Quixote setting and me blogging on a Wednesday? The Indy crossword world is upside down. Not really: Quixote seems to be taking over the last Wednesday of the month slot; and I’m off the bench to act as substitute for Bert and Joyce, who are in foreign parts with limited internet access.
I thought this was typical Quixote fare: enough easy stuff to get you going, then one or two less common words and tricky wordplay to make you think a bit. Good puzzle. A wide range of subject matter today; a few of the solutions engaged my attention, so as usual I have wittered on a bit.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Exist as extremely cold people who can’t agree?
BE POLES APART
A cd, and despite having all the crossing letters, it was my last one in. I got a bit wrong-footed because Quixote doesn’t often do cds.
8 See naturalist want to restrict damage
LAMARCK
An insertion of MAR in LACK. Perhaps not the best-known naturalist, but I did know him. Jean-Baptise LAMARCK (1744-1829) was what we would now call a ‘scientist’. He was one of the first important thinkers about evolution, recognising that species did change over time. But his hypothesis was that an animal could acquire characteristics during its lifetime, which would then be passed on to the next generation. So giraffes’ necks got longer because they stretched up high to reach leaves; and they passed that on to their offspring. It became discredited when Darwin proposed natural selection, where random mutations in DNA allow better adapted organisms to survive. But hey, disproving previous hypotheses is how science works.
9 Trudged as little pedestrian behind vehicle
TRAMPED
A charade of TRAM and PED.
11 A king is defeatist ultimately, taking external knock in the country
PAKISTAN
An insertion of A K IS and T for the last letter of ‘defeatist’ in PAN.
12 ‘Form of water’ would be about right
STREAM
This works for me, but I’m not quite sure how to explain it. STEAM is a ‘form of water’ and so is a STREAM. Insert R into the former and you’ve got the latter.
13 22 or 25 pounds
PONY
The solution to 22 is GEE-GEE, and a PONY is certainly one of those. It’s also a slang word for £25. So a dd.
14 Motherly type grabs woman at match, a Scot
HEBRIDEAN
In a muppet-like way, I stuck in HIBERNIAN without really thinking about it. But of course it’s BRIDE for ‘woman at match’ and A in HEN for ‘motherly type’. Good clue.
17 Jazz fan engaged by certain record companies for shows
INDICATES
Another insertion: of CAT for ‘jazz fan’ in INDIES for ‘certain record companies’. As in Indie labels. As opposed to the Indy, which is where we are now.
19 Leave out order to get computers, etc
OMIT
A charade of OM for ‘Order of Merit’ and IT.
22 Boxer, for instance, showing goodness repeatedly
GEE-GEE
Despite having got PONY before I solved this clue, I was struggling to see how it worked, and it was only on coming to write up the blog that I had the pdm. ‘Goodness!’ could be expressed in American English as GEE! Two of those give you GEE-GEE. Boxer? He’s the loyal and hard-working cart-horse in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. In the end Napoleon and the other pigs say they are sending him to the veterinary surgeon; but in fact they send him to the knacker’s yard. Life’s a bitch. And then you die.
23 Country is sick, going backwards, old archdeacon admitted
SLOVENIA
An insertion of O VEN in a reversal of AILS.
25 Take it easy having had meal, say – not for the first time
RESTATE
A charade of REST and ATE.
26 Island where accountant may be spotted in The Dog and Duck
CURAÇAO
An insertion of ACA in CUR and O for a cricket ‘duck’. ACA is Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. CURAÇAO is in the Dutch Antilles.
27 Perverse artistic ones who take Genesis as historical account?
CREATIONISTS
(ARTISTIC ONES)* Another clue I liked specially.
Down
1 Yokel hit relations
BUMPKIN
A charade of BUMP and KIN.
2 Examine foreign country, then one relatively prosperous region of ours
PERUSE
A charade of PERU and SE. The SE of the UK could certainly be described as a ‘relatively prosperous region’. They should apply for independence.
3 I ask hotel for special arrangement without hesitation
LIKE A SHOT
(I ASK HOTEL)*
4 Place offers something worth looking at according to report
SITE
A homophone (‘according to report’) of SIGHT. Conjunctivis.com. Now there’s a site for sore eyes. © Tim Vine.
