ShopThe Judge Sums Up
The Judge loves language and loves to show off by writing about the tricky clues in Lovatts contest crosswords. The Judge will also point out where you went wrong! You will find the wise words of The Judge in each issue of BIG Crossword, Colossus Crosswords, MEGA! and Holiday Crossword Collection. If there are any clues you would like explained The Judge is the one to ask.Asleep on the job – MEGA 3 Contests
Last modified on 2010-01-15 02:51:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
The Mega Stinker was as smelly as usual in issue No. 3. It was enough to keep some of you awake especially at 47dn where ‘Wakefulness’ was INSOMNIA and not IMSOMNIA.
As you saw the sun come up you may have been tackling 134ac ‘Solar radiation (1,1-1)’. This was UV-B not USB or UBB. Ultraviolet means beyond violet in Latin. Violet has the shortest wavelength of visible light and UV is shorter again. We need UVB for vitamin D but it can also cause skin damage. To avoid this we all need to take care on sunny days.
If you’re lucky enough to be enjoying a sunny day on a beach holiday abroad, you might spot a whale passing by. At 61ac ‘Rorqual’ needed SEI Whale (not SKI or SHI). Rorquals are a group of whales including some of the largest, such as the Blue Whale and Humpback Whale. The Sei is the third largest of the group.
A POMANDER is a ‘Scented ball’ 12dn. The word comes from the French for ‘apple of amber’. Pomanders were used in the Middle Ages to counter bad smells and to try and ward off infections. A couple of misspellings included POMADDER and POMANDOR.
Christmas birds – BIG Crossword 204 Contests
Last modified on 2010-01-15 02:58:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
As this is our Christmas issue I am going to try and stick to writing only about words that make us feel good.
Our clue for HALCYON was ‘Golden (past)’ but the word came from a Greek myth about a bird (no not a partridge) and has a Christmas association.
Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus, who controlled the winds, was married to Ceyx. When Ceyx drowned in a shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the sea and the gods took pity and turned them both into birds. Aeolus calmed the winds over the winter solstice (around Dec 17-27) so that the birds could nest. HALCYON came up a number of times when we surveyed readers’ favourite words a few years ago, however some still spelt it incorrectly at 48ac replacing the Y with an I.
The notion of an ideal place has always captured the human imagination. When in 1516 Sir Thomas More published his book mocking the English political and social system, he called his fictional perfect place, Utopia, from the Greek for ‘no place’.
Stories of a utopian place on earth have been around as long as literature and in 1933, British author James Hilton created such a place in his novel Lost Horizon and he called it SHANGRI-LA (Demon 141ac). Shangri-la is a hidden Himalayan valley of happy, long-lived people.
If you lived in Shangri-la I am sure you would not be concerned by the misspelling SHANGRA-LA but our Demon is not so laid back and forgiving.
Interestingly we had PARADISE in the same crossword at 12ac for ‘Heaven’. Of Iranian origin, it means ‘a wall enclosing a garden’. Greek soldier and historian Xenophon, who appears in our crosswords from time to time, used the word paradeisos to describe the large gardens of the Persian rulers. Centuries later it was used for the biblical garden. From there it gained momentum and we use it for everything from amusement parks to retirement homes to holiday resorts to casinos. Perhaps it’s time we had a Paradise Puzzle!
I wonder if they have the ‘Black diamond’ in paradise. It sounds like a most desirable thing -something that might be stolen in an Indiana Jones movie, but in fact the CARBONADO is used in industry to make drill bits and grinding and cutting tools. The name is easily explained as diamonds are chains of carbon. The word came into English from Portuguese. At 20ac in the Demon CABBONADO and CARBANADO were incorrect.
Star ANISE is a terrific spice to add to your Christmas pudding. Our clue at 110ac ‘Fruit, star …’ confused some who thought it should perhaps be apple. The fruits of the Chinese evergreen tree are star-shaped, hence the name.
