Guardian 27,175 – Tramp

by

Quite a tough one from Tramp today, but enjoyable as always…

… the clues are bristling with references to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, initially a radio series, and later books and a TV series, by Douglas Adams. All the novels in the “trilogy in five parts” get a mention: as well as the main title we have The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless. There’s also And Another Thing…, a sixth instalment written after Adams’s untimely death. Thanks to Tramp.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
8. LEMONADE One to cut French daily drink (8)
A in LE MONDE (French newspaper)
9. MANTA Many? Not so long and thanks for fish (5)
MAN[Y] + TA (thanks)
10,22d. FORD ESCORT In the 1980s, perhaps, one picking up hitchhiker’s guide to galaxy? (4,6)
I think this is a kind of extended cryptic definition – the Hitchhiker’s Guide character FORD Prefect might jave been given a lift or ESCORTed in one. Although the Escort was around in the 80s (the “third-generation” design came out in 1980) it goes back a lot further: I had driving lessons in one in 1970. This is perhaps an unusual case where some knowledge of the theme is helpful. The actual “Hitchhiker’s Guide” was a book, but Ford Prefect acted as a kind of guide to Arthur Dent.
11. EQUESTRIAN Queen at start of race is changing jockey? (10)
Anagram of QUEEN AT R[ace] IS
12. PIGSTY Pen good section with feel for describing (6)
G S in PITY
14. AB INITIO Selected by The X Factor, a person’s story’s entertaining from the beginning (2,6)
IN (selected by) IT (the X factor) in A BIO
15. MONITOR Prefect reversing in car outside (7)
IN reversed in MOTOR
17. UNEARTH Find short Arthur Dent’s stripped off (7)
Anagram of ARTHU[R] [D]EN[T] – “short” indicates dropping the last letter of ARTHUR, “stripped” the removal of the outer letters of DENT and “off” the anagram
20. IMITATES Apes left pair of primates to go around island by Thailand (8)
I + T in [PR]IMATES
22. EVEN UP Drink, leaving head to settle (4,2)
[S]EVEN UP
23. FUTURISTIC Endlessly amusing for visitors, not old, like 25? (10)
FU[N] + TOURISTIC less O
25. SCI-FI Some terrific stuff in retrospect: like Life, the Universe and Everything? (3-2)
Hidden in reverse of terrIFIC Stuff
26. AIRBORNE Flying first class, queen goes to island, briefly (8)
AI (first class) + R + BORNE[O]
Down
1. PECORINO Cheese and soft, green fruit regularly not out (8)
P + ECO (green) + [F]R[U]I[T] + N.O.
2,24a. ROAD MAPS Or Adams short work, And Another Thing … Guides for hitchhikers? (4,4)
This was a tricky one to parse – I initially thought it was a faulty anagram of OR ADAMS OP. Actually it’s an anagram of OR ADAM[S] + PS (“and another thing”).
3. EATERY US restaurant at end of universe with English lines for cover (6)
AT + [univers]E in E RY
4. PERUSAL Country and its location left for study (7)
PERU + S[outh] A[merica] + L
5. OMISSION Lack job, love to go to the top (8)
O + MISSION
6. INORDINATE Big edition ran spread (10)
(EDITION RAN)*
7. SAFARI Adventure mostly harmless and dry (6)
SAF[E] + ARI[D]
13. SAINT LUCIA Is nautical tour to show island? (5,5)
(IS NAUTICAL)*
16. OSTEITIS Toes cracking? It’s a problem with bone (8)
TOES* + IT IS
18. THUMPING Great time having sex (8)
T + HUMPING
19. ASHTRAY Camels go out here? Hot, missing covers (7)
H in (covered by) ASTRAY – Camel is an American cigarette brand
21. MOUSSE Sweet American dear by the sounds of it? (6)
The “moose” is an American “deer”, so two homophones for the price of one (indicated by the plural “sounds”)
24. MOON Show behind heartless idiot (4)
MO[R]ON

33 comments on “Guardian 27,175 – Tramp”

  1. Wow! Thoroughly enjoyed this. Tramp at his best I thought. The removal of the last letter of ‘many’ in 9a was a bit contrived perhaps in order to fit the theme. Full marks to Tramp and to Andrew.

  3. Thanks for a great blog, Andrew.

    I’m quite ashamed to say I haven’t read the books but my sons were great enthusiasts and so I was familiar enough with the titles etc to spot Tramp’s usual cleverness in exploiting them to the full. [He often says he is not a fan of his themes but it never shows.]

    I loved the working-in of ‘So long and thanks for all the fish’, ‘short Arthur Dent’ and ‘and another thing’ and, away from the theme, the Camels, headless moron, The X Factor and having sex. And lots more.

    Splendid stuff, as ever. Thanks to Tramp for making a sunny morning even brighter.

  4. A good challenge and the theme cleverly worked out. Got pecorino as it’s one of my favourites , but couldn’t parse it.

  5. Cracking stuff. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    For 10, 22 I think the “Ford” part refers to the Ford Galaxy car model. So “guide to the Galaxy” becomes Ford Escort.

  6. Nice one, Tramp, and thanks to Andrew.
    Some pretty fiendish clues here, but amazing what you can work into a theme.
    10,22 was my favourite (concurring with MarkN’s interpretation), but also the camels, seven up, having sex, plus manta and safari just for getting the titles into the clues.
    Any encounter with Adams makes me feel nostalgic, happy and sad in equal measure. Add that to a great crossword and this was nigh on bliss.

