Introduction
Today’s National Post Cryptic Crossword from Cox & Rathvon (NP 221015) will no doubt prove to be an educational experience – especially for solvers south of the border.The puzzle will be posted on the blog on Saturday, October 22, 2022.I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.
Is This the Final Curtain?
The opening lines of the song at the top of the post from the singer appearing in today’s puzzle seem to sum up the situation in which we find ourselves. It would appear that this is the final Cox and Rathvon weekend puzzle to appear in the National Post with Friday’s Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword being the final weekday cryptic to be published.This blog first saw the light of day on Saturday, May 2, 2009 and, naturally, the puzzle that day was an offering from Cox and Rathvon. Looking back, I can clearly see I was more than a little presumptuous to think I could write a cryptic crossword blog, let alone one primarily dealing with British puzzles. Some of my early attempts to explain the Briticisms in the Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword widely missed the mark and would have given British readers a good laugh, I am sure. Despite these glaring “bloomers” (as the Brits would say) – or perhaps because of them, I noticed that a few British readers were following the blog even though the puzzles were published in Canada months after they first appeared in the UK.The blog was intended to be a forum where solvers could discuss the puzzles but in the early days there were extremely few comments. In fact, many of the small number of comments were from Brits correcting my faulty explanations of Briticisms. As a result, I was on the verge of pulling the plug when I was contacted by Big Dave, the creator of Big Dave’s Crossword Blog, a UK blog covering cryptic crossword puzzles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, who encouraged me to persevere. He eventually asked me to become a contributor to his blog and my first review appeared there on September 15, 2010.In May 2009, I also started the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum to cover The Sunday London Times Crossword that was published at that time in the Ottawa Citizen. I discontinued that blog in May 2014 when the Citizen stopped publishing the puzzle. At the time, I snidely wrote:I am sure that the scrapping of this feature has done much to elevate
the intellectual level of the paper — not to mention making room for
such erudite additions as Love and the Stars. I suppose giving up
our weekly crossword puzzle is a small price for us cruciverbalists to
pay to ensure that the love lives of the citizens of Ottawa unfold in
accordance with the dictates of the stars.I must say my feelings today are eerily reminiscent of those expressed above.In conclusion, I would like to thank all the readers of the blog for your support over the years especially those who have left comments. It is you who have encouraged me to keep pressing on through thick and thin. I would also like to thank Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon for the immense enjoyment their creations have given us over the years. I especially want to thank them for giving their blessing to the publication of their puzzle on the blog.So this may be farewell but it was fun while it lasted!
Solution to Today’s Puzzle
Falcon’s experience
┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐███████████████████████████████████└────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘
Legend:
█ – solved without assistance
█ – incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools
█ – solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools
█ – solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools
█ – solved but without fully parsing the clue
█ – yet to be solved
Symbols and Markup Conventions
“*” – anagram
“~” – sounds like
“<” – indicates the preceding letters are reversed
“( )” – encloses contained letters
“_” – replaces letters that have been deleted
“†” – indicates that the word is present in the clue
“//” – marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present
“/[link word or phrase]/” – marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present
“solid underline” – precise definition
“dotted underline” – cryptic definition
“dashed underline” – wordplay
“wavy underline” – whimsical and inferred definitions
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of the symbols and markup conventions used on this blog.
Across
1a School // term scam busted (8)
MCMASTER — anagram of (busted) TERM SCAM
McMaster University[7] (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1887 and has a current enrolment of about 32,000 students.
5a Pole taking interest /in/ ghost (6)
SP(I)RIT — SPRIT (pole; nautical term) containing (taking) I (interest; in financial equations)9a Worker with stone // mother and
child (5)
MA|SON — MA (mother) + (and) SON (child)10a Louise had different // school (9)
DALHOUSIE* — anagram of (different) LOUISE HAD
Dalhousie University[7] (Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an agricultural campus in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, and a second medical school campus in Saint John, New Brunswick. It was established in 1818 and has a current enrolment of about 21,000 students.
12a Brief, choice word about a //
museum worker (7)
CUR(A)T|OR — {CURT (brief) + OR (choice word)} containing (about) A (†)13a Monster // split, covered with
goop (7)
G(REND)EL — REND (split) contained in (covered with) GEL (goop)
In Old English legend, Grendel[16B] is a man-eating monster defeated by the hero Beowulf.
14a Stigma attached to // school (7)
BRAND|ON — BRAND (stigma) + ON (attached to)
Brandon University[7] is a university located in the city of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. It was established in 1890 and has a current enrolment of about 3000 students.
16a Fairly good, popular music
// school (5)
B|ROCK — B (fairly good) + ROCK (popular music)
Brock University[7] is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 and has a current enrolment of about 19,000 students.
