the spectator | 7 september 2019 | http://www.spectator.co.uk 59
LIFE
Across
9 Food for bugs (4)
11 Bishop’s dress Mo (with
iron hoop) reshaped (10)
12 Some armour not
belonging to us (4)
14 Old plastic sheet for
revolting cat (6)
17 Fine duke with yen for
sailing boat (5)
18 Laptop may exhibit this
virus, certainly when zilch
gets stored (5)
20 I may cut Native American
snubbed by king and queen
(7)
21 Rope fat cuckoo ingested
(7)
24 Old dance John modified
a lot (7)
25 Strong person, pure in
speech (5)
31 Open country surrounded
by huge trees (7)
34 Jog or have a drink? (7)
40 Soprano is cooking with
hot pickles (6)
41 Old lady repelled fine
shark (4)
42 Cursing manager evenly
broad and blue (10)
43 Other part of Chelsea (4)Down
1 Rascal sewed old clothes
(5)
4 Difficult king turned out
smart (5)
5 Settle before a meal with
meat (7)7 Charily canine dodges
strange man (or woman) (6)
10 Lizards chief officer traps
in the morning (5)
15 Blotto Belorussian leaves
bar and escapes (8)
16 Ordinary insect bored by
chestnut tree (6)
19 Pirates dashed south for
pieces of eight (8)
21 Lump starts to opine
randomly – hear wild
OTT gabbling! (9)
22 City clumsy thesp’s
playing Lear in (7)
23 Top dance (6)
27 Voter finally flips replica
coin perhaps (7)
29 Africans in a tumbledown
home talking (7)
30 Betrothed no longer, poor
Frieda Farthing dumps
Romeo (6)
32 Dresses from Arabia
Rachel has (6)
33 With change of heart
Welshman quits (5)
35 Doomed to receive cut
grass (5, two words)
36 Towards the ceiling
I behold very old
mouldings (5)
37 Remove pin from
new uniform got up
by Maggie (5)A first prize of £30 for the first
correct solution opened on
23 September. There are two
runners-up prizes of £20. (UK
solvers can choose to receive the
latest edition of the Chambers
dictionary instead of cash —
ring the word ‘dictionary’.)
Entries to: Crossword 2424,
The Spectator, 22 Old Queen
Street, London SW1H 9HP.
Please allow six weeks for
prize delivery.Crossword
2424: Poem V
by Pabulum
So that it is the counsel of the wise
That thou shouldst seek to gaze upon it
As early as the dew of the morning. Selah.
Brian Murdoch/a Psalmist
It is with a silent, Lutheran pride indistinguishable,
to the bystander, from modesty that the
Amalgamated Realtors of Lake Wobegon usher
respectfully to market this fine prairie homestead.
Older than you’d imagine given its sturdiness and
sturdier than age alone would have you credit,
what used to be the Rasmussen place — they’re in
Minneapolis now, since you ask, and doing pretty
good — sits within sight (somehow, never shadow)
of a grain elevator, offering wonderous views into
the middle distance. People hereabouts, finding
precise room measurements excessively revealing,
should be reassured all are on the accommodating
side of ample, just the way old Pop Rasmussen
ordered his pants. You’ll love everything from the
kitchen, which smells of lutefisk, though none has
been prepared there in decades, to the bathrooms,
where faucets still respect firm handling. Viewing
is recommended through rose-coloured spectacles
from the vantage of wise old age.
Adrian Fry/Garrison Keillor
Simple, sturdy, Spartan-like cabin in a wooded
area of historic Concord, Massachusetts. Perfect
retreat for the thinker or inward explorer wishing
to live deliberately, to live deep and suck out all
the marrow of life. Amenities include ready
access to an adjacent pond whose stony shore
invites contemplative walks in all weather, and
ample space to plant and tend a bean field or
similar subsistence farming enterprise. Situated
a mile from the nearest neighbour, this hermitage
nourishes an appetite for wholesome solitude,
yet permits the cloistered dweller to avail himself
of society by means of an invigorating stroll in
any direction through countryside of surpassing
appeal. He may find himself in communion with
fellow inhabitants of the wilder places, or with
men and women of a village much praised for
education and culture yet located not far from the
neighbourhood of lightning storms and animals
that hunt by night.
Chris O’Carroll/Henry David Thoreau
Oh, what a treasure and a bargain’s here!
A little more than bijou, less than big;
A little more than shabby, less than chic.
The finest architects in all the world,
Whether for modern, rustic, period-rustic,
Edwardian-Mock-Tudor-period-modern;
The décor’s quirky — yet there’s method in it:
Kelly Hoppen never more refined,
Llewelyn-Bowen ne’er more beautified —
(That’s an ill, a vile phrase: ‘beautified’ ) —
Yet now, since brevity’s the soul of wit:
A plague! A plague on all the other houses!
If it were sold when ’t’is sold, then ’t’were well
It were sold quickly: Yea — cash buyers only,
For neither borrowers nor lenders be.
Exchange the contracts and, upon our charge,
Cry ‘God! I’ve bought an overpriced garage!’
David Silverman/Shakespeare
NO. 3117: SPEECHES AS SONNETS
You are invited to recast a famous politi-
cal speech as a sonnet. Please email entries
to [email protected] by midday on 18
September. Last week’s competition was
incorrectly numbered, and should have been
No. 3116.
SOLUTION TO 2421: TINA
Fats WALLER (5), who has been called ‘THE BLACK
HOROWITZ’ (40/37/1A), was born in NEW YORK (28)
and died in KANSAS CITY (30/36). He was a reluctant ‘guest’
at CAPONE’s (16) 27th birthday party. SLOUCHY (22) and
KEROSENE (43) combine to form an anagram of
HONEYSUCKLE ROSE, while the title of the puzzle suggests
AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’. WALLER (5) was to be shaded.First prize David Jackon, Deddington, Oxfordshire
Runners-up Frank Maslen, London W1; Richard Poole,
Harlech, GwyneddName
Address
1A (four words) and 44 (four
words) are quotations from the
first verse of a poem (in ODQ).
Five remaining unclued lights
are examples of 1A, while 44
might be a comment on the
other four. The poet’s initials
will appear upwards in the
completed grid and must be
shaded.RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws