Independent 7522/Dac

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The usual excellence from Dac today. Such smooth surfaces, and he clues everything so seamlessly and neatly. A couple I don’t understand, but they will no doubt be explained.

Across
1 VOCALISTS — (cov{e})rev. A-list
5 SEEN TO — “scene two”
9 WAR DANCE — d{river} in (a new car)*
10 SCRAP E
12 LEND AN EAR — Len Dan (are)*
13 EVEN T
14 BREAD AND BUTTER — what this (or bread and butter pudding) has to do with a guest house I can’t see: is it something to do with the fact that they are both B & B?
17 LOST ONE’S THREAD — (the old senators)*
21 BIBLE — b in (Eli b)rev.
22 TH(RASH)ING
24 OPENER — op (Rene)rev.
25 CINEASTE — (in case ET)*, lovely semi &lit.
26 AS TUTE{e}
27 M(EAT {Frenc}H {chees}E)AD — didn’t know this word but presumably it means a fool
 
Down
1 V O WELS{h}
2 C(OR ONE)R
3 ItaLIAN Alps
4 SECRET AGENTS — gen in (Tasers etc)*
6 EXCHEQUER — “ex checker” I think, with ‘finances’ the definition
7 NE(ARE)ST
8 OVERT URE — the Ultravox singer is Midge Ure (had to check this as you might expect)
11 P(RE D)ET ERMINE — here the ermine is fur rather than animal fur
15 {l}A(TONE)MENT — although Ian McEwan wouldn’t be best pleased for his work to be called a film. The original work was a book.
16 C(L)UBS OD A
18 SUB JE(C)T
19 AT ISSUE — (ties USA)*
20 AGREED — I can’t understand this: it seems to be (vintage red – vint)* with fine=agreed
23 S(WE)AT

10 comments on “Independent 7522/Dac”

  1. Thanks for the blog, John and Dac for another fine offering.

    14A BREAD AND BUTTER, the closest I can get to explanation is: READ [=mostly prep(ared)*] in B AND B (=guest house) + UTTER (=say), though I still have a reservation in that “ared” is only half and not mostly of “prepared”.

    6D EXCHEQUER I think is an &lit with the definition being “one who audits finances”.

    20D AGREED I think RE [=re(d), no end] with “drunk” to indicate it’s within AGED (=vintage). “Fine” as in a response to someone telling you eg. to do something.

    MEATHEAD I think is an Americanism, most commonly used by Archie Bunker, the American spin-off of Alf Garnett, to describe his son-in-law, in the TV series “All in the family”. The word presumably stems from “dead from the neck up”.

    Favourites were 25A CINEASTE, 6D CINEASTE, both nice &lits, and 18D SUBJECT, with its not often used equivalents of “transport”.

  2. PS. Apologies, I withdraw my comments about 6D EXCHEQUER being an &lit. Your definition is totally correct. Feel a bit of a 27A now.

  4. Thanks for the blog, John, and Dac for the excellent puzzle. Just a little trickier than usual for Dac, I agree with scchua’s explanations of BREAD AND BUTTER and AGREED both of which I too worked out first from the definitions.

  5. Many thanks, John. Fine puzzle – like nms, I found it a bit harder than normal, but it was all eminently gettable and more important, very enjoyable. SEEN TO and BREAD AND BUTTER were my favourites today.

  6. Bread and butter is very good when you see it. Like John, I was thinking it was something to with B&B. I also liked the excellent surface in 4 down.

  7. Surely 6D is defined by “Report of” so the homophone of ex – checker is correct – at least that’s how I got it, and the meaning is finances, hence exchequer, so I think John was right?

  8. Hi IanJ, I think you’re right; that’s certainly how I read the clue and John’s parsing is correct as far as I can see. Not sure there’s much of an &lit about it. But belated thanks to scchua for explaining AGREED, which I couldn’t see.

  9. Completely missed the cryptic stuff in BnB, otherwise got agreed as Scchua. An enjoyable wednesday puzzle over lunch. Thanks John for blog/DAC for puzzle.

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