Joking Around – June BIG contests

Did you hear about the man sitting under a toadstool? He was a real fungi! (Though there wasn’t mushroom under there!)
Toadstools are associated with magical beings in many cultures, but why? Is it because they appear magically overnight, or because they look like colourful pixie caps? Maybe it’s because of the hallucinogenic affects, if eaten, that create visions of sugar plum fairies and the like.
Whatever the reason the name itself is enough to stir the imagination, especially as its origin is unknown.
In The Demon in June BIG we had a ‘Brightly-coloured toadstool’ at 28dn. The answer needed was RUSSULA. As the name suggests, many are red in colour, including some edible ones, but other species (there are 750 of them) may be green or yellow or orange.
Incorrect answers here included RUSTULA and RUSSURA.
A query came in about our clue at 102ac. ‘Japanese ink stick’ needed SUMI, but it was suggested that SUMI-E was correct. I found that the E indicates ‘painting’ and SUMI is the ink which comes as a stick made of pine soot and glue or resin. The stick is ground and added to water and this is applied with a brush. A few entries had this incorrect as YUMI or FUMI as well.
The ‘Tyre-puncturing spike’ (70ac) was originally designed to disable horses or camels on a battlefield and has been used as a weapon in more modern warfare against tanks and personnel, but it is best known as a device used by police to stop a speeding car or escapee. CALTROP comes from a Latin word meaning ‘tread’ and there is also a plant with this name that has hard spines best avoided in bare feet! According to Oxford CALTRAP is also an accepted spelling so we took that as well.
A couple of entries had CARTRAP, which sounds likely, but was incorrect. This also made 49dn wrong. ‘FDR’s New …’ was DEAL not DEAR. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a program to bring economic relief to the US in the 1930s.
At 119ac for ‘Foreign’ many wanted to put ENDEMIC but this did not fit with the answer to 115dn ‘Holy statue’, which was ICON. Endemic actually means prevalent in a particular area, or local, the opposite of the less commonly heard ECDEMIC, which describes a disease brought in from outside, or foreign. Both are different to epidemic which describes a disease that spreads quickly, and pandemic, the term used recently for the swine flu, which is widespread.
Winged sandals sound like some fad in children’s footwear, a bit like those shoes with wheels or flashing lights. TALARIA was the name of the sandals worn by Greek messenger god, Hermes. This popular god used his sandals to fly swiftly between the realms of gods and humans. He was thought to take care of travellers, athletes, shepherds and also thieves.
He carried a caduceus (a good word for Demons!), a winged staff with two snakes winding around it. This came to be used as a symbol for medicine.
In the wonderful but ultimately sad tale of the Gingerbread Man, the protagonist is baked, escapes, and is chased across the countryside. He gets away from all pursuers except the fox. Clever, sly, cunning and wily are all words associated with the fox – another is tricky.
Goliathon clue 63ac was ‘Tricked’ and we expected the answer FOXED but quite a few of you put JOKED. We considered this answer, but did not accept it. As a noun, joke can mean trick but as a verb the distinction is clear. To trick is to dupe, con or cheat whereas to joke is to talk humorously or jest. CONED was also incorrect – CONNED has two ‘N’s.
FOXED crossed with CORE for ‘Heart’ at 53dn but if you went for DARED or DUPED for ‘Tricked’ then CORE didn’t fit and you found yourself – well – outfoxed!
At 230ac for ‘Waterloo’s vanquished leader’ a few entries had NAPOLEAN but Bonaparte’s name was spelt NAPOLEON.
Three clues along at 233ac ‘Delicate gauze’ was GOSSAMER but a few entries had GOSAMMER. This magical sounding word actually originated as ‘goose summer’. The connection seems to be that in the late summer when the spiders were spinning their delicate webs, goose was a popular dish for the dining table.
Not a lot to mention in Bigcash but at 116dn a couple of entries had DAUDLED instead of DAWDLED.
‘Widened (of nostrils)’ at 43ac was FLARED and ‘Tampered’ at 13dn was MEDDLED. In a confusion of tenses, FLARES and MEDDLES appeared a couple of times.
Now sharpen your pencils and your wits and enjoy all this month’s mind-tickling clues.