If you are feeling Nostalgic (Demon 3dn) you are feeling WISTFUL. Nostalgia comes from two Greek words meaning returning home and pain to signify the pain a person feels when he/she wishes they were home. WISHFUL is not quite the same; wistful is wishful plus yearning or longing.
Our Demon looks just a little stout but is he Stout-hearted? This means strong of heart or brave or DOUGHTY (24ac). Doughty became used as a surname and if this is your name you must have had a courageous ancestor, and not one who made dough neither the bread nor money kind!
At 42ac the Muslim theologian could be MULLAH or MOLLAH. According to Britannica, Mullah means lord and is a title given to religious leaders, teachers and scholars.
A provisional government is put in place as a temporary measure after an administration collapses or after upheaval and until elections can be held. INTERIM is another word for Provisional (34dn). The Iraqi Interim Government is a recent example. INTERUM was incorrect.
Tibets capital (43dn is LHASA not LLASA. Lhasa means place of the gods. If you have a cute Lhasa Apso you have a bearded dog from the place of the gods.
It might seem that new words are appearing everyday and English can sound like a foreign language sometimes, but some expressions have stood the test of time.
In the Old Testament book of Exodus, the Israelites fleeing Egypt face starvation in the desert until God sends them food raining down each day, a type of grain to be collected, ground and made into cakes. It was sweet to eat and was called manna. From this we get the expression sweet manna from heaven. It was the answer to Demon clue 63ac Windfall, … from heaven. MANJA was incorrect.
There was a J needed in 110ac KANJI for ‘Japanese writing system’. If you didn’t get this answer you had trouble with two foods at 105dn and 106dn.
OKRA is a Gumbo ingredient, used as a thickener for the soup from Louisiana and DILL is a Parsley relative. Parsley comes from a big family. Other cousins include carrot, fennel, cumin and celery. They are sometimes called umbellifers because the flower heads are an umbel. This has the same root (and shape) as umbrella.
A GRANDEE is a Spanish or Portuguese prince and has been adopted into English for a man of eminence or Local bigwig (44dn). A GRANTEE on the other hand is a person to whom something is granted, so was not accepted as an alternative.
FILLIP is imitative of the sound of snapping your fingers but as well as meaning this, also means to excite, as snapping fingers might rouse you to action. It was the answer to Demon 97dn Stimulus. A few entries had FILLUP.
The Cure-all at 111ac was an ELIXIR. If you had ELIXER you also had 90dn incorrect as SLAVESH. Imitative was SLAVISH.
At 8dn in the Goliathon was a Coffee brewer that every fine hostess used to boast of, but is not so widely used anymore perhaps because no one could spell it! PERCULATOR turned up at 8dn with many variations including PERCULATER and PERCELATOR. PERCOLATOR was correct.
If you had that correct you may not have survived 51dn which was SURVIVOR not SURVIVER.
In the Bigcash at 3dn Healthiest was FITTEST. We are not sure if there was a misreading here or you were trying to amuse our judges but a couple of you had FATTEST!
Down to the bottom of the grid and 136ac was LEISURE not LEASURE. A few entries had 144ac incorrect – Savoury spread was PASTE not PATTE. Pecks Anchovette Paste is a famous example. It was first found on shelves during WWII and can still be bought today.
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