An interesting mixture from Nimrod here – a plethora of long answers – six 15-letter entries – and a smidge-ette of a theme which, unless I missed something, didn’t seem to develop into anything …
As it happened, and as is often my wont, my eye drifted straight to the bottom right-hand corner, and pretty quickly spotted 23A – EASTER BUNNY. A-ha, a theme here surely, given the weekend of publication?! But no – after that quick entry – and SIM in the top right, it took me a while to get going on this. Those six long solutions, 5 of which involved at least some sort of anagram, slowed things down a bit.
At 8D my eyes were telling me ‘MISDEEM’ fo a long while before the brain kicked in and insisted on parsing it closer. In a similar way – PYLON seemed to obviously fit the definition, but the lonely spy – ‘007 isolated’ – was another ‘a-ha’ moment.
It took a while, when writing this up, to work out that ANNUS HORRIBILIS was a partial anagram. I entered it straight off on solving – from the definition and crossing letters – but only realised later that there was a missing L in <HARBOUR INNS IRIS>, which prompted some extra effort to track this one down.
An educational slant here as well – SIGYN had to be right from the wordplay, but a Wiki-oogle was needed to discover she was the wife of Loki…
Some excellent and diverting surface readings – from the sinister combinations of gas mask and the Syrian president, to the image of the papparazzi chasing John Paul I with their long lenses. I never watched Mr Ed on TV, but DERM as ‘box-occupier who talked up’ must be a mini-classic of the form.
So, unless the EASTER BUNNY is street-slang for the GO-TO GUY for CLASS A DRUGS, trying to keep himself away from the COP SHOP, my initials expectations of a theme were unfounded, but I certainly got an enjoyable workout solving this – and then writing up the blog!
Happy Easter Eggs, and thanks to Nimrod.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1A | CLASS A DRUGS | Gas masks a Syrian President misappropriated covering narcotics (5,1,5) | narcotics / CS (gas) around (A)L-ASSAD (Syrian president, without A – misappropriated?) + RUG (covering) |
| 7A | SIM | Information carrier is going the wrong way on motorway (3) | (mobile phone) information carrier / SI (‘is’ going the wrong way) plus (on) M (motorway) |
| 9A | PANEGYRIC | Laudatory address for which grey snakes in the grass? (9) | Laudatory address / PANIC (type of grass) around anag (i.e. snakes) of GREY |
| 10A | ATLAS | Titan with a fearsome burden finally got rid of cross (5) | Titan with a fearsome burden the world on his shoulders) / AT LAS(T) – finally, without T (TAU, cross) |
| 11A | HOSANNA | Rating received by animator, praise be (7) | praise be / HANNA (Hanna Barbera, cartoon animator) around (receiving) OS (Ordinary Seaman, rating) |
| 12A | PEERAGE | Lords go and speak with passion (7) | Lords / PEE (go, urinate) + RAGE (speak with passion) |
| 13A | PHOTOJOURNALISM | Motors around with John Paul I, snapping at the heels of the rich and famous? (15) | snapping at the heels of… / anag (i.e. around and/or snapping?) of MOTORS JOHN PAUL I |
| 15A | FORKED LIGHTNING | Celestial phenomenon dedicated to monarch enthrals Felicity, with head turned north (6,9) | Celestial phenomenon / FOR (dedicated to) + KING, around (enthralling) EDLIGHT (felicity, delight, with DE turned to ED) plus N (North) |
| 17A | SOBER UP | Get real ale tab written out – well done for drinking that! (5,2) | Get real / SO (well) plus UP (finished, done), around (drinking) BE(E)R (beer, ale, without E – tab, or ecstasy tablet) |
| 18A | TEST ACT | Historical pro-monarchy legislation put back with diplomacy (4,3) | Historical pro-monarchy legislation / TES (SET, or put, back) + TACT (diplomacy) |
| 20A | PYLON | Bearer of cable from Home Counties leaving 007 isolated? (5) | Bearer of (electric power) cable / 007 isolated would be ‘SPY LONE’ – then take off SE (South-East, home counties) |
