Independent 7,691/Phi
Posted by Ali on June 10th, 2011
Smashing stuff as ever from Phi. Lovely surfaces and some great anagrams, particularly the &lit. at 6D. Clue of the day for me is 22A, which had one of those ‘ah, very good’ moments!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | IMPEL – 1 M(illion) + PEL[-t] |
| 4 | WAFER-THIN – (WHEN FAT I R(un))* |
| 9 | CLOWDER – C[-at] + [-brindle]D in LOWER |
| 10 | CHIPPER – Double def. |
| 11 | GOLDEN DELICIOUS OLDEN DELI in G[-erman] C[-ity] + IOUS |
| 12 | IBSENIAN – INES rev. in 1 BAN |
| 14 | POGROM – OGR[-e] in POM |
| 17 | ON EDGE – ONE + DOGE less [-silvi]O |
| 18 | MANDATES – MAN (staff) + DATES (appointments) |
| 20 | MOUNTAIN BICYCLE – L(ake) in (I + MY CAB CONTINUE)* |
| 22 | PILLAGE – 1 L(ength) in PLAGE (Nice beach!) |
| 23 | SHEBANG – SHE (woman) + BAN (put a stop to) + G(ood) |
| 24 | DECOLLETE – COL(onel) + LET in DEE |
| 25 | OTHER – [-b(ook)]OTHER |
| Down | |
| 1 | INCOGNITO – In (fashionable) + CO. + (GOT IN)* |
| 2 | PEOPLES REBUBLIC – P(ower) + 1 in (POPULACE REBELS)* |
| 3 | LEDGE – Hidden in filLED, GEnerally |
| 4 | WORLD WAR – L(iberal) D(emocrat) in RAW ROW rev. |
| 5 | FACILE – CA rev in FILE |
| 6 | RAIN CLOUD – (I CAN LOUR)* over D(ay) – &lit. |
| 7 | HIPPOCRATIC OATH – Cryptic def. |
| 8 | NERYS – Hidden in wiNERY Sozzled |
| 13 | NIGHTFALL – NIGH + f(ine) in TALL |
| 15 | MESSENGER – MESS + [-w]ENGER |
| 16 | LAMBASTE – LAMB + (TEAS)* |
| 19 | BIREME – IRE over ME, supporting B(ritish) |
| 20 | MOPED – Double def. |
| 21 | CORED – CREDO with 0 (love) moved to the end |
June 10th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Thanks Phi for the crossword and Ali for the blog. In 21dn, I think you have the answer (CREDO) and the intermediate step (CORED) the wrong way round.
June 10th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Many thanks for the blog, Ali, and for a very enjoyable solve, Phi.
I got a different answer for 5d, however: defn FICKLE = Unreliable (FI.. LE about CK (future rising barrister, KC, because there won’t be any of these until Britain has a king)).
My new words of the day were CLOWDER and BIREME – not ones I’ve come across before, but they had to be thus on the wording of the clues and sure enough they could be googled later – which reminds me, I must now buy myself a Chambers!
June 10th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Yes, I’ve just spotted CREDO too, and agree with PB.
Also, whilst I got HIPPOCRATIC OATH and can see it’s medical relevance and that it’s not for the patients to take, I forgot to ask about the significance of the word “quantity” here – what am I missing please in reading this clue?
June 10th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
superkiwigirl @2: And I agree with you about 5dn. I cannot account for “quantity” in 7dn either.
June 10th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
I enjoyed this too, favourite clues, WORLD WAR, MOPED, and, as you mention, RAIN-CLOUD. Thanks Phi and Ali. CLOWDER was new to me too, but, if memory serves, Phi is pretty expertly knowledgeable about cats for some reason.
June 10th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Thanks for blogging, Ali.
A fine puzzle from Phi, which I completed reasonably easily but still needed to come here for some final explanations. I thought the reference to bunga bunga in 17ac was very contemporary – if only …
CLOWDER and BIREME were also new to me, but clearly signposted, and I also liked WAFER-THIN. I too am struggling to understand HIPPOCRATIC OATH, although it was one of my first half-dozen or so entries because of the crossing letters.
June 10th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
5d is definitely FICKLE – firstly, that’s what they’ve told us in the online version; secondly, there is no sense I know of in which “CA” can mean barrister, or in which “facile” means unreliable, come to that. Just looks like a passing brainstorm on Ali’s part to me.
7d – Glad everyone seems to have been as puzzled as me. I’m beginning to think it is just a CD – the modern version of the oath is effectively a list (of sentences beginning “I will…”) so it is in that sense a quantity, or rather a number, of similar things (analagous to the quantity of pills implied in the surface?). Also, clutching at straws a bit, I suppose everything is a quantity, unknown or otherwise.
June 10th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Agree with the conclusion about FICKLE and the puzzlement over ‘quantity’ in HIPPOCRATIC OATH; it was that word that kept me from putting in the solution for the longest time. I will add an infinitesimally tiny nit about Ali’s description of the solution to 9a: he meant to write that it’s LOWER in CD rather than the other way around. I thought it was a solid and straightforward puzzle from Phi with a lot of smooth surfaces. I really liked WAFER-THIN (and the memories of the wafer-thin mint from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life) and PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC. I think I may have encountered CLOWDER before, but I needed to confirm it after putting it in. Thanks, Phi, for the fun workout, and to Ali for the blog.
June 10th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Glad it’s not just me who didn’t really get 7d.. Thanks Ali + Phi, perhaps Phi might stop by to explain
June 10th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Medical quantity you wouldn’t expect *patients* to take?
You’d expect this to be an exploitation of a double meaning on ‘quantity’, but I can’t seem to get a meaning for it as ‘code’, or ‘oath’ or anything like that. Perhaps it’s Collins 6, the ‘characteristic of a proposition’ etc, but in truth I am a-strugglin’.
June 10th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
Agree with the comments about 7d – before I got crossing letters I thought 7d might be be something dose. Perhaps Phi will elucidate.
Clowder was new to me – Oxford webpage says
‘The usual word that’s given as the collective term for a group of cats is clowder.’
I think usual is stretching it a bit.
I too got fickle at 5d – the ‘future barrister’ was very neat. Too many great clues to pick a favourite. Thanks Phi and Ali for the blog.
June 11th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Sorry to be so late stopping by.
As usual in situations like this I fall back on checking the original hoping that the point causing comment is an editorial intervention (I don’t know why I do this, it never is). By the time a puzzle is published I’m usually several weeks further on, and it’s impossible to reconstruct my thought processes for every clue, and I now find ‘quantity’ as curious a choice as some of you do. ‘Item’ would have been far better, and all I can think is that unconsciously I wanted a trisyllable there. (I only suggest that because I have on occasion – not often – found myself editing a clue to improve its rhythm.)
June 12th, 2011 at 2:32 am
You’re not the only one. Plus I hate using ‘of’. It just looks crap.