Notes for Azed 2,723

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,723 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

There were several straightforward anagrams in this puzzle, which contributed to a rating a little below the middle of the difficulty spectrum. I didn’t spot any problems this week, and it was an enjoyable solve, albeit some of the surface readings were perhaps not up there with Azed’s best.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 29d, “Hide in shower (4)”. This is a double definition clue, where the solution answers to both ‘hide’ and ‘shower’. The point of interest is that little word ‘in’ which joins the two definitions: it is accepted that words and phrases can be used to link definition and wordplay (eg DEF coming from WP, WP is DEF), but what about two definitions? While I prefer to see double definition clues (and clues generally, truth be told) without such links, I think the key here is that the two words defined are not the same word – they are different words which happen to share the same spelling. While this may sound a bit like Eric Morecambe’s description of his piano playing, it justifies one of the definitions (indeed, either of them) being treated as wordplay, which is exactly how they are viewed in themed puzzle with gimmicks which affect the ‘wordplay’. So while I might have preferred ‘Hide bucket’, I think that the clue as written, or the converse form ‘Hide from downpour’, are absolutely fine.

Across

1a Songbird died, old, in a flash (8)
A two-letter abbreviation for ‘died’ and a single-letter one for ‘old’ are contained by a word for a flash or momentary gleam. The bird’s unusual name derives from a free rendering of its call, originally written as 3-1-7.

7a Limestone once universal in English river (4)
The English river which contains the usual abbreviation for ‘universal’ is to be seen flowing past The Backs, while the answer is an obsolete sense of a Scots word, and should, strictly speaking, therefore be indicated by ‘Scottish limestone once’.

10a A Muslim leader almost unravelled the soul of the cosmos? (10, 2 words)
A (2,4) phrase for ‘a Muslim leader’ (an officiating priest of a mosque) is followed by a five-letter word for ‘unravelled’ missing its last letter (‘almost’). The answer is (5,5).

17a Crumbs I caught acting in cuirass (6)
A 3+1+1+1 charade comprising an interjection of surprise, a word from the clue, and two abbreviations.

21a A prince accepts his father hanging? (5)
Here you have to convert the prince’s father (ie ‘his father’) into a singe-letter abbreviation which is contained (accepted) by A (from the clue) and a three-letter word for a prince which is commonplace in cryptic crosswords if nowhere else, and can also be indicated by ‘head’.

25a Scottish speaker introducing fashion for faux fur? (6)
The ‘Scottish speaker’ translates as a Scots word for the part of the body through which speech emanates, and it is followed by (‘introducing’) a three-letter word for ‘fashion’.

28a Unusual stage device to get discussion going (8, 2 words)
A (5,3) phrase in the wordplay leads to a (4,4) solution, which sounds as though it might be a pitfall for a leading member of the cast, which I suppose it could. The device in question would seem to resemble a giant version of those tea-towel holders that grip the material using several wedge-shaped segments, placed on its side with the (giant) tea-towel removed.

32a A musical group and how it stands, for rock of a kind? (10)
The second part of the wordplay here has similarities to the old favourite ‘having retired’ meaning ‘in bed’ and thus to be cryptically interpreted as ‘contained by BED’. Here the ‘how it stands’ leads to a (2,1,4) phrase describing how the band might stand (think Steps performing 5-6-7-8) that tells you where a combination of the letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter term for a musical group are to be placed.

Down

1d What Gandhi was for many, soul fully soaring (4)
A pair of two-letter names are given to the two elements, believed by the Ancient Egyptians to make up the soul, which separated after you died. One part flew off every morning to keep watch over your living family, while the other part flew happily away to enjoy life in the Land of Two Fields. At night, they returned home to your tomb to rest up for the next heavenly day. It is the family-watching half which is required here, to be followed by a reversal (‘soaring’) of a two-letter word meaning ‘fully’.

2d Plant with medicinal properties? Yellow nettle also reared (10)
A two-letter word from heraldry for the tincture gold or yellow is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘[to] nettle’ and a reversal (‘reared’) of a synonym for ‘also’.

4d A threat to e.g. lettuces, top topped? (5)
A six-letter word meaning ‘culmination’ or ‘top’ is deprived of its first letter (‘topped’) to produce the name given to one of them slimy critters that attacks your flowers and vegetables with a vengeance but leaves the weeds completely unscathed.

5d Fine pottery from Italy, found near the sea, timeless (5)
In 2,694 we had this clue: ‘Oriental porcelain I found by the sea, timeless (5)’. This close relation has the usual abbreviation for Italy being followed by the same eight-letter word for ‘found near the sea’ without the consecutive letters TIME (‘timeless’).

8d What may afflict US patients? Nurse holding employees up (6)
Another crossword staple, a three-letter word for an Indian waiting-maid or nursemaid, contains (‘holding’) a term for ’employees’ which has been reversed (‘up’). Has the nurse also been reversed? We shall never know. The condition affects people outside the US, of course, but the spelling here is specific to that region.

16d Philippic boosting assistance set before family (8)
A three-letter word for assistance is reversed (‘boosting’) and put in front of a word for a family. The transitive form of ‘boosting’ is required, so it’s one of those clues where the subject has to be either the solution or the solver – I’m not overkeen on the idea that it is either.

22d Kid still crawling, Arthur? Oddly good for husband (6, 2 words)
An anagram (‘oddly’) of ARTHUR with the usual abbreviation for ‘good’ replacing that for ‘husband’ leads to a (3,3) term which is shown by Chambers as ‘North American slang’ but which has, I think, made its way across the water.

24d One with splendid hat in story, normal to behold (6)
A 3+3 charade of words meaning ‘normal’ and ‘to behold’ produces the answer. Rudyard Kipling used to tell his daughter Josephine bedtime stories; these had to be told ‘just so’ (exactly as she remembered them) or she would complain. In 1902, they were published as Just So Stories for Little Children. The artist Pestonjee Bomonjee (1851-1938), a ??????, was the first Indian student to study art under Kipling’s father, John  Lockwood Kipling, at the Sir JJ School of Art and Industry, where Kipling senior was working when Rudyard was born. Bomanjee (the only ?????? student at the time) was well acquainted with the adorable little lad, who apparently enjoyed going into the compound at the School of Art and pelting the artists with clay pellets as they worked on their paintings. It is the very same Bomonjee who appears in the story of How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, where he possesses a hat from which ‘the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour.’ He was far from happy when a rhinoceros ate his giant cake (a Superior Comestible), but he got his revenge when the rhinoceros took off his skin on a very hot day to take a dip in the Red Sea.

Presently the ?????? came by and found the skin, and he smiled one smile that ran all round his face two times. Then he danced three times round the skin and rubbed his hands. Then he went to his camp and filled his hat with cake-crumbs, for the ?????? never ate anything but cake, and never swept out his camp. He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants as ever it could possibly hold. Then he climbed to the top of his palm-tree and waited for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on.

Having duly donned his skin, and following a lot of scratching and rubbing, the rhinoceros ended up with a wrinkly skin and a very bad temper. Which shows that not only is it wrong to eat people, but also to eat their cake.

The ??????’s name was Pestonjee Bomonjee, and the Rhinoceros was called Strorks, because he breathed through his mouth instead of his nose.

26d Salad served up – daughter introduced Scottish dyes (5)
A four-letter word for a salad based on a particular vegetable is reversed (‘served up’) and the usual abbreviation for ‘daughter’ inserted (‘introduced’).

(definitions are underlined)