Panama Hats and Tacoma Topcoats
Gather round ninjas, and other crossword warriors. I’ve struck a fresh rock in the shape of the London Times (number 8231), a puzzle published a month ago in The Australian, with no solution grid in sight.
The pattern, like most of us over 40, is congested around the midriff. I managed to crack the core, and three out of four corners, but not the miserable southwest. Below are the last two clues and what cross-letters I can figure. Any theories - or answers - encouraged:
Sailor one may need to pay on boat (3) __ __ R [if this is TAR, why?]
Town and gown (6) __ A __ __ __ A [is Malaga a cloak? Havana? Nagoya? We need an Apparel Atlas ASAP.]
++
PS - can any bright browser explain how the Pasquale clue below gives you the word RESPECT? (I know it’s the answer. I peeked.)
Prefect is put out - if not given this? (7)
December 16th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Can only help you with the last one.
Take IF out of PREFECT IS and you are left with RESPECT.
December 16th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Yo Cazzam, respect.
Exactly how it works. Thanks.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Could the sailor clue have something to do with Charon?
Also, Google tells me that there is such a thing as a Malaga dress.
http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/carolinemcgrath/product/malaga_wrap_around_dress
December 30th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Solid work, AS, though I remain unsold on the Charon link. Yes, ferries and fares are both in evidence….where does TAR hop aboard?
Meantime MALAGA looks as likely as the ravishing MANTUA, a triangular gown that also doubles as Virgil’s birthplace in Italy. (Hardly a major burg at 60,000 bodies, but the dress infests most BBC costume dramas:)
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/18sil/hd_18sil.htm
January 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
“Sailor one may need to pay on boat (3) __ __ R [if this is TAR, why?]”
Just a guess, but maybe the thing “one may need to pay on boat” refers to a tarpaulin (or sail), seeing as tar is shorthand for tarpaulin (which is also the origin of the term for sailor).
However, I would be more confident of this explanation if the clue was “pay out” rather than “pay”. When I google “pay out the tarpaulin” and “pay out the sail”, I get 2 hits, both with the appropriate sense of “let out a rope by slackening”, but not when I google “pay the tarpaulin” or “pay the sail”.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Appreciate the sleuthing, NC - you may be close to the mark. Thinking of ‘pay’ as verb for letting out, or slackening - and tar as a sheet, or nautical rope coiled in the back of the Chambers Dictionary…
But ultimately that requires more toil for the solver than your average transatlantic crossing. I vote we leave the conundrum to wither on some neglected isle, and sail on.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Aye aye, sir!