The Easter Crossword.
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1 The Queen will be black in the morning, on the contrary. (7)
5 Old PC problem is responsible. (2,5)
09 & 2d Gordon somehow chokes fat, fuming nonse. (3,2,3,7,5)
10 Exhibit old footwear. (4)
11 Prosecutor's time to bring to book? (6,4)
13 Citizens' various schooling. (8)
15 Almost hardy beauty boss shops here. (5)
17 Is wasted on them! (5)
18 See 13d
20 Blamed at funeral oration and died. (10)
22 What they call 1a in 27a. (4)
26 It can mend serf enchainment (15)
27 China wins piles (7)
28 European dries tricky stays. (7)
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Spy wants beers. (5)
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2 |
See 9a.
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3 |
Salty flap. (4)
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4 |
They pay no tithes as is unexpected (8)
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5 |
Athers in the back will pretend. (6)
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6 |
What's the matter in the loo? (5)
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7 |
College padre returned girl everywhere. (9)
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8 |
It flew right to me. (9)
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12 |
One could catch an untidy drunk in it. (4)
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13, 25, 18a What's on the TV for special adults, wife? Naked nymphs? (21)
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14 |
Visibly generous and noble woman. (9)
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15 |
Sounds like hard rock. (4)
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16 |
Anarchic rioter in here? (8)
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19 |
Cat's weights. (6)
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21 |
Personal kitty account for Newton. (5)
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23 |
One will never get on. (5)
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24 |
Letter teachers' read to the quiet ones. (5)
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25 See 13d And here's some serious political stuff: President Zelensky demonstrating his sterling leadership qualities:
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18 comments:
Nicely done, mr mongoose. First go, around half done (assuming 8 down is more 5,4 than 9, otherwise back to square peg one for that quarter of the grid.)
Jobsagoodun on the stanislav/ishmael-specific anagrams.
Thanks.
v./
You'll be fine in that corner, mr v.
I see that the obliteration deadline, long predicted by mr mike, has benn and gone in Mariupol. I guess is where things start to get really ugly.
Mr Mongoose: There are circa 2000 Ukie + Nato troops in Azovstal steel works, the last remnants of 14000 from the battle of Mariupol. Azovstal will shortly cease to exist. Then a bigger battle starts (has already) further north in the Donbass where 60k Ukies are surrounded with the same option (surrender or die). This will be the biggest battle since WW2. Russia has brought in the heavy stuff. Unlike Mariupol, which was mostly street fighting, the bigger battle will allow Russia to use heavy artillery and aviation, then the tanks and infantry will clean up. It will be unimaginable hell. I truly hope the poor bastards surrender.
Stumped by some of the shorter clues, mr mongoose. Exquisite irritation when one has two of four letters but still can't parse the clue to make the right choice from the few possible constructions (3 down). Is 22 across in the public domain, or merely a guessable slur?
I shall look again tomorrow.
cheers
v./
Both of those are pretty good clues actually, mr v. Let your mind wander around a little. I find it helps to actually say the clues out loud sometimes but you risk being the nutter on the bus.
I "tried" to make this one a little easier. By which I mean that I had the grid but I lost all the clues, and had to redo them over the w/e. Bon chance!
It certainly looks pretty horrible, mr mike, and we have ushered these lads to resistance and maybe will have to look at ourselves askance in the mirror. Is there any regular Ukie army not under siege? Reserves of any consequence?
Mr mongoose: there are no reserves available. On day 1, a daring (some say suicidal) raid by 200 Russian paratroopers and spetznaz on Gostomel airport just outside Kiev tricked the Ukies (ie the US + UK, who are in command) into thinking Kiev was the target. The small Russian force held on heroically until a Russian armoured column arrived a few days later from Belarus. The Ukie reserves from the West were rushed to Kiev, thinking an attack was imminent. At the same time with long range missiles the Russians began degrading Ukie logistics - to such an extent they now have no fuel and cannot move forces.
There was never an intention to attack Kiev, but it was a feint to pin Ukie troops and commit reserves. It worked brilliantly, to such an extent that now that the Ukies cannot maneuver and Russian forces outside Kiev, having achieved their objective, have been re-deployed to the Donbass. (In the West this was portrayed as a Russian defeat - totally missing the point).
Once the Ukie reserves were thus committed, the Russians attacked in the south towards Mariupol.
