Subject: ACC94 Results
From: wald@ford.uchicago.edu (Kevin Wald)
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 05:30:11 GMT
Message-ID: <E5KvAC.7us@midway.uchicago.edu>
Organization: Dept. of Mathematics
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords

                        ACC 94 -- RESULTS
			=================

In ACC 94, in honor of St. Valentine's Day, entrants were asked to submit
clues that could clue either member of a well-known romantic duo. It was
a tough job (double-working clues are always tricky), but a good number of
you attempted the task, and now, just in time for the big day, the results
are in.

The winning clue was:

   She: premiered on stage - hit top spot;
   He: Republican, following congressional leadership  (5/4)

submitted by Jim McLean, who has agreed to moderate ACC 95.

The second place clue was:

   Poet's object in reflective invocation will take a little time (5/8)

submitted by Ed Coulson.

Congratulations to both of our winners, and many thanks to everyone who
entered.

A complete list of all the entries follows (the winner is marked with
**, the second place clue with *, and the honorable mentions with +):

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You're measured if you've gone for this say, be you old, rough, 
   'n' ready (6/6)
** She: premiered on stage - hit top spot;
   He: Republican, following congressional leadership  (5/4)
* Poet's object in reflective invocation will take a little time (5/8)
Initially cameras hounded a royal lady (ex Spencer) for the 
   next odd king (7/2)
A bird fancier, he wasn't led astray - but she was, partly (4/3,4)
Spartan holds equals - leaves England's neighbouring capital (5|5)
+ Trumpeted artistic awards short Actium loser (4/4)
+ Mark protagonist of play to cap Lear (6/9)
Fantastic lover involved in disastrous yacht's
   upset narrowly escapes. (3,8/3)
A scream cut off, horribly mutilated he died - it left puritanical,
   bewildered wife above suspicion.  (6/9)
Woman's part of Attorney General; a little space for
   vowel after man's name (8/8)


Solutions, explanations, and my comments follow, after about twenty lines
of blank space. (All my comments are preceded by | .)

[Beginnning of twenty-odd lines of blank space.]






















[End of twenty-odd lines of blank space.]

---------------------------------------------------------------------

BURTON & TAYLOR

| I like this choice of pair.

1) BURTON

You're measured if you've gone for this say, be you old, rough, 'n' ready
(6/6)

When an RAF airman was overdue (met his measure) in WWII, he was 
said to have 'gone for a Burton' (a popular Staffordshire dark ale).
	say be you  BU 
	(old) rough = R (abbreviation) see various Webster's 
	'n' = T' (if 'n' = and, then t' = too)
	ready = ON (as in "I'm feeling on today")

| I like the way the straight definition works, over all, though this 
| particular implementation requires that we get measured = having met
| one's measure (in the figurative sense), which strikes me as a bit strained.
|
| As for the cryptic part, "old" seems extraneous to me. More significantly.
| I just cannot get 'n' = t'. "And" = "too" (meaning "also") is already a 
| bit strained, and I don't see how "too", in the sense of "also", could be 
| pronounced "t'" -- you might say "He was t' drunk t' stand", but not 
| "He was stupid, and drunk, t'." (Of course, I may be being somewhat 
| provincial here -- are there dialects where "too", in the second sense,
| is pronounced "t'"?)

2) TAYLOR
	
You're measured if you've gone for this say, be you old, rough, 'n' ready 
(6/6)	

	You're measured if you've gone for this = tailor
	say = homophone indicator = taylor
	be you = definition indicator (so the homophones aren't confused)
	old rough and ready = definition = nickname for Zachary Taylor

| Excellent straight definition. (Of course, I'm a US person -- I wonder
| how well the nicknames of US presidents are known in the UK . . .)
| Cryptic stuff is fine.

Surface 1 + 2:  If you're going for Taylor, you must be old, rough, and
ready to be measured against her previous seven (?) husbands.

		If his attraction to Taylor et al is any indication, you 
might be concerned how you 'stack up', should Burton be your fancy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

She: premiered on stage - hit top spot;
He: Republican, following congressional leadership  (5/4)

| A tad long, but the surface reading is quite nice.

Solution:

SONNY/CHER

Explanation: "his" definition forms "her" solution and v.v.:

She premiered = S
on = ON
stage hit top spot = NY (New York)
(S+ON+NY --> SONNY)

He = HE
Republican = R
Congressional leadership = C
(HE+R following C --> CHER)

| Both good, sound cryptic readings. The winner. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Poet's object in reflective invocation will take a little time (5/8)

| A surface reading that will appeal to anyone who has ever waited
| for a long-winded poet to get to the point.

