Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: wald@zarquon.uchicago.edu (Kevin Wald)
Subject: CWC 80 Results (LONG)
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Organization: Dept. of Mathematics
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 1995 21:27:28 GMT
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Many thanks to all of those who sent in clues.

The winners of CWC 80 are

Bob Gregory for

   Letter or card (9)

and Brian C. Spollen for

   A half-inappropriate phrase resulted in my head being wrapped with 
      tattered gauze (6)

Bob Gregory is the over-all winner for the competition, and has
agreed to run CWC 81.



Following are all the clues entered in CWC 80 (in no particular order); 
explanations and comments will follow, after about twenty lines of
blank space. Winners are marked with *, Honorable Mentions with +.


First Word:

Having no direction, the race car crashed into Tiny Tim (9).
+ Scrub up to perform Emergency Room role (9)
Role for cleaning lady to play on TV show. (9)
+ Cleaning woman accepts mysterious crate for eccentric (9)
An unblemished one is a straightforward rare catch! (9)
* Letter or card (9)
A sprinter hangs round the model - following a Swiss trait (9)
+ Contract has a conservative nature (9)
Face card (9)
Role to perform in burn and trauma center (9)
Oddball brand new crate
Charmer needs to get operation for male role. (9)
Quite a fellow, that performer: we hear he's chasing the cleaning woman (9)
Constitution takes account for the individual (9)
Letter from a queer sort of guy   (9)
Odd fellow surprisingly rare catch (9)
Letter from Rather:  Connie Chung a mistake (9)
Accountant in bookmark (9)

Bonus Clues for First Word:

A role which does for a sound Thespian (9)
Makeup for oral nurse portrayer


Second Word:

Greek figure endlessly wrecked pointless game (5).
Unravelling gauze around man's head reveals a case of syllepsis (6)
California beach has, for example, broken apart a complex construction (6)
"The use of a word to modify two or more words is vacuous, Zeke," foremost
    university's great mastermind announced (6)
From the beginning, Hercules' wife gazed endlessly puzzled by figure of
    speech (6)
+ With crying eyes and ears, for example, Mum gazes endlessly about (6)
A mug shot after two late kamikaze characters hit the town, several pubs, and
    a policeman, e.g. (6)
Every other Aztec ungums a sticky bow and arrow, for example (6)
* A half-inappropriate phrase resulted in my head being wrapped with 
    tattered gauze (6)
Gauze wound around Michael's face concealed clever expression
+ Wrapping gauze around man's head - bleeding wound and pride, perhaps (6)
A Grecian yoke, in a manner of speaking!   (6) 
It additionally qualifies as gauze unravelled around my head (6)
Supreme deity lost backing to noted scholar for waging war and peace (6)

(No bonus clues were submitted for the second word.)

Explanations and my comments follow, after about twenty lines of blank
space:























| First Word: CHARACTER
|
|  Overall note: Those of you who grumbled about the overuse of "Cher" in
|  a recent PCWC will be pleased to note that she did not appear at all
|  in this competition, despite ample opportunity to do so. 

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

Having no direction, the race car crashed into Tiny Tim (9).

THE RACE CAR--anagram

CRASHED--anagram indicator

HAVING NO DIRECTION--remove "E"

TINY TIM--def

|  "God bless us, every -- Yaaaiiieee!" 
|
|  A reasonable clue, although anagram-and-remove-a-compass-point is not
|  my favorite cryptic mode.  

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

Scrub up to perform Emergency Room role (9)

	Scrub up       = CHAR  (i.e., to act as a cleaning woman)
	to perform     = ACT
	Emergency Room = ER
	role           = defn.: CHARACTER

|  A solid charade clue, with a smooth surface reading. There were a
|  couple of others along similar lines, but I like this one most.
|  Honorable Mention to Evan Whitney.

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

Role for cleaning lady to play on TV show. (9)

Role = definition
cleaning lady = CHAR
to play = ACT
on = on (it's a down clue, right?)
TV show = ER

|  Nearly the same clue as above, but not quite as elegant because of the
|  extra "on".

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

Cleaning woman accepts mysterious crate for eccentric (9)

cleaning woman--char
accepts--container indicator
mysterious crate--racte
=  cha racte r
for
eccentric--definition

|  A well-constructed clue, with a surface reading that's full of 
|  intriguing possibilities. Honorable Mention to Susan Meyers. 

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

An unblemished one is a straightforward rare catch! (9)

At first I wanted 'unblemished' to be the anagram indicator as well as part
of the definition, but it seemed to be too awkwardly placed, and I felt it
was stretching it a bit, so I added the 'straightforward'.

|  I'm not sure that even "straightforward" really works as an anagram
|  indicator, for me. Also, partial &lits (i.e., &lits where only part
|  of the clue is reused) don't really appeal to me.

