NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/rec/puzzles/crosswor/871

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-29 | 7.5 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Roger Phillips)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Re: CWC 29 Entries (Spoilers)
Summary: as much comment as I see fit
Keywords: contractual obligation
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 28 Jan 93 19:38:48 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
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Reply-To: [e-mail] (Roger Phillips)
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[This is a follow-up to an article
which expired at my site while I was away.
I hope I've cobbled the headers together adequately.]

In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (Ralph Kennedy) writes:
> [e-mail] (Roger Phillips) writes:
> > Here are all the entries for CWC 29.
> > Thanks to all the entrants;
> > sorry I don't have time for comments.
>
>      I take this to mean something really
> extraordinary must have happened to your
> normal work schedule, because surely you
> would not have agreed to moderate a contest
> if you didn't plan to have the time to do it.

I'm not sure what to take this to mean,
but for those of you who consider that
I did less than I promised I would,
here is the complete clue list, with comments.

HELICOPTER:

    Flyer misquoted hotel price (10)
    [flyer = helicopter; anag "hotel price"]
Nice use of "flyer" (handbill) in surface reading.

    Chopper is kinky erotic help (10)
    [chopper = helicopter; anag "erotic help"]
I'm not sure if the slang sense of "chopper" = "penis"
was intended, but it worked for me. :-)

    She gyrates as she takes off her clothing--judge and priest
    swipe undershirt! (10)
    [helicopter: she gyrates as she takes off; "her" containing
    Eli (judge and priest) cop (swipe) T(-shirt)]
A creditable non-anagram clue.

    Ridiculous hotel price includes air transport (10)
    [anag "hotel price"; air transport = helicopter]
Ok.  "Includes" is a little inaccurate.

    Deal with initial tipsiness in stomach right after
    endless spiral in flying machine (10)
    ["cope" containing t(ipsiness) after heli(x);
    flying machine = helicopter]
Ok.  The "heli" in "helicopter" comes from "helix", though,
so it's a weakness to use the same reference in the charade.

    Flies the police right! (10)
    [anag "the police + R"; &lit.]
Ok, but I think putting "it" at the front would improve
both the literal definition and the anagram indication.

    Something to make pilot cheer (10)
    [anag "pilot cheer"; &lit.]
Ok, though definition a little vague.

    The chopper is here, to clip and shred (10)
    [chopper = helicopter; anag "here to clip"]
I don't think "and shred" works as an anagram indicator.

    Ghastly hotel price causes revolution (10)
    [anag "hotel price"; causes revolution is defn.]
I don't think "causes revolution" defines "helicopter".

    Help erotic chopper! (10)
    [anag "help erotic"; chopper = helicopter]
Using "chopper" as both the anagram indicator and the definition
is unfair, I think.
A clue should either be a complete &lit.,
or should be reducible into separate parts.

    In here, pilot messups head for crash landing! (10)
    [c(rash) "landing" in anag "here pilot"; &lit.]
A good idea, needing better wording.

    Possibly cheer pilot up to start with (10)
    [anag "cheer pilot"; helicopter goes "up to start with"]
Loose definition.

    The police in disarray, rioters start flying rock (10)
    [anag "The police" + r(ioters); flying rock = helicopter?]
Is a flying rock a type of helicopter?
I don't get it.

Bonus clues (not included in judging):

    This takes off right after "The Police" broke up (10)
    [helicopter: this takes off; R after anag "The Police"]

    Flyer to help erotic fantasy? (10)
    [flyer = helicopter; anag "help erotic"]

    Seedy hotel price chopper (10)
    [anag "hotel price"; chopper = helicopter]

    To remove pep from chile pepper, dice in chopper (10)
    [anag "to + chile (pep)per"; chopper = helicopter]

    Wildly cheer pilot of Police vehicle (10)
    [anag "cheer pilot"; Police vehicl = helicopter]

MACROBIOTIC:

    Scottie, like an automaton, ate one kind of diet (11)
    [Mac robotic containing 1; one kind of diet = macrobiotic]
The neatest expression of this idea, I think.
I think the noun phrase "one kind of diet" *can* naturally be used
to indicate "macrobiotic", i.e. "a macrobiotic one".

    Is diet of rice and vegetables only a bit comic --
    or outrageous? (11)
    [is diet of rice and vegetables only -> macrobiotic;
    anag "a bit comic or"]
Another novel, but fair, I think, way of indicating the adjective.
A bit like saying "the grass is" to indicate "green".

    Prolonging life of small computer android having one integrated circuit (11)
    [prolonging life = macrobiotic; Mac (small computer) +
    robot containing 1 + IC]
It works.

    Long-lived cluer caught by adjective describing Scottish mechanical man? (11)
    [long-lived = macrobiotic; I (cluer) in MacRobotic (adjective
    describing Scottish mechanical man?)]
Surface reading doesn't say much.

    Vegetarian must be a bit comic, or else (11)
    [vegetarian = macrobiotic; anag "a bit comic or"]
Macrobiotic doesn't necessarily mean vegetarian.

    Rip Van Winkle, for example, might convey ICBM to Cairo (11)
    [Rip Van Winkle = macrobiotic (able to stay alive in a dormant
    state for years"; anag "ICBM to Cairo"]
RVW may be a notable example of *being* macrobiotic,
but he's a noun, and macrobiotic's an adjective.

    Computer-like Japanese factories include one fueled by
    brown rice (11)
    [Mac (computer) + robotic (like Japanese factories) containing 1;
    fueled by brown rice = macrobiotic]
"Fueled by brown rice" doesn't really equal "macrobiotic".

    Half of my carob needs to spoil before I'd leave foolish
    health food nut (11)
    [anag "m(y) carob" + (id)iotic; health food nut = macrobiotic]
Are people really using "macrobiotic" as a noun
("I can't eat here.  I'm a macrobiotic")?

    I omit crab scrambled with egg, correctly beginning special diet (11)
    [anag "I omit crab" + O (egg) + c(orrectly); special diet =
    macrobiotic]
All this nouning is making me itch.

    Wholefood hash defines bisexual with no habit (11)
    [wholefood = macrobiotic; macro ("#define" in C reads as
    "hash-defines") + bi(sexual) + 0 (no) + tic (habit)]
"Wholefood" I think we can get away with, as in "a wholefood diet".
"Hash defines" is imaginative (:-).
I'm less keen on tic = habit.

    Vegi diet poem uses strange iambic(c) root (11)
    [vegi diet poem = Macrobiotic (see below); anag "iambic(c) root"]
Writing a poem:
    MACROBIOTIC
    This new diet is quite simply exotic,
    You might want to call it hyper-neurotic!
    The rules for eating are somewhat quixotic,
    Leaving one starving, angry, chlorotic.
so that your clue has a definition is, um, innovative.
But I think I have to disqualify it,
as its metre is so strangely iambic
as to be not iambic at all. :-)

Bonus clue (not included in judging):

    I'm stuffed with mashed carob up to the ears in this
    health-food diet (11)
    [anag "I'm + carob" + otic; this health-food diet = macrobiotic]

--
Roger Phillips                            [e-mail]
"*pizzle* n. a penis: that of a bull used as instrument of
punishment, for flogging" -- Chambers English Dictionary (1988)