Introduction
This being Saturday, the puzzle is by Cox and Rathvon. Although no theme is ever stated for their puzzles, one is often implicitly evident from the clues. The theme today is Canadian filmmaker Ivan Reitman - with at least six clues referring to his movies or the actors who appeared in them.
By the way, is the name of his well-known film Ghost Busters or Ghostbusters? For what it is worth, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) lists it as Ghost Busters - aka Ghostbusters (UK) (USA).
Link to Today's Puzzle
You may download a .pdf version of today's puzzle from here.
Who Ya Gonna Call? Cluebusters!
Today was a fairly typical Cox and Rathvon creation - pretty straightforward for the most part. There was, however, one curve ball that is certainly worthy of discussion.
2d Hollywood actress split scrap in recession (7)
I struggled with this clue for a very long time with three Hollywood actresses vying for my vote - Ava Gardner, Jennifer Garner and Teri Garr. Coincidentally, two of them have somewhat tenuous links to Ivan Reitman. Teri Garr, although not a member of the film cast, made a cameo appearance in a Ghostbusters music video while Jennifer Garner appeared in Juno which was directed by Ivan's son, Jason Reitman. But all that seems to be a red herring.
After heavy deliberation, I have concluded that this might be a cryptic definition (i.e., irregular clue) - rather than a regular cryptic clue. I say this because, if my reasoning is correct, the rationale would seem to be far too convoluted for a regular clue.
According to my hypothesis, both "Hollywood actress" and the indicator split would appear to be doing double duty. I believe "Hollywood actress split" (first function performed by split) may be a clue that we are looking for two Hollywood actresses. The first is Ava GARDNER which is the solution. The second is Teri GARR who is split [GAR^R] (second function performed by split). This container [GAR^R] has as its contents {scrap [END] in recession (receding; i.e., reversed)} or [DNE] giving the solution [GAR(DNE)R].
If this were a regular clue, I would expect a couple of additional elements - (1) an explicit indication that there are two actresses and (2) some indication of containership (which I don't see in the clue as it stands). For instance, a clue might possibly be phrased along the lines of, "One Hollywood actress split over scrap in recession with another.".
I could certainly be totally off base with this analysis - and stand to be corrected. As always, comments are most welcome.
Solution to Today's Puzzle
| Legend: | "CD" Cryptic Definition; "DD" Double Definition |
| "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed | |
| "( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted |
Across
1ac {LEGAL EAGLES}* - {ALLEGE A LEGS}* (a film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman)
9ac S(TRIKE)R
10ac W|EIGHTY
11ac RU(N) IN - in modern chess notation, as I unfortunately discovered too late for a previous puzzle, the symbol for knight is 'n' rather than 'kt'
12ac BEET|H|OVEN - a film for which Ivan Reitman was executive producer
13ac CUR|RANT
14ac M(OR)AN|IS - Ghost Busters was produced and directed by Ivan Reitman
16ac L(IN|EAR) B - 13th century Greek script
19ac TYPIS*|TS - TIPSY* + T.S. (Eliot)
21ac MEATBALLS* - {A SMALL BET}* (a film directed by Ivan Reitman)
23ac B|LIMP
25ac RE|BUSES
26ac AVIATOR - Scandin[AVIA TO R]elax
27ac A(NIMAL HO)*USE - {[A USE] + (IAN HOLM)*} (a film produced by Ivan Reitman)
Down
1d LASER* - EARLS*
2d GAR(DNE)R - see discussion above
3d LA(KE NYAS)A
4d A|C(ROB)AT
5d LO(W BE)*AM - LO^AM + WEB*
6d S|WISH
7d S|HAVEN
8d HYPNOSIS* - {HIS PONYS}*
13d CALAMARI* - {CIA ALARM}*
15d RE(PUB)LISH
17d NE|ARBY
18d BE(LUSH)I - actor who appeared in Animal House (see 27ac)
19d TO|ST|AD|A
20d SHIATSU* - {HAS SUIT}*
22d BASRA* - ARABS*
24d PUR(S)E
Signing off for today, but will be back to do battle with more clues next week - Falcon
Your quandary over 2 down is easily resolved.
ReplyDeleteThe actress is Ava GARDNER and the wordplay is REND (split) and RAG (scrap) reversed (in recession). I'm afraid it is not an &lit clue.
By the way, on my blog we decided on the much less pretentious all-in-one to describe the &lit type of clue. Good ones are few and far between. This one was from a recent Sunday puzzle:
Some unceremonious language (5)
Read it once and you find a hidden word, read it again and it describes that word.
Hi Big Dave
ReplyDeleteThank you for providing the solution to this clue that has really been bugging me. While I am very grateful to learn the correct solution, I am disappointed to learn that the wordplay of which I was so proud (i.e., that concerning Teri Garr being split, etc.) turns out to be incorrect. It really seemed to match the clue so perfectly (setting aside the obvious incompleteness that it implied in the clue). I think this is a good example of getting so fixated on one line of thinking that one overlooks other potential options. From time to time, I see situations similar to this, where the wrong wordplay almost works, and I have to wonder whether the setter was really so nefarious as to plan it this way or whether it is just a coincidence.