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

Letter or card (9)

        Character = letter <of the alphabet>
        Card = "Witty or entertaining person/character" (Collins)
               "Wag or eccentric character" (Chambers)

|  A short and sweet double-definition, with neither definition being
|  the one in the surface reading. The winner.

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

A sprinter hangs round the model - following a Swiss trait (9)

Explanation:
A sprinter      = A RACER
hangs around    - positional indicator
the model       = T (as in Model T Ford)
following       - positional indicator
Swiss           = CH (Internet & vehicle country ID)
trait           - definition
CH + ARAC.(T).ER

|  Oh, those wild 'n' crazy Swiss guys.
|
|  I don't think "the model" quite suffices for T, though it's a cute idea,
|  and when you combine that with the somewhat obscure CH for "Swiss",
|  you get something that's a tad rococo for my taste.

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

Contract has a conservative nature (9)

Explanation: Contract = CHARTER
has = container indicator
a = A
conservative = C
nature = CHAR(A+C)TER

|  A good, solid container clue. Is this perhaps a reference to the
|  "Contract with America"? Anyway, Honorable Mention to Frank Barletta.

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

Face card (9)

Double definition for 'character'. 

'Face' is an outward appearance or distiguishing feature and 'card'
is a person with notable (amusing) personality.

|  Nice and short, but I find "face" for "character" a bit of a stretch.

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

Role to perform in burn and trauma center (9)

       "role" = def.
       "to perform" = "act"
       "in" = inclusion indicator
       "burn" = "char"
       "trauma center" = "ER" (abbrev. Emergency Room)

|  A good solid clue, along the lines of the second and third, above. 

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

Oddball brand new crate

      "Oddball" = Def. of "CHARACTER"
      "brand"     = syn. of "CHAR"
      "new crate" = "ACTER" as anagram ("new") of "crate"

|  A short, sound clue, though the surface reading isn't quite as
|  smooth or engaging as one might hope. (Minor irrelevant quibbles:
|  it lacks an enumeration, and I would spell the term "brand-new".)

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

Charmer needs to get operation for male role. (9)

	operation = ACT
	male = M
	In CHARMER, replace M with ACT
	role = definition.

|  I like this surface reading a lot, but I'm not keen on the "substitute
|  this for that in the other" gimmick.

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

Quite a fellow, that performer: we hear he's chasing the cleaning woman (9)

"Quite a fellow" -- def'n of CHARACTER
"that performer, we hear" -- sounds like ACTOR -- ACTER
"the cleaning woman" -- CHAR; ACTER chasing CHAR = CHARACTER

|  A bit long winded, in part because of a plethora of filler words:
| "that", "he's", "the".

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

Constitution takes account for the individual (9)

Constitution = CHARTER
takes = Containment Indic.
account = AC
individual = CHARACTER

|  The grammar of the surface reading strikes me as strange; is this
|  intended to mean something like "Constitution takes the individual
|  into account"? 

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

Letter from a queer sort of guy   (9)

    Letter = character
    queer sort of guy = character
    from a = filler

    The word "queer" would possibly act as a red herring and get solvers
    thinking of it as an angram indicator. Come to think of it, so would
    "sort", especially since " a queer" and " guy" adds to 9 letters.! Naw!

|  This one works both on the surface and cryptically, and I like the
|  red herrings.

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

Odd fellow surprisingly rare catch (9)

odd fellow: definition
surprisingly: anagram indicator
rare catch: anagram

|  Good, solid anagram clue. 

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

Letter from Rather:  Connie Chung a mistake (9)

Letter = Definition
Connie Chung = C.C.
Rather CC a  = anagram fodder
mistake      = anagram indicator

|  Very funny, topical surface reading. Unfortunately, I don't think 
|  using "Connie Chung" for "CC" in anagram fodder is quite kosher 
|  -- it smacks of indirection. 

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

Accountant in bookmark (9)

Accountant = AC
in = container indicator
book = CHARTER
mark = definition

|   I don't mind the splitting of a word at a morpheme boundary 
|   (book:mark), though there are many who would. I like the 
|   crispness and conciseness, but I have no idea what the surface
|   is supposed to mean. (Is it perhaps a very large bookmark, or
|   a very small accountant?)

