It is not often that I would describe a Cinephile puzzle as pedestrian but I’m afraid this one did nothing for me, possibly because the surface of some of the clues made little, if any, sense. There was a minor literary theme and one light (24d) was used as part of the answer to two clues which is something I don’t remember seeing before. There is one clue (6d) that I don’t fully understand.
Across
1 PURPLE P (place) L (left) in PURE (unmixed)
4 ATHLETIC *(LITHE) in *(ACT)
10 RECESSIVE d&cd
11 THRUM dd
12 DASH dd
13 DISALLOWED SALLOW (tree) in DIED (finished)
15 SEA LANE SEAL (swimmer) AN E (a drug)
16 EMBODY ME (setter) reversed D (daughter) in BOY (son)
19 AENEID *(AN IDEE) – there appears to be two anagram indicators, ‘not fixe’ and ‘about’
21 ODYSSEY [b]ODYS (corpse’s decapitation) YES (consent) reversed
23 DROP HAMMER d&cd
27 LATER hidden reversal in ‘RETALiation’ – ‘of your’ seems superfluous in this clue
28 SOAP OPERA POPE (poet) in SOAR (fly) A
29 SHEEP PEN SHE (female) EP (letter, epistle) PEN (writer) – the definition must be ‘about wooly jumpers’ but shouldn’t there be a question mark to indicate that the answer is something that goes round sheep?
30 SKATES KATE (girl) in SS (liner)
Down
1,3 PARADISE LOST IS (lives) in A DELOS (Greek island) in PART
2 ROCK SNAKE ROCKS (ice) NAKE[d] (nearly unclothed)
5,24,26 THE RAPE OF THE LOCK *(KEEP HOTEL FOR CHAT)
6 LITTLE BOYS cd – this obviously refers to the rhyme about ‘what are little boys/girls made of’ but what does ‘halted constituents with’ mean?
7 THROW d&cd
9,8 DIVINE COMEDY VINE (wine producer) COME (arrived) in DID (acted) Y[ear]
14 TAKE THE RAP TAKE (accept) THERAP[y] (incomplete treatment) – ‘accept’ appears to be doing double duty as part of the wordplay and part of the definition ‘accept responsibility’
17 DISSIDENT DISS (show lack of respect) IDENT[ity] (most of what one is)
18 EYEGLASS EYE (look at) GLASS (barometer)
20 DEMESNE ME (setter) S (‘s) in DENE (valley)
21 ONE DAY dd
22,24,25 IDYLLS OF THE KING *(FOLLY KNIGHTS DIE)
Hi Gaufrid. I was equally puzzled by 6d. Surely it is ‘snaps and snails’ in the poem, or’snips and snails’ in some versions? I wondered whether it had anything to do with the schoolboy creeping like a snail,unwillingly to school.Over to you!
Hi Octofem
There is some support on the web for ‘slugs and snails’, and also ‘frogs and snails’, but the most common appears to be ‘snips and snails’. However, I am still no further forward in parsing the rest of the clue.
Are Hal and Ted the little boys?
Bravo Chris!
The clue now makes perfect sense. [I kept wanting it to be, grammatically, ‘with such constituents’].
Chris
Thank you. I think you may well be right as this would be a typical Cinephile ploy.
Hi Gaufrid
Sorry I’m late. Not only are Hal and Ted the ‘little boys’ but the list of constituants is ‘halted’ if it stops at ‘snails’. If my memory serves me aright doesn’t the list continue, ‘and puppy dog’s tails’? Rather a nice clue.
I was taught the rhyme as being
Slugs and snails, and puppy-dogs’ tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.
I wonder if the earlier reference to ’snaps and snails” could be the americanised version….?
29a – I thought it was sheep pen for a long time but couldn’t work out why. I think simply it is something that goes about (i.e. encircles, pens in) sheep…