for to dock (but superbly clever!); didn’t bother investigating IN AVATAR further, let alone GREEN BUSES; “merrier (so it’s said)” is not, for me, a definition and I’d never have got it: it’s a bit like saying “What’s in time?” And you’re supposed get the answer STITCH. I’m not sure about stuff like that.
So—unsatisfying, and thank you for explaining things PeeDee. And well done for being able to.
Stefan
Chris@9: So it is! I don’t recall noticing that when solving but that often confuses me, especially at the start when I haven’t any crossing letters – I’ll use the length indication without looking at the grid.
I never noticed the entry length was wrong for 7 either!
Thanks Azed and PeeDee
An enjoyable tussle as ever.
It took me a long time to understand dunder too, requiring as DRC points out, two Chambers entries. The ever reliable Bradford has both dunder and mother under the dregs entry (though not dunder under the mother entry).
I agree with Marmite Smuggler about compound anagrams. The occasional one is OK if it creates an exceptionally clever surface, but they seem to have become de rigueur these days. I’m sure others like them, but I find them a bore to unravel.
Hi cruciverbophile & Stefan
I have seen other people comment on a dislike Azed’s compound anagram clues before. Out of interest, what is it about compound anagrams clues that make them not enjoyable for you?
I am curious as I enjoy them myself and they don’t seem much different to anagrams of any other fodder.
I’m not suggesting you should enjoy them, or even that you must have a coherent reason to not like them. Sometimes if one doesn’t enjoy something then that’s just how it is.
But I am curious.
Ref. Gonzo #1. Yes, alibi is totally wrong to indicate AKA – maybe a transcription error?
Good question PeeDee. I think it’s that a lot of compound anagrams look a bit like trying too hard and/or showing off, even if that’s not actually the case (which I’m sure it isn’t for Azed). It’s also that they can be rather fiddly to unravel (wasn’t there a discussion about one of those here not long ago?) and take up time which could be spent on solving the next clue. I hope that Stefan will be able to give a more helpful response!
It has been argued that all of human culture is simply showing off in order to get laid. The good thing about compound anagrams from the setter’s point of view is that they allow you to take a short word with little potential fir wordplay, and bolt on whatever will produce an interesting and apposite surface.
I think the ‘composite anagram’ appears a lot in Azed puzzles is that he (thinks he) invented the convention. See this slip:
http://www.andlit.org.uk/azed/slip.php?comp_no=1286
Nick
I think Azed was claiming responsibility only for the term ‘composite anagram’. At one time this breed of clue was referred to as the ‘Quarrelsome Whale’ type – reference this extract from the slip for AZ146:
“…a rather bad-tempered article by Don Putnam in the latest issue of Games and Puzzles on what he calls the ‘Quarrelsome Whale’ type of clue, quoting an early example by Afrit: ‘You could make this whale seem quarrelsome, but hold it up by its tail and it begins to laugh.’ Mr. Putnam proceeds to belabour an unnamed group of crusty dyed-in-the-wool crossword setters who are not imaginative enough to accept such an innovation. For my part I find Afrit’s clue quite acceptable, except for the last twelve words, which strike me as superfluous. I would make only two general comments by way of proviso. The anagrams formed should not be too long, resulting almost inevitably in loss of neatness. And clear indication should be given that additions and subtractions are in jumbled form when, as usual, this is the case. Oh, and if you’re still at a loss, it’s RORQUAL.”
The last bit of the Azed slip Nick links is spot on I think: The point is that the clue-writer is helping himself to a number of extra letters in order to achieve a better anagram and if this is overdone the whole thing becomes cumbersome and wearisome to solve. For the busy setter faced with a common short word for the umpteenth time it can be a boon and a blessing, but it needs discreet handling with, as always, the enjoyment of the solver being a prime consideration.
I assume the last twelve words of the RORQUAL clue indicate that if reversed it begins with an L?
Glad to see such a long blog list today. Like several others I was stumped by 2 down as RAG UP doesn’t appear in my ancient Chambers, though I did find G.A.R. It was,as always a treat in these strange times. Thanks to Azed and PeeDee.
The question of compound anagrams goes on for ever. Ximenes disapproved but I’m sure he, like Azed, could apply subjective judgements when it suited him!
cruciverbophile@22 – the last 12 words indicate that when the solution is reversed the first three letters are LAU. It was not unknown for Afrit’s clues in the 1940s to include partial wordplays, eg ‘Rather late in the day for an event to start’ for EVENTIDE.