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

|  Bonus Clues (unjudged):

A role which does for a sound Thespian (9)

A role         - definition
which does for - CHAR - as in CHAR-LADY a cleaner who 'does for'
                 her customer
a sound        - homophone indicator
Thespian       - ACTOR => ACTER
CHAR + ACTER  

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

Makeup for oral nurse portrayer

"Makeup"  = Def. of "CHARACTER"
"oral"    = signifies 'sounds like'
"nurse" = "care" + "portrayer" = "actor"
"care actor" sounds like "CHARACTER"

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

| Second Word: ZEUGMA
|
|  Overall notes: This was a tricky word, and I was pleased to see
|  so many people giving it a try. Most of the clues had at least one
|  of two properties: 
| 
|     1) They defined "zeugma" by example. This was something I was
|       expecting, and hoping for.
| 
|     2) They involved anagramming "gauze". I wasn't expecting this,
|       but it was truly wondrous to behold. Someone should make a
|       movie about it, entitled _The Gauze Must Be Crazy_.
|
|  For those of you who may still be wondering what "zeugma" is (it
|  seems to have been absent from a lot of people's dictionaries), 
|  her is the defintion given in the OED:
|
|                                      A figure by which a single word is
| made to refer to two or more words in the sentence; esp. when properly
| applying in sense to only one of them, or applying to them in different
| senses; but formerly more widely, including, e.g., the use of the same
| predicate, without repetition, with two or more subjects; also sometimes
| applied to cases of irregular construction, in which the single word agrees
| grammatically with only one of the other words to which it refers (more
| properly called SYLLEPSIS). 
|
------------------------------------------------------------------

Greek figure endlessly wrecked pointless game (5).

GREEK FIGURE--def and ZEUS

ENDLESSLY--remove "S" from ZEUS

WRECKED--anagram indicator

POINTLESS--remove "E" from GAME


(I don't know what this surface reading means, either)

|  Minor point: It's (6), not (5).
|
|  The reuse of "Greek figure" isn't quite kosher, in my opinion, and,
|  as stated, the surface reading is unclear in meaning. (Perhaps 
|  the pointless game is being played at the bottom of Sisyphus's
|  hill, and it keeps getting a stone dropped on it . . .)

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

Unravelling gauze around man's head reveals a case of syllepsis (6)

	Unravelling    = anagram indicator
	gauze          = anagram fodder: ZEUGA
	around         = container indicator
	man's head     = M 
	reveals a case of = filler
	syllepsis      = defn.: ZEUG(M)A

	[Author's note: I learned a couple of new words today, both of which
	sounded rather nasty: "Doctor, I have this zeugma growing behind my
	ear." "No, that looks more like a sylleptic growth to me."
	Anyway, my dictionary referred each word to the other and had a hard
	time explaining what either word meant, much less the difference
	between the two, so I'll assume that they are synonymous for these
	purposes.]

|  The first of the gauze clues. The notion that zeugma is some kind of
|  medical condition is not unamusing (sorry, I seem to have caught a
|  nasty case of litotes). Still, I think I prefer those clues that
|  treat it as a rhetorical figure.

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

California beach has, for example, broken apart a complex construction (6)

California beach = ZUMA
for example = EG
Broken apart is an indicator to remake the cryptic as= Z(E)U(G)MA
a complex construction = def. (it being a grammatical construction)

(Zeugmas aren't all *that* complex, I suppose, but it seemed to add to
the surface reading of fierce surf raging against some Malibu mansion.)

|  I like the (to me novel) "has ____ broken apart" construction. The
|  surface reading doesn't quite work for me -- the *surf* might break
|  apart a building, but not the *beach*.

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

"The use of a word to modify two or more words is vacuous, Zeke," foremost
    university's great mastermind announced (6)

the use of a word to modify two or more words--definition
is
vacuous zeke--empty zeke for ze
foremost--take the first letter of 
university's--u
great--g
mastermind--m
announced--a

|  Long -- very, very, long -- and not elegant enough to justify it
|  (the use of a random proper name is one inelegancy, and the 
|  partial initialism is, in my opinion, another).

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

From the beginning, Hercules' wife gazed endlessly puzzled by figure of
speech (6)
 
From the beginning Hercules wife = initial letter of Megara = greek MU
gazed endlessly                  = GAZE
puzzled by                       = anagram indicator
figure of speech                 = definition

|  Not only is this the dreaded "indirect anagram" (a technique which
|  is generally agreed to be beyond the ken of mere mortal solvers,
|  and which is therefore disallowed), but the indirection is itself
|  very obscure (it involves applying cryptic crossword conventions
|  to a clued word in Greek, and then translating the result back into
|  Roman characters for further manipulation). Perhaps we should call
|  this an indirect indirect anagram? In any case, it's not allowed.

--------------------------------------------------------------
  
With crying eyes and ears, for example, Mum gazes endlessly about (6)

Explanation:
With..example   - Definition by example
(M)um gaze(s)   
endlessly       - remove _both_ ends
about           - anagram indicator

UMGAZE => ZEUGMA

|  An example of zeugma, in the classical sense -- a word (here,
|  "crying") refers to two or more others ("eyes" and "ears"), but only 
|  applies in sense to one of them. (On the other hand, in a good
|  zeugma, you can generally tell what is actually being said about
|  the second word from context; I can't tell what Mum's ears are
|  actually doing here. Perhaps "crying eyes and nose" would have been
|  a better example.)
|
|  One apparent problem with the explanation for this clue is that
|  "endlessly" generally means that one removes only the right end,
|  and I'm not sure that having it mean "remove both ends" is quite
|  fair. However, if we interpret "Mum gazes endlessly" as "Mu(m)
|  gaze(s)" (that is, "endlessly" applies to *both* "Mum" and "gazes")
|  then everything works out fine. Honorable Mention to Phil Rose.