As Christmas celebrates the birth of the baby Jesus, I thought I’d bring to your attention a nice crossing of words in October’s Demon. LULLABIES at 62ac met up with LAYETTE at 63dn. Layette comes from Old French for a box or chest of drawers and was traditionally all the items a mother knitted and sewed during pregnancy.
In the Goliathon we got in early with the first clue ‘Christmas month’ for DECEMBER.
At 103ac ‘Eccentric’ had as its answer one of my favourite words, BIZARRE, unfortunately easily misspelt as BAZARRE or BAZAARE, if confused with the Middle East market, or bazaar.
Another lovely word was at 129dn, but this one did not cause trouble to you wacky readers. ‘Wackiness’ was ZANINESS and zany comes from an Italian nickname for Giovanni, a common name for clowns in the Italian commedia dell’arte.
Christmas can seem like a lot of rush and fuss but I am sure once the New Year routines settle in we all look back on these as ‘halcyon days’.
Peace and goodwill to you all this Christmas.
On the menu – Colossus Crosswords 215 Contests
Last modified on 2010-01-15 02:59:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Have you ever wondered why a ‘Shellfish soup’ is called a BISQUE (Stinker 286ac)? Well I have, so I embarked on some research and still don’t really know. It is the case with many words that their origins are more the stuff of theory than fact.
The Oxford dictionary has simply – origin French ‘crayfish soup’. I found two versions of where bisque originated: from the French bis cuites ‘twice cooked’ or from the cuisine of the Bay of Biscay, which lies between France and Spain.
Perhaps the reality is that both are connected, as seafood abounds in the Bay of Biscay and the soup is twice cooked, once to make the stock and then to make the final soup.
Biscuit comes from bis cuites, as biscuits were a two-step process, baked and then baked again on a low heat to dry them out so they kept longer. In pottery, bisque, or biscuit, describes a piece of pottery fired but unglazed.
Another couple of Stinker words coming from French were at 207ac ‘Alto oboe, cor ANGLAIS’ and 217ac ARRIVISTES for ‘Upstarts’.
The cor anglais is also known as an English horn, but it is neither English nor a horn. The instrument has a horn-like curved shape and the name is thought to have been originally cor angle (bent horn) and somewhere along the way it changed – as language does!
Arrivistes seems more straight-forward coming from arrive. An arriviste is a person who metaphorically wants to arrive, that is, make a grand entrance.
Imp, scamp, rascal and little devil can all be ways of describing a ‘Boisterous child’ but none were the answer to Stinker clue 62ac. For this you needed HELLION, which sounds like a cross between a big feline and a place of eternal fire and torment! The word’s origin is unclear but it could be a useful addition to your vocabulary if you have any young hellions in your life.
A couple of small errors to note; 9dn ‘Physical strength’ was BRAWN not BRAIN which is mental strength. Edward the CONFESSOR (not CONFESSER) was the founder of Westminster Abbey at 124dn. Similarly at 1ac TRAITOR was correct for ‘Double-crosser’. A couple of you had TRAITER.
Churlish is a word quite well known but CHURL less so. It was the answer to ‘Boor’ in the Baffler but a few entries had THURL.
The WWII tank unit was PANZER not PANDER and some of our non-gambling puzzlers had trouble with ‘Baccarat card holder’ which was SHOE not SAFE or SALE. For any who have been to a casino dare I say it was a shoo-in?
In the Giant Cryptic contest 58dn was a clue split into two parts. ‘Tribe’ – CLAN, accepts ‘sovereign’ – KING gives you CLANKING for ‘armour rattling’. CLANGING was incorrect. 59dn was a clue using two meanings giving the answer STICK OUT – ‘Project’ and ‘last the distance’. STUCK OUT was incorrect as was STAND OUT.
