Independent 7,045/Phi
Posted by Ali on May 15th, 2009
Quick, early one from me today as I’m flying off to Denmark for the weekend. Phi back to his usual Friday slot after a couple of weeks elsewhere, and up to his usual excellent standard. Definitely at the easier end of the scale, though 22A took me a while to work out.
There’s a Nina here too, with perimeter unches spelling out AROUND THE EDGES clockwise from 1D.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 5 | PUSH – US in PH |
| 6 | REEF KNOT – F in (ONE TREK)* |
| 8 | SQUAD CAR – QUAD In SCAR |
| 10 | ICE RUN – CE,RU in IN |
| 11 | EARLY ENGLISH – (HIS GENERALLY)* |
| 13 | CASHEW – CASH,E,W |
| 15 | GLORIA – (OIL[-y] RAG)* |
| 16 | CLEAR SIGHTED – (CHEATED GIRLS)* |
| 20 | GROUCH – GROUCH[-o] (Marx) |
| 21 | BOTANIST – IS in BOT,ANT |
| 22 | BIENNALE – BIEN,N,ALE |
| 23 | BALI – 1,LAB rev. |
| Down | |
| 1 | ASSAIL – [-w]ASSAIL |
| 2 | RED RAG – RE: DRAG |
| 3 | OFFICIAL LIST – OFF,ICI,ALL IS,[-reboo]T |
| 4 | UNTETHER – THE in [-h]UNTER (a type of watch) |
| 5 | PIQUANCY – PIQU[-e],[-n]ANCY |
| 7 | TOUR – Double def. |
| 9 | CREPE DE CHINE – HI in (PRECEDENCE)* |
| 12 | WATER SKI – (RISK A WET)*, &lit. |
| 14 | SECLUDED – (CLUES)* + DE[-a]D |
| 17 | RABBLE – I’m guessing this is [-d]RABBLE |
| 18 | HANNAH – HAN[-d] + HAN[-d] rev. |
| 19 | GRUB – RUB after G |
May 15th, 2009 at 10:21 am
22 across took me a while too, but I blame this on the fact that ‘bien’ is not ‘good French’. It means ‘well’.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Have to disagree with you there, Conrad, bien = good is quite correct in French. BIENNALE was my last entry too and seeing the Nina (which I suspected from the start from the look of the grid) helped me finish. Bottom half really difficult, top half extremely easy, I found.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
My initial thought was the same as Conrad’s, thinking that BON was the correct translation, but having given it a bit more thought I agree with Nmsindy. BIEN has many subtly different meanings (including “well”) and many of them would translate as “good” (much like this puzzle).
My only quibble (and I expect that there is a perfectly good reason why) was the use of “Nuts” (plural) to define CASHEW (which I would say is singular).
May 15th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Testy – in the printed version, 13A (CASHEW) has “Nut’s” (i.e “Nut is”) which is fine. Looks like an error in the on-line version.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Those damn curly apostrophes have crept in again – the online version leaves them out
May 15th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Ah! That’s right, I’ve remembered apostrophe’s (sic) causing problem’s (s’ic) before. Phi’s fully exonerated and this puzzle’s an unblemish’d paragon.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
It’s fixed now – thanks for drawing my attention to it, Testy.
May 16th, 2009 at 12:59 am
“W/assail” seems to be popular recently….
May 16th, 2009 at 11:39 am
The GROUCH clue was interesting because my immediate thought was the Marx brothers. But I tried to fit HARP[o]+ER (hoping it meant someone who harps (on)) in there. In my run through of their names none of the others made a sensible word with the O removed! It took a while of failing to fit HARPER before the very big obvious penny dropped.
May 16th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Excursion to see Paris landmark? Excursion = TOUR Where is Paris landmark?
May 16th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
David
The Paris landmark is the Eiffel Tower or, in French, Tour Eiffel.