Teeing up the clues

In the Cashwords, for ‘Arranged, … up’ at 170dn, we accepted both TEED and TIED. Tee comes from the sporting world. A tee is a stand for a ball, perhaps the best known being the golfer’s tee. A golfer tees up and tees off.
Arranged can also be to tie up, especially loose ends! Tie up loose ends is thought to come from the world of sailing, but what about ‘to be at a loose end’, meaning having little to do? I found this relates to the fact that a captain would order his crew to repair the loose ends of ropes only when there was nothing more pressing to be done. Now let’s press on.
A couple of grammatical errors to mention; at 207ac for ‘Re-evoked (memories)’ you needed AWAKENS not AWAKING and for 147dn ‘Gained victory’ you needed WON not WIN.
We expected SOAR for ‘Skyrocket’ at 178dn but some entries had STAR, perhaps more poetic, but sadly, incorrect.
‘Harassing’ at 215dn was HOUNDING, giving you HEMISPHERE for ‘Half-ball’ at 215ac. SEMISPHERE and SOUNDING were not suitable alternatives.
Over in the Baffler the ‘Ancient Greek region in Anatolia’ was
IONIA not IONIC, which is an architectural style.
The ‘Anti-communist’ was Joseph MCCARTHY not MACARTHY. McCarthy was famous for his spurious claims that there were many Soviet spies within the US federal government and armed forces.
A few entries had GREY for ‘Anatomy author’ but the textbook was written by Henry GRAY.
Just to confuse things, the
American medical drama is called Grey’s Anatomy.
If you had GREY then ‘Neo­classical style’ ended up as the cheesy EDAM, instead of the correct ADAM. This style was named after Robert Adam, a Scottish architect and designer.
In the Giant Cryptic 61dn ‘Announce hotel has slice I made’ was PUBLICISE; PUB coming from ‘hotel’ and LICISE being a mix of the letters from ‘slice I’. A couple of entries had PARTITION.
The Brenner Pass has been used as a route between Northern and Southern Europe since before Roman times. Once a mule track, it is now a major motorway providing a way through the Alps.
In the Stinker, clue 16dn ‘Austria/Italy’s … Pass’ needed BRENNER and not BREMNER as some
of you put.
A plutocracy is government by the wealthy, not by that Disney dog! So the ‘Members of the wealthy elite’ at 20ac were PLUTOCRATS not PLUROCRATS.
A GILLIE is a ‘Scottish hunting guide’ (7dn). This is also spelt ghillie or gilly, but these didn’t fit. We couldn’t find the variant GILLEE.
Clue 146ac proved a bit tricky. ‘Caving hobbyist’ was SPELUNKER not SPELUCKER. Is not spelunker a wonderful word? It comes from the Latin spelunx ‘cave’.
Coming off the P was ‘The golden ratio’ (147dn) or PHI (PYI and PSI were incorrect). Phi comes from the first letter of the name of Greek sculptor and architect Phidias, whose buildings seemed to reflect the golden ratio, which is an aesthetic ideal relating to the ratio of the base to the height of a rectangle.
‘Cosa Nostra mobster’ at 192ac needed MAFIOSO, not MAFIOSA, to fit with LOW for ‘Trough’ at 184dn. One clue over at 185dn, ‘Israeli-designed sub-machine gun’ was UZI. According to Collins this weapon was named after Uziel Gal, the officer who designed it.
Ossuary is a word that appears in our Stinker from time to time. It is a vault to contain bones. In this Stinker at 265dn was the related word OSSEOUS (not OSSUOUS) in answer to ‘Bony’. The base word is the Latin oss ‘bone’. Perhaps we should rename our Skeleton puzzle The Ossa!
Hopefully there are no bones of contention there. Make no bones about it, I’ll be back in the New Year! Wishing you a fantastic fun-filled festive season.