It’s in rather sombre circumstances that I return to blogging the even-numbered Beelzebubs, our other blogger Jed having sadly passed away recently.
From what I hear, though, Jed was far from the sort of lady who would wish others to sit around feeling miserable, so we’d better crack on.
It’s long been my impression that Jed tended to draw the tougher Beelzebubs, and I certainly found this one to be quite the challenge. The grid perhaps didn’t help, as it seemed to leave the four quarters slightly isolated from each other.
Still, there were some nice long anagrams to untangle, which gave a lot of letters in the centre columns and rows with which to work.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MPRET – PR in MET. |
| 5 | DASYPOD – (DOPY + SAD)<. |
| 10 | OLOGY – 0 + LOGY. “You get an ology, you’re a scientist!“ |
| 11 | INCONNU – (CON in INN) + U. |
| 13 | ABUSER – A BUS[t]ER. |
| 14 | SCALOPPINE – (OP + PIN) in SCALE. |
| 15 | HEGIRA – HE + (A + RIG)<. |
| 16 | ARCHETYPICAL – (REPLICA YACHT)*. |
| 19 | GENERAL STORE – GEN + ERA + (ST in LORE). |
| 22 | PROMPT – PROM + P + T[uning]. |
| 24 | NIDICOLOUS – I in (NO CLOUDS I)*. |
| 25 | ALECTO – A + LECTO[r]. |
| 26 | ALFAQUI – FAQ in A LUI. |
| 27 | STEER – double definition: “neat” as in cattle, and “Scottish move” as in Scots for “stir”. |
| 28 | MOLLUSC – MOLL + US + C. |
| 29 | HANSE – (AN + S[ome]) in HE. |
| Down | |
| 1 | MOSS HAG – MOS[h] + SHAG. |
| 2 | PLECTRE – P + LECT[u]RE. |
| 3 | ROMAIC – ROMA[nt]IC, the “religious texts” being the New Testament of course. |
| 4 | TYLOTE – LOT in TYE. |
| 5 | DISPUTATIOUS – (I SAID OUTPUTS)*. |
| 6 | ANAPHYLACTIC – (AT CHAPLAINCY)*. |
| 7 | YOUNG ITALY – YOU + (TA in LYING*). |
| 8 | ONE-ER – [pi]ONEER. Many thanks to Gaufrid for explaining this one for me. |
| 9 | DURRA – UR in (A + [ga]RD[en])<. |
| 12 | ALCHEMICAL – (‘EM in (CHIC + A)) in (L + L). |
| 17 | AROUSES – [c]AROUSES. |
| 18 | LEASURE – LEA + SURE. |
| 20 | SWOOSH – WOOS in SH. |
| 21 | OROGEN – ROGE[r] in ON. |
| 22 | PRAAM – (R + A) in PAM. It seems “pam” is the Jack of Clubs. |
| 23 | ROLLO – ROLL + O. |
Sorry to hear about Jed. Can’t say I knew her, not even realising she was a she until you pointed this out, but the Beelzebub is the highlight of my week, so I always look forward to these posts. There’s usually something I hadn’t seen.
RIP Jed. You will be much missed in these parts. I will raise a glass of Chivas Regal, and hope that is appropriate.
I’m there with Dormouse on the status of Beelzebub.
Keep up the good work Simon.
Very sad to hear about Jed – definitely the most summary of the summarisers. Condolences to family and friends.