Beelzebub 1,312

by

Was it my imagination or was this week’s Beelzebub a little different in style to usual?

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it seemed that more, shall we say, informal terms were involved, along with some humorous clueing and one or two Paul-like references. Either way, no complaints here. A very enjoyable puzzle and quite a stiff challenge, I thought.

32 across is in need of further explanation, and in fact I’m not entirely certain I have the correct answer.

*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Hover to expand abbreviations.

Across
1 LEGAL FICTION – (LOGICIAN FELT)*.
10 OCELOID – (ID + COOL + E)*.
12 RATS – STAR<.
13 FAVELL – FAVE + LL.
14 DROOG – R in GOOD<. From A Clockwork Orange, of course. I recall Anthony Burgess discussing the vocabulary he created for the book. He was keen to avoid using actual youth slang terms, as these would date very quickly. The book was so successful that the terms he created were adopted in real life, and of course dated anyway.
15 ESPARTO – ESP + ART + O.
16 POUR – two defintions: to pour a drink/the French for “for”.
17 SMITHERS – S + MITHERS.
20 PARKEE – ARK in PEE.
22 OAK-NUT – (A in OK) + TUN<.
24 VIGORISH – VIGOR + IS + H[amper].
26 SERE – [the]SE RE[gions].
27 ODINISM – (DIN + IS) in OM.
30 ASANA – SAN in (A repeated).
31 SERENE – SERE + NE.
32 SIBS – at last I assume it’s this. The clue was Female birds disregarding family members.
33 PREECHO – REECH in PO.
34 PANATHENAEAN – (AN + A + THEN) in PAEAN.
Down
1 LORD PROVOST – (ORD + PROV[e]) in LOST.
2 GET-OUT – EG< + TOUT.
3 ALSO-RAN – Al + SORA + [mountai]N. “Rail” as in the bird.
4 LONGSPUR – LONGS + PUR[e].
5 FILEMOT – LEMO[n] in FIT.
6 CLAP – two definitions: bang/sexually transmitted disease.
7 TAVAH – HAVA[n]T<.
8 ICER – [n]ICER.
9 OIL-TREE – TROELIE*.
11 CLOSE SEASON – (OCEAN LOSSES)*.
18 TAX HAVEN – (X + HAVE) in TAN.
19 PAIDEIA – PAID + (A + IE)<.
20 PISMIRE – MIR in PISE.
21 ROSS SEA – SS in (ROSE + A.
23 SEA ICE – E in SAICE.
25 ONEGA – ONE + GA.
28 IRON – I + R + O + N .
29 IN IT – IN[n]IT.

 

2 comments on “Beelzebub 1,312”

  2. I guessed SIBS for 32ac, too, and then couldn’t parse it. Thanks for that.

    As I said last week, after a week I have few memories of actually solving a puzzle. I do recall that I couldn’t find 19dn in Chambers and had to google it to confirm it.

Comments are closed.