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Has anybody got an answer for 9d?
Realistic drama's opening scene with drilling of
teeth(11) The only answer I can come up with is
D-ESCEN-D-ENTAL but I am not sure what it means
as I can find no entry in Chambers or Collins.
Any light shed will be gratefully received.
Jerry

Hi Jerry,
The way you have arrived at descendentalism looks as though it should be correct. I googled it and found the definition below:-
descendentalism
the doctrines of a school of philosophy emphasizing empiricism and positivism. Cf. transcendentalism. — descendentalist, n. — descendental, descendentalistic, adj.

Hi folks,

I can confirm that DESCENDENTAL is in the Shorter Oxford (I have the 1970 edition, which dates me !).

The definition is "That descends to matter of fact; realistic", which fits the clue perfectly.

Regards,
Alan

Thank you both,Alan and the Alchemist,
It has certainly made happy to have finished it.
Has any publisher drawn up a Scottish/English
dictionary (and I don't mean those silly things in
gift shops!) it would be very useful for those of
us doing these types of crossword.
Regards to all,
Jerry
p.s John(from Arran)ought to know!

Hi Jerry,

Like you I have thankfully completed the Azed today.

In doing the Mephisto and Azed we are regularly challenged by obscure Scottish words, plus those from regional dialects and archaic/Spenserian origin. They can be looked up in Chambers but only once the word is known.

It would be good to have a Scottish thesaurus so we could look up the English equivalent. Taking AZED 1928 as an example, it would be good to look up 'firework' for 11a. The only solution I know is the DSL or Dictionary of the Scots Language - refer to http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/

Unfortunately, a DSL search on 'firework' leads to lots of words but not the right one. Annoyingly, a search on the correct solution shows it to be present in the DSL ! It is probably better than nothing though...

Alan

Hi again Alan,
Thank you for the info,I will look at that website.
Did you see the other answer to 11d on Mephisto,it
seems really good to me.
Look after yourself and not too much vin rouge!
Jerry

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for pointing out the alternative answer to Mephisto 11d. It is clearly the better option and, as it should be, it is in Chambers, meaning '(for a sailing vessel) to fail in going about from one tack to another'.

I have enjoyed my usual glass of red this evening, and not just for medicinal purposes ! We're back from France now, with replenished stocks of the stuff...

Alan

Jerry, Alan, The Alchemist

Wow, most impressive intelectual thread I've witnessed since I came across this forum in the early '50's.

Your casual and laid back approach garnished with the level of up-beat "in your face" knowledge and assured "banter" made me thnk, at first, you were all from the other place just taking the p??s. How glad I am that you are one (or three?) of us!

JimB (always suspicious)

Hi Jerry,

I\'m afraid I don\'t know of a good printed one, but I use this website for some of the more obscure crossword clues in the Scottish papers.

http://www.scots-online.org/dictionary/

Not the most user friendly site I know of but persevere.

Thank you John,
I have duly noted that web address,
trust you are well,I am looking forward to a trip
up to Scotland come mid-June.
Best wishes,
Jerry