*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Hands up who didn’t foresee a presidential-themed crossword for today? I do tend to enjoy Radian’s outings, and this was no exception. Pretty easy overall, although I’ll admit to keeping a list of ex-presidents on hand throughout.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | NATIONAL ANTHEM – THEMAN* after (Grand) NATIONAL. |
| 9 | AURORA – the cruiser in question being The Aurora. |
| 10 | IMPOLITE – I + (POEM* “composed about” LIT) . |
| 11 | BULAWAYO – [-istan]BUL A WAY O[-ut]. |
| 13 | PIERCE – RECIPE*. Franklin Pierce – 1853-1857. |
| 15 | APACHE – ACHE “to overrun” PA. |
| 17 | GRAVEL – G + RAVEL. Apparently an alternative term for kidney stones. |
| 19 | KISSER – KISS[-ing]ER. |
| 20 | LEAP YEAR – (PLAYER + EA)*. “Ea” being an O.E. word for “river, running water”, and still in use in Lancashire, apparently. |
| 22 | UNSPOILT – (OIL “found after” P) in Unst. |
| 24 | HOOVER – clever. “Oh” is “ho, over”. Herbert Hoover – 1929-1933. |
| 26 | HAIL TO THE CHIEF – (OHFELICITATE + HH)*. I’m not sure that this is strictly a national anthem…maybe with a lower-case N and A it is. |
| Down | |
| 1 | INAUGURATION DAY – ATYOUINGUARDIAN*, and today’s theme. |
| 2 | OTTO – O, with OTT “at first”. |
| 3 | MADISON – SAIDO* in MN. James Madison – 1809-1817. |
| 4 | BAGPIPER – BIGPAPER*. |
| 5 | ET AL – [-doubl]E TAL[-k]. |
| 6 | VERTICAL TAKEOFF – “erect” = “vertical”, “shed” = “take off”. |
| 8 | OBAMA – AMABO<. |
| 12 | ADAMS – John Adams – 1797-1801. |
| 14 | ENVOY – [-c]ONVEY[-s]*. |
| 16 | HARRISON – “NO, SIRRAH”<. William Henry Harrison – March, 1841 – April 1841. |
| 18 | BLOTCHY – HOLBYC[-i]T[-y]*. |
| 21 | AD HOC – A DOC “tours” H. I’m surprised not to have seen this before! |
| 23 | POLK – POL[-icy] + K. James K. Polk – 1845-1849. |
| 25 | OBIT – cd. |
Let me the first to stick my hand in the air! Took me a while to realise I’m afraid to say, but the penny dropped with 1D.
A great puzzle from a setter who continues to get better all the time. I loved the OBAMA and HOOVER clues.
Very minor point – in BAGPIPER, just two letters were exchanged from ‘big paper’, which is why the clue put it like that, I guess. Enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks for the AURORA link. I didn’t get that and now excuse self for not knowing, but now thanks to you, I do!
I also didn’t get OTTO which I really should have, especially as yet again we have identical answers in simultaneous Indie and Graun puzzles.
One that I wonder if there is more going on is 15A: I’d twigged the day’s theme and strained my brain for a prez – I eventually did get APACHE from the construction, but if the clue is making a point I’m missing it.
Otherwise – good puzzle, good theme, good blog.
APACHE – I think it’s just saying they were there before PIERCE ET AL i.e. all the Presidents.
Nice, though like Simon I had a list of American Presidents to refer to. If I hadn’t I’d never have got some of them.
A small point: in 9ac it seems to be 2 defs, ‘dawn’ and ‘cruiser in St P’. So ‘on’ is a link-word, and I’ve never seen it as such before. Don’t like it. But perhaps there’s some other explanation.
I guessed Obama for 5 down, but wasn’t very confident. I thought it must be some sort of latin expression, which is always an annoyance for me because it was the language I didn’t study at school. Unfortunately, the latin translator I consulted gave something completely different for “I will love”.
I deliberately avoided getting a list of ex-presidents because I thought that would make it a bit too easy. I’d never heard of Polk, but got it from the wordplay.
Did anyone else notice that some pairs of adjacent letters around the perimiter formed the two-letter abbreviations of US states – ME near the top right, NY bottom left, also KY, reversed? I wondered if this was going to be a nina, but other combinations don’t work.
I had anticipated a suitably themed puzzle and must confess that I dived for the list of presidents (so conveniently provided by the Indy) as soon as I realised it would help!
Sorry – perimeter not perimiter. Good thing that wasn’t one of the answers!