Some tricky clues today, with one (12ac) that I cannot fully explain.
Unusually for an FT puzzle there is a Nina. The left and right columns, taken together, read THE OUTSIDE EDGE. I am not sure whether this is just a self-reference or if I have missed something further.
Across
1,28 TRAVEL SICKNESS cd
5,29 MACARONI CHEESE *(ONE HAS ICE-CREAM)
9 HORSECAR *(SEARCH [f]OR) – in the US, a streetcar drawn by horses
10 BIG END GEN (low-down) in BID (offer)
11 ELICIT [f]ELICIT[y] (heart of happiness)
12 HALF-LIFE – I don’t see this one. If the clue had been ‘… of lithium and iron’ then something could be ‘half Li [half] Fe’ and the clue would work. As it stands, there appears to be no wordplay for HALF and the ‘or’ between lithium and iron would need to be ignored to give LI FE – or have I missed something?
14 LIVERY STABLE VERY (extremely) in LISTABLE (easy to itemise)
18 OVERESTIMATE *(A SETTER I MOVE)
22 UNIPOLAR *(PURLOIN A) – a unipolar motor is a type of small DC electric motor commonly found in small, portable cassette players. This is from Wikipedia, I can find no support for there being a ‘unipolar motor’ in any of the three usual references.
25 ISOPOD SO (very well) in IPOD (music player)
26 TABARD BAR (pub) in TAD (a bit)
27 PETTIFOG PET FIT reversed (back-to-back sulks) GO reversed (turn round)
Down
2 ROOTLE [h]OT (‘eated) in ROLE (part)
3 VESICULAR *(VIA ULCERS) – ‘swelling’ can be an adjective as well but I cannot think of an example that would illustrate this usage.
4 LOCATIVES TACO reversed (pancake-tossing) in LIVES (is) – defn. ‘places, we indicate’.
5 MARCHER MAR (hurt) CHER (singer)
6 CABAL AB (sailor) in CAL (California)
7 RIGEL R (king) I GEL (set)
8 NINEFOLD D (daughter) OF in LENIN reversed
13 FIT dd
15 STATISTIC T (time) IS in STATIC (still)
16 ADENOSINE A DEN (study) O (zero) SINE (function) – I assume this is a ‘sugar molecule’. The dictionary definitions all seem to be “a nucleoside made up of adenine and ribose”.
17 SVENGALI VE (day of victory) in *(SIGNAL)
19 EGO hidden in ‘theatrEGOers’
20 IRRUPTS PURR reversed (pleasure over) in ITS
21 POROUS O[f] R[un] O[uts] in PUS (matter)
23 PLANK PLAN K
24 LEDGE [f]LEDGE (make preparations to fly off) – defn. ‘shelf’
Gaufrid
Half-life will be Li OR Fe!
To further expand my cryptic note above:
The clue is: Measure of decay of lithium or iron? (4-4)
‘Measure of decay’ may be taken as the definition for word required, HALF-LIFE.
Now, half-life could be Li or Fe – which is suggested by “lithium or iron”.
So I don’t see where any difficulty lies.
Hi Rishi
I am sure you are right and that is what was intended. However, I still have some difficulty reading the clue that way, probably because of my ingrained response when seeing ‘of’ in a clue which to me indicates ‘formed from’ or ‘consisting of’, ie a charade.
Phew! With locatives, adneosine and irrupts giving me brainache – I was grateful for the “easy” clues (such as 12A…)
Thanks Gaufrid, for confirming/detailing several definitions at which I merely hazarded drive-by guesses.
Also the type of Nina reminded me of Monk’s past forays into the FT. Although he seems to have been absent for a while?
I thought this was very good, hard for the FT, maybe this was because of the Nina which I did not spot, don’t tend to look for them in FT, but will have to now!
Favourite clues, TRAVEL SICKNESS, ROOTLE (these were my last two entries) and STATISTIC. HALF-LIFE was the first I solved and I did not see anything wrong with it at all. Thought the ‘of’ (similar to ‘from’) linked the definition and wordplay.
I thought this was very tough for a midweek F.T. puzzle.Maybe it was because I attempted it in the pub at lunchtime,rather than at home where I can check things out ,but I had lot of answers only pencilled in.
Horsecar,unipolar,vesicular,locatives and adenosine were all unfamiliar to me.
Always nice to come across new vocabulary – just wished I’d taken the Indie to the pub and kept this one for home!
I’m a bit late – only finished this crossword today.
So, the party’s probably over.
I just want to say that was a particularly fine puzzle, the second time in a row that I really appreciated an IO.
I have to admit, I am not a big fan of Enigmatist [purely because the style of clueing, which is ‘too mathematical’ for me – whatever that means], but Mr Henderson’s other “hidden answer in 19d” seems to suit me a lot better.
Great crossword.
[missed, of course, the nina :)]