Yahoo News Crossword roundup: how do you pronounce 'antifa'?
The news in clues
In Knut’s characteristically topical puzzle, the people in the themed material are so very topical, they are soon to be forgotten. Case in point …
6d Daughter leaves niggardly, hopeless ferryman (8)
[ wordplay: anagram (‘hopeless’) of NIGGARDLY without the D (‘daughter leaves’) ]
[ anagram of NIGGARLY ]
[ definition: ferryman ]
… Chris GRAYLING.
Knut’s themes are often unannounced; what’s the opposite of a hidden theme? Something like Brendan’s puzzle, where this clue …
14d Charitable ongoing event he had also included (4-6)
[ wordplay: ongoing event + abbrev. for ‘he had’ surrounding (‘included’) synonym for ‘also’ ]
[ OPEN + HED containing AND ]
[ definition: charitable ]
… for OPEN-HANDED explicitly announced the opening of the Open 2019 and, in case you missed that nudge, every single clue concerned golf, in the surface reading, or in the entry, or sometimes in both, like this one …
17ac Boxed in by obstacle on course, hard to get good score on hole (5)
[ wordplay: obstacle on golf course, with abbrev. for ‘hard’ contained (‘boxed in by’) ]
[ TREE containing H ]
[ definition: good score on (a golf) hole ]
… for THREE. Masterful.
Incidentally, did anyone else solve Friday’s Times and wonder whether the preponderance of matrimonial clues was one of that paper’s occasional, unannounced messages to person/s unknown – or am I just being sappy?
Latter patter
Another timely word, this time from Wiglaf …
1ac Militant left-wing movement opposed to loud American (6)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘opposed to’ + musical abbrev. for ‘forte’ (‘loud) + abbrev. for ‘American’ ]
[ ANTI + F + A ]
[ definition: militant left-wing movement ]
… is the contraction of “anti-fascist”, ANTIFA. The movement itself goes in for mysterious pseudonyms; the word itself is mysterious, too.
How do you say it, for one thing? If you try to give just the first three syllables of “anti-fascist”, you end up with something ending on an unpleasantly weak note. Some prefer “anti-FAR”, but unless you’re abbreviating the Italian “antifascismo”, the fascists are thereby forgotten, which would seem to miss the point. Many Americans go further, with something along the lines of “an-TEE-fuh”, which loses both “anti” and “fascist” and only makes sense if you’re trying not to remind everyone just what the protesters think you are.
If “an-TEE-fuh” becomes the standard pronunciation, the word will join a motley collection of words with pronunciations belying their origins. The boat has vanished from “boatswain”, the black clothing from “blackguard” and the same goes for the subject of our next challenge.
Reader, how would you clue CUPBOARD?
Cluing competition
Many thanks for your clues for HOUSEMAID’S KNEE. The audacity award surely goes to the franglais of Zedible’s “The pain quotidienne?”, though Catarella manages, I think, unexpected things in “The Commons can’t do without Theresa, according to Spooner’s complaint”.
Something about the phrase lends itself to cryptic definitions, such as the one Lizard used as Quixote in the Independent: “Problem when one of the servants has been on a bender?”
So it is with our runners-up, Alberyalbery’s “Daily complaint?” and Dunnart’s “Help out with this?”; the winner is PeterMooreFuller’s cautionary “Bingo ladies keen to boogie? Not advisable with this”.
Kludos to Peter; please leave entries for this fortnight’s competition and your picks from the broadsheet cryptics below.
Clue of the fortnight
An all-too-vivid surface in the Telegraph from, I’m given to understand, Jeremy Mutch …
27a Revolting acts of rugby team after changing beer line (10)
[ wordplay: name of rugby team after anagram of (‘changing’) BEER with abbrev. for ‘line’ ]
[ LIONS after anagram of BEERL ]
[ definition: revolting acts ]
… where we’re really looking for the antifa sense of revolting: REBELLIONS.
