Next, accompany me to the podium for topical cluing. And audacity gold goes to benmoreassynt2 for a clue in something closely resembling yer actual Latin: "Per Bovem miscuit titulus artificiosus autem pauper". Silver to DameSweeneyEggblast for I think our first reference to another entrant, with "So, Insidian's first taut, curious clue revolves around mayor's Olympic statement". Bronze here for MaleficOpus's double use of anagram fodder in "Alternative games saw mental ruin as coitus twice stifled". We have two events before announcing our winner. Thanks for your clues for Boris Johnson's motto CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS, SED NON CARIUS. With the phrase "young people" being uttered more often in Britain than at any time since the summer of looting, Gordius's deftly constructed clue in Thursday's Guardian was an especially welcome tribute.Ħd One person that's glad with decrepitude? (3-3,9) So, whether from the membrum virile or from these hooks that god seems to enjoy so much, your cluing challenge this week is the stubby but pleasure-giving ZOOKS. No blasphemy in the mortuary just some banter. It's worth mentioning that the Italians used to have a similar expression, GADSO, from "cazzo", their word for penis, and it's this version that the undertaker uses in Oliver Twist. Maybe it's a lack of imagination on my part but I'm still not sure why you might, when you stub your toe, howl "God's hooks!" - is he fishing for men? - but apparently people did, and the phrase became GADZOOKS before being shortened. Nor commit yourself much beyond 'Zooks!' or 'Odsbobs!' It's a word which was offered as an alternative to swearing by Thomas Ingoldsby in 1842:Īnd as for that shocking bad habit of swearing,-Įschew it! and leave it to dustmen and mobs, Your challenge this week, offered in a spirit of linguistic curiosity which I trust can cause no offence, is related to one of those GADS- words that the language used to abound in - GADSWOOKERS, GADSBODIKINS, GADSBUDLIKINS, and the worryingly-shaped GADSNIGGERS. I'm not convinced that this correspondent actually wanted god to blind him. You'd think that given the poor showing of religion in everyday life, he'd be grateful that Jesus got a mention at all. Nor do I think that any other faiths have got such rich linguistic pickings to choose from. The rest is down to judgment.Īnd an alternative view was put the next next day by another reader, who began his letter with "Zounds!" (an expression that comes from "by God's wounds") and went on to drop a "strewth" ("God's truth"), continuing. If people use "Christ!" in the same sense as "Gosh!" - and if the dictionaries back that up - then it's fair game for a cryptic clue. One of the reasons that crosswords are so versatile is that setters tend to be descriptive rather than prescriptive in their use of language so it was with Scorpion. Would you ever consider doing this to any other of the religions represented in the UK? The letters page the next day read:Īn answer to the crossword today (4 August) required the name of Christ to be used almost as a swear word. We have previously noted that Linford was not exactly happy about giving the language the new term LUNCHBOX this time it was the Independent readership which had a concern, not about racial profiling but about some almost-swearing.
for David HEMERY and we met an Olympian who was last week clued via a reference to Switzerland's sporting progress.ġ0ac Gosh! That is our 1/4 Across in 1992 (8) but which went via LEWISHAM to Denise LEWIS we travelled back in time to the sixties.ĩac Hard and abrasive - our 1/4 Across in 1968 (6)
Steve OVETT we saw a clue suggesting a thespian lost en route to Stratford.Ģ2ac London borough's missing actor, our 1/4 Across in 2000 (5) So we saw the man partially erased from sporting history.Ģd Excessive drinking - a day of celebration for our 1/4 Across in 1980 (5)
Nor "top-podiumed", though that was a close one. Throughout the rest of the grid was a bunch of those who have successfully top-podiumed, all athletes, and all British, and here's a moment to stop and give thanks that the contraction "Team Jeeb" as used in the build-up never seemed to catch on. which read, via the atomic number for Au, GOLD MEDALLIST. Scorpion in Saturday's Independent prize puzzle set himself a challenge of construction, giving his theme in the top row.Ĥac Successful sportsperson becoming Dame, still active (9)
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