Paul at his most libertarian this week.
The puzzle was notable for a typically Pauline toilet reference at 11 across and a completely undefined set of homophones (taking a generous view) at 13 down. Overall, a puzzle that Timon and I found distinctly tough, but also entertaining. Thanks Paul.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HECKLES | Almost no sign of hell in barracks? (7) |
| I think this parses as HECK (hell) LES(s), but to be honest I hope I’ve missed something. | ||
| 5 | CHOLERA | Depression admitted by nipper after contracting disease (7) |
| HOLE in CRA(b). | ||
| 9 | AD LIB | Don’t plan a German paperback (2-3) |
| A BILD (German daily newspaper) (rev). | ||
| 10 | ACROPOLIS | Paris cool about attraction of Athens (9) |
| *(PARIS COOL). | ||
| 11 | TOILET ROLL | “L’Ogre” by Parisian solver? It’s panned! (6,4) |
| TOI LE TROLL! | ||
| 12 | BEE | Meat cut for queen, say (3) |
| BEE(f). | ||
| 14 | STOPPAGE TIME | End of match lit items, including first leaf (8,4) |
| TOP PAGE in *ITEMS. | ||
| 18 | ELVIS PRESLEY | Icon that’s silvery peels off (5,7) |
| *(SILVERY PEELS). | ||
| 21 | DUN | Brown finished, reportedly (3) |
| Sounds like “done”. | ||
| 22 | PINFEATHER | Potentially fine to poke nameless cat? That’s immature in a bird (10) |
| *FINE in PA(n)THER. Chambers gives this as two words, meaning a young, unexpanded feather. | ||
| 25 | TEA FOR TWO | Classic wrong to fear anything from the right (3,3,3) |
| *(TO FEAR) OWT(rev). | ||
| 26 | LARCH | Father having dropped from tree, cutting head on hard wood (5) |
| (POP)LAR, C(utting) H(ard). | ||
| 27 | HALBERD | Even bits of blubber caught by tough old weapon (7) |
| bLuBbE in HARD. | ||
| 28 | RESISTS | In further tests son fights back (7) |
| S in RESITS. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HEARTY | Warm about right and friendly, ultimately? (6) |
| R in HEAT, (friendl)Y. | ||
| 2 | COLLIE | Gunman’s short story for herder (6) |
| COL(t) LIE. Samuel Colt invented the gun that took his name. | ||
| 3 | LIBRETTIST | Burning to collar first of bullies, one not standing up for Da Ponte, say? (10) |
| B (ullies) and SITTER (rev) in LIT. Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote librettos for Mozart, among others. | ||
| 4 | STAIR | Case dismissed for dancer’s step (5) |
| I think this is (A)STAIR(E), or possibly (A)STAIR(E’S) but if so I can’t explain the C of Case. | ||
| 5 | CARTLOADS | Large amounts, a lot moving in pack (9) |
| *(A LOT) in CARDS. | ||
| 6 | OOPS | Spirit not entirely lifted, oh no! (4) |
| SPOO(k) (rev). | ||
| 7 | EX LIBRIS | Illiterate’s mark in grotesquely risible book’s inscription (2,6) |
| X in *RISIBLE. | ||
| 8 | ANSWERED | Returned with outstanding change of direction, volley initially out (8) |
| SWER(v)E in AND (with outstanding, or standing outside). | ||
| 13 | VEGETABLES | 19 16, 5 across 12, 1 down 24 and 2 23, loosely speaking? (10) |
| Homophones of HORSE RADISH, KOHL RABI, ARTICHOKE and CAULIFLOWER. Unsurprisingly, given the cross-references and the lack of a definition, this was one of the last ones in, but the outrageous puns did make us laugh. | ||
| 15 | PERMITTED | Legal term tied up in knots, non-U (9) |
| *(TERM TIED (U)P). | ||
| 16 | REDDITCH | Worcestershire town, flaming dump (8) |
| RED DITCH. | ||
| 17 | EVENFALL | Uniform on female, the whole thing in twilight (8) |
| EVEN F ALL. | ||
| 19 | WHORES | Old pros who never tickle colleagues’ bottoms (6) |
| WHO and last letters (“bottoms”) of neveR ticklE colleagueS. | ||
| 20 | BRAHMS | Cups with vessel, one of a pair in one’s cups (6) |
| BRA (cups), HMS (a ship or vessel). To understand the clue, you have to know that “Brahms and Liszt” is slang for “drunk”. | ||
| 23 | FLOUR | 0.08 cryptically? That’s fine, perhaps (5) |
| L(50) in FOUR. Although Timon and I were able to work out that 0.08 equated to 8 hundreths, or 4 fiftieths, we didn’t notice the FOUR and it was only after I had posted the first draft of the blog that the answer dawned on me. Unfortunately, I don’t think that there is a type of flour designated as 0.08. | ||
| 24 | JOKE | Uncle Stalin pinching king’s butt (4) |
| K(ing) in JOE. I didn’t particularly like this clue, mainly because the definition seems a little loose. Additionally, the wordplay seems a little repetitive, given that Stalin was known as Uncle Joe, did the clue really need to say “Uncle Stalin” when either word on its own would have sufficed? | ||
*anagram
Thanks bridgesong. The penny didn’t drop on the awful puns in 13D until late, with COLLIE-FLOUR. The Da Ponte clue was only guessable after the lovely 1A, and that helped with the troublesome “Ogre.” Last in the rhyming slang in the bottom corner. Much fun all round
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I had great trouble proceeding until I caught on to VEGETABLE thanks to COLLIE FLOUR though I could not parse either terms (I missed the Colt reference). I also had trouble parsing STAIR, and BRAHMS defeated me. Isn’t WHORES REDDITCH aka horse radish part of the theme?