At the same time the Donbass militias, beefed up with Russian forces, attacked the 60-100k Ukie forces in the Donbass. And, pincer forces came from Belarus in the north and Crimea in the South to encircle the Donbass cauldron.
This is where we currently are. The Ukie army logistically destroyed; no air defences, no airforce, no navy, no fuel, little ammunition, no armoured vehicles. It now just a matter of the troops in the parts surrendering or being annihilated.
This has been a Russian masterpiece of all arms warfare, and will be studied for years. A much smaller Russian force has managed to outwit a much larger Ukrainian (NATO led, trained and equipped) force; to break up their forces into manageable chunks, deny the parts the ability to maneuver, and then systematically destroy the parts.
This war was over in the first few days. But its not a war with Ukraine per se, its a war with NATO. So Ukraine, which by all normal conduct of war, would have surrendered by now is being forced to fight on and be destroyed. All because of idiots like Biden and BoJo.
PS I forgot to add that in a fit of temper the West launched an economic war on Russia (and by extension China, and even India). This will be a disaster for the West, and particularly Europe (incl UK).
PPS (sorry to keep going on). The question now is what happens next.
NATO (US + UK) could accept defeat and move on to something else. Unlikely, in my view given the idiots in the West, but economic (and hence political) problems may soon become more pressing.
Or, NATO will get more actively involved (it already is involved). But, there is NO combination of NATO forces on mainland Europe that would stand a chance against Russia. So far Russia has committed max 100k troops to Ukraine out of a military of 1.5 million. Only now with the destruction of AsovStal have they used strategic aviation (and just a couple of Tu22s not the really big stuff). They have tested and proven the superiority of their long range missiles (incl hypersonic missiles) - and recall, the UK, Europe and event the US has no defence against Russian missile systems, whereas Russia has the most effective air defences on the planet. On top of all this, even though the West might delude itself otherwise, Russia has an extremely professional military, with superior technology.
On the economic front, Russia is energy and food self-sufficient - not one country in the West is - in fact, they all rely on Russian commodities - even the US. With China (and India) at its back, the West is stuffed.
We are observing in real time a seismic move. History is being made.
Curious thing, mr mongoose, I tried your "say it loud" trick and came up with a cracking solution to 3 down - Jack - which was clearly wrong, but it did help steer me right in the end. All done now, though I'll still need a couple parsed by the setter in due course. Thanks again; above & beyond.
cheers
v./
Well done, mr v. The clues would definitely benefit from being done in less of a rush but glad that you got there.
The Colonel appears to agree with mr mike. Only 3 minutes long.
I see the Sussexes are in town. What a line up on the balcony - Andrew, Charlie, Gormless and the stick insect, and the Ginger and his mulatto. Oh for a Ceausescu moment.
The pompous ginger idiot said that he was just checking that his grandma was surrounded by the right sort of people. This level of self-deluding narcissim must make him a proper treasure to be around.
Little help, mr mongoose (and anyone else) - is this from Dylan?
"And it’s the same the whole world over, the blues run the game, and anywhere you look, it’s all the same. And I’m so tired of being a prisoner, I’m longing to be free, I’ve been down so long it looks like up to me."
One of his knitting-together-of-stuff-by-other-writers jobs? "Down so long" etc seems to come from an old blues, and was used by Richard Farina for the title of his novel, and "blues run the game" suggests itself as having come from a mr Jackson C Frank in the 60s. But the lines quoted, all together, are starting to look like mr ishmael's own concoction. (He used them at the top of a March 2009 piece, Catch 27, about miscarriages of justice.)
Dylan is usually a good bet with him but it often goes over my head...
thanks
v./
Don't think it's a Dylan lyric, mrv v. It does indeed knit together a few of mr i's staple ideas. I don't remember discussing JCF here before but that does not mean that we haven't.
Thanks, mr mongoose. Dylan oracle duly consulted, I can leave it filed under ambiguous. And no harm in that.
cheers
v./
(btw, with your crossword, funny thing but despite not being anyone's idea of a cricket buff I do remember reading long ago that as a greenhorn pro Michael Atherton found FEC scrawled on his locker. Two possible readings, I believe - anyway, years later, 5 down in the mongoose Easter cryptic. Happy days.)
Good spot, mr v! Exactly that.
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