… “To get to the same side!”
Across
1 MOB-I(US)S-TRIP – a Mobius Strip only has one side
9 PR-OS-AIC – PR is “spin” with “CIA” and “SO” reversed
10 A(TLAS)ES – i.e SEA with SALT in it (haven’t they all?), reversed
11 C-ALLOW-EST – “ALLOW” is literally in “CEST”
12 A-RC-ED – Abbreviation for A Roman Catholic EDitor
14 INTERCEDES – Produced an audible groan : to “inter” is to bury and “cedes” sounds like “seeds”
16 EX-TRACTION – ould tell you some stories about my L5-S1 disc, but will resist the temptation. “Traction” involves stretching the back for possible medical benefits. May have been invented by a sadistic osteopath who wanted to update the medieval Rack.
19 P(L)OD – Took me ages to remember that a Pod is a school of whales.
22 AT(HE-IS)TIC
24 IN-A-NEST – Surely “inane” means lacking in interest rather than actually cuckoo crazy ?
25 LE(CH)E-RY
26 ALTERNATELY – (T-LATE-NEARLY)*
Down
1 MOONLIGHTS-ON-AT-A – To “moonlight” is to take on work after official work has finished
4 STAR(TL)E – LT is Lieutenant
6 POST CODE LOTTERY – Nice cryptic definition
7 IPECAC – Knew it was going to be an anagram of “icecap”, but had to look it up
8 A(SIDE)S – There are 11 in a cricket or a soccer “side”. An “aside” in the theatre is where an actor talks to the audience.
15 TASH-KEN-T – (THATS)* with the major of London being a guy called Ken
17 TOASTER – I don’t get it. Certainly it’s breakfast equipment, but doesn’t sound like anything to me.
18 OPHELIA – A cryptic obituary for Hamlet’s girlfriend (HOPE)* and (AIL)<
23 INCLE – maintaIN CLEar. Had to look this up too. It’s a linen tape used for trimmings.
Thanks Stan – you can’t go wrong with a chicken gag, and I hadn’t even heard that one before!
17 Down is guaranteed to bemuse the puzzle’s international audience. It refers to the race course at Towcester, pronounced, of course, ‘toaster’!
Toaster baffled a non racing Brit as well!
Well we Americans always thought that it was pronounced TOE-CHESTER to rhyme with LIE-CHESTER.