487 Monk

To find the original blog for this puzzle, as usual, I googled 15^2 for a likely looking light, choosing SHAVUOT (27ac). You can do the same search and find that the word is a bit of a speciality of Monk’s. Anyway, a hard but enjoyable puzzle – after my first pass through the across clues I only had one light in, but the down clues proved more amenable and the whole puzzle fell slowly but surely. I had to guess at the existence of the Scottish rock band at 8d, but the crossing letters made it fairly clear. I was glad the original blog covered 17ac, another clue I could fill in but for which I didn’t have the relevant piece of knowledge to follow the wordplay. (The straight reading is this novel by Mrs Gaskell.) 17ac also reveals a bit of a hidden theme.

The clues the original blogger didn’t cover:

Across

13. NET: NeEd To.
21. MARK MY WORDS: d.d.
23. POT: <TOP.
28. SUN-UP: d.d.
29. EQUITABLY: E + QUIT + ABLY.

Down

1. NELSON: d.d.
7. NEBULA: {BLUE} in NA (Na = sodium).
8. NAZARETH: d.d., Nazareth being thisScottish rock band.
22. REIGNS: “reins”.
26. OOPS: (l)OOPS.

i486 by Math

Again an oldie see here http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/26/independent-6478math-affects-monty-burns-style-voice-excellent/ by NeilDubya.

Saw the theme very quickly and was looking for thematics.

Here’s the missing answers..

Across

1	MAD	Double def, US comic with goofy kid on the cover
18	OVEREGG	OVER EGG where you might hen(layer) to be
Down
3	SELLOTAPE	[SOLEPLATE]*
5	NO SHOWS	CDD
6	FIBRE	B(lack) in FIRE
7	EARLIEST	CDD, not my favourite IMO
15	MASS MEDIA	Service=MASS and CD
19	GRENADA	ERG rev + NADA (Nothing)
22	LESSEE	LESS (take away) + E(nvelop)E
24	LARCH	L(arge) + ARCH

 

485 Dac

Time constrains me from doing more today than putting a quick link to where this puzzle was blogged back in 2007. Quite tough – I haven’t had time to finish it yet …

i 484 by Virgilius

Original blog here http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/17/independent-6474virgilius-magic-numbers/

Missing answers

10 Range Double def

14 Curve – V in CURE

15 TERMS – DD

16 ADDITIONS -[I DID NOT]* in AS

20 SHAPE Cryptic def with 18

22 OMEGA – 0 + MEGA

Down

2 URN Hidden

3 THESEUS – U in THESES

4 PLACE NAME – Cryptic/Double def

8 NUMBERS – CD

18 GROUPED – [PROUP EG]*

20 SULTANA [NUT ALAS]*

21 EASTER – E + ASTER

483 Quixote

The original blog for today’s puzzle alluded to tricky wordplay, but it seemed to me it was the slightly more obscure items, both words and general knowledge, that make this puzzle quite hard. Enjoyable as it all came together, despite the odd lapse.

NMS didn’t cover all the clues – here are the remainder.

Across

13. REIGNS: G in REINS.
21. TOURNEYS: NEY in TOURS.
24. ETHOS: (Dors)ET HOS(pitality).
25. DIPHTHONG: e.d.

Down

1. MOISTEN: {NO ITEMS}.
5. CAUGHT ON THE HOP: CAUGHT ON + THE + HOP.
6. LATHS: H in LATS.
15. LIE DOGGO: I in {LODGE} + GO.
16. STAYED ON: {TEA SYNOD}.
18. TUNISIA: 2xI (at different places) in {AUNTS}.
20. APOSTLE: ST in A POLE.

481 Tees

I was about to sit down and do today’s crossword when a friend of a friend, who is visiting from Sweden, rang to say he and his son were in town. So I have spent the day showing them the essential tourist sites of Cambridge, which are not too many and can be done in an afternoon.

Anyway, back to this pleasant and mostly untroubling little number by Tees, first seen in 2007 here. I see that back in the day they didn’t believe in blogging all the answers – so here are the ones that weren’t given first time round, but the original blogger covered my clue of the day, 20dn: ‘Aristotle is going out with girl (7)’.

Across

5. ABOARD: A + BOARD.
12. TALL ORDER: LORD in TALE + R.
13. ABOUT: A + BOUT.
14. OPPOSER: OP + POSER.
18. ROTUND: TUN in ROD.
20. LEARNED: L + EARNED. L = pound sterling = money is a rather weak device, but familiar to anyone who does the Evening Standard whose setters are addicted to it.
22. STRIP: d.d.
23. NORWEGIAN: NO + {WEARING}.
25. TIMES PAST: {PM STATE IS}.

Down

1. LOCATION: (O + CAT) in LION – another feline. Neat.
3. AT CROSS PURPOSES: a very weak d.d.
4. INSIDER: {DESIRIN’}.
8. DONATE: ON in DATE.
9. MADRID: MAD + RID.
15. PROGRAMME: PRO + GRAMME. I first thought of ‘pronounce’ and spent a few minutes trying to explain away the N. Then ‘propound’ came to mind – strange how they all have units of weight …
24. INNER: (S)INNER.

480 Scorpion

As hard as the original blogger said it was, I’m still only halfway through… When the NW corner popped into place within minutes I thought we were in for an easy ride, but swiftly became bogged down. A win for Scorpion this time, I suspect.

http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/19/independent-6476scorpion-eric-and-ernie/

479 Dac

Steady progress with this one (as you expect with Dac) before I got stuck on 14d, 20ac, 15d and 29ac. The last 3 I got in the end, but 14d I had to cheat on. A bit disappointed to see it was one those clues where both the cryptic and answer are insanely obscure words.

http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/18/independent-6475-by-dac-top-quality/

478 Merlin

I flew through the top half of this, but gradually slowed down with the rest, and got bogged down a little in the SE corner. Even after reading the old blog, I’ve still got no idea where the extra E comes from in the anagram for 26ac (Who’s moving apart, exit to Spain?) I was a bit dubious about the way 18ac was defined (notwithstanding being split up), but I’m warming to it now.

http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/16/independent-6473merlin/

477 Dac

A little more chewy than the usual Dac, but got there in the end, after I’d rectified 3d where I didn’t spend too long looking at the anagram and lobbed in TABLE SALT. Here’s the old blog:

http://fifteensquared.net/2007/07/11/independent-6469dac/