The solutions are DANTE and BEATRICE

Poet= DANTE 
's= is
object= END
in reflective invocation= invoking a reversal=> DNE
will take= container indicator
a=A
little time=T =>  D(A)N(T)E.  

| Excellent. (Some would complain that the A and the T in a clue like
| this would have to end up together. I disagree.)

Poet's object in reflective invocation= BEATRICE (He certainly went on 
about her enough.)
will take a little time=  BE A TRICE

| Except for the extraneous "will" (if changed to "to", say, it would be 
| fine), this works beautifully. The second place winner. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Initially cameras hounded a royal lady (ex Spencer) for the next odd king (7/2)


(CHARLES/DI)


    CHARLES
    ~~~~~~~

    the next odd king = CHARLES

| Odd in the sense that (Charles) III is an odd number, or odd in the
| the sense that he's kinda goofy? :-) 

    Initially = acrostic indicator
    fodder    = Cameras Hounded A Royal Lady Ex Spencer (fodder)

| Sound acrostic construction.

    DI
    ~~
    Initially cameras hounded a royal lady (ex Spencer) = DI
    (Diana's maiden name was Spencer, and she was certainly hounded by 
    photographers)

| Not so much a definition of "Di" as a statement of fact that happens
| to mention her, but I kind of like it.

    the next = take the next (as in after the first) letter in fodder
    oDd kIng = fodder
          
| Using "the next X" to mention "the next letter after the first in each 
| word of X" strikes me as very strained.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clue: 

A bird fancier, he wasn't led astray - but she was, partly (4/3,4)

Answer:

Leda/the swan

| I like this choice of couple a lot.

Explanation:

Leda is partly included in 'led astray' ; the swan is an anagram of 'he
wasn't' (with 'led astray' as the indicator); both of them could be
described as bird fanciers, in different senses; 

| Indeed -- a fancier of birds, and a fancier who is a bird. Nice.

                                                 plus the overall '& lit'
meaning

Actually this is probably more of a double clue than two singles, but I
liked the way it came out so I thought I'd send it anyway.

| I agree with your assessment -- it is really more of a double clue.
| If you read it as two singles, it has a few extraneous words in
| clueing "the swan" ("but she was, partly"), and the hidden-word
| fodder for "Leda" is the rather long "he wasn't <led a>stray but she
| was". Still, the overall effect is quite nice.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Spartan holds equals - leaves England's neighbouring capital (5|5)

| A bit weak in the surface-reading department.

Answer 1 - HELEN

Spartan - definition: Helen was Queen of Sparta when she eloped with Paris 
first letter acrostic - indicated by CAPITAL

| Good.

Answer 2 - PARIS
sPARtan - indicated by HOLDS
equals => IS
PAR + IS
leaves - cryptic to definition link word
England's neighbouring capital - definition - Paris as capital of France

| In a hidden word clue, when we say "<fodder> holds <straight definiton>",
| that works, because it means "<straight defintion> is found in <fodder>."
| Here, however, you are saying "<fodder> holds IS <straight definition>"
| to mean "<straight definition> is something found in <fodder>, + IS",
| which doesn't work, syntactically.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
	
Trumpeted artistic awards short Actium loser (4/4)
     Trumpeted artistic awards - Tony (trumpeted - hyped)
     short Actium loser - definition of Tony (short form of Anthony or Antony)
			OR
     Trumpeted - homophone indicator (trumpeted - spoken loudly)
     artistic awards - Clio > Cleo
     short Actium loser (4) - definition of Cleo (short form of Cleopatra)

| A nice find, although the two clues work in almost the same way, which
| makes it a tad less interesting. They do work very well in that way,
| however. Honorable mention to Gail Koontz. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark protagonist of play to cap Lear (6/9)


< Mark / See>  a protagonist
of a <play better than King Lear> > ANTONY

| I think you may have miswritten your explanation above (which arrived at
| my machine filled with mysterious =3D's and =20's, in any event); I 
| assume you mean "Mark" to be one definition, and "protagonist of play
| to cap Lear" to be the other. (If "Mark" means "see" in both this clue
| and the one below it, then I don't see why you would have included it
| at all.) Anyway, assuming that's what you meant, it's an okay double-
| definition clue, although double-defs are better when the two meanings
| are more distinct.

