The DA Trippers

4,5 down: C+H-AxN+C-E? (10, 4)

Here’s a fine example of why DA still remains a thrill despite how powerless he can make you feel at times. C+H-AxN+C-E = calculated risk speaks for itself.

13 down: One buffoon rewound before a Spielberg movie disrupted movie cut worth savouring (5, 6)

Intricate clue that I greatly enjoyed working out, albeit retrospectively. One = i, buffoon = nong, Spielberg movie = ET and movie = film so that one buffoon rewound before a Spielberg movie disrupted movie = filet mignon = cut worth savouring.

20 down: Wireless bra-wearer of the male persuasion? (7)

Anything prurient always makes me laugh, and this time we’ve got wireless = trannie = bra-wearer of the male persuasion.

28 across: Italian meter-man draw amps near the electric leads (5)

What’s special here is DA’s use of words within the same semantic range. Here, draw amps near the electric leads = Dante = Italian meter-man.

1 across: So-called nerve shown by single alpine heroine (5)

I’m supposing alpine heroine = heidi even though I don’t know why, just like I don’t know why so-called nerve shown by single = heidi.

9 across: Love tie-clip reflection (3)

Here, love = nil. Other than that, I’ve got nothing.

10 across: 1000-kilo van has elastic arm (11)

Kalashnikov = arm, but the rest I can’t explain.

12 across: Leave senseless tenants astride a fence (6)

Leave senseless = deafen, which I suppose means tenants astride a fence = deafen makes little sense to me.

24 across: Help outspoken one proverbially pleased by cruel blow (6, 5)

Cruel blow = sucker punch, but I can’t work out the rest.

2 down: Unorganised assassin edges away, cracked (3-8)

I’m supposing ill-equipped = unorganised, but I can’t figure anything else out.

3 down: Two almost abandoned flash notion (7)

Does inkling = flash notion, or does inkling = notion? Either way, I can’t explain the rest.

8 down: Quiet about happening in itchy year? (7)

Here, itchy year = seventh (as in seven-year itch), but the rest beats me.

14 down: Rearrange a place for subconscious thought? (4, 6)

I’m supposing a place for subconscious thought = back burner, but rearrange = back burner? What?

19 down: Skied ball he’d altered (7)

Altered = morphed, so I’m supposing he’d = hed, but how does skied ball = morp?

23 down: Petty crim and illegal bookie meeting at four (4)

Petty crim = spiv and four = iv, but I don’t get illegal bookie = sp.

25 down: Mongrel PM can go (3)

Mongrel = cur, but I have nothing for PM can go = cur.

(Written in fineliner are my failures)

This one made me want to cry.

I was already asleep when RC texted me for a late DA on Friday night, and the remainder of the weekend was too busy for me to share the cryptic joy, so I attempted it solo over the last few days.

I feel as if my powers are failing me. Despite its being carried around in my back pocket most everywhere I went, I got out little more than a quarter of the crossword. And despite having the answers in front of me, there’s still plenty I can’t explain.

Help!

1 across: Battleship names distorted (9)

In what is becoming a disturbing trend, DA has been using bits of whole words as instructions (this often happens with words like backdown or, as we will see in the next nastiness example, with desktop, but what DA is starting to do is getting crazy). In this one, battle is the anagram signifier, so that battleship names = misshapen = distorted. If this continues, and starts being a part of more difficult clues, we can pretty much forget about getting anything out.

13 down: It is crazy, perhaps, for desktop to be clean (9)

This is something I’ve never seen before in a cryptic, and I wilt at the thought of its structure being followed in future. Here, crazy = insane, so that it is is put in the word sane, giving it is crazy, perhaps, for desktop = sanitised = to be clean. But what’s mental here is that the synonym for crazy, insane, ends up being an instruction, and that instruction is only partially within the word itself!

Can you imagine how difficult these crosswords will become if DA really starts to let loose with constructions like these?

