After last Wednesday’s romp, this week’s Cinephile, though easy in places, proved to be more of a challenge. One clue (24a) has defeated me completely so far and I have been unable to parse another (5d). I also have question marks against a few more clues (12a,18d & 20d).
Whilst writing this post a partial explanation for 24a has occurred to me, see below. Edit: now a full explanation for 24a.
Across
1 WASTE OF SPACE WAS (used to be) *(POETS CAFE)
8 NUMBERS cd
9 ABSALOM AB (sailor) SAL (lass) OM (high honour)
11 PIONEER ONE in PIER (support)
12 DIAMOND is this meant to be a dd? If so how does ‘cutting’ equate with ‘diamond’?
13 LIE IN cd&d
14 AMSTERDAM [h]AMSTER (burrower) DAM (mother)
16 GROUNDHOG UND (and, in German) HO (house) in GROG (drink)
19 CACTI C (more or less) ACT 1 (first part of play) – ‘more or less’ = about = C
21 TETANUS TAN (sunburn) in SUET (fat) reversed
23 OBTRUDE *(REDOUBT)
24 C_A_T_N – the only word I can think of that will fit here is ‘chasten’ which could loosely mean ‘beat’. Charles X was a 19th century king of France and Sten (the Elder or Younger) was regent (not king) of Sweden in the 16th century (not 17th), but whether this is relevant to the clue I’ve no idea!
Charles X could be interpreted as CHAS TEN
24 CHASTEN cd&d&cd – Charles X (CHAS TEN) of France, ‘beat’, Charles X (CHAS TEN) of Sweden.
25 INITIAL hidden in ‘begIN IT I ALways’
26 PEPPER CASTER *(RESPECT PAPER)
Down
1 WIMPOLE WIMP (feeble person) OLE (cheer)
2 SHEBEEN BE in SHEEN (glitter)
3 EASY REACH AS in EYRE (Jane) A CH (a companion)
4 FRAUD FRAU (German lady) D (Germany)
5 PASSAGE – ‘bad’ in French is ‘mauvais’ or ‘grave’. Passé could, I suppose, be loosely described as ‘bad’ but this does not account for the AG so I am stumped. Edit: see Eileen’s comment #1
6 COLLOID LOI (law, in French) in COLD (at low temperature)
7 UNAPOLOGETIC UNA (single girl) POLO (game) GET (attain) 1 (first) C (century)
10 MADEMOISELLE MADE (compelled) MOI (me (surely not?)) SELL (deal) E (ecstasy)
15 SIGNORINA SIGN (put her name on paper) OR IN A (article)
17 OUTRAGE OU (where, in French) TRAGE[dies]
18 NONSTOP NS (opponents) in NOT OP[ponents] – NS are partners in bridge (the usual crossword usage) so presumably ‘opponents’ is referring to something else. I initially thought about the opposite poles of a magnet but these attract rather than oppose.
19 CATMINT cd
20 COURIER COUR[t]IER (royal attendant with time off) – should this not be ‘time out’ rather than ‘time off’?
22 SENOR *(NORSE)
Hi Gaufrid
24ac: I took this as CHAS TEN: Charles X King of Sweden 1654-1660. My worry was with ‘chasten’ = ‘beat’. I can’t find it anywhere [unlike ‘chastise’].
5dn: ‘sage’ = ‘good’ in French, so ‘pas sage’ = ‘bad’.
12ac: I took ‘diamond’ as ‘cutting one’.
Ref. 24ac, there was also Charles X of Sweden: Charles X Gustav (Karl X Gustav) 1654–1660, so this could be, as you say, CHAS+TEN dd. with the definition stuck in the middle.
Nick
Re 20dn: I think there was a similar discussion somewhere recently re ‘off’ = ‘less’ and I said I thought of it as being like ‘25% off’ in a sale.
Thanks Eileen and Nick.
I was editing my post to correct 24a as you were writing your comments.
Nice one, Eileen, re 5d though a bit of a stretch even by Cinephile’s standards.
G’day all.
Some real jiggery-pokery in today’s puzzle – and I’m glad that you folks had deconstructed 24A before I arrived here seeking confirmation/enlightenment.
Re: 18D – might “opponents” be tentatively justified in the context of the US Civil War (North vs South and all that…)?
Hi Smiffy
Re 18d, I had similar thoughts regarding N and S Korea but this would be rather obscure even for Cinephile.
I think this might be another case of ‘we’ll just never know’.
For many years I have looked at Cinephile crosswords with dismay as I could rarely make any progress and often failed to understand the solutions.
A blog like this helps to bring the word play alive and shows how obscure some clues can be.
I dabbled with today’s crossword earlier and easily saw the answer to 18d but could not understand why.
Having read the thoughts above the question seems to be the significance of ‘before they start’. I suggest it is actually ‘not before they start’ or NOT OP ie not working with the NS bridge opponents entering. What do you think?