Personally, I view the comp anag (and particularly the &lit form) rather as I would a cheese soufflé: well executed, a nice bit of variety; not so well executed, something that falls very flat indeed. Frankly, I’ve seen a lot more floppers than risers, and I particularly dislike the ones where more letters have been added to the solution than are in the word itself.
DRC – I hadn’t noticed that the final three letters of RORQUAL reversed makes LAU but then again, to paraphrase Ximenes, does a rorqual’s tail occupy nearly half of its body?:)
There is a trend these days to add letters only to take them away again; recently I commented on this in an IQ puzzle where a disproportionate number of clues were of the “longer word minus several letters = the answer”. There’s a lot of this sort of thing in some daily puzzles too, notably the Times. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but I believe in doing all things in moderation (except beer and Mozart).
I think others above have explained it as well as I can but my tuppence:
I don’t think it’s the compound/composite anagram itself—it’s just how contrived some of them are. It’s not Azed or anyone else being clever, it’s the amount of effort you have to put in. We all know the best clues are the “penny-drop” clues but there is no penny-drop here: the answer is obvious, now all you have to do is slog it out. Well, sorry Azed, I can’t be bothered. After I’ve spent enough time on it—this isn’t fun any more.
I’m sure I would have got A VARIANT and GREEN BUSES this week but I didn’t even try.
And then there is potential for total flummoxing or error: I wonder how many hours we solvers together wasted on LAVISH TOPI in 2503 (9 Dn)? Azed’s comment in his “solution and notes” (which appear on Azed 2506) is either unclear or plain wrong. Can anyone figure it out even now that we have his comment?
The discussion cruciverbophile refers to at 18 above was in the fifteensquared responses to 2503 and they are worth reading in full. Some solvers were going through gruesome contortions to get LAVISH TOPI to fit. What happened to my aha! Sunday mornings?
Nuff said: I’m not opposed to the comp anagram, it’s just that they’re not my favourite clue.
Stefan
One other thing. Have a look at the responses on fifteensquared for Azed 2475. That was a brute and it appears I was one of several who filled in the grid then tried to carry on to finish the entire “puzzle”, as it were. After four days, I threw all my papers in the air and returned to the world. Mr Thomas and others pointed out that there’s an element of incompleteness about this. Just filling in the grid might not be the same as solving the puzzle. There’s a niggle at the back of your mind.
It’s the same with the comp anagram: have you truly finished the puzzle if you can’t be bothered working out exactly how this or that clue works?
Stefan
Thanks everyone for the interesting expansions on what it is about CA’s that you find irritating.
I am a bit nearer to understanding, I think. I see the explanations above in two broad categories:
1) they represent an easy way out for the setter (judging crossword setting like circus performance?)
2) they up the ante of expectation: they can either shine or flop but can’t be average (cryptic definitions have this effect on me)
Perhaps I should add Marmite Smuggler’s “once I’ve guessed the answer I start to lose interest“, but this seems to apply to complex clues in general rather than just CA’s.
I find it good to understand what other people dislike in crosswords, but I don’t have any ambitions to become more refined in my solving. I enjoy almost all clues that I solve, so what would I gain from training myself that certain setters or clues are sub-standard and learn not to enjoy them?
I would add that CAs are not easy clues to write. First you have to come up with the gist of the ‘output’ (BUSES, say, in a clue for BRUGES), and then try to find something that can be added to the solution to make the equation (BRUGES + X = something-with-a-G-and-an-R + BUSES) balance. This is where many potentially good CAs go wrong, because you usually have to fiddle about with the output in order to find a word or words that ‘fit’ on the input side, so having failed to make BUSES work you eventually settle on (BRUGES + SENT ME = EMERGENT SUBS). The trouble is that having had what seemed like a really neat idea it’s hard to abandon it once you’ve got this far. And you then have to get the wording right such that the clue is sound but still reads sensibly (very little margin for error if you are to avoid LAVISH TOPI issues). You end up with ‘This city sent me exercises to reveal emergent subs, perhaps’, which was flat even before the oven door was opened…
Quite so, DRC. I wasn’t suggesting they were easy. Azed himself is on record only as saying they open up new paths. Still got to write the clue.
I don’t think “guessing” is the right word. For example, AVATAR must have jumped off the page to several here. And you don’t need too many checked letters before you know it can be only BRUGES. Lose interest = can’t be bothered? There might be a subtle difference but I think they’re close enough so I’ll not quibble.
Stefan