<Mark / See> a protagonist
<formed of> <play anag> 'tocaplear' > CLEOPATRA

| "Play" works better as an anagram indicator when the fodder is the
| subject rather than the object, though I think it still works this way.
| Also, "[Mark] a protagonist" is slightly weak as a straight clue for 
| Cleopatra, in my opinion; it doesn't narrow things down very much.
| Honorable mention to Gareth Williams.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Fantastic lover involved in disastrous yacht's
upset narrowly escapes. (3,8/3)


	a: Fantastic lover = The pussycat (from Lear's fantasy poem
The Owl and the Pussycat)

	  involved in disastrous = anagram indicator

	yacht's upset = anagram fodder

| "Narrowly escapes" is extraneous here.

	b:Fantastic lover = Owl 

	involved in = containment indicator

	disastrous yacht's upset narrOWLy escapes	

| And this is quite a lot of fodder for a three-letter hidden word.
| (in other words, this clue runs into pretty much the same technical
| problems as the Leda & the swan clue, without the benefit of that
| clue's nicely apropos surface reading).

-------------------------------------------------------------------

A scream cut off, horribly mutilated he died - it left puritanical,
bewildered wife above suspicion.  (6/9)

| A tad long.

CAESAR
Cut off = indicator to remove last letter
A screa(m) = anagram fodder
horribly mutilated = anagram indicator
a screa (anag) = Caesar
The clue as a whole is a definition of Julius Caesar (the 'he' referred
to).  The 'scream' undoubtedly came just after "Et tu Brute.  Then fall
Caesar."   'Horribly mutilated' would be an apt description of the
multiple stab wounds.  And of course, Caesar's wife was 'above
suspicion'.

| Okay construction. (Note that even if we don't take this as a partial
| &lit, it still works -- the part from "he" on forms an adequate, if
| long-winded, definition of Caesar.)

CALPURNIA
puritanical - it = puranical = anagram fodder
bewildered = anagram indicator
wife above suspicion = definition of Calpurnia, 
Here too, the whole clue is intended to stand as a definition of
Calpurnia as well, i.e. the wife above suspicion.  I note that
'puritanical' probably describes Caesar's wife reasonably accurately as
well.

I apologise for the fact that both cryptic readings involve compound
anagrams, and also that the partial &lits may not quite be spot-on
definitions.

| Well, I don't mind compound anagrams (some do, but I'm not one of
| them). The straight definitions *are* a bit not-quite-on, particularly
| this one -- a long sentence that at one point refers to Calpurnia
| isn't the best sort of definition for her. (Though, as in the Princess 
| Diana case, it suffices.)

| Also, I'm not all that keen on this sort of partial &lit. A total
| &lit, where the straight & cryptic parts occupy the same space, is
| a little work of art. A partial &lit, where one or the other parts
| doesn't quite cover the entire clue, leaving a few extraneous words
| dangling, is less impressive. Here, the cryptic part is just a few
| words from somewhere in the middle of the clue ("it left puritanical
| bewildered"), and I'm not keen on that. (Note that unlike the CAESAR
| reading, the CALPURNIA reading demands a partial &lit interpretation,
| since if we take "wife above suspicion" as the entirety of the
| straight definition for Calpurnia -- a job it would be exquisitely
| suited for -- then the whole part before the dash is left with 
| nothing to do.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

| PAPAGENA/PAPAGENO

          Woman's part of Attorney General; a little space for
           vowel after man's name (8/8)

| I'm completely flummoxed by the surface reading. I can see how a woman 
| *might* be part of an Attorney General, if the AG in question were some 
| kind of composite being (like Dax on _Star Trek: DS9_); I don't see how 
| she could be a little space for a vowel.  

            Scan #1
             woman                    definition
             's                       link
             part of Attorney General    G (part of A.G.)
             a little space           EN
             vowel                    A
             after                    placement signal
             man's name               PAPA (e.g., Hemingway)

| "Papa" isn't, in my view, a man's name. Nickname, okay (Hemingway or 
| Haydn, say), or form of address, but not a name.

            Scan #2
             woman's part             PAP (nipple)
             Attorney General         AG
             a little space           EN
             vowel                    O
             after                    some sort of link to defn.
             man's name               definition

| "After" is a bit strange as a link word.

            If you think this is lame, my attempt for Hercules & Hebe was
            worse.  Looking forward to reading the prizewinners.

| Actually, I'd kind of like to see that one.  As I've mentioned before,
| this was a darned hard contest, and coming up with any clues, even those 
| with flaws of one sort or another, was a worthy accomplishment.  

| On that note, I would also like to point out one remarkable feature
| of this entry: Taking to heart my request that the two readings of
| a clue work in different ways, the cluer took two very similar
| names (PAPAGENA/O), and then proceeded to build them up in different
| ways, using opposite ends of the clue. I think that deserves recognition.

==========================================================================

Kevin Wald              |  "Catalog of ships -- I'll remember that."
wald@math.uchicago.edu  |     -- Homer, _The Huntress and the Sphinx_