AZED CROSSWORD 75

GROCETERIA

1.  J. A. Fincken: Try it for, e.g. cream crackers – forget F&M! (anag. less F, M, & lit.; Fortnum and Mason).

2.  Rev C. D. Westbrook: I cater, ergo get in order here (anag. & lit.).

3.  C. Allen Baker: Where one may see a caterer go, I fancy (anag. & lit.).

VHC

Mrs A. Boyes: Way-out erotic gear temptingly displays the goods (anag.).

C. Brown: I regret a small company merges to become a self-service store (anag. incl. co.).

C. O. Butcher: Where it’s right to go round taking tea and rice ad lib. (r in go + anag.).

S. Goldie: Shell coterie in smashing rag in tuckshop, super (anag. in anag.).

D. V. Harry: Roget and C. are fantastic – inside them one finds choice store of titbits (I in anag.; find = supply).

Sir S. Kaye: Herein reduced produce: tea, rice…, artfully arranged (gro(w) + anag., & lit.).

R. E. Kimmons: Stock up with tea here or get a rice supply (anag.; supply adv.).

D. P. Laurie: I cater; ergo, somehow I supply food (anag.).

A. Lawrie: I regret a small company, being converted into a supermarket (anag. incl. co.).

Mrs B. Lewis: It spells the end of serving rice or tea loose (g + anag., & lit.).

J. McKie: G—— (i.e. Creator) made it – and its wicked owner (anag.; ref. Chesterton, ‘Song Against Grocers’).

A. G. McPhie: Establishment giving the people no assistance. Private Eye might locate it at No. 10 (2 mngs.; ‘Grocer’, P.E.’s nickname for Heath).

D. P. M. Michael: What makes a G.O.C. retire unceremoniously? Large number of wives enters into it (anag.).

C. G. Millin: Contemporary shop has to develop practically, i.e. cater differently (gro(w) + anag.).

C. J. Morse: It could make catering more complicated if it had no bits of merchandise named (anag. less m, n, & lit.).

F. E. Newlove: Cash-down, wire-basket territory: GIRO, etc., are out (anag.).

F. R. Palmer: Where to buy butter or a loaf, get rice or a stew (anag.).

Mrs G. Rajkowska: I help myself here – must take care or I get ruined (anag.).

Brig R. F. E. Stoney: Where you won’t be served ground rice or tea by the gram (g. + anag., & lit.).

F. B. Stubbs: I offer prog. Pâté & Rice – New! 2p off!! (anag. less pp, & lit.).

B. C. Wilcox: It’s no service ace, Roger’s got it out (anag.; ref. R. Taylor; ’s = has).

Dr E. Young: Where you can start getting rice or tea without the usual ordering (g + anag., & lit.).

HC

R. Abrey, R. H. Adey, E. Akenhead, G. Aspin, Col P. S. Baines, J. W. Bates, Dr J. G. Booth, Miss P. Bradley, R. E. Brownrigg, A. J. Bulman, E. J. Burge, K. S. Burton, E. Chalkley, G. H. Clarke, Mrs M. P. Craine, A. L. Dennis, Dr M. J. B. Duff, Mrs W. Fearon, A. L. Freeman, G. F. K. Grant, Dr B. Greer, Mrs E. J. Holmes, J. M. Houghton, C. H. Hudson, H. W. Jenkins, G. Johnstone, Miss F. S. Kemp, Dr P. D. King, D. J. MacKay, B. Manvell, D. McLaren, J. H. McLean, Miss B. A. Mountstephens, D. B. Oaten, R. O’Donoghue, W. H. Pegram, Miss I. M. Raab, E. W. Richart, A. Rivlin, T. E. Sanders, B. Solomons, R. Stephenson, G. A. Tomlinson, T. Wightman, D. C. Williamson, Mrs M. R. Wishart.
 

Comments
About 390 entries, no mistakes. A nice, varied collection, with anagrams predominating. I had so much rice and tea to wade through that I felt by the end as though I’d had a particularly large Chinese meal. Some of you accused me of picking the least tractable word in the puzzle to give you to clue. I slightly resent this, since I always choose the word to be clued before embarking on the remaining clues, and am at pains to select a word which in my opinion is likely to offer a wide variety of possibilities. The fact that GROCETERIA sets my teeth on edge in the same way that e.g. CHEESEBURGER does is beside the point. I still think it’s quite an interesting word to have to clue. The lists above confirm this.
 
Two of the comments I made last month were seized upon by several solvers. I’m delighted. That’s what these slips are for. One concerned the non-feasibility of ‘& lit.’ misprint clues, which a number of you questioned. The misprinted form, it was argued, might refer to the cryptic clue, the correct form to the literal one. Or, to put it another way, a clue to the letters of a word could be read as a misprinted definition. Granted, but then the misprinted clue is not a genuine ‘& lit.’. All I am saying is that an ‘& lit.’ clue containing a misprint which nevertheless still appears as an ‘& lit.’ clue to the answer cannot be considered a genuine misprint clue. I hope I make my point clear.
 
The second hornet’s nest I disturbed relates to ‘bits’. Many of you didn’t like my assertions and regarded the device as vague or unsound. By a coincidence this month’s puzzle contained at least two examples of its usage. I had not thought of it until this discussion began as an unusual or questionable convention, I must confess, and still do not, though I would repeat what I said last time about its being something of a last resort for the clue-writer pressed for time or inspiration. What matters, surely, is the convention. I accept and use ‘bit of’ to mean ‘first letter of’; I reject and eschew it when it means ‘any letter of’. I am, I hope, consistent in this. Knowing this you may use it or not according to your discretion.
 
Finally, I am accused of perpetrating an indirect anagram with my clue to MORONIC in a recent puzzle: ‘Stupid, getting what comes before pi wrong’. Strictly speaking, my accuser is right. The solver has to determine which letter precedes π in the Greek alphabet and form an anagram of it to find a word meaning ‘stupid’. Since, however, there is only one letter which does precede it and this is easily discoverable if not known, I regard this as permissible. ‘Stupid getting omicron wrong’ would have been too easy (and incidentally nonsensical); ‘Stupid getting Greek letter wrong’ would have constituted an indirect anagram, and you can rest assured that I would never have used it.