XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 273

COUSIN

1.  C. J. Morse: General name for any sovereign or noble about me, as a monarch might put it (us in coin, & lit; us = me (royal use)).

2.  V. F. Dixon: What the crown, sovereign or noble was—entre nous! (us in coin, & lit.; entre nous (Fr.) = enter us).

3.  J. A. L. Sturrock: You’ll find a royal form of me as a mode of address between sovereigns, maybe (us in coin, & lit; us = me (royal use)).

H.C.

F. D. H. Atkinson: The issue of a pop at Uncle’s is to put us in the money! (us in coin; issue = offspring; Uncle = pawnbroker, pop = pawn).

Maj H. L. Carter: German? Better with a bit of raucous inflexion! (hidden; Vetter (Ger.) = cousin, capital B and V alike in German script; german (n., obs.) = near relative [see comments]).

W. J. Duffin: This German is closely akin to the Angle—which includes us (us in coin (= cornerstone, archaic); german (n., obs.) = near relative).

T. Dwyer: What Elizabeth said to Essex: “Let us go in the corner, in the old way” (us in coin (= cornerstone, archaic); Robert Devereaux, 2nd Earl of Essex, distant cousin of Elizabeth I).

P. Holtby: A German would be first to gain by means of getting round America (US in coin, (vb.); german (n., obs.) = near relative).

N. M. Keir: A hail of sovereigns puts us in the money (us in coin; h. = greeting).

Miss Mackie: How a German landed in Monaco, using a Mosquito picked up in France (hidden; german (n., obs.) = near relative; cousin (Fr.) = mosquito).

A. W. Maddocks: Party to whom the Conqueror might have said “Bob’s your uncle” (cryptic def.; ref. Robert, Duke of Normandy, father of William I).

R. Postill: Get Uncle Sam into a corner, and his daughter’s yours! (US in coin (= cornerstone, archaic)).

E. J. Rackham: The chap who looks to “Uncle” for a “pop” (cryptic def.; Uncle = pawnbroker, pop = pawn).

Mrs J. Robertson: Socinus, lacking a son, revealed what one would have meant to his nephew (anag. less s.; see “Socinian” in C.).

F. N. Shimmin: All of us came into money, so used sovereigns to call “Heads” (us in coin; H. = leaders; coin tossing).

W. K. M. Slimmings: Let us split the money equally—one of Uncle’s stock answers (us in coin; stock = family; Uncle = pawnbroker).

Miss D. W. Taylor: Mine shares my grandmother! It takes real money to get round Uncle Sam! (US in coin).

L. E. Thomas: A pledge accepted by Uncle will put us in the money! (us in coin; pledge = child; Uncle = pawnbroker).

H. S. Tribe: Auntie’s hopeful to put us in the money—and half the coupon wrong! (us in coin, cou(pon) + sin; hopeful = promising youngster; ref. football pools).

M. A. Vernon: Sassenach sib is unco glaikit! (anag.).

RUNNERS-UP

E. S. Ainley, J. P. H. Allon, V. E. Brooke, C. O. Butcher, D. L. Clements, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, Miss B. J. Dix, W. Eite, Mrs W. Fearon, J. A. Fincken, Mrs N. Fisher, E. Gomersall, R. M. Grace, S. B. Green, I. A. Herbert, E. G. Illingworth, L. Johnson, C. Koop, C. J. Lowe, A. Mandeville, T. W. Melluish, T. E. Miles, F. E. Newlove, E. G. Phillips, J. Potter, A. Robins, J. S. Russell, E. O. Seymour, Mrs E. Shackleton, H. G. Tattersall, F. L. Usher, M. Woolf, A. J. Young, and one illegible signature from 60 Orchard Avenue.
 

COMMENTS—373 entries. 352 correct. The allusion to Kipling’s Mine Sweepers puzzled many solvers. The relevant lines are:—“Mines reported in the fairway. Warn all traffic and detain. Send up Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain.” I must confess that my “Too noisy” as a definition of TROPPO was not strictly accurate: perhaps it was the proximity of the bagpipes that wrongly influenced me! Only two solvers pointed this out.
 
There were some very good clues submitted but the general standard fell abruptly from that of No. 271. There were again many unfamiliar competitors, a very healthy sign; and by no means all those who wrote “We’re in the money” were among their number. Those who have heard it so many times before must therefore forgive me for pointing out yet again that if you want to say to solvers “us is,” it is no use saying “we are”! This treatment of the word was so much used as to become monotonous, but of course plenty of people used it soundly. Those who succeeded in giving the most interesting twists to it are mentioned above. Major Carter’s treatment of capital letters is perhaps a little suspect: I have no German, apart from SIEG and a few other words, so perhaps I am a poor judge of it. However I liked its ingenuity, and having verified it to the best of my ability I gave it an H.C. The entry included what I think I can fairly call the worst clue ever sent in! (I have made sure that the sender didn’t send an envelope for the slip, so I needn’t spare his blushes). Believe it or not, the clue was the one word “Dime,” with the note “Coin in U.S.”! I hasten to add that such excesses are extremely rare.