I can’t say I particularly enjoyed this one but that may be partly due to the fact that I woke up with toothache this morning. Some of the surfaces seemed ‘strained’ or didn’t make sense and some of the definitions were weak. However, there was a clever anagram and insertion indicator in 15a/18a though again I found the definition somewhat vague.
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Across
1 POPISH PO (chamberpot) PISH (I am impatient) – ‘pish’ is actually an expression of impatience rather than someone who is impatient and how does ‘popish’ equate to ‘for such as John’ when its definition is ‘relating to the pope or popery’?
4 SHOOT-OUT *(TOO) in SHOUT (call)
9 ROLL ON dd
10 ORGANDIE ORGAN (newspaper) DIE (long) – what’s the ‘to look’ doing here? It is superfluous.
12 QUIZ QUI (who, in French) Z (last)
13 CHLOROFORM C (100) H[ote]L *(ROOM FOR)
15, 18 AT THE DROP OF A HANDKERCHIEF O in *(FAINT-HEARTED CHEF HAD PORK) – clever anagram and an unusual way of indicating the insertion of ‘O’ (with stuffed duck). I assume the definition refers to either the start of a medieval joust or the rapid reaction of a gentleman when a lady drops something.
21 CHINA PLATE IN in CHAP (fellow) LATE (out of office) – presumably the definition is simply ‘familiar Cockney”. I’m not sure I like ‘stalling’ as an insertion indicator but it can mean ‘installing’ according to Chambers .
22, 23 FLEA BITE A BIT (somewhat) in FLEE (leave) – ‘soothed’ as a containment indicator?
24 THOUSAND *(HANDOUTS)
25 LIMPID LIMP (unconvincing) ID (passport)
26 HOT PLATE *(PLOT) in HATE (intense dislike)
27 SEXTON SEX (M/F) TON (fashion)
Down
1 PARAQUAT AQUA (water) in PART (some)
2 PALLIATE ALL (everything) I (one) in PATE (head)
3 SHOW dd
5 HORN OF PLENTY *(NO OF NTH REPLY)
6 OVAL OFFICE AL (nearly everything) OFF (abandoned) in O[riginal] VICE (sin) – Clinton’s ‘sin’ was hardly original so is ‘here?’ a reasonable definition?
7 ODD-JOB dd – one being a reference to a character in one of the early Bond films (but don’t ask me which one).
8 THELMA *(HAMLET)
11 THE RED PLANET *(THREATENED P[leiades] L[oudly])
14 METATARSAL TATARS (Eurasian warriors) in MEAL (dinner)
16 LILLIPUT cd
17 OFF-AND-ON cd – a rather obscure cd but I cannot see any other interpretation for this clue.
19 SCOTCH dd
20 PIGOUT PI (sanctimonious) GOUT (taste, in French) – ‘cuisine’ is superfluous.
Hi Gaufrid
Sorry about the toothache.
17dn I think is OF FAN DON – or perhaps you’ve already implied that?
22,23 [I don’t like this] could be A BIT [somewhat] in FLEE [leave]. [Chambers has ‘soothe’ = ‘gloss over’ – but I don’t expect you to like it, either.]
I forgot to say:
1ac: Popish = ‘such as John’, the most recent Pope, chosen as an example, presumably, because of the connection to ‘chamberpot’. ‘Pish’, as you say, is an expression of impatience and so = ‘I am impatient’. [cf ‘coo’, ‘cor’, ‘my, = ‘I am surprised’, all of which I’ve seen in crosswords recently.]
Hi Eileen
You must have been quick off the mark today because I realised the parsing of 22/23 as soon as I checked the blog after it had been published and immediately edited that which I had originally written.
I agree re 17d. I am sorry to say that I noted don=fellow when I originally solved the clue but then forgot to follow it up when I later wrote the blog. Usually I mark the clues that I need to return to for further consideration but for some reason I didn’t today.