This puzzle was originally published Friday, January 9, 2009 in the Daily Telegraph.
Introduction
I was feeling quite proud of myself today - thinking that I had completed the puzzle successfully - only to discover that I had an "incorrect" solution for one clue.
Tip of The Day
I often use the Reverse Dictionary feature available at the OneLook Dictionary Search site. This feature allows one to enter a word, a definition, or a partial definition into the search engine which returns a list of synonyms, words matching the definition, or related words.
Today's Links
A fairly complete solution for today's puzzle can be found at Crossword Ends in Violence (5) [DT 25821].
Without much explanation, the posts on Cryptic.co.uk cease and do not resume for another couple of months (coinciding with the puzzle published in the Daily Telegraph on March 2, 2009).
There were a few questions posed on AnswerBank [DT 25821] concerning today's puzzle.
Today's Puzzle
I found some of the clues in today's puzzle to be a real challenge - but managed to find a solution for them all. It turns out that one of my "solutions" was incorrect (or at least does not match the one posted on CEIV).
26d Clown needing endless drink (4)
My solution was COCA in which the "clown" reference would be to comedienne Imogene Coca and the "endless drink" would be "Coca-Cola".
The "correct" solution is COCO where Coco is apparently a traditional name for a clown and the "endless drink" would be "cocoa".
I'm sure my solution violates several cryptic crossword conventions.
For the sake of completeness, here a few clues for which solutions are not explicitly provided on CEIV:
11ac - GUNFIGHT
19ac The enemy [TIME<] /in\ {shed [EMIT] to the west (reversed)} (4)
The "enemy" is "time". Based on an Internet search, it would seem that virtually everyone and their dog has expounded on this idea. The most probable candidate that I could find as being the original is a quotation from William Butler Yeats, "The innocent and the beautiful/ Have no enemy but time.".
6d - HIGH GERMAN - The Zugspitze is the highest peak in the Bavarian Alps
Other unusual words or usages found in today's puzzle include:
12ac - "guy" is a verb meaning to tease (as in ridicule) [not sure if its a "Briticism" but it's not a usage with which I am familiar]
4d - barnet - a person's hair (definitely a Briticism)
24d - EP - Extended Play record; OS - Over Size [presumably what we, in North America, would label XL (Extra Large) or XXL (Extra Extra Large)]
Signing off for today.
Toughie 3259
9 hours ago
COCA/COCO an "end" half the length of the word would not be permitted in many UK cryptics. There was a real "Coco the Clown".
ReplyDeleteTime=the enemy: just wrote about the same thing for a puzzle you'll be seeing in the future! I said: It’s an old crossword truism that time is “the enemy”. This seems to come from an old-fashioned way of asking the time – “How goes the enemy?”
Strictly, OS = outsize not "over size". These days we have XL, XXL and so on.