Saturday, October 8, 2011

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - Talking Turkey

Introduction

I am travelling today - off to visit relatives this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Here is today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon. Matt Mitchell has graciously offered to provide a solution again this week.

In case you missed it, a copy of last week's Cox and Rathvon puzzle has also now been posted (see last week's blog).

Signing off for today - Falcon
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3 comments:

  1. Matt MitchellOctober 8, 2011 at 5:52 PM

    For your long weekend, there's more Hex! Their monthly variety cryptic is this week's Wall Street Journal Saturday puzzle.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle

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  2. Matt MitchellOctober 8, 2011 at 5:53 PM

    Saturday, October 8: Happy Thanksgiving

    This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada, and even though Hex are American, they have cooked up an appropriate dish for their Canadian solvers. In the spirit of the holiday, they used plenty of turkey and stuffings (containers) in their cluing this week.

    Themework: obvious and abundant in both clues and lights. Missed the fourth definition of “turkey”: three consecutive strikes in a bowling game.
    Difficulty (by standards of the Nat Post weekly): somewhat hard

    Across
    1a P (H) EASANT — “Peasant” (farm laborer) contains (eats) “H” (hot). An easy start.
    5a SAD | DAM — “Sad” (sorry) + “dam” (mother). Saddam Hussein is the tyrant: I didn’t get this until the end since I wasn’t looking for a proper name.
    9a TI (BE) TAN — “Titan” (giant) contains (captures) “be” (live)
    10a RADI (C) AL — “Radial” (tire) contains (around) “C” (“car” ’s front)
    11a F (L) OP — “Fop” (popinjay) contains (consuming) “L” (large)
    12a *THE BALKANS* — Anagram (arranged) of “has blanket.” A bit of a stretch I’d say, to call Turkey a Balkan country, but valid.
    14a ~DEWLAPS~ — Homonym (audibly) of “do lapse” (do break).
    The dewlap is a the flap of skin under a turkey’s head, more commonly called a wattle.
    16a ST | Y-a-LE — “St” (abbreviated “street”) + “Yale” with removed (lacking) “A”
    19a A | TRIA-l- — “A” + “trial” (legal proceeding) missing last letter (unfinished)
    20a F (ANT) AIL — “Ant” (colonist) contained in (wrapped in) “fail” (fold, as in give up or collapse). You know you’re a cryptic solver when you immediately think “ant” when you see “colonist.”
    22a D | RUM | STICKS — “D” (low grade) + “rum” (booze) + “sticks” (jams)
    25a *TOMS* — Anagram (cooked) of “most”
    27a RABBI (T) S — “T” (first letter of “turkeys”) contained in (put in) “rabbis” (teachers).
    28a O | VERSE | E — “O” (love) + “verse” (poetry) + “E” (last letter [end] of “date”). It took a while to figure out the wordplay since there are so many ways to assemble the word. It’s not the end of “love” and it’s not “see” as in date.
    29a <STRAT | A< — Reversal (left) of “A” + “tart’s” (pastry’s). Another good misdirection: this had me looking for a pastry starting with “s”
    30a GOURMAND — contained in (somewhat) “starvinG OUR MAN Devoured”

    Down
    1d PUT OFF — “Puff” (drag) contains (having) “to.” “Drag” as in a drag on a cigarette is a classic Hex use of a secondary definition.
    2d *EMBROIDER* — Anagram (fancifully) of “bride more.” Almost deserves an exclamation point for decorating a bride.
    3d ~SITE~ Homonym (in the ears) of “sight” (one of the senses)
    4d NINTH — Contained in (used by) hymN IN THirds
    6d ~ANDALUSIAN~ — Homonym (in speech) of “and illusion.”
    Andalusia is the southern region of Spain. Compare dialect to Castilian.
    7d DACHA — Contained in (held by) LinDA CHAvez.
    Linda Chavez (http://townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/) is a conservative writer and former US Secretary of Labor.
    8d MO | LASSES — “MO” (first two letters [first couple] of “modern”) + “lasses” (girls)
    10d ROBES | ON — “Robes” (flowing garments) + “on.”
    Paul Robeson (1898–1976, www.paulrobesonfoundation.org) was a singer, actor, and blacklisted left-wing political activist)
    13d *SWEATSHIRT* — Anagram (scattered) of “twister has”
    15d ~AFFAIRS~ — Homonym (announced) of “a fare’s” (a transportation fee’s)
    17d *YELL (O)W SEA* — Anagram (swimming) containing (around) “O” (lifesaver)
    18d BAND | ERAS — “Band” (ensemble) + “eras” (periods).
    Antonio Banderas (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm104/) is a Spanish film actor: Andalusian, by the way.
    21d *ASCEND* — Anagram (whirling) of “dances.”
    23d _l_UMBER — “Lumber” (boards) without the first letter (except for the first)
    24d *KYOTO* — Anagram (wrong) of “Tokyo.” Would deserve an exclamation point except I imagine every cryptic constructor has used this one two or three times.
    26d P | EAR — “P” (first letter [initially] of “popped”) + “ear” (unit of corn)

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  3. AnonymousOctober 8, 2011 at 9:26 PM

    Mr. Mitchell,
    I know this is a bit of a nit, however, no idea why you mention "illusion" in your solving of 6d. Perhaps wishful thinking...

    Regards,
    MG

    ReplyDelete

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