Debrief of NYT Cryptic Crossword Wipeout, Part 2 of 2

Here are the explanations to the Down answers from the NYT Cryptic crossword of January 10.

1 Down – Cinema opening of “Top Gun” – THEATER. Opening of top = t, gun = heater. As in 24 Across (mentioned with the other Across clues in the previous post), the quotation marks were a red herring.
2 Down – Holding back coach among others – RESTRAINT. In this case, “among” means “inside.” This clue is like 29 Across, where coach = train, which is inside others = rest. Res(train)t.
3 Down – Victoria’s Secret line lives again – UNDIES. This clue is very much like 22 Across, two meanings for the same set of letters. If someone dies when they become dead, does someone undie when they join the ranks of the undead (vampires, zombies, etc.)?
4 Down – Chuck, in a tie, heading up to the sky – HEAVENWARD. I don’t get this answer. I get that Chuck = heave, and I get that drawn is a tie, but I don’t get why drawn should be reversed. I was looking for variations of Chuck in the middle of the word, and words signifying a tie at the beginning and end, as in one-one, one-all, etc.
5 Down – Sing “shoobie-doobie-doobie-shoo” – SCAT. Prosaic clues are allowed in cryptics. As the man said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
6 Down – Otto, in England, possessing fine vision – EYESIGHT. I can see that yes in inside eight, but I don’t get why eyesight is the answer to this clue. Anyone? Bueller?
7 Down – English city is up by the sound – LEEDS. “By the sound” means sounds like, and “is up” means “leads,” and Leeds sounds like leads
8 Down – Go back and pick up another tab – RETREAT. I kept wanting the back in “Go back” to signify something backwards, but again, I mistook a meaning word for a wordplay source.
13 Down – Actor Miller, for one, keeps name in spite of that – BEN STILLER. (N. Still) is embedded in BEER. BE(N. STILL)ER. I only get this a little bit.
16 Down – Bother to mete out reverence – ADORATION. Bother = Ado, and “mete out” = ration.
17 Down – Newspapers covering lifetime forecasts – PRESAGES. In this case, covering means including. Pres(age)s. I kept trying to get an anagram of the letters in forecasts, without success.
18 Down – Former Mideast group about to investigate – EXPLORE. I busted my pick on “Former Mideast group.” United Arab Republic? I didn’t get that Former is a clue for “Ex.” The PLO is a Mideast group. Actually, the clue would still be correct if it were to say “Former terrorist organization about to investigate,” because the PLO was considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States until the 1991 Madrid conference.
20 Down – Settler sabotaged part of a bridge – TRESTLE. Anagram of settler.
21 Down – Faction holding the French pick – SELECT. In this case, holding means containing. I don’t get why pick is in there. I would make the clue “Fraction holding a French article.” Faction is sect.
23 Down – Second unfinished coffee – LATTE. Second is latter, and latter unfinished is latte. Unfinished means “drop the last letter.”
25 Down – One performing in a little while – ANON. One = an, performing = on.

I grasp from looking at the answers that there are multiple words that signifiy a word being embedded inside another word, including about, among, keeps, covering and holding. So I will add that to the list of things I grasped from the last post…

• Look for clue words having to do with first and/or last letters (finally, ultimately)
• Think of synonyms of the beginnings and ends of clues
• Consider multiple possibilities (which I didn’t do on “small article,” f’rinstance)
• Shamelessly use the Internet Anagram Server as a tool
• Look for similar clues when one answer is found
• Notice multiple words signifying embedding (about, among, keeps, covering, holding, etc.)

I hope this helps. I think doing this helped me.

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