Something for all levels of solvers in today’s outing. In fact, I suspect that this might be a good educational/confidence booster for relatively newbie solvers. A couple of gentle anagrams, a twinset of hiddens (one obvious, one more subtle), and the potential for some educational snippets along the way. For example I was aware of the answer at 14A, but would never have guessed the associated composer before today.
Across
1 BABE RUTH –(be + R.U.) in Bath. Baseball legend, a.k.a The Bambino; lead the Boston Red Sox to three World Series titles before crossing over to the Dark Side of the Force.
5 MARMOT – mo’ (as in “Just a mo’.”) in mart.
10 LEG-PULL – leg (in the Tour de France sense) + pull. ‘Stage turn’ is one of those happily concise combos that the best setters seem to unearth with amazing regularity.
11 ACRONYM – crony in Am. Def’n by example.
12 GREED – hidden.
13 TAKE AFTER – ‘mirror’ (vb). The wordplay ‘take’ befuddled me for a bit, but I think can be used, casually, as an alternative to “reading”; à la “I’m taking Advanced Particle Physics and Media Studies”.
14 PEARL FISHERS – (Pairs herself)*. This opera.
18 UP AND RUNNING – figurative/literal double def’n.
21 LONG JOHNS – John in longs (the sartorial opposite of shorts, I presume).
23 SALSA – double def’n.
24 UNLEASH – (ale – shun)*.
25 ETHANOL – h[usband] in (lean-to)*.
26 HEARSE – hears (judicially) + e{very}.
27 SKULLCAP – homophone of “scull” + ca. + p.
Down
1 BELUGA – (a bulge)*.
2 BIG BEN – big + Ben.
3 ROUNDHEAD – round + head. This clue has a very old-school feel to it.
4/9 TALK THROUGH THE BACK OF ONE’S NECK – not quite sure how to classify this one. Also a little quaint to my uncouth mind; I must confess that my own equivalent phrase of choice features a different part of the human anatomy.
6 AORTA – hidden.
7 MINSTREL – M + in + Stre + l. A good building-blocks lesson for newcomers. With a bonus/salutary lesson that ‘street’ needn’t always be St. (Edit: I stand corrected; as the wortdplay here is St + re:. Thanks Sil.)
8 TAMARISK – Tamar (nature’s equivalent of Offa’s Dyke for emmets) + is + {oa}k.
15 SENESCHAL – (she cleans)*. Coincidentally, and weirdly, enough this far-from-everyday word came up in conversation between myself and Mrs Smiffyonly a couple of nights ago.
16 FURLOUGH – {chatea}u in Fr. + lough. (Temporary work) ‘leave’.
17 MAGNOLIA – mag + (oil)* in NA.
19 CLINIC – in in clic{k}. I understood ‘pop’ (= click) in the onomatopoeic sense.
20 WALLOP – double def’n.
22 JEANS – an in jes{t}. Anyone know an apparel-related knock-knock joke?
Thanks, smiffy, for your explanations.
I needed them for SKULLCAP.
The word in 15d was new to me: SENESCHAL (you swapped two vowels :)).
MINSTREL (7d) I read as M + IN + ST + RE (on) + L.
11ac’s ACRONYM took me a while to get due to FBI.
Its is indeed a definition by example, though that isn’t indicated. Normally setters add “say” or “perhaps”.
Yesterday I found Cinephile’s hidden-answer-indicator in EDWARD somewhat minimalistic. Today Falcon’s “apostrophe s” in GREED is even less obvious. When reading it as “has” it is OK, I guess.
Good puzzle with lots of playful clues.
BTW, I knew Bizet’s “Pearl Fishers” : my late father was very keen on ‘the’ duet “Au fond du temple saint”.
Thanks smiffy. As you say, this was a mixture of the very easy with some trickier moments. I was unhappy with 4/9: I’d worked out it was a cryptic definition, but I think it needs more wordplay to make the answer unique. I wasn’t familiar with the phrase and guessed HEAD for NECK at first.
In 15dn I believe the spelling is SENESCHAL.
The only clothing-related knock-knock joke I know is actually crossword-related too. it comes from a famous puzzle by (I think) Torquemada where some of the answers were the “names” in knock-knock jokes. This one was something like:
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Euripides.
Euripides who?
Euripides pants and I make you buy me another pair!
I agree with Sil re. 7d. Had not heard the word seneschal before. (And nor has this site’s spell-checker!) I have a bit of a problem with their being nothing qualifying FBI to suggest that it is an example, but I have no problem with the apostrophe in 12a. I would read it as “greed” belongs to “pedigree dog”.
Thanks folks – spelling goof at 15D now amended. I’d like to pretend it was a typo but, in all honesty, I see that I did likewise in my completed grid too. Mrs Smiffy will be pleased to learn that my spelling skills do not match up to my vocab ones!
Thanks smiffy. Regarding 11A, I thought an acronym was an abbreviation that made a pronounceable word. If so, FBI is an example of an abbreviation but not an acronym.
Thanks smiffy.
Nice puzzle from Falcon with a good mix of clues.Like you,it’s not usually the back of the neck I refer to when rubbish is being talked.
Steve @5 I think you’re right,I would say FBI is an initialism rather than an acronym,but it seems some dictionaries differ on this.
Sil – You’re late father had very good taste,“Au fond du temple saint” is a beautiful duet.This version(featuring the wonderful Jussi Bjorling) is widely acknowledged as setting the benchmark for all performances http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYt2HlBuyI
Scarpia, this is quite unbelievable.
It is the version with Jussi Björling (and Robert Merrill) he liked most.
And after all these years (50 or so), and when I think about them now, I can still hear their voices …. Oh, those were the days of 78’s and 45’s.
Sil,as I said your late father obviously had very good taste,IMO that version has never been bettered.
Happy memories!