From his blog, which is quite amusing, Stephen Fry brings to light the following piece of anagrammatic wonder:

“Laptop machines”, by one of those preposterous twists of circumstance that make you wonder who is running things and why they haven’t got anything better to do, just happens to be an anagram of “Apple Macintosh”. If an anagram is a derivative rearrangement of essential elements, then one might be disposed to argue that such has been their rise in influence and prestige that almost every new digital product seems to be an anagram of Apple.

10 across: Hawk or Magpie spun ball’s outside point to control ball… (askance) (7)

To control ball = dribble, but nothing else makes sense.

6 across: Revolutionary ran to embrace one Zeno disciple (5)

One Zeno disciple = stoic, or, more likely, Zeno disciple = stoic. The rest, though?

8 down: Twisted bachelor-ess action sequence in The Dish?

The Dish = casserole, and bachelor-ess without the b and h is an anagram of casserole, but how that all works is beyond me.

4 down: They are common students, wearing beanies (9)

Wearing beanies = ebeians, which leaves students = pl so that students, wearing beanies = plebeians = they are common, but why does students = pl?

22 across: In Sydney, train horse to drop tail after smack (7)

Google tells me that a tangara is a type of train used in Sydney (this should technically be a DA Teaching, but I don’t find it interesting enough to bother reporting), which makes In Sydney, train = tangara. Everything else, however, I can’t work out (although mustang = horse could have something to do with the explanation).

13 down: It is crazy, perhaps, for desktop to be clean (9)

To be clean = sanitised, but I can’t quite make out the rest.

(highlighted clues were unsolved until Saturday’s Age was consulted)

RC and I met Saturday morning at Il Fornaio on the benches that make for a comfortable solving of a crossword. And comfortable it indeed proved to be, although perhaps too comfortable; slapping our heads in astonishment is all we could do for not having solved the following:

19 across: Hardest crank gear (7)

Because we were both thinking it was a double-meaning clue, we missed the easiest of anagrams: hardest crank = threads = gear.

Despite that, we managed to get through the crossword pretty well. Nothing was particularly worthy of note about it, although it was great to hear from RC that N?, a DA neophyte, had managed to solve a few clues on her own the previous night before boarding a plane and heading to Laos.

May we all one day excite ourselves with a DA before boarding a plane to places far away.

9 across: Article on ovine look, plus model beef on journey, perhaps (3, 2, 5, 3)

The reference to ovine and beef in the same clue, which leads one to think of both terms within the same semantic range, is a particularly clever way DA has of creating clues. Here, article = a, on = re, ovine = wether, look = eye and model = t, all of which gives article on ovine look, plus model = are we there yet = beef on journey, perhaps (in the sense of a complaint).

12 down: Rampant socialite a donkey, according to Obama’s mob (5, 6)

Funny and topical! Rampant socialite = party animal = a donkey, according to Obama’s mob (a donkey is the Democratic party’s emblem).

6 down: Escapes seabird, fusty in sound (5, 4)

Nice sounds-like clue. Seabird = tern and fusty = stale so that seabird, fusty in sound = turns tail = escapes.

5 down: Bleats swamp under-performer in the Atlantic? (7)

I love the containment indicator here, swamp, so that we get bleats = baas, under-performer = ham and bleats swamp under-performer = bahamas = in the Atlantic.

5 across: Yet beaming cute carnage (8)

RC again came up with the goods and had this nasty one making sense when he calmly proffered cute = cut ‘e’. Then we had ourselves the answer: yet = but, beaming = cheery, cute = cut ‘e’, which gave yet beaming cute = butchery = carnage.

Even though we got this one out, it’s still mighty nasty.

14 across: 5-across (butchery) rubbing out $1000 for credit (10)

The answer is massacring, which should account for either butchery or more likely butchery rubbing out. The rest remains unexplained.

21 across: Savage dog returns about mating period (6)

This one is so confusing that I even came up with brutal = savage, but I couldn’t bring myself to write it in because I didn’t the faintest clue as to why.