  9. Very nice – slow burner for me. I took ages to really get moving.

    Theme nicely worked in

    I read 10a/22d as

    def:In the 1980s, perhaps, one picking up hitchhiker – ie any car from that era
    and “guide to galaxy” being a conflation of FORD (Prefect) and his role ESCORT with the “?” indicating that it’s cryptic rather than literal.

    So fine really – although I put FORD in a long time before twigging ESCORT.

    Many thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  11. re 10,22
    For me, Ford must be the Galaxy model, and escort must be the guide, as I take it as a principle of Tramp’s that no thematic knowledge is necessary. That principle holds throughout the puzzle (save knowing (for 25a) that the genre is sci-fi)

  12. Thank you Tramp and Andrew.

    All my knowledge of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comes from solving crosswords, but it was enough to make this puzzle very enjoyable – only answer I did not like was SAFARI for ‘adventure’, I thought Jambazi would have known better, but perhaps it fits with the theme?

  13. It was slower still for me as I was watching a recording of Leicester-Atletico. But after that away goal I put my nose to the whatsit.
    Shame there wasnt a 4-2 score to be seen.

  14. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

    Very enjoyable, slow solve; I groaned at the PDM for ‘imates’ in IMITATES.

    As well as MarkN @5’s parsing, I found on Wiki that: In some versions, such as the French and the Greek, Ford’s name was changed to “Ford Escort.” Did Tramp know that?

    Many great clues, AB INITIO caught my eye. A setting tour de force.

  15. Took me a while to get started, and my last in ASHTRAY took ages, but I liked that one and found it an enjoyable tussle.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew

  16. What fun!

    It’s true you didn’t need to know the series to do the puzzle – I’ve only read the first book. But maybe Andrew could have mentioned that Arthur Dent is the protagonist and Ford Prefect is his extraterrestrial travelling companion.

    I heard Douglas Adams say once in a radio interview that the terminally gloomy robot Marvin is the literary descendant of Eeyore. Boy, is he!

    Since I couldn’t remember Marvin’s name when I wanted to write this comment, I googled “robot hitchhiker” to find out. What I found out instead is that somebody developed a hitchhiking robot, called HitchBOT, which looks a little like a fireplug in Paddington boots. It hitched alone successfully over Canada, the Netherlands and Germany, entirely dependent on the kindness of strangers, until somebody decapitated it in Philadelphia. How depressing. I hope it’s revived and hitching again.

  17. Thanks Tramp and Andrew

    Hard but fun. Rather reluctantly I have to admit that my favourite was THUMPING! I didn’t parse AB INITIO, IMITATES or ASHTRAY (though I did know about the Camels). Is there a source for “section” = “s” in PIGSTY?

    FOI was SCI-FI, but I’m afraid this was a solecism in science-fiction fan circles – it’s always referred to as SF.

  18. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew. I found this puzzle very difficult. I had great trouble getting started, did not know OSTEITIS, and could not parse FORD ESCORT and PECORINO.

  19. muffin @ 17

    ‘Section’ is the second definition of s in Chambers.

    I think it’s section as in section one, two etc, as opposed to section as a slice through a geometric solid.

    hth

  20. Ingenious puzzle as usual from this setter. A slow solve,but a very satisfying one. PECORINO was new to me and I needed the crossers and the dictionary to get it. I liked LEMONADE, THUMPING and EVEN UP (LOI). I loved Hitchhiker’s Guide at the time but it has paled rather – probably as a result of it being repeated so many times and in so many formats – culminating in a dreadful film relatively recently. Incidentally, I suppose everybody knows that the theme to the radio version was by the Eagles?
    I used to like hitchhiking too, but that’s something that seems to have disappeared.

  21. Many thanks for the super blog, Andrew.

    I wrote this puzzle in June 2015 after a suggestion from MsGeek, who gave me the idea for the theme at a crossword meeting in London. I knew nothing about the books but I learned from Wikipedia that Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect were characters in the novels and that the books are:

    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984) and Mostly Harmless (1992). On 16 September 2008 it was announced that Irish author Eoin Colfer was to pen a sixth book. The book, entitled And Another Thing…, was published in October 2009, on the 30th anniversary of the publication of the original novel.

    so I had a go at writing a puzzle around this.

    Thanks for the comments; I feared the puzzle would get slated.

    Neil

  23. My turn to be the grouch. Much of the clueing was a bit over my head so to me this was never fun, always a struggle, with two cheats needed to complete: EQUESTRIAN near the end, and INORDINATE earlier on, to help get me started. If I hadn’t been a passenger in a long car journey I would have given up with much white space remaining.

    It’s a wavelength thing I guess: plenty had their issues with Imogen yesterday, which was securely in my comfort zone.

  26. muffin @25, it might be fun to see ‘section’ in a clue for SS, I am fed up with the ‘steamship’, inaccurate anyway, it really stands for ‘steam screw’.

  28. [Cookie –
    “Section” for SS would be a nice innovation!

    I’ve sailed on one of the very last paddle-steamers – the Waverley. It used to travel between Swansea, Ilfracombe and Lundy.

    It’s still going strong, on the west coast of Scotland, I think.]

  29. Muffin: lawyers use s as an abbreviation for section when referring to clauses in Acts of Parliament. All criminal lawyers will be familiar with a s.5, for example.

  33. I found this very, very difficult. I stared at it blankly for quite a while and answers came slowly, over a few days and various attempts. Even half way through, I thought I’d done well.

    But I stuck it out until I gave up on 3d – a little disappointed that I couldn’t finish it all.

    More like this in the Weekly, please.

Comments are closed.