EV 897 Iffy

[dr b]

Allow me to start the thread this week, as I believe DocHH said he'd be, um, off-piste till Wednesday. (No word if he's pist.... - never mind.)

A well-constructed puzzle as always, but the payoff did not do much for me, I'm afraid. In the immortal words of Peggy Lee:

Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

[copelander]

I enjoyed it, DrB, but then I'm a fairly simple soul. Confirm, for me, if you will that's there no highlighting to be done. We've no snow left here in my part of N.I. but I wonder how the mainland friends are. A small glass of Italian white, I think, tonight. I wasn't aware DocHH was away....anywhere nice?

[devadolly]

Good evening N & C'ers. Not had a chance to open the Life Mag yet, and am always worried when you have all done it so quickly, I think my brain must be rotting with old age!! Will settle down with it and Ginger Mog when I have finished this piece. The ice-rink (otherwise known as the top yard) was slowly melting this pm, but with the temps forecast for below freezing in the early hours I imagine Himself will be sliding off to get the papers tomorrow morning. What's it like with you dr b?

[devadolly]

So sorry, Good Evening Copelander - a NZ sauvignon for us tonight, a Xmas pressy from a discerning friend.

[dr b]

no highlighting as far as I can tell, although if one was in the mood to highlight the "diagonal" mentioned in the preamble, I don't suppose anyone would hold it against you.

dd, when I got up this morning it was 1 degree (F) (-17 C?). So our ice will not be melting soon.

My daughter landed in London this A.M. to begin her semester abroad! Has it stopped snowing out your way yet?

[DocHH]

Hello everyone,
Weather here on the South Coast still cold, but therse is just a hint of thawing, only about 4 inches of snow left, and temperature hovering at around freezing point. Dr B, Herself told me that this morning North London was thawing nicely, then this afternoon she said it had got cold again. BUT, compared to your temperatures your daughter will find London almost tropical!
Copelander, not gone anywhere nice, just snowed in, Herself didn't get here this weekend, so has posted EV to me! Home here is half way up the South Downs, so nearly as slopey as the Norwegian ski slope, Holmenkolen (spelling)!!
My pencil is poised, and waiting for the shorts-clad Postman!
A glass or two of white plonk, have run out of Tempranillo!! Might be house-bound for another couple of days yet!!

[copelander]

DocHH, snowed in on the south coast??? Really!. My son and daughter drove to the Yorkshire dales from London to go to a party, without any great difficulty, yesterday and back again today.. Devadolly the only reason we finish earlier than you is that we start about 6 hours before you do.

[Jogler]

Hg (hunter-gatherer) found the preamble confusingly written but having got over that, it has been fitting together nicely and seems well put together (although I agree with dr b that the pdm is a bit of a letdown). We are still chilly (those self-same Yorkshire Dales!) and although the roads are clear our lane still looks like something out of iceroad truckers. The mighty Ribble is well frozen around the edges (technical term there) and the wind has an unpleasantly keen edge to it. No wine recommendations as we are stalwartly proving we can give up any time!

[Christiana]

Well, I enjoyed this - probably because I could do it without tearing my hair out. Having said that I did think the preamble was poorly worded. couldn't make head nor tail (tale?) of it to start with, so went for the downs first, which worked very well for me.

[ringer]

Hi All
Just settling to EV with a v cold glass of Chenin Blanc (no need to put in the fridge to chill, it's colder in the garage). It's the first glass of 2010 as I've been on antibiotics so cheers all and "Happy New Year" We didn't get the snow that was promised for today, and it looks as if there might be a slight thaw. Disappointed that I didn't win Gas Control - perhaps it's because I'd drawn a star at the top of the tree in gold!!!

[Aloysius535]

I think I may be missing something!! One of the last across clues has the word "Giles" in it. The answer works except that there is an unexplained "N" in it.

Can any one explain this one to me please?

[Christiana]

Likewise, Aloysius535, I meant to ask but forgot.

[ringer]

Me too!!!!

[novalis]

Hi everybody!

Spent a lot of yesterday snow-shifting but still found time for this. I thought it was well-executed by the compiler! Likewise though I'm a little puzzled by the first N in 40 ac.

I now intend picking the brains of my fellow EVers here. Every year a dear friend of mine gives me a photocopy of a local school's Christmas quiz. a quiz for which appeals for help have often been made in the past on TheAnswerBank, only for the people asking for help to be shouted down and told that the quiz would be ruined for all time and eternity if all the answers appeared. Rather than put this under general Q&A I'll ask for help and heavy hints here rather than answers in the true spirit of EV.
The theme is towns & cities and the three ( from 100 ) remaining are:-

Independence Day destination for Wayne and Bruce. ( 10, 6 ) - Suspect the place name is the first word.
Spicy chicken dish ( 7, 5 ) - Chennai curry? But I'm not convinced about that.
Optimistic duo. ( 5, 6 )
The first contains a place name in the British Isles and the last two one from somewhere else in the world. None of them is obscure ( according to the compiler ).

[devadolly]

Novalis - Washington ??? Can you give us a couple of the ones you have so we can see the way the compiler's mind works please.
Am plodding on with EV but the preamble is defeating me at the moment, also am having a bit of trouble with a couple of downs which would seem to have a letter lopped of the clue before entry - oh dear, am confused, the cold has definately eaten half of my brain cells, even though there is a complete thaw here and it's raining!

[novalis]

Hi Devadolly!

I'd thought Washington ( square?? ) as well.
Examples fromthe difficult end of the spectrum as these three are:
Not a knife, but just as deadly. - Bridport dagger.
But Omar was born in Alexandria - Cairo Fred

As far as EV is concerned - once you have all the excluded pairs of letters from the across entries you will see why you are finding down entries with a letter lopped off. As I said in my previous post the puzzle has been well executed by the compiler.

[devadolly]

Ooohhh! They are hard clues! Will strain the brain.

Do I detect the need to get my guillotine out?

[Jogler]

Those clues are tricky Novalis - I can't even see how you got the ones you got - except I have now discovered Omar Shariff's nickname! When I asked the h-g he came up with 'newly wedded' for the last one.... but that was before I told him the point was to get a town! Dd, the h-g complained like crazy that he was getting down answers that needed the first letter removing... just hold that thought and get out your tricolour.

[novalis]

Hi Jogler!

I got Bridport dagger by working on the assumption that dagger and knife are virtually synomynous and typing ????????dagger into the Universal Crossword solver or One Look Dictionary search and that appeared. It is always a very entertaining quiz to have a go at. This closes 2 weeks on Friday but when the next one appears in December I'll post contact details here if anybody wants a copy.

Devadolly!

I can't imagine you as a tricoteuse!!

[devadolly]

Novalis - my knitting is excellent!

[DocHH]

Hello Everyone,
Am more or less crossworded out. The package from Herself arrived today! EV not as demanding as I expected, she had read out the rubric to me and left me flabbergasted on sunday! A nice long scarf please Devadolly!! Even if it is in the stripey 3 colours!! It would be nice to wrap it around my neck ala Jeremy Vine scarf!
Time for a glass of McGuigan Shiraz Viognier!
Copelander, it depends on which direction the prevailing weather arrives, unusually this time it came from the East and wreaked havoc! There is still at least 4inches of snow on my lawns, drive and car!