Yahoo News Crossword roundup: honouring Austen like a boss
The news in clues
When the Guardian’s Tramp gave us this ...
16ac Fix novel, after bending back cover (7)
[ title of a novel, after a word for ‘cover’ backwards ]
[ EMMA, after LID backwards ]
... DILEMMA, he alluded to a novelist who enjoyed repeated magic moments last week in crosswording’s spotlight. Over in the Independent, Radian offered such across clues as ...
14ac In old age, sister conceivably shows taste (11)
[ word describing old age, containing (‘in’) abbreviation of SIBLING (‘sister conceivably’) ]
[ SENILITY containing SIB ]
... along with ...
25ac Prince and English duke admitted to fuel damage (9)
[ abbrev. for ‘prince’ + abbrev. for ‘English’, then abbrev. for ‘duke’ inside slang term for ‘fuel’ ]
[ PR + E, then D inside JUICE ]
... and none of you needs me to particularize the entries corresponding to SENSIBILITY or PREJUDICE. On the same day, Financial Times solvers might have been hoping for Gaff to provide a trademark anniversary puzzle; he obliged with a different route ...
25ac Before acting, dame chose extreme intolerance (9)
[ abbrev. for ‘before’ + given name of an acting dame + first & last letters (‘extreme’) of CHOSE ]
[ PRE + JUDI + CE ]
... to PREJUDICE and the rest of his commended theme work can be found in PDF form here.
Cluing coincidence
Newer readers should be assured that here we tend to celebrate the same word being clued in different ways, even and especially when no anniversary is responsible. It’s all the more charming when the word is one so rarely encountered as ...
20d The writer turned up ahead of manager to get raise (6)
[ synonym for ‘the writer’ written backwards (‘turned up’), then word for ‘manager’ ]
[ ME backwards, then BOSS ]
5d In relief, the writer turned, told what to do? (8)
[ synonym for ‘the writer’ written backwards (‘turned’), then word for ‘told what to do’ ]
[ ME backwards, then BOSSED ]
... EMBOSS or indeed EMBOSSED, clued above by Phi and an anonymous Times setter, with equally plausible but distinct surface readings. Both clues have in their wordplays that ugly Dutch word baas (‘uncle’, then ‘master’) and in their answers an unrelated French word for that bulging form of relief (BOSS) that onscreen text cannot simulate.
Somewhere in this mix is BOTCH; oddly, that does not seem to be what brought us to another sense of BOSS: the 19th-century schoolboy slang for a bungle that lies behind our next challenge. So, reader: how would you clue BOSS-EYED?
Cluing competition
Many thanks for your clues for CWM. Geological edification is never unwelcome, so offerings are due to Dcusch’s snappy “What cold water moulded originally?” and Schroduck’s more ominous “First signs of climate warming massively – what’ll be left after glaciers melt?”
This is not to dismiss the more rhyfedd clues, such as ID2155366’s elusive “Glen: heartless, callow and masculine” and Harlobarlo’s impatient “Finally, gigantic marrow farm in Welsh valley”.
The runners-up are GappyTooth’s smart “Welsh landmark in Conwy Morfa without any roof collapsed” and TonyCollman’s blunt “Around Welsh mountains, principally”; the winner is Steveran’s heart-rending “Starts to cope with manic depression”.
Kludos to Steveran; please leave this fortnight’s entries and your pick of the broadsheet cryptics below.
Clue of the fortnight
The annotated solution to Puck’s recent prize puzzle reveals why this in-itself splendid first clue ...
7ac Sea Eagle follows Little Cloud, initially over posh Swiss city (7)
[ name of a sea eagle, after (‘follows’) first letters of ‘Little Cloud’ surrounding (‘over’) abbrev. for ‘posh’ ]
[ ERNE, after LC surrounding U ]
... for LUCERNE was, incidentally, an incidental reference to this splendid recording ...
... by revealing a secret that no solver needed to know: that the puzzle was devised to ...
... mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the Incredible String Band’s album The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion (Little Cloud, First Girl I Loved, Painting Box, Sound Techniques, Chinese White, Way Back in the 1960s, Gently Tender).
How happy I am.