5 It’s obvious insect can penetrate banana
PLANTAIN
An insertion of ANT in PLAIN. A PLANTAIN is indeed a type of banana, but you wouldn’t want to eat it raw. However, if you cook it, it can be used in a good number of recipes. Banana’s etymology is interesting: it comes via Spanish and Portuguese from the Mande languages of West Africa. Plantain is related to the Spanish el plátano. Most European languages have a variation on ‘banana’: une banane, een banaan, eine Banane, en banan. Seems like it’s only Spanish that has something different.
6 Full rent collected by agent, second quarter of the year
REPLETE
An insertion of LET for ‘rent’ in REP and E for the second letter of ‘year’. Since it has four letters, E is the ‘second quarter’.
7 One animal in a thousand facing terrible peril, bound to be captured
KLIPSPRINGER
I will fess up to having to use a wordsearch to get this. I love natural history, but I’d never heard of this antelope before. It’s a charade of K and SPRING in (PERIL)* Which is obvious. Once you know the answer.
10 Evil folk joining renegade, one emerging as anti-establishment figure?
DEMONSTRATOR
A charade of DEMONS and TRA[I]TOR.
15 Expression of one’s self-confidence after saint appears in big church
BASILICAN
Saint BASIL is followed by I CAN!
16 A domestic upset undermines school plans
SCHEMATA
Since it’s a down clue, it’s A TAME reversed under SCH.
18 Doctor always binding soldiers in extremis – one dealing with wounds
DRESSER
A charade of DR and an insertion of SS for the outside letters of ‘soldiers’ in EER for the poetic word for ‘always’.
20 Soldiers – stars or bullies?
MENACES
A charade of MEN and ACES.
21 Stops and notices five hundred escaping
AVERTS
A[D]VERTS. D is the Roman numeral for ‘five hundred’.
24 I paved the way – set up specialist shop
DELI
A reversal – ‘set up’ since it’s a down clue – of I LED.
Many thanks to Quixote for today’s puzzle.
Another enjoyable Don puzzle IMHO. I saw 1ac straight away and the helpful checkers, of which there were plenty throughout the puzzle, meant that most of the top half was filled in fairly quickly. I finished with KLIPSPRINGER from the wordplay. I vaguely remembered it and it was much more likely than “glipspringer”. I also got GEE-GEE after PONY when I remembered the Americanism. The Boxer element of the clue didn’t mean a lot to me even though I read Animal Farm in my youth.
I’m not sure how to describe 12ac either. It isn’t a true &lit and I don’t think it could be called a DBE or extended definition. Still, I got it so no complaints.
I also got 1A straight away, quickly followed by 1,2,3,4,5,6 D. This is unheard of. Normal service then resumed. 7D and 8A defeated me and needed a word search. The rest took a bit of thought.12A was, as you say, obvious but difficult to categorise.
This kind of puzzle used to appear on Mondays, but is more than welcome on a Wednesday.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Neat puzzle and blog! I also had to use aids for 7d. What fun, though!
I did enjoy this actually, but for the three Donnisms that irk. He’s good at cluing though, which always helps.
An excellent puzzle (with same reservation over 12ac as others. Also, I can’t see that “in big church” means BASILICAN. “Of big church” – certainly, but “in big church” stopped me in my tracks, I’m afraid. Any explanation, Monsieur P?
A wonderful blog, Pierre. Plantain also a ground growing herb/plant; derivation related to ‘plant’ as in sole of foot. Native Americans referred to it as “white man’s foot” since it grew where European invaders had disturbed land (rather like how camomile often grows where cattle have disturbed ground – typically at gate areas trampled daily by dairy cows). Many thanks, and to Quixote
Thanks Pierre!
We had just enough time to download the puzzle at the airport before we returned to the UK. We completed the puzzle during the flight – guessed at 8ac from the wordplay but had to resort to ‘cheating’ for 7d. We’re glad that we weren’t the only ones. Thanks for the explanation for 22ac – we had no idea apart from the wordplay!
We’re with William FP about 15d.
Thanks Quixote!
Got stuck on klipsringer and Lamarck. Never heard of either. Fun though.