A note from the Membership Secretary
Last Sunday's Dispatch did not leave the Society. It remained in the outgoing tray while the tray itself was moved to the evidence cupboard. The register records the failure plainly. It offers no excuse.
The missing workings are filed below as old business. This week's document then proceeds in the usual order.
On Wednesday morning Dr Quire found a monocle behind a ledger in the archive. It belongs to no member. Colonel Hawtree tried it on and declared the room improved, which has not helped the inquiry.
Beneath it lay a catalogue card recording four English discs where only three could be found. The Committee has decided that neither the object nor the missing record exists officially until the Crossing has been resolved.
It has now been resolved.
Mr Peregrine Fitch, Membership Secretary
Old business, filed late
The Crossing posed on Wednesday 19 August was:
1 across (7). Mark left by alien, red
1 down (6). Notes left out of order, missing
The answers were SCARLET and STOLEN.
For SCARLET, the definition is "red". A mark gives SCAR, left gives the standard abbreviation L, and the familiar screen alien gives ET:
SCAR + L + ET = SCARLET
For STOLEN, the definition is "missing". "Out of order" tells us to rearrange NOTES with L for left:
NOTES + L, out of order, becomes STOLEN.
They share the L. The recovered document has now been stamped, filed and denied the satisfaction of a separate weekday issue.
The Crossing, as posed
Two clues, one shared letter. Seven letters across and seven down. They meet at the fifth letter of the across answer and the third letter of the down answer.
1 across (7). Cool men disturbed by single eyepiece
1 down (7). A river church has four English records
The workings follow. Look away now if you would rather examine the objects without assistance.
The workings
1 across. Cool men disturbed by single eyepiece (7)
The answer is MONOCLE.
The definition is "single eyepiece". "Disturbed" is the anagram signal, and COOL MEN supplies all seven letters:
COOL MEN, disturbed, becomes MONOCLE.
The surface suggests that several composed gentlemen have been unsettled. Only their letters have suffered. Every one is reused and none is added.
1 down. A river church has four English records (7)
The answer is ARCHIVE.
The definition is "records", used as a verb at the end. Before it, five small pieces arrive in order:
- A stays A. - River gives R. - Church gives CH. - Four gives the Roman numeral IV. - English gives E.
Set them down without rearranging them:
A + R + CH + IV + E = ARCHIVE
This is a charade. The surface describes a church's record collection while each item quietly contributes its part to the act of keeping records.
And the crossing
The C in MONOCLE is the C in ARCHIVE. The anagram yields it without telling you where it belongs. The charade fixes it inside the abbreviation CH. Solve either clue and the other becomes less anonymous.
The monocle remains unclaimed. The fourth record remains missing. Dr Quire has entered both facts in a fresh notebook and kept the notebook with her.
The Doorkeeper's Question, answered
The previous live Dispatch asked:
Fish distraction (7)
The answer is HERRING.
This is a double definition. A herring is a fish. A red herring is a distraction, something placed in your path to pull attention away from what matters. There is no assembly and no hidden word, just two meanings sharing one answer.
This week's Doorkeeper's Question
For the first hint of autumn:
The falcon Kerry saw conceals an autumn champion (6)
The answer appears in the next Dispatch. The Doorkeeper has inspected the evidence cupboard and found only evidence.
The Society of Crossed Words publishes a daily crossing for those beginning, and a course in four volumes for those continuing.
societyofcrossedwords.com