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Oojamaflippers

Quick vocab test.

Hooked as I am to solving and making crosswords, I’m prone to stumbling on words that leave me blank.

Inro, say, is a nest of Japanese boxes, popular for holding tobacco or ink or private seals. Netsuke, I knew. Ikebana? No brainer. But inro was a dunno.

So with inro as your intro, see if you can find the potato, the painting, the painter, the battle and the Russian cops among this list of scalp-scratchers, recently met in the Times crossword.

I’ll drop by later with definitions, as well as four cryptic clues I can’t fathom – despite learning the bloody answers! (A case of the compiler dosing on his own medicine, I hear you snigger. But maybe you can enlighten me.)

But first, the arcane XVI:

Animadvert

Bronzino

Carragheen

Double stop

Dyers rocket

Gad (noun)

Grisaille

Guard ring

Imphal

Maris piper

OGPU

Oojamaflip

Oppo

Slaphead

Tipcat

Turco

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 11:50 am and is filed under Word Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Oojamaflippers”

  1. flipsockgrrl Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    Well, I spotted the secret police, the painting (style) and the battle (location), and I think I know what animadvert, dyers rocket, guard ring, oppo and slaphead are. Nonetheless, the potato and the sculptor remain enigmatic, even after a brief googling.

    OTOH, this is a better strike rate than I usually get with the Friday crossword in The Age, so I’m not too unhappy ;-)

  2. david Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

    Hold the deep-fryer! I forgot the potato! Take a 2nd look at the list and you should spot the spud.

    And drop the chisel too. The one-time sculptor is now a Florentine painter. That’s the trouble of a hasty post: you need more eyes than a King Edward tuber.

    Thanks for slapping the quiz into shape.

  3. flipsockgrrl Says:
    September 16th, 2008 at 8:36 am

    [wipes brow] For this relief, much thanks — I feel much smarter now! [chortles]