Not a lot to say about this one. Some familiar words and nothing which needed a great deal of explanation.
8A was not entirely clear to me, but seemed the likely answer.
ACROSS
1. INTACT – ( hidden: JOint actUALLY)
4. MATTRESS – (* starts me)
9. SORDID – ( s-or-did )
10. ANGELICA – ( angelic -a : stems of the plant are often crystallised and used to decorate cakes.)
11. ARABLE – (arab-leA)
12. BLACKOUT – (black-out : to ‘black’ someone is to ‘ bar’ them as in black-balling)
13. SAD – ( s-ad.)
14. DROVER- (d-HErD-over)
17. RANSOME – ( ran-some. Arthur Ransome [1884-1967], author of Swallows and Amazons inter alia.)
21 PUTTER – (p-utter – a golf club)
25. LOG – ( dd)
26. BENJAMIN – ( *menjab in)
27. TOPPER – ( top-p-er)
28. INIQUITY -(i-n-i-quit-y)
29. TENNIS – ( <sin net)
30. THE BLUES – ( ‘lu’ within Thebes – a city we met recently in another puzzle)
31. ANCHOR. – (an-chorE – an anchor man is a presenter on TV)
DOWN
1,2. IT STANDS TO REASON – (it (Italian)-stands to reason, as a barrister does in court)
3. CHILLIER – ( c-hillier – Tristram Hillier ( 1905-1983. English Surrealist artist)
5. ARNOLD – ( * Roland. Matthew Arnold (1822 -1888) English poet, mainly remembered by me as writer
of the’ Forsaken Merman’ which impressed me greatly as a child)
6. TRENCH – ( t-r-ench. Presumably the ‘ r ‘ is for rook, AKA castle, in Chess)
7. EDISON – (e-d-is-on – Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb and phonograph)
8. SPARTA – (s-part-a – not certain about the SA)
12. BASSOON – (bas-soon)
15. RAP – (rapT)
16. IMP- (i-mp : he occupies a seat in Parliament)
18. EUROPEAN -( <rue-ope-a-n)
19. AT A PINCH – ( a -tap-inch)
20. DRY RISER -( ‘is’ within * derry BAr – a main vertical pipe for distributing water as part of fire suppression;
It is maintained empty of water.)
22. OBOIST- (*bootsi)
23. INSIDE – (dd. the content being what is inside, and euphemism for ‘in prison’)
24. SAMUEL – ( * us male – book of the Old Testament)
25. LITTLE – ( litt-l-eR)
Hi Octofem
In 8d ‘it’ = SA = sex-appeal
Hi Geoff – of course it is. We have had that at least three times recently. I suppose I just wasn’t led to it by the surface – my mistake.
Hi Octofem
For me it was Arnold’s ‘Sohrab and Rustum’, which I read at school and was powerfully reminded of by the wonderful book, ‘The Kite Runner’.
Geoff, you’re having quite a time of it, aren’t you?
Well, there comes a time when it becomes a mere distant memory.
Geoff, I am sure Eileen and I will both disassociate ourselves from that remark!
Indeed.
I’ll resist the temptation to lower the tone further (“Nurse, pass the bromide”), so will suffice to say that I’ve always found the “It”=SA device rather irksome. It seems to be heavily over-used for what is a obscure or outdated abbreviation.
One other thing. I have to take issue with the claim that Edison invented the light bulb. It’s somewhat pedantic, I know, but this is yet another example where the self-promoting and commercially-gifted Edison essentially stood on the shoulders of other scientific giants (or at least “borrowed” or bought their patents).
Full excruciating details can be found at…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#History_of_the_light_bulb
… here ends the rant.