Pitcher of curdled milk | served by | Saint Amos (6)
[{seller of yogurt, john} STAMOS] [=] [ST] [AMOS]
The wordplay charade is practically trivial on this one, it's the direct that's tricky!
Obit for asp victim: _____ & Hearse | ? (4)
[HISS] [pun]
As I warned yesterday (before I knew this was coming up!) I treat riddles as &Lit! clues, all one part instead of the normal two.
Discomfited | abashment: | lost bet | to | witch doctor (6)
[anagram] [AbASHMeNt] [minus BET] [=] [SHAMAN]
Foreboding | mood, | in retrospect (4)
[DOOM] = [MOOD] [reversed]
Tailless | Taft | was in | sane | Southwestern city (5,2)
[minus last letter] [TAFt] [inside] [SANE] = [SANTA FE]
 LAT |  Seattle Times 7/7/14 sNYT |
Cryptic clues today include an &Lit! ("and literally so"), acrostic, charade, hidden, etc.
Three from LAT:
Susurrating desolate place! (4)
Menacing sound from a Great Owl (5)
Generics oftentimes cache burning branches (5,6)
Two from Seattle Times:
In the beginnings, to have evidence in something theological is to have faith in God (6)
Locked away, Jezebel ate dinner after it was scheduled (7)
Owen
ReplyDeleteI'll just get my clues from yesterday out of the way first.
Country lacks rain-organizer (5). ArGENTina lacks rain=> AGENT
Country place-name (7). ECUADOR (self-explanatory).
Old country lacks return of graceful fool (3). ASSyria - lacks AIRY backwards=>ASS
Country ends strategy training (5). (Easy one thrown in. EGY(PT = Physical Training).
God’s country misses Cuban president (3). BE-laru-S lacks RAUL Castro=>BES
NC
LAT1: Susurrating desolate place! (4)
ReplyDeleteI assume this refers ultimately to the Greek place. In which case it is an interesting clue on many levels. Susurrate seems to be a chiefly literary word (!) ; maybe it has gained recent popularity from on-line games (where it is consistently misspelled as suSSurate - which might be doubly whispering, I suppose). So I assume you are using susurrate to indicate sounds-like desolate, or desolate place –take your pick-up-sticks… and then the answer place is also desolate, although there are many souls there...and at least one ferryman. And finally, a river may be said to susurrate, so I am enjoying this whisperin’ clue more and more ……
LAT2: Menacing sound from a Great Owl (5)
Back to terra firma. Minor quibble: there is no indicator that Great should be abbreviated. How about “ Menacing sounds from the Lesser Grey-Spotted bird, at times”.
LAT3: Generics oftentimes cache burning branches (5,6)
I had not seen that usage of the second word before; a learning moment for me. The phrase is rather awkward though, as burning branches would be hard to hide for future use. How about “ Generics often contain identifying marks”.
SAT1: In the beginnings, to have evidence in something theological is to have faith in God (6)
This is a nice acrostic. Just 3 quibbles. (i) One of your acrostic words begins with the same etymological root as the answer. (ii) The opening phrase starts to suggest an alternative route to the answer. (iii) The definition sounds a bit off. “One who believes in God”, OK; but “faith in God” would be the -----m variant, I would have thought.
SAT2: Locked away, Jezebel ate dinner after it was scheduled (7)
An appropriate clue to end with. A clandestine affair, for example.
Here are my offerings: Mostly charades; one double-definition.
ReplyDeleteLAT1: Senate majority flirts with changing ends over leak (4,3).
LAT2: Half a dozen fire up the line (1-4).
SAT1: Hexagonal tessellations persuade wife to straighten hair (9).
SAT2: Fail to win, gain nothing, and give up hope (5).
SAT3: Pulled erotic material when one hundred Romans failed to show up (4).
NC: 1) might work in the Guardian, too vague for anywhere in America.
ReplyDelete2) Not even in England! A clue must not only be parse-able, but also specific. Once properly parsed, it must point to a single unique answer. Unless your "self-explanatory" means something I don't see, there is nothing in your clue to make ECUADOR a better answer than EGYPT, NUBIA, or USA-USA.
3) Maybe the Guardian, unlikely in the Telegraph, and not at all in America!
4) The only one I could solve, so probably okay just about anywhere, even a neophytes blog like this one.
5) I've never heard of BES, but looked it up and found that was legit. It also wasn't in the puzzles yesterday. BESO was, the Spanish word for kiss. That aside, this would be too vague for American or any British ones less difficult than the Guardian.