XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 417

SINECURE

1.  Mrs L. Jarman: What could be nicer, with a good screw, and less use? (i.e. anag. incl. use, & lit.; screw = wages).

2.  C. J. Morse: Established Church practice in former days, ignoring original sin (i.e. sin EC ure¹, & lit.).

3.  S. Goldie: Cushy job gives us nice change: what’s next to do being the last thing to consider! (anag. + re² & lit.).

H.C.

R. B. Adcock: Safe broken open by man in office: easy, lucrative job (in (n.) in secure).

C. Allen Baker: There’s money for jam in safe-breaking! (in in secure).

J. W. Bates: The ideal office—endless store of drinks in safe! (in(n) in secure).

C. M. Broun: I ensure country’s leader is well off (anag. incl. c, & lit.; ref. office of First Lord of the Treasury, a sinecure post).

R. N. Chignell: It could give you sure income with no end of freedom (anag. less (freed)om, & lit.).

D. Connell: At home in safe—That’s where the money is—and no worry (in in secure).

J. H. Dingwall: My holder doesn’t work. Confounded curse! Must have got clogged by the end of a Woodbine ((Woodb)ine in anag.; W. cigarette).

M. S. Y. Fowler: It’s wrong to keep a scoundrel in ease, by the sound of it, but this has done it sometimes (sin + cur in ee (‘E’s’)).

V. Jennings: Jock’s after a remedy for a careless engagement! (sine³ cure).

T. W. Melluish: Sounds like the man waiting in the one-and-nines—an unexacting task (‘ciné queuer’).

D. A. Nicholls: You may have your work cut out to find such a situation: you certainly will in keeping it! (cryptic def.).

A. E. North: Held by some clergy to offend against Established Church practice of our forefathers (sin EC ure¹, & lit.).

G. H. Ravenor: Beneficial rest for evil Anglo-French parson (sin E curé).

E. B. Stevens: Where there’s never any work with a Scotch to follow—that’s what Father’s after (sine³ curé & lit.).

T. G. Wellman: Pity English physician with no end in view, living with no prospect of saving (sin E cure(r)).

C. E. Williams: City district in ruins—in ruins up to the East End—office survives, but no work done (EC in anag. + E).

M. Winterbottom: In which, after meeting the cost of living, there was little opportunity for saving! (cryptic def. & lit.; i.e. saving souls).

J. S. Young: In breaking and entering make certain there is no hard labour attached to the job (in, in secure (vb.)).

RUNNERS-UP

A. G. Barton, R. M. R. Bence, H. Bernard, A. Borshell, V. E. Brooke, C. O. Butcher, A. G. Callely, P. Capon, R. F. S. Chignell, P. M. Coombs, J. Cordery, R. Dean, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, Miss M. W. Fielden, F. D. Gardiner, C. E. Gates, S. B. Green, D. Henderson, L. Hollman, C. H. Hudson, A. L. Jeffery, C. Kauffman, C. Koop, A. Lawrie, Mrs E. McFee, I. McGivering, D. P. M. Michael, J. H. Moore (Cologne), J. J. Moore (Liverpool), Miss M. J. Patrick, R. Postill, E. J. Rackham, D. W. Reeds, N. Roles, H. Rotter, K. E. Salmon, H. R. Sanders, W. K. M. Slimmings, T. L. Strange, F. Sutton, Miss D. W. Taylor, S. N. Taylor, D. G. Thomas, L. E. Thomas, B. Tomlinson, Miss E. Troughton, Miss E. Turner, Capt C. Tyers, L. K. Upton, R. Vaughan, P. J. Whitcombe, C. P. Wroth, P. Young.
 

COMMENTS—510 entries, 457 correct: the commonest errors were “spasmic” and a wrong first letter for ZONDA. Let me hasten first to apologise for my incorrect pronunciation of DIPLOE, pointed out by two competitors: very careless. There was extremely close competition for the prizes: I found it very hard to put what I considered the best five into an order: Mr. Stevens and Mr. Young were the unlucky ones.
 
There were a lot of new competitors: so I am going to bore hardened wolves again with principles of cluemanship which they know all about—but perhaps there will be a few new points. (1) A definition is essential—this principle is seldom violated nowadays—and must be accurate and must make the right part of speech a possible answer. “Does an easy job carelessly since operation” (sinec-ure) offends here: it is not true that a sinecure “does an easy job,” nor does it mean “does an easy job.” This definition would be perfectly sound for two kinds of answer:—a noun such as “sinecurist” or a verb, if there is one, meaning “holds a sinecure” (a recent correspondent from the North please note!). But it is not sound for “sinecure.” The rest of the clue is sound except that the obsoleteness of “ure” should at least be hinted at. (2) “I leave French stable” is unsound as an indication of “écurie”. The letter “i” requires a 3rd person verb, e.g., “I must leave.” (3) An anagram must be fairly suggested, not merely put beside the definition. “It’s a nice ruse and it’s money for jam” is simply an incorrect statement: “sinecure” is not “a nice ruse.” You must say, “It makes a nice ruse” or something of that sort. (4) Once again (!) indirect anagrams, unless very easy, are useless to the solver and unfair. An extreme example was “Crazy mixed up kid (Hamlet?)” as an indication of “sine” (sien = scion). The words “kid (Hamlet?)” don’t exactly make “sien” leap to the mind! An anagram should nearly always be given in its actual form, not by definition. I make rare exceptions, e.g. my clue to NABK in No. 416: the reference there to “a well known Monte Carlo man” should at once suggest “the man who broke the bank.” But they really are rare. (5) I don’t much like “a nice mess,” which occurred in many entries, as an indication of “inec.” I don’t think those words can fairly be made to mean “a mixture of letters of the word ‘nice.’” Note that Mr. Goldie’s “gives us nice change” is entirely different: that can well mean “gives a change to the letters of the words ‘us nice.’” The difference is worth studying. On the other hand “sleepy-head” for “S” is not really sound: it can hardly mean “head of ‘sleepy.’” (6) Finally I don’t much like “the stable” as an indication of “sure”: “the” is inappropriate with an adjective. You may go now!