ShopAnswers in B&W – Colossus Crosswords 209
July 2, 2009 by The Judge
Filed under The Judge Sums Up
dependent on pearl fishing, Qatar is now booming and Doha’s towering skyline reflects this.
The WTO or World Trade Organisation is a forum for international trade. Agreements are negotiated and signed, disputes heard and settled and poorer countries are encouraged to participate in world trade. To this end the DOHA Round (Baffler clue) commenced in 2001 to negotiate the lowering of trade barriers. The round of talks is so called because it began in Doha. Negotiations have broken down three times and stalled for various reasons proving agreement is a grey area – thank goodness crosswords are black and white!
Apart from this clue, the Baffler didn’t seem to cause too many problems. A couple of entries had EL DUCE when you needed IL DUCE for ‘Mussolini title’ and we accepted both GAIA and GAEA for ‘Earth goddess’.
Over in the Stinker there was plenty to test you out beginning at 8ac where a ‘Dud firework’ was a SQUIB not a SLUBB or SQUAB. A squib gets its name from the hissing sound it makes before a small explosion.
Squibs are sometimes used in filmmaking to simulate a bullet’s impact, but the word is also used for fireworks that ‘fizz’ when greater things are expected. A squib is also a short satirical piece and in Harry Potter a person born to wizard parents but lacking magical powers.
A HIBACHI (not HABACHI) is a ‘Portable barbecuing brazier’ (Stinker 87ac) from Japan. The word translates to ‘fire bowl’. LORGNETTE not LORNNETTE for ‘Theatregoer’s glasses’ (Stinker 164ac) comes from the French ‘to squint at’.
‘Trojan War commander’ at 146ac was AGAMEMNON and not AGAMENNON.
Still in the world of ancient myth, Hermes Trismegistus, or Thrice-great Hermes, was the Greek name for the Egyptian god Thoth. He is credited with writing books on magic and alchemy and with inventing a seal that nothing could break. From him we have the word HERMETIC for an ‘Airtight’ seal. At 219dn a few had HERPETIC, which means related to the virus herpes.
A couple of familial spelling errors also appeared. ‘Descendants’ (250ac) are PROGENY not PRODENY and ‘Substitute parent’ (212dn) was SURROGATE not SURRIGATE.
Clue 12ac in the Giant Cryptic left some scratching their heads. ‘Prisoner deviously enclosed expressions of sympathy’ needed you to pick ‘deviously’ as the trigger to a word jumble and to work out that ‘prisoner’ was CON. You then got CONDOLENCES by rearranging ‘con enclosed’.
Another devious clue was 23dn ‘Prefer it can be curried’. This needed you to know the expression ‘curry favour’. This has nothing to do with the Indian dish but relates to grooming a horse with a currycomb. The phrase was originally ‘curry Fauvel’, after an ambitious horse in a 14th century French poem. The rich and powerful would bow and scrape to him i.e. curry Fauvel. A mistaken translation gave us curry favour. FAVOUR also means prefer.
The main error in the Cashwords was at 215ac ‘Deadly poison’, which was STRYCHNINE not STRYCININE. If you survived that you may have been caught immediately below at 224ac ‘Benign’, which was BENEVOLENT not BENEVELENT.
Enjoy the summer with a puzzle or two!