Finally to the Cashwords and the trickiest word appears to have been at 296ac in answer to the clue ‘Tatty’. This is a hard clue for TAWDRY which means showy and gaudy but also of poor quality and Collins dictionary gives tawdry as one of the meanings of tatty. We did not accept TIDDLY nor any of the misspellings such
as TARDRY.
A couple of small errors found in the Cashwords were ANNAM instead of ANNUM at 72ac and 103dn was VIRILITY not VIRILATY.
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy, prosperous and puzzling
New Year. We’ll do our very best to find some new and interesting words for you to uncover throughout 2010.
Weird Spellings – MEGA 2 Contests
Last modified on 2010-01-15 02:49:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Ban Ki-moon has been the ‘Secretary-General of the UN since 2007’ and featured in the Mega Mix contest at 46dn. If you spelt WEIRD with the weird spelling of WIERD at 59ac then you had BAN KE-MOON.
Ban is the family name and Ki-moon his given name. In Korean families it is usual for married women to retain their own names but for children to inherit the father’s family name. For example, the son of Ban Ki-moon and Yoo Soon-taek is Ban Woo-hyun.
The other spot for confusion was at 36ac where the ‘Sex determinant (1-10)’ was the Y-CHROMOSOME. A couple of you tried to fit PHEOROMONE, while a few had the misspelling CHROMOSONE.
In the Stinker we had a query about COUNTERSINK or COUNTERSUNK at 65dn for ‘Recess (bolt)’. We expected COUNTERSINK, reading ‘recess’ as a verb, but see that it is possible to read it as an adjective and therefore we accepted either answer.
At 1dn PATOIS and not PATIOS was the answer to ‘Jargon’. The word comes from French. In France patois has been used in a slightly derogative sense to refer to non-Parisian French. English dialects, pidgins or creoles such as those spoken in the Caribbean are also called patois. In fact patois is used to describe any non-standard language. In an article from London’s The Times newspaper about animals having regional accents, the birds in Buckingham Palace were said to be ‘developing a distinctly urban patois’.
At 59ac was the unpleasant sounding clue ‘Lethal nerve gas’. SARIN was developed by the Nazis during World War II. It made it into the news again in 1995 when members of a Japanese sect called Aum Shinrikyo, used it in a terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway, killing eight people and injuring thousands.
TARIN and SABIN were incorrect. TABUN is a nerve gas but didn’t fit with DISLIKE at 55dn.
On a brighter note, if you have seen the film The Devil Wears Prada starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, you might remember a scene at a function where the junior assistants have to provide their boss with the names of any famous folk before conversation begins.
This is the role of a nomenclator, or ‘name crier’. In Ancient Roman times a slave announced visitors and prompted his master with the names of people encountered.
Nomenclature was a list of names, then a system of naming and now means the ‘Terminology used in a particular field’. Clue 41dn required the answer NOMENCLATURE not NOMENCULTURE.
No pain no gain, and the Stinker can be a bit of a ‘Painful journey’ (120dn), or via DOLOROSA at times, but of course is always a very rewarding experience. A few entries had DOLOROMA. The Via Dolorosa, or ‘Way of Sorrow’, was the path that Jesus followed to his crucifixion. Oxford also lists via dolorosa without initial capitals.
Mighty Mega clue 45ac ‘Lens opening’ needed APERTURE not APETTURE and 100ac was GAWK not GAUK for ‘Gape stupidly’.
Clue 106ac was ‘An OLDIE but a goodie’ – some of you didn’t remember this expression and put an ODDIE, perhaps thinking of TV Goodie, Bill Oddie.
We accepted both DEMILITARISED and DEMILITARIZED at 159ac (but not DEMILATARISED) and both FAMILIARISE and FAMILIARIZE for 132dn. At 58ac ‘Drench’ could be either DOWSE or DOUSE.
A slip of the pen at 76dn saw a couple of you put RENIMISCE instead of REMINISCE for ‘Remember’ – oops! Similarly BLANCMAGNE appeared at 36dn when BLANCMANGE was correct for ‘Wobbly dessert’.
