Ok, my parents have another competition entry much like this one, except that this time the answers only have to be ‘well-known holiday destinations’, no colour references or anything.

We answered ones such as ‘Sounds like the 2 times table’ - Dublin, ‘Slang for hearing aids in broadcasting’ - Cannes, and ‘Dial for confused state’ - Florida.

So, the ones we’re stuck at…

#3 ‘American holiday vehicle stuck in seaweed’
#4 ‘Cod Horn straightens out for championship golf’
#5 ‘Message from Chancellor as he reduces VAT?’
#9 ‘Spain is confused and not straight after losing direction’
#11 ‘A singular word losing its first syllable’
#13 ‘Mad stream for canals?’
#15 ‘direction is acting very coldly’
#23 ‘Religious gentleman mixed up with a Chinese sauce’
#24 ‘I leave spaniel, which then gets confused’
#29 ‘Four C is a confused island class’

We’ve been staring at them for so long we might be missing really obvious answers. Any ideas?

I’ve never been able to understand your (reading UK) crossword-type riddles.  None of them seem obvious to me.  Hell, it took me a minute to even understand how Florida was the correct answer, and I still don’t really get Cannes.  I’m assuming it has something to do with a tin can telephone, but it’s a big stretch.

Cans are a slang term for big studio-type headphones, like these.

Yeah.  I thought that, but I’ve never heard them called cans so I would never have gotten it.

Nothing immediate upon looking at the (other than a Chinese sauce is probably ‘soy’).  I’ll post further if anything comes to mind.

Cool.
We’ve got until the 31st of this month to hand it in.

15 is Nice (Direction (n) is acting coldly (ice))
24 is Naples (anagram of spaniel minus the i)
29 is Corfu (anagram of Four C)

Charybdis - 22 January 2009 03:23 PM

I’ve never been able to understand your (reading UK) crossword-type riddles.  None of them seem obvious to me.  Hell, it took me a minute to even understand how Florida was the correct answer, and I still don’t really get Cannes.  I’m assuming it has something to do with a tin can telephone, but it’s a big stretch.

It also probably doesn’t help that you’re likely not as familiar with popular British vacation spots as you are with popular American ones.  Most Americans would probably think that Majorca is some sort of a dessert pie.

Sharruma - 22 January 2009 04:15 PM

15 is Nice (Direction (n) is acting coldly (ice))
24 is Naples (anagram of spaniel minus the i)
29 is Corfu (anagram of Four C)

Oh fuckit! We knew that #24 was an anagram of span*el, but missed that one!

We already have Nice as a pretty definite answer to another clue, so #15 probably isn’t that.

What places have you already figured out?  If we know those, then we can keep from trying to fit them into the answers here.

Madmouse - 22 January 2009 03:18 PM

#3 ‘American holiday vehicle stuck in seaweed’

For the vehicle, I can’t think of any vehicles that are inherently holidayish other than campers.  Winnebago, perhaps.  Or maybe station wagons.  And perhaps the “stuck in seaweed” has something to do with sargasso?

#4 ‘Cod Horn straightens out for championship golf’

Cod and Horn are both the names of capes.  And the championship golf bit makes me thing of Provence (pro golf), though I haven’t a clue how the Cod Horn bit would fit into that.

#13 ‘Mad stream for canals?’

Amsterdam?

#23 ‘Religious gentleman mixed up with a Chinese sauce’

All I can think of for this is the Soylent:  Soy sauce, and then the pre-Easter Lent time.

Ooh, you might have something with #13…

So far we have

Dublin
Brittany
Rome
Brodick
The (Norfolk) Broads
Miami
Madrid
Millport
Blackpool
Nice
Cannes
New Orleans
Yellowstone
York
Snowdonia
Andorra
Jersey (or Guernsey)
Florida
Stratford
Tenby

I wonder if any of the others could be Brighton. . .