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

A mug shot after two late kamikaze characters hit the town, several pubs, and
a policeman, e.g. (6)

shot = anagram indicator: so,
"a mug" shot = UGMA
after
two late kamikaze characters = last two letters in "kamikaze" = ZE
hit the town....etc. = definition by example of ZEUGMA

|  The surface reading is a tad bumpy. What are the kamikaze guys late
|  for? Or are they "late" as in "the late so-and-so" (which fits in
|  nicely with their career in kamikaze, but not so well with their
|  active night life)?
|
|  Aside from that, a good example of zeugma in the less classical
|  sense, in which a word ("hit") refers to two or more others, to 
|  which it applies in different senses.

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

Every other Aztec ungums a sticky bow and arrow, for example (6)

	sticky bow and arrow = an example of a zeugma. Sticky modifies both 
	bow and arrow, while only explicitly modifying 'bow'.
        Every other = indicator to use every other letter
        Aztec ungums a
         ^ ^  ^ ^ ^  ^

|  An okay clue, except that the OED qualifies the definition of "zeugma"
|  you are using with the tag "formerly" (see the snippet of the OED above),
|  which makes your definition-by-example less nice than it might be.

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

A half-inappropriate phrase resulted in my head being wrapped with 
    tattered gauze (6)

       "a half-inappropriate phrase" = def.
       "my head" = "m"
       "being wrapped with" = inclusion indicator
       "tattered" = anagram indicator
       "gauze" anagrammed = "zeuga"

|  A clear warning to all those who would engage in salacious 
|  double-entendre.
|
|  I like this defintion of zeugma in the classical sense -- indeed,
|  I think it is the best of the non-example definitions. As for the
|  rest, it's a perfectly good (albeit gauzy) clue, with a funny
|  surface reading. The winner.

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

Gauze wound around Michael's face concealed clever expression

     "clever expression" = figure of speech, such as "ZEUGMA"
     Wordplay part of clue is an anagram of "gauze + M":
       "Michael's face" = letter "M", with
       "Gauze wound around": the letters of "gauze" "wound around"

|  Another gauze clue. I don't think "face" for "first letter" works.
|  (Good wordplay on "clever expression", though.)

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

Wrapping gauze around man's head - bleeding wound and pride, perhaps (6)

Wrapping = Anag. Indic.
gauze -> ZEUG A
around = Containment Indic.
man's head = M
"Bleeding wound and pride" - Example of ZEUGMA (I hope!)
perhaps = Example indicator

|  This time: Gauze (probably the best-justified gauze in the
|  competition) *and* a definition by example (and yes, that is
|  an example of zeugma in the classical sense). The surface
|  reading is a tad rough, but Honorable Mention to Chris Rimmer. 

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

A Grecian yoke, in a manner of speaking!   (6) 

    Zeugma is from the Greek for "yoke" . It also refers (in rhetoric) to
    a verb or adjective which is used in a particular way.
    Well, at least I tried. It's no joke!

|  I think that the knowledge upon which you are relying here (that 
|  "zeugma" is derived in Greek from the same root as "zugon", the
|  Greek word for "yoke"), is far too obscure to be relied upon for
|  a cryptic clue. (By the way, the English word "yoke" is derived
|  from the same Proto-Indo-European root, in case anyone out there
|  is interested.) Also, as I mentioned before, I'm not all that keen
|  on partial &lits, which this seems to be.

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

It additionally qualifies as gauze unravelled around my head (6)

it additionally qualifies: definition
gauze: anagram
unravelled: anagram indicator
around my head: around 'M'

|  A good non-example definition of "zeugma". I don't understand the
|  surface reading, though.

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

Supreme deity lost backing to noted scholar for waging war and peace (6)

Supreme deity = ZEUS, the Greek God of Gods
lost backing = minus 'S'
to noted scholar = joining G (a musical note) & MA (Master of Arts)
for = connecting word (probably extraneous)
waging war and peace = classic example of a ZEUGMA

|  I think this is probably the best example of classical zeugma given
|  in this competition. I think "noted scholar" for G + MA is a bit
|  of a reach, however.

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

Kevin Wald              |  Hwaet saegest thu, yrthlingc?
wald@math.uchicago.edu  |     -- AElfric, _Colloquium Martianum_
