Susurrating | desolate place! (4)
[homophone] [{the} STICKS] /and/ [{river} STYX]
&Lit! -- the same clue entirely which can be read in two distinct ways and both lead to the same solution.
Menacing sound | from a | Great | Owl (5)
[GROWL] [=] [GR.] [OWL]
Generics oftentimes | cache | burning branches (5,6)
[STORE BRANDS] = [STORE] [BRANDS]
In the beginnings, | to have evidence in something theological | is | to have faith in God (6)
[initials] [To Have Evidence In Something Theological] [=] [THEIST]
Locked away, | Jezebel ate dinner | after it was scheduled (7)
[hidden] [jezeBEL ATE Dinner] = [BELATED]
 LAT |  Seattle Times 7/8/14 sNYT |
Cryptic clues today include container, dismemberment, double definition, subtraction, and for the second day in a row, a rare &Lit! .
Two with solutions in LAT:
Can you be out of just one type? (4)
Scribes could read one, learning lore primarily! (6)
Three from the Seattle Times:
Losing his head, he barks at chests (4)
Covert agents made Nina take New Jersey with only two knights instead of three (5)
Talk re: oughta use an e-rope on a ranch (5)
Owen
ReplyDeleteIn re the clues I posted on Sunday, which you critiqued yesterday. I guess my first general point is that I am making these a little more challenging than I otherwise might given that the answer exists in one of the grids. The second point is who is the target audience? Since no-one else has posted anything except for a couple of early Anon offerings, I assume I have an audience of one. Maybe I’ll do a mix in future, on the off-chance that anyone else attempts them. Here are my specific responses to your critiques:
Clue 1: Country lacks rain-organizer (5).
Critique 1: might work in the Guardian, too vague for anywhere in America.
Response 1: A flippant response might be that Argentina IS in America…. the last time I checked. But seriously, I did give you the missing letters; and the desired word, AGENT, is in the same order in ArGENTina.
Clue 2: Country place-name (7).
Critique 2: 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.
Response 2: Maybe you are missing something. ECUADOR obviously is Spanish for EQUATOR. There are not many countries I know of that are named after their planetary location.
Clue 3: Old country lacks return of graceful fool (3).
Critique 3: Maybe the Guardian, unlikely in the Telegraph, and not at all in America!
Response 3: Well, I assumed your first guess for FOOL would be ASS, and OLD COUNTRY might suggest ASSYRIA; and I have clued YRIA in the correct (reverse) order.
Clue 4: Country ends strategy training (5).
Critique 4: The only one I could solve, so probably okay just about anywhere, even a neophytes blog like this one.
Response 4: OK, I will mix ‘n’ match in future
Clue 5: God’s country misses Cuban president (3)
Critique 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.
Response 3: You will find BES in the sNYT at 46 DOWN, crossing the BRITISH PUB SONG. I don’t know how it was clued, but assumed it was clued as God as it was the only BES I could find. Cuban President only gives you 2 choices for letters to add: RAUL or CASTRO. I did think about giving an extra geopolitical hint for this one, but decided I liked the misdirection “God’s country” too much. Looking back, I see that there a LOT of 3-letter words in that grid, so I should have been more considerate
P.S. Is there anyone (else) out there???
Now to your clues:
ReplyDeleteCan you be out of just one type? (4)
This one has me stumped, for the moment. I will revisit later.
Scribes could read one, learning lore primarily! (6)
Very nice indeed. In your intro, you did not mention an acrostic, though.
Losing his head, he barks at chests (4)
I think this clue is cleaner without the word “he”.
Covert agents made Nina take New Jersey with only two knights instead of three (5)
Aha, so that is the origin of the word! Did not know it was also the plural form. Can’t figure the knights though - I can see one N instead of two.
Talk re: oughta use an e-rope on a ranch (5)
Well corralled. Very broad American vowel there – I needed to stretch my jaw to get there; but I appreciate the novel pointer to alternative speling.
NC
OK so LAT1: I think I have the answer now: a play on a phrase that uses the plural form, here singularized as indicated, followed by definition. I'm glad I sorted that one out.
ReplyDeleteNC
NC
My apologies for some not-understood glitch that kept me from seeing your latter postings yesterday until past midnight. Here are my comments on the clues you set yesterday:
ReplyDeleteLAT1: Senate majority flirts with changing ends over leak (4,3).
[SLIP OUT] comes from the numeration, and "leak" isn't a bad direct for it, but I can't see where the rest fits.
The next three charades were all fairly decent clues!
LAT2: Half a dozen | fire | up | the line (1-4).
[SIX] [AX] [reverse] = [X-AXIS]
SAT1: Hexagonal tessellations | persuade | wife | to straighten hair (9).
[HONEYCOMB] [=] [HONEY] [COMB]
SAT2: Fail to win, | gain | nothing, | and | give up hope (5).
[DROP] [+] [0] [=] [DROOP]
SAT3: Pulled erotic material when one hundred Romans failed to show up (4).
I have no idea on this one.
Just 3 today. All from SAT.
ReplyDeleteTunes on, tuned in, for weightless vehicle (7).
A quarter of the pack is declared fixed (5).
Intense desire to sweep camera away from such flamboyance (4).
NC
Owen
ReplyDeleteLAT1: Senate majority flirts with changing ends over leak (4,3).
Senate majority = 51= LI (I used this the other day)
Flirts with = POUTS => LI-POUTS
Changing ends: LIPOUT-S => S-LIPOUT
I agree, that was rather convoluted.
SAT3: Pulled erotic material when one hundred Romans failed to show up (4).
This one was much more straightforward. The answer is TORE.
Pulled=TORE
EROTIC (material) when one hundred Romans (= I-C) fail to show =>
EROTIC minus IC = EROT; "up" = reverse => TORE
NC
Nice Cuppa: You ask about a target audience. When I mention this on other blogs, I stress that it's for beginners. And I only intend to discuss the American variation because that's all I understand. I'll sometimes mention differences that I'm aware of, but I can only present what I know myself, and I don't know British crosswords well at all. There are a lot of British crossword blogs out there already, but American ones are rarer, so that's the gap I'm trying to fill.
ReplyDeletePollsters will tell you, and I've learned from my own experience, that each active participant in any forum represents several hundred lurkers who for whatever reason don't post. The busiest day here so far (and this is still very new and unpublicized) was 71, so you are representing at least 70 other people. I'm lucky to have found even one commenter before we get to the 500 mark!
That you continue to use British standards is frustrating to me, but at least it gives me a chance to test myself, and point out to those lurking silently some of the differences between the two sides of the ocean! I wish I knew your past experience with crosswords, but I hope with time you can pick up more of the differences, too.
No excuse about glitches today, I was just to occupied in the real world.
ReplyDeleteWonder of wonders, I solved all three of your entries (I think)!
Tunes on, | tuned in, | for | weightless vehicle (7)
[AIRS] [HIP] [=] [AIRSHIP]
"Tunes on" would be a bit vague by American standards, and quibblers would fault the definition of AIRSHIP, but still close to reasonable.
A quarter of the pack | is | declared | fixed (5).
[{card suit} SPADE] [=] [homophone] [SPAYED]
Quite good, even in America!
Intense desire | to sweep camera | away from | such flamboyance (4)
[ACHE] = [PAN] [minus from] [PANACHE]
Good. I'd probably spell out PANACHE rather than use a synonym, but many setters would think flamboyance fine.