ShopWishful thinking – BIG Crossword 198
July 2, 2009 by The Judge
Filed under The Judge Sums Up
Our Demon looks just a little stout but is he ‘Stout-hearted’? This means ‘strong of heart’ or ‘brave’ – or DOUGHTY (24ac). Doughty became used as a surname and if this is your name you must have had a courageous ancestor, and not one who made dough – neither the bread nor money kind!
At 42ac the ‘Muslim theologian’ could be MULLAH or MOLLAH. According to Britannica, Mullah means ‘lord’ and is a title given to religious leaders, teachers and scholars.
A provisional government is put in place as a temporary measure after an administration collapses or after upheaval and until elections can be held. INTERIM is another word for ‘Provisional’ (34dn). The Iraqi Interim Government is a recent example. INTERUM was incorrect.
Tibet’s capital’ (43dn is LHASA not LLASA. Lhasa means ‘place of the gods’. If you have a cute Lhasa Apso you have a bearded dog from the place of the gods.
It might seem that new words are appearing everyday and English can sound like a foreign language sometimes, but some expressions have stood the test of time.
In the Old Testament book of Exodus, the Israelites fleeing Egypt face starvation in the desert until God sends them food raining down each day, a type of grain to be collected, ground and made into cakes. It was sweet to eat and was called manna. From this we get the expression ‘sweet manna from heaven’. It was the answer to Demon clue 63ac ‘Windfall, … from heaven’. MANJA was incorrect.
There was a J needed in 110ac KANJI for ‘Japanese writing system’. If you didn’t get this answer you had trouble with two foods at 105dn and 106dn.
OKRA is a ‘Gumbo ingredient’, used as a thickener for the soup from Louisiana and DILL is a ‘Parsley relative’. Parsley comes from a big family. Other ‘cousins’ include carrot, fennel, cumin and celery. They are sometimes called umbellifers because the flower heads are an umbel. This has the same root (and shape) as umbrella.
A GRANDEE is a Spanish or Portuguese prince and has been adopted into English for a man of eminence or ‘Local bigwig’ (44dn). A GRANTEE on the other hand is a person to whom something is granted, so was not accepted as an alternative.
FILLIP is imitative of the sound of snapping your fingers but as well as meaning this, also means to excite, as snapping fingers might rouse you to action. It was the answer to Demon 97dn ‘Stimulus’. A few entries had FILLUP.
The ‘Cure-all’ at 111ac was an ELIXIR. If you had ELIXER you also had 90dn incorrect as SLAVESH. ‘Imitative’ was SLAVISH.
At 8dn in the Goliathon was a ‘Coffee brewer’ that every fine hostess used to boast of, but is not so widely used anymore – perhaps because no one could spell it! PERCULATOR turned up plus variations including PERCULATER and PERCELATOR. PERCOLATOR is correct.
If you had that correct you may not have survived 51dn which was SURVIVOR not SURVIVER.
In the Bigcash at 3dn ‘Healthiest’ was FITTEST. We are not sure if there was a misreading here or you were trying to amuse our judges but a couple of you had FATTEST!
Down to the bottom of the grid and 136ac was LEISURE not LEASURE. A few entries had 144ac incorrect – ‘Savoury spread’ was PASTE not PATTE. Peck’s Anchovette Paste is a famous example. It was first found on shelves during WWII and can still be bought today
