ShopColossus 136 - The Judge Sums Up
March 1, 2012 by The Judge
Filed under Colossus Crosswords
in the shop
Let’s start with clue 169dn in the Stinker, which was a little ambiguous. ‘Stores’ suggests a few different answers including two that fitted the spaces on our grid; the noun SHOPS, places you buy things, or the verb STOWS, stashes away. We accepted both answers.
One of the world’s endangered animals is a Himalayan creature called a Hispid Hare. The hare is so named because of its bristly coat. Stinker clue 72ac was ‘Covered with bristles’ and needed HISPID as the answer. HISUID and HISHID were incorrect.
At 63dn the ‘Dramatist’ was ‘BERTOLT Brecht’ not BERTOIT or BERTORT. This German playwright and poet is perhaps best remembered for his collaboration with Kurt Weill on the satirical musical, The Threepenny Opera. One of the songs from the show, the murder ballad known as Mack The Knife, has been recorded many times since its creation in the 1920s.
Intrepid is a word that is quite well-known; an intrepid explorer is one who is fearless even while facing unknown dangers. The word comes from the Latin trepidus meaning alarmed or anxious and so the lesser-known TREPID was the answer to 35dn ‘Quaking’. TREVID and TREMID
were incorrect.
‘Jot’ was the clue at 87ac and while a simple little word, it did cause some trouble. Jot means to write down quickly and briefly. By extension it means a little bit, especially in the phrase, “I don’t care a jot”. WHIT has a similar meaning and was the answer we were looking for. CHIT means a voucher for food or drink, a memorandum, or an impudent girl.
For 136dn ‘Kin’ both RELATIVES and RELATIONS seemed to be suitable, but only RELATIVES would fit with 186ac APE for ‘Tailless primate’.
At 76dn the clue ‘Do penance’ needed EXPIATE. The second part of expiate shares its Latin root word pius with pious, which we might clue as ‘devout’ or ‘reverent’. EXPLANE, is unfortunately not a word , perhaps those who opted for this were thinking of EXPLAIN.
A few simple spelling errors to note include CHARLATON, which needed to be CHARLATAN for ‘Quack’ at 15ac, INADVERTANT, which needed to be INADVERTENT for ‘Unwitting’ at 129dn and USERER, which needed to be USURER for ‘Greedy moneylender’ at 291dn.
Over in the Giant Cryptic and 61dn was ‘Centre area of club is a candy store? (5,4)’. The answer was SWEET SPOT, the clue containing two meanings. A sweet spot on a golf club, tennis racquet or bat is the centre area from where the most effective shots are made. A sweet spot could also be a place to sell ‘candy’. A couple of entries had SCENT SPOT.
We had a lot of discussion about 63ac as many different answers appeared in entries including IFS, ITS and ILS. The ins and outs of something are the intricacies or details, so INS was the answer to ‘Half of the finer details’.
In Cashwords entries we noticed quite a few blank squares. This can easily happen when you leave a letter to check the spelling in a dictionary and then forget to go back and fill it in. It’s a shame to do all the work of filling in the answers to then be disqualified for one or two blank squares. So, a friendly reminder from our judges to recheck your entries before posting.
‘Narrow river crossing’ at 1dn was FORD not FEED and ‘Unlatch’ at 157ac was UNBOLT not UNBELT.
‘Be an omen of’ at 61ac needed BODE not MODE, RODE or CODE. I could say that this didn’t bode well for the rest of the Cashwords, but that would seem a bit cruel!
There were two acceptable spellings at 132dn. ‘Car’s petrol-mixing device’ was either CARBURETTOR or CARBURETTER.
‘Soundest of mind’ at 71ac was SANEST not SAFEST and 141dn ‘Happiest’ was CHEERIEST, not CHEEKIEST. For both these answers I am reminded of that strange idiom, ‘close but no cigar’, meaning your worthy efforts unfortunately fall just short and receive no reward.
The expression, which was used in the 1935 film of Annie Oakley, apparently comes from a time in the US when cigars were given out as fairground prizes.
