Saturday, September 20, 2014

Hat trick (solution no. 3,336)

Three and lits in this one—a letter bank, a relocation, and a heteronym too.  Hot and Trazom ought to be pleased with themselves.


Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,336


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

Across
1a
IMPLIED CONSENT
IMP (“naughty child”) + LIED (“told a tale”) + CON (“against”) + SENT (“delighted”)
10a
C(_ATS)UPS
CUPS (“mugs”) containing (†) _o_ATS (omission of O indicated by “oxygen-free”)
11a
BE EH IVE
BE (“exist”) + EH (“What?”) + IVE (“I have”)
12a
MOL(*ECUL)AR
*CLUE (anagram indicated by “terrible”) contained in (“breaking”) MOLAR (“tooth”)
13a
_ICILY
_s_ICILY (“island,” omission of first letter indicated by “without cover”)
14a
N A S H
ogde^N^ ^A^ humorous^S^ wordsmit^H^ (last letters indicated by “ultimately”)
16a
BRASS BAND
Pun
18a
SQUARE ONE
Double definition
19a
*BETA
*BEAT (anagram indicated by “irregular”)
22a
*ARCED
*CEDAR (anagram indicated by “gnarly”)
23a
~EUCHARIST
~EUCHRE-IST (homophone indicated by “pronounced”)
Does anyone play euchre any more?
26a
*INERTIA
*IN A TIRE (anagram indicated by “swinging”)
27a
A*MORO US
US (“American”) follows (“pusrues”) A (†) + *MOOR (anagram indicated by “flamboyant”)
28a
¶LA MARSEILLAISE
¶MAILERS (letter bank indicated by “letters from”)

Down
2d
_MOTEL_
li_MO TEL_evision (hidden word indicated by “shows”)
3d
L(A)UNCH
LUNCH (“meal”) containing (“outside”) A (†)
4d
EASE}L}
}L}EASE (“rental,” relocation of first letter indicated by “rescheduled start for the fifth”)
5d
*CYBER CAFE
*CC BAY REEF (anagram indicated by “eddies”)
6d
NE(EDIE)ST
NEST (“retreat”) containing (“accommodates”) EDIE (“Falco from The Sopranos”)
7d
*ELIMINATE
*LIME IN TEA (anagram indicated by “rotten”)
8d
~TIE-DYED
~THAI DIED (“Asian passed,” homophone indicated by “outspoken”)
9d
A(CU)MEN
AMEN (“the last word”) containing (“hoarding”) CU (“copper)
15d
SOUR C(R)E AM
SOURCE (“root”) containing (“swallowed”) bee^R^ (last letter indicated by “finally”) + AM (“in the morning”)
16d
§BROKERAGE
§BROKE RAGE
17d
*PR(E D)ATOR
*RAPTOR (anagram indicated by “vicious”) containing (“capturing”) E (“energy”) + foo^D^ (last letter indicated by “in the end”)
Exclamation point for an and lit.
18d
SP(A N)IEL
SPIEL (“pitch”) containing (“about”) A (†) + N (“northern”)
And lit. number 3!
20d
§AP TEST
§APTEST
21d
<P A GOD A<
<A (†) DOG (“pet”) + A (†) + P (“piano”)< (reversal of the whole thing indicated by “raising”)
A bit of ambiguity in the reversal, it could be read to apply to “a pet” rather than the whole thing.
24d
CR ARL
^CR^iminal (first two letters indicated by “pair of”) + AWL (“punch”)
25d
IRONS
Double definition


4 comments:

  1. A little longer than the usual 40 minute job, largely because I still have no idea what an AP Test is.? Apparently everyone else knows (I'm an old guy and e-stuff is alien to me).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My bad!!! A typical case of einstellung on my part. I always knew Advance Placement tests as "A P Tests"; i.e., 1-1, 4 not 2,4. Doh!

      Delete
  2. Sorry (I'm back) but I'm new to this site and just noticed that you use an expression "and lits" which is unknown to me? Also, you name the puzzles (Hat Trick) is there an extra dimension to The Nation's cryptic I've been missing? Anonymous and lonely in North Dakota

    ReplyDelete

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