A nice, relatively gentle puzzle from Virgilius. There’s a mini-theme of people who share their name with US states, one of whom – 8/12A – got the better of me, largely due to a stupid error on 1D!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | INDIANA JONES – (JOINED IN AS AN)* – The first of our ‘statespeople’. Good to see Indy back in the Indy following the Crystal Skull puzzle which I had the pleasure of blogging a few months back |
| 8/12 | VIRGINIA WADE – VIRGIN + A WAD in IE – Statesperson No.2. Having entered ISADORA for 1D, I was always going to struggle to get this, and eventually conceded defeat. A very good clue though |
| 9 | DEBAR – Hidden in traDE BARrier |
| 10 | NO-BALL – NOB,ALL – ref. cricket |
| 11 | HANDRAIL – HAND,RAIL – RAIL is a wading bird |
| 13 | DIPHTHONGS – A diphthong is two vowel sounds pronounced as one syllable, thus au in Paul and eo in George |
| 16/7 | WASHINGTON IRVING – Statesperson No.3, ref. first US pres George WASHINGTON and actor manager Henry IRVING |
| 24 | EXODUS – ref. The Bible and the 60s film |
| 27 | ADHESIVE TAPE – (AT SPEED I HAVE)* |
| Down | |
| 1 | ISIDORA – IS,(RADIO)* – Not ISADORA! |
| 2 | DEGRADE – D,(AGREED)* |
| 3 | ANNELIDAN – ANNE,LID,AN |
| 4 | AWASH – A,WAS,[-noa]H |
| 5 | OLDEN – [-g]OLDEN |
| 6 | EMBARGO – MBA in ERGO |
| 15/21 | TENNESSEE WILLIAMS – Statesperson No.4 |
| 17 | AKIMBO – KIM in A,B,O |
| 19/25 | GEORGIA BROWN – Statesperson No.5. Georgia Brown was an English Jazz singer, named after the song ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’, aka The Harlem Globetrotters song! |
| 20 | SHUTEYE – (THEY USE)* – Nice anagram |
| 22 | ANNIE – Even letters of bArN oN fIrE |
| 23 | SAUDI – S,AUDI |
Excellent puzzle. I didn’t make your mistake with 1dn but at the same time I didn’t enter it for a while. I was convinced ISIDORA didn’t exist and so waited until I had all the checking letters before relenting.
Temporary failings: Trying to find a state to fit the checking letters in 27ac. Trying to fit IF into 17dn!
Excellent puzzle, from Virgilius, as ever, and rarely if ever ‘a loose end’ to be debated. An extraneous TINTERN seems to have crept into the blog.
I’m still puzzled as to the Greek reference in 1d.
Oops, cheers Niall, have removed TINTERN. I always use an old blog as the template for the one I’m writing, so I knew that an extra answer would creep in one day!
Testy
Check the list of first names in Chambers. Isidora is the feminine of Isidore which is a Greek name, perhaps meaning ‘gift of Isis’.
A most enjoyable puzzle, and possibly my fastest ever solving time!
Nice puzzle. The one that held me up was OLDEN. I still don’t fully understand it. What was a “Golden” parachute?
Al
According to Chambers, a ‘golden parachute’ is ‘an unusually lavish cash payment to a senior member of a firm on his or her dismissal following a takeover’.
In other words, similar to a golden goodbye or golden handshake only larger.
i was thrown a bit as, early on, i confidently put in as well (a swell) for 10 across !!