Enjoy the new MEGA! challenges, with best wishes to all for a happy and peaceful festive season.
Fishy Folk? Collection 34 Contests
Last modified on 2010-01-15 02:44:34 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
At 132ac in the Stinker the clue ‘Ramses III’s foes had the answer SEA PEOPLES, but who were these folk with the intriguing name?
Much of the story is hidden in the depths of history, but Egypt was invaded a few times by groups from across the Mediterranean. It is thought they were perhaps displaced people fleeing famine, hence were spurred on by a desperate need to find a new home.
Ramses III recorded how he defeated the invasion in 1191 BC, “Those who came forward together upon the sea, the full flame was in front of them at the river mouths, and a stockade of lances sur-rounded them on the shore.” The Egyptians were not known for their seamanship but Ramses had archers lined along the shore, shooting out barrages of arrows, before sending out ships with grappling hooks to haul in the enemy craft.
While they were completely defeated by Ramses III, others of the Sea Peoples did manage to settle in Palestine.
The next clue along was a lot more whimsical in nature. ‘Prancing clumsily’ 136ac was GALUMPHING, a wonderful word that entered our language thanks to Lewis Carroll. It is thought to be a mix of gallop and triumph. Carroll was very fond of using these portmanteau words, a name he also coined for them. Other examples are slithy and chortle.
The clue at 124dn ‘Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de …’ wanted POMPADOUR in answer. For twenty years this lady, who gave her name to a hairstyle, had great influence in France and was a patron to artists and writers.
Coming off this was OGHAM at 167ac for ‘Ancient Celtic alphabet’. This earliest form of writing in Irish used straight lines and notches. Ogham inscriptions can still be seen, particularly in Kerry and Cork, and especially on standing stones.
We had a few queries about ‘Dice’ as a clue for CUBE. Die was the original singular form but, probably because of the confusion this word caused, dice has been used as a singular noun as well as a plural. Its meaning of a small cube (singular) is first in modern dictionaries.
‘Downward slope’ at 164ac was DECLIVITY not DECLINITY, which appeared a few times. For 217ac ‘Mountaineering stick’ ALPENSTOCK was correct. A few entries had ALPINSTOCK.
Clue 286ac left some wondering. The answer was RUBRIC. Ancient Romans highlighted important events in red on manuscripts and this gives us the phrase a red-letter day. RUBRIC was the name of the red earth used for colouring.
The meaning of rubric has stretched over time to mean direction or rules, or ‘Document heading’ as we had in this Stinker.
Finally for the Stinker 298ac ‘Arranging, … up’ was TEEING and not TYEING.
In the Giant Cryptic 43dn was quite a test if you don’t know of the hot chilli sauce TABASCO. Here’s how you unravel the clue; ‘Running bar total (TAB) as (AS) company (CO) gets on the sauce’. TOBACCO was incorrect.
Once you had this then 43ac ‘What you may be in when overcome with emotion’ TEARS slipped easily into place. If you didn’t get either of them you may have been left crying!
In the Collection Contest 134dn had some thinking. ‘Transplants’ had nothing to do with medical genius in replacing body parts, rather it was more about gardening or migration. The answer was UPROOTS.
‘Howl’ at 209dn was BAWL not BAUL or BALL and 299ac was SENATOR not SENATER.
In the Monster Colossus we had a few phone calls about 66dn as many thought ‘Indian woman’s forehead mark’ was TILAK, but this didn’t fit. You could make note of BINDI in case it comes up again. The word comes from the Hindi language.
‘Self-importantly’ 233dn needed to be POMPOUSLY and not POMPOSITY to be correct. The latter also made 268ac impossible to solve. ‘Bounce-back’ was UPTURN.
I must wish you all the very best for the Christmas New Year season. May all the words you have learnt from our crosswords be on the tip of your tongue to impress friends and family. We are looking forward to entertaining you with more brain-teasing clues in 2010.
