Saturday, May 18, 2013

Catching up (Solution No. 3,283)

I had my hands full this week, in more ways than one.  While I might not finish solving the The Nation cryptic on the first crack at it, I usually get the remaining bits by the weekend for the usual Monday solution post.  That didn't happen this week.  Not with 12d.  So it got tied up in the work week, and I went on to some less-frustrating solves before finally giving in and going to the computer to figure out 12d.

On the other hand, the theme was pretty easy to find, especially if you know someone who went to Iowa State, in Ames.

Solution and annotation below the fold.





Legend: "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed; "( )" letters inserted; "_" or lower case: letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue, “^” first letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters; “§” heteronym, “¶“ letter bank

Across
1a
*EUCL(IDEA)N
*UNCLE (anagram indicated by “eccentric”) containing (“entertaining”) IDEA (“notion)
6a
BAR(O)N
BARN (“farm structure”) containing (†) ^O^x (first letter indicated by “head”)
9a
<A}NN{ELID<
<DILE{MM}A< (“difficult decision, reversal indicated by “heading backward”), replacement of Ms with Ns indicated by “two legs missing”
I’ve never seen a wordplay like this, but it makes sense.
10a
*GRANITA
*RATING A (anagram indicated by “nutty”)
11a
*P(H)ILANDERING
*PRIG ANNELID (†, cross-reference to 9a, anagram indicated by “obnoxious”) containing (“concealing”) ^H^usband (first letter indicated by “first”)
14a
ROUTED
Double definition
How many of you pronounce “route” and its derivatives differently for the different definitions
15a
{M{ARK }D}OWN
}D}ARK {M{OWN (“in the night, trimmed,” Spoonerism indicated by “swapping leads”)
17a
TO | MA | HAWK
TO (“in the direction of”) + MA (“mother”) + HAWK (“bird”)
19a
PATTER
Double definition
21a
BILL | O | F RIGHTS
BILL (“twenty perhaps”) + FRIGHTS (“starts”)  following (“after”) O (“zero”)
Not an easy charade, but fair since you get so many crossing letters and the enumeration is uncommon
25a
*RELIEV | E
*VERILE (anagram indicated by “incorrectly”) + E (†)
26a
CHA | LICE
CHAI (“tea”) + LICE (“parasites”)
27a
N | AMES
N (“no”) + AMES (“city in Iowa”)
28a
SAL(LOW)ES | T
SALES (“auctions”) + ^T^able (first letter indicated by “top”) containing (“covering”) LOW (“base”)

Down
1d
_EXAS | P(E)RATE
_t_EXAS (“Where [governor] Rick Perry is from,” omission of first letter indicated by “coming in late”) + PRATE (“to babble”) containing (“about”) E (“empty”)
2d
*CONTINUUMS
*COUNT SUMS IN (anagram indicated by “erroneously”)
3d
*ILL-FA | ME
*I FALL (anagram indicated by “apart”) + ME (“the writer”)
4d
_ENDED_
ke_EN DED_uction (hidden word indicated by “link”)
5d
*NIGERIAN
*GENII RAN (anagram indicated by “amok”)
6d
B | *EATNIK
^B^ohemians (first letter indicated by “early on”) + *TAKE IN (anagram indicated by “disheveled”)
7d
RUIN_
RUIN_g_ (“feeling regret about,” omission of last letter indicated by “incomplete”)
8d
NAAN
Palindrome (indicated by “upon reflection”)
This got a follow-up comment from Hot and Trazom in this week’s Word Salad.
12d
PO(*ST CHA)ISE
POISE (“self-possession”) containing (“holding”) *CHATS (anagram indicated by “inappropriate”)
A post chaise is a type of horse-drawn carriage.
If anyone got this without reference to the computer, I tip my hat to you.  The problem was that this was a very obscure definition combined with an ambiguous wordplay.  I had the anagram, but I was seeing “self-possession” as something like “egotism.”
13d
*IN PROSPECT
*COPPER and TIN (anagram indicated by “mixture”)
This is one of the composite anagrams Hot and Trazom warned us about last week.
16d
*D(WELL)ERS
*REDS (anagram indicated by “spilled”) containing (“around”) WELL (“hole in the ground”)
18d
HE | *IRESS
HE (“that man”) + *RISES (anagram indicated by “awkwardly”)
20d
_AGITATO_
fl_AG IT AT O_nce (hidden word indicated by “essential to”)
22d
FO(C)AL
FOAL (“colt”) containing (“loaded with”) ^C^artridge (first letter indicated by “initially”)
23d
WREN
Double definition
Sir Christopher Wren designed several of the most important buildings in London
24d
<SLIM<
<MILS< (“units of thickness,” reversal indicated by “brought up”)

2 comments:

  1. Apparently POST CHAISE is easy for Jane Austen fans. The clue was popular with our test solvers, though one flagged it as very difficult. We should have listened to him!

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, I just haven't read any Austen since school, and the school reading I recall best is John McPhee (Norval Rindfleisch was an excellent expository writing teacher).

    ReplyDelete

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