19a School // run in temporary
shelter (5)
T(R)ENT — R (run; baseball or cricket term) contained in (in) TENT (temporary shelter)
Trent University[7] is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada with a satellite campus in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 and has a current enrolment of about 11,000 students.
21a Head of boys’ institute markets //
school (7)
B|I|SHOPS — B (head [initial letter] of Boys) + I (institute; in acronyms of organizations such as RAIC, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada) + SHOPS (markets)
Bishop’s University[7] is a small English-language liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. It was established in 1843 and has a current enrolment of about 2,900 students.
24a One riding in taxi with clear //
display case (7)
CAB(I)NET — I ([Roman numeral] one) contained in (riding in) {CAB (taxi) + (with) NET (clear; make as a profit)}26a Experienced sailor // lad lost at
sea (3,4)
{OLD SALT}* — anagram of (at sea) LAD LOST27a Accordion-playing // school (9)
CONCORDIA* — anagram of (playing) ACCORDION
Concordia University[7] is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (established 1896) and Sir George Williams University (established 1926), Concordia is one of the three universities in Quebec where English is the primary language of instruction (the others being McGill and Bishop’s). It has a current enrolment of about 47,000 students.
28a Retreating in German // part of
West Africa (5)
NI|GER — reversal of (retreating) IN + GER (German)29a Ruby receives entertainment
// compensation (6)
RE(FUN)D — RED (ruby) contains (receives) FUN (entertainment)30a Box outside of the French //
school (8)
CAR(LE)TON — CARTON (box) containing (outside of) LE (the French; French word meaning ‘the’)Carleton University[7] is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1942 and has a current enrolment of about 32,000 students.
Down
1d Microphones capturing 1001 // parrots (6)
MI(MI)CS — MICS (microphones) containing (capturing) MI ([Roman numeral] 1001)2d Wretched // bears moving in distance (9)
MI(SERAB*)LE — anagram of (moving) BEARS contained in (in) MILE (distance)3d Artisan turned // singer (7)
SINATRA* — anagram of (turned) ARTISAN
Frank Sinatra[7] (1915–1998) was an American singer and actor.
ELDER — double definition, the former a plant and the latter an old-timer
Scratching the Surface
The surface reading is an allusion to former US president George H. W. Bush (1924–2018), father of former US president George W. Bush.
6d Saw // pirate in lead (7)
P(ROVER)B — ROVER (pirate) contained in (in) PB ([chemical symbol for] lead; from Latin plumbum)7d Patch grass // in pastures, oddly (5)
_RES|OD_ — hidden in (in) pastuRES ODdly8d Biblical priest, in journey east, // branching out, perhaps? (8)
TRE(ELI)K|E — ELI (biblical priest) contained in (in) TREK (journey) + E(ast)In the Old Testament, Eli[16B] is the highest priest at Shiloh and teacher of Samuel (I Samuel 1–3).
11d Part of a journey destroys // myths (7)
LEG|ENDS — LEG (part of a journey) + ENDS (destroys)15d Came out // only in legal document (7)
DE(BUT)ED — BUT (only; as an adverb, e.g. “There is but one God.”) contained in (in) DEED (legal document)17d Not terribly disrupted by small giggle // attack (9)
{ON(S|LAUGH)T}* — anagram of (terribly) NOT containing (disrupted by) {S (small; clothing size) + LAUGH (giggle)}18d Racer // returned frame with beds (5,3)
{STOC|K CAR}< — reversal of (returned) {RACK (frame) + (with) COTS (beds)}20d Something sharp about popular // pretender (7)
T(IN)HORN — THORN (something sharp) containing (about) IN (popular)22d Vocal about racket // indicating numerical rank (7)
OR(DIN)AL — ORAL (vocal) containing (about) DIN (racket)23d New story by new // novelist (6)
STYRO*|N_ — anagram of (new) STORY + N (new; abbreviation used especially on maps)William Styron[7] (1925–2006) was an American novelist and essayist; major works; Lie Down in Darkness (1951), The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), Sophie’s Choice (1979)25d Alberta park // outlaw with two female companions? (5)
BAN|F|F — BAN (outlaw) + (with) FF (two [instances of] female)26d Japanese port // operator’s alias (5)
O|S|AKA — O ([telephone] operator) + S (‘s) + AKA (alias)Osaka[16B], the third largest city in Japan, is a port located on the southern part of the island of Honshu.
EpilogueThe puzzle takes me back to a road trip I made many years ago with my daughter and her friend. The two girls, in their final year of high school, were in the process of selecting which university to attend and we were visiting a number of university campuses on their short list – including two that appear in today’s puzzle. The trip also involved some sightseeing diversions, among them visits to the Peterborough Lift Lock and Niagara Falls.