I’m sure you eager-beavers are all as keen as mustard to tackle the next lot of contests. May you fare well in your quest for the sweet smell of victory!
Colossus 135 - Judge Sums Up
January 31, 2012 by The Judge
Filed under Colossus Crosswords, The Judge Sums Up
the clues
In the Cashwords, for ‘Arranged, … up’ at 170dn, we accepted both TEED and TIED. Tee comes from the sporting world. A tee is a stand for a ball, perhaps the best known being the golfer’s tee. A golfer tees up and tees off.
Arranged can also be to tie up, especially loose ends! Tie up loose ends is thought to come from the world of sailing, but what about ‘to be at a loose end’, meaning having little to do? I found this relates to the fact that a captain would order his crew to repair the loose ends of ropes only when there was nothing more pressing to be done. Now let’s press on.
A couple of grammatical errors to mention; at 207ac for ‘Re-evoked (memories)’ you needed AWAKENS not AWAKING and for 147dn ‘Gained victory’ you needed WON not WIN.
We expected SOAR for ‘Skyrocket’ at 178dn but some entries had STAR, perhaps more poetic, but sadly, incorrect.
‘Harassing’ at 215dn was HOUNDING, giving you HEMISPHERE for ‘Half-ball’ at 215ac. SEMISPHERE and SOUNDING were not suitable alternatives.
Over in the Baffler the ‘Ancient Greek region in Anatolia’ was
IONIA not IONIC, which is an architectural style.
The ‘Anti-communist’ was Joseph MCCARTHY not MACARTHY. McCarthy was famous for his spurious claims that there were many Soviet spies within the US federal government and armed forces.
A few entries had GREY for ‘Anatomy author’ but the textbook was written by Henry GRAY.
Just to confuse things, the
American medical drama is called Grey’s Anatomy.
If you had GREY then ‘Neoclassical style’ ended up as the cheesy EDAM, instead of the correct ADAM. This style was named after Robert Adam, a Scottish architect and designer.
In the Giant Cryptic 61dn ‘Announce hotel has slice I made’ was PUBLICISE; PUB coming from ‘hotel’ and LICISE being a mix of the letters from ‘slice I’. A couple of entries had PARTITION.
The Brenner Pass has been used as a route between Northern and Southern Europe since before Roman times. Once a mule track, it is now a major motorway providing a way through the Alps.
In the Stinker, clue 16dn ‘Austria/Italy’s … Pass’ needed BRENNER and not BREMNER as some
of you put.
A plutocracy is government by the wealthy, not by that Disney dog! So the ‘Members of the wealthy elite’ at 20ac were PLUTOCRATS not PLUROCRATS.
A GILLIE is a ‘Scottish hunting guide’ (7dn). This is also spelt ghillie or gilly, but these didn’t fit. We couldn’t find the variant GILLEE.
Clue 146ac proved a bit tricky. ‘Caving hobbyist’ was SPELUNKER not SPELUCKER. Is not spelunker a wonderful word? It comes from the Latin spelunx ‘cave’.
Coming off the P was ‘The golden ratio’ (147dn) or PHI (PYI and PSI were incorrect). Phi comes from the first letter of the name of Greek sculptor and architect Phidias, whose buildings seemed to reflect the golden ratio, which is an aesthetic ideal relating to the ratio of the base to the height of a rectangle.
‘Cosa Nostra mobster’ at 192ac needed MAFIOSO, not MAFIOSA, to fit with LOW for ‘Trough’ at 184dn. One clue over at 185dn, ‘Israeli-designed sub-machine gun’ was UZI. According to Collins this weapon was named after Uziel Gal, the officer who designed it.
Ossuary is a word that appears in our Stinker from time to time. It is a vault to contain bones. In this Stinker at 265dn was the related word OSSEOUS (not OSSUOUS) in answer to ‘Bony’. The base word is the Latin oss ‘bone’. Perhaps we should rename our Skeleton puzzle The Ossa!
Hopefully there are no bones of contention there. Make no bones about it, I’ll be back in the New Year! Wishing you a fantastic fun-filled festive season.