Sorry, I did not read the blog carefully enough about the veggies.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
I think you have 1A HECKLES, despite your misgivings, provided that you read it as HECKLES[s] (‘no sign of hell’) cut short (‘almost’).
For 4D STAIR I think you are right first time, with the outer letters (‘case’) removed from [a]STAIR[e] (‘dancer’).
The blog is missing one of the vegetable puns – HEARTY JOKE for ARTICHOKE.
Ah, BRAHMS defeated me. I had guessed ORCHIS as one of a pair, with cups for protection rather than support 🙂 Thanks for putting me right.
Loved the veggies-that was what led me to solve FLOUR.
PeterO @4: thanks for pointing out my careless error with the veg:,I’ve corrected the blog.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
The vegetables took longer than they should have to strike me as I had a semi-parsed GILLIE at 2d; when I got flour, the rest all fell into place.
It being Paul, I spent some time trying to see why “Uncle Stalin” provided ASE in 24d.
COLLIE FLOUR was the key to the theme for me as well – and I loved the dreadful puns. Paul seems to go from strength to strength and this was great fun. I liked TOILET ROLL and-well- all of it really!
Thanks Paul.
And a happy Christmas to everyone!
Loved 23 down: 0.08 = eight hundredths or four fiftieths, ie how many times fifty (L) goes into 4 (FOUR). But I agree that ‘fine flour’ seems to be a phrase with no referent.
Thank you Paul and bridgesong.
Great fun, just loved the VEGETABLES, and KOHLRABI confirmed CHOLERA for me. I was stuck for a while on 11a, and first entered PLACER GOLD, then the penny dropped! I also first thought 0.08 at 23d referred to the percentage blood alcohol content (BAC) limit in many countries, but CAULIFLOWER made me think again – “fine flour” is mentioned several times in the Bible.
Tough stuff, fun all the way. But Brahms defeated me, and I still don’t understand what the “pair in one’s cups” is all about.
In trying to get 13d, the first of the pairs I had was 5a 12. So I spent ages thinking what the hell is cholera bee? Eventually the penny dropped. Great stuff! Who but Paul would come up with WHORES REDDITCH as a (very loose) homophone of horse radish?
Also really liked BRAHMS.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Picklepot @ 11
If you have had too much to drink, you are “in your cups”. Cockney rhyming slang has this as “Brahms and Liszt” (pissed)
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
I think the working of 23 is indeed four fiftieths, which would be expressed as 4/50, so the wordplay is ‘four over fifty’ rather than ‘fifty in four’.
This was, for me, the toughest crossword this year but I got there in the end and it was worth the effort. Very rarely do I “lol” but those puns did make me chuckle audibly.
Thanks to bridgesong for shedding light in some dark, unparsed corners and to Paul for the entertainment.
Looking forward to another year of headscratching.
Thanks for the clear articulation. Toilet roll utterly defeated me. I thought the 0.08 was a reference to the ash content of white flour.
Hilarious! After four days of picking this up and putting it down, I already had five of the solutions forming part of the vegetables and no idea what was going on when, in the wee small hours of Wed, I cracked 1d (HEARTY) and finally got the hearty joke. The rest went in pretty easily, except I failed to get 20d (BRAHMS), entering ARCHES instead, which I parsed as: Cups = arches(?); vessel=ark (“must be a missing homophone indicator or rare spelling”); she = one of a pair (he & she); in one’s cups = anagrind for SHE. I’m glad the clue turned out to be much better than that in reality.
I read a setter’s account somewhere recently of a friend pointing out that the first two across solutions of a certain daily (non-cryptic) crossword always formed a false homophone like this. I wonder if Paul had read that, too, providing the inspiration for this puzzle?
Btw, I think 0.08 is “fifty into four”, not “four over fifty”.
This puzzle was great, even though it took me ages to see what was going on. I almost gave up on it as time was short but I’m really glad I persevered – it was such fun with too many good clues to list individually.
Many thanks to Paul for brightening up my day and to bridgesong for the blog.
Re Tony@17, I’m another who guessed Arches (without much justification). Also, my early post above with an error (I meant to make PeterO’s point about HEARTY JOKE) was the result of typing my comment after returning from a long family pre-holiday dinner. Too much wine and not enough radishes and artichokes.
Lots of slightly different takes on 0.08. Isn’t it just FOUR divided by fifty (L)? Sorry if someone’s already said that.
Re 0.08, I agree with Tony @ 18 (‘fifty into four is….’)