Independent 6645/Morph

by
Across
8 FAST FOOD – I think this could be considered an oxymoron because fasting means not eating at all.
9 NET,(LET)* – “stingy” is made all the more deceiving because of the money reference in “tax deducted”.
10 W,HIP – in Parliament, a WHIP is a note sent to MPs requesting their attendance to vote on a particular issue. The definition in the clue – “Persuade MPs” – suggests that it can also be used as a verb.
11 FRIEDMAN – first name Milton, and an economist, like J.M.Keynes.
13 SNITCH – for those who have managed to avoid the books and films, Harry Potter plays a game called Quidditch; one of the objects of the game is to capture a small flying gold-coloured ball called the SNITCH. Doing so ends the game, I believe.
14 ARNI[-e],CA – Good clue, with a great surface reading.
18 WAS A BI
27 MORPH in (ATOMISES)* – METAMORPHOSIS. One of our Australian readers told me recently that the Independent crossword is syndicated to his state paper but with one detail missing – they don’t publish the name of the setter. So the “me” in this clue won’t mean much to him (or people solving the clue online) but it’s a common enough word and the wordplay is straightforward so hopefully it wouldn’t have stopped anyone from solving the clue.
 
Down
3 EGOS – I liked this one a lot: “When they clash, you’ll ‘ear either ____ or I go!” EGOS sounds like “‘e goes”.
4 UNDER THE WEA(THE)R – this is very nicely done: “ill fitting” looks like the definition but it’s actually definition plus a key wordplay element.
12 BUTS (reversed)
15 (MAY DREAD)* – DAYDREAM.
17 (BOW OAR T)* – ROWBOAT. “All found at sea” seems to be doing double-duty as the anagram indicator and definition, unless I’m missing something.
19 BACCHUS – “back us”.
20 A,DON,IS – the previous clue had “God, he’s drunk” for the definition and this one has “God, he’s gorgeous…”
22 LOC[-k],UM

6 comments on “Independent 6645/Morph”

  2. ROWBOAT It’s a &lit, I think (bow, oar, t – stern of it)* with “at sea” indicating the anagram and the whole clue giving the definition.

  3. Thoroughly enjoyed this one – made me laugh / groan several times. Thanks for explaining 13ac – knowing nothing at all about Harry Potter, I was trying to do something with ‘witch’…

  4. I’m sure some of us just want to do

    Beautiful young man said no to cock (6)

    but you know how it is.

    Nice puzz, brother Morph.

  5. Has anyone else noticed that in today’s Independent the Friday solution space is blank?

    Trick by the compiler or just a mistake?

    (Mistake more likely, although blank solutions to puzzles are not unknown. See my (mainly) puzzle Resolution by Alligator, a Listener which appeared in October 2007)

    Al

  6. Regarding 10 across, a whip is a party official who uses fair means or (more usually) foul to persuade their party’s MPs to vote for it against their better judgement, and whip can also be used as a verb to describe what a whip does. Neil is right that whip also refers to the note sent to MPs telling them how to vote.

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