Clues by Paul and Grid by Absolution
Enter the prize draw by 30 June.
The background for this puzzle is a Steve Buissinne photo of honey being poured via a spoon into a dish.
This puzzle by Paul uses a conventional 7x5x5 grid by Absolution and celebrates a hundredth (but not 2,000th) birthday and some of the centenarian’s parts. A jumble of the centenarian’s name appears in nine coloured cells over layers one and four; a thematic part appears in the coloured cells in the middle layer, associated with a clued seven-letter entry; finally a twelve-letter collector of disused parts can be read elsewhere, and is thematically preceded by a clued five-letter entry. Solvers must include all three of these with their entries. Clues are numbered in alphabetical order of their solutions.
The second thematic part is a jumble (3,5,4,1) of the green cells in the middle layer and thematically follows Day 11. The twelve-letter collector of disused parts thematically follows Day 31 and can be read in the second layer.
I can reveal that this grid was part of a cunning scheme by the 3D editors to have a terrible puzzle that could be written off for tax purposes. A flop! That’s putting it mildly. We’ve found a disaster, a catastrophe, an outrage! A guaranteed-to-close-in-one-night beauty. But…instead we have a splendid puzzle, full of wit appropriate to the theme.
How could this happen? We were so careful. We picked the wrong theme, the wrong grid designer, the wrong setter. Where did it all go right?
In the words of the centenarian:
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”
Day 2
Brief announcement of an Oscar, for example (7)
Announcement indicates that we are looking for a homophone of the indefinite article followed by a word for an award such as an Oscar. The definition is brief (as in inform). Note that there are two homophones which fit all the checked letters, but only one of them can mean “brief”. The correct answer does not include a Z. [NI]
Day 3
Cold one, a son of Zophah (5)
“Cold one” is a fairly common expression meaning a specific drink. Follow it with a, and you should get a rather obscure biblical character and son of Zophah. [NI]
Day 5
Windsor has gagged the ultimate in royal gossips (5)
Obviously nothing to do with the Royal family. No, this was a very popular actress in films and later on the telly. Take her nickname and add the letter L to give another word for gossips. [GS]
Day 8
Funny character recalled, father has left me a novel (7)
Find another word for a funny character and put this backwards (recalled). Then think about ‘father has left me a’ which indicates that you should take away a short word for father from me (the setter) and add an a to the end to give you a novel that fits the theme. [JP]
Day 10
Imagine beer, but no pub (5)
Here, imagine, in the sense of not being sure you know the correct answer. Take the name of the famous Irish stout (8 letters) and remove the three consecutive letters meaning pub. [GS]
Day 13
Bedridden? Wonder about medicine initially when tucked in – no need for that, setter declares! (1,2,4)
Nice little surface story. To unravel it you need to find a short word to describe someone who is bedridden. Inside this (tucked in) you need a short word for wonder to go round medicine initially. This will tell you why the setter declares there is no need for medical help! [JP]
Day 17
Stevedore eventually crossing the Atlantic reportedly (5)
Not a dock worker stowing away at long last! Think of a word for eventually and change the spelling to how it might sound in America to give an archaic word for a stevedore. [JP]
Day 22
Cherished item, ring adorning finger, finally (5)
Ring, here, meaning the sound of church bells and include the last letter of finger. PS Glenn Miller had a string of them. [GS]
Day 24
White supremacists’ ovation – socko show – Broadway couldn’t go lower? (5)
Note that this is a down clue, so “couldn’t go lower” indicates the final letters of the previous words, to give an answer meaning white. [NI]
Day 27
A very hot, wrinkly Jewish actor’s nickname (5)
Wrinkly suggests an anagram (take a single letter for very) to give the nickname by which this Jewish actor is known. She is one of the stars of the excellent film Tuner (currently in cinemas). [NI]
I am grateful to the other members of the Hints & Tips team: Garry Stripling (Gin) and Jim Pennington (Philostrate).
Happy solving!
Nick Inglis (etc)
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