| 21A | IMBURSING | Having run into broken-down minibus, German settling (9) | settling (e.g. a bill) / anag (i.e. broken down) of MINIBUS plus R (run) |
| 22A | TIS | I confirm the identity of Pacific trees (3) | I confirm the identity of (by saying ‘It is…’) / TI (Pacific liliaceous tree) – in plural = TIS |
| 23A | EASTER BUNNY | A tenner buys novelty egg-carrier (6,5) | egg carrier / anag (i.e. novelty) of A TENNER BUYS |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | COP SHOP | Crack opera enthralled Nick (3,4) | (the) Nick / CHOP (crack) around OPS (op – opus, plural opera) |
| 2D | ANNUS HORRIBILIS | One going in dodgy harbour inns with Iris? It’s really not a good time (5,10) | It’s really not a good time / anag (i.e. dodgy) of HARBOUR INNS + I (one), followed by LIS (fleur-de-lis, or iris) |
| 3D | SIGYN | Ram perhaps nurturing yen for wife of mischievous husband (5) | wife of mischievous husband (Norse god Loki) / SIGN (Ram, sign of Zodiac) around (nurturing) Y (yen) |
| 4D | DERMATOGLYPHICS | Box-occupier who talked up training got physical work on hands and feet (15) | work on hands and feet / DERM (MR ED – talking horse, or box-occupier, upwards) + anag (i.e. training) of GOT PHYSICAL |
| 5D | UNCOPYRIGHTABLE | The horrendous early botching up of work that can’t be made secure (15) | of work that can’t be made secure / anag (i.e. horrendous) of EARLY BOTCHING UP |
| 6D | SPARE PART | Has PA repartitioned walls a bit? (5,4) | a bit / hidden words in (i.e. walled in by) ‘haS PA REPARTitioned’ |
| 7D | SYLLABIFICATION | A breakdown of communication, basically? Not if I can fix it! (15) | a breakdown of communication (or, of words) / anag (i.e. can fix it!) of BASICALLY NOT IF I |
| 8D | MISTERM | Man acquires married name in an inappropriate way (7) | name in an inappropriate way / MISTER (man) + M (married) |
| 14D | OPEN RANGE | Area that’s limitless fruit – put a pound in! (4,5) | area that’s limitless / ORANGE (fruit) with PEN (pound, enclosure) put inside |
| 15D | FUSSPOT | Perfectionist three-quarters safeguard position (7) | perfectionist / FUS(E) – three-quarters of FUSE, or safeguard – plus SPOT (position) |
| 16D | GO-TO GUY | Leave with the intention of ridiculing American brick (2-2,3) | brick (reliable person) / &lit-ish double defn – couldn’t find this defined in Chambers, but ‘go-to guy’, with a hyphen, can be Mr Reliable, and if you go to ‘guy’ someone, in the US, you could be leaving with the intention of having a joke at the expense of someone… |
| 19D | SHRUB | Irritate mum, promoted to supervise plant (5) | plant / SH (sh, quiet, keep mum) above (promoted, overseeing) RUB (irritate) |
Well, there’s a sort of Easter egg in there. 4d and 5d are (the only?) two 15-letter words in which no letter is repeated.
Captcha not trying alert: one + 1 – almost infra dig…
I enjoyed this puzzle by Phi, especially all the long anagrams and 15-letter words, some of which were new for me such as SYLLABIFICATION, DERMATOGLYPHICS & UNCOPYRIGHTABLE. And SIGYN, wife of Loki was also a new word for me today.
My favourites were PHOTOJOURNALISM, EASTER BUNNY, MISTERM, PEERAGE, OPEN RANGE & ANNUS HORRIBILIS which was an easy solve in a way because another puzzle I did earlier this morning had ‘Annus mirabilis ‘ in the clue.
Thanks for the blog, mc_rapper67. I needed your help to parse 1d, 10a, 15a, 17, 20, 15d & 4d – what a brilliant reversal of Mr Ed the talking horse.
I hadn’t realised this was a Prize Puzzle dated 30 March as I did it this morning, thinking it was today’s puzzle.
Will there be a Prize puzzle online today, Saturday 6 April? Or was that a special one for Easter?
Now I understand about the “Easter Bunny” – I was thinking this puzzle would have been better if published last week, which in fact it was!
Thanks Phi – an interesting factoid to hide away for a future quiz!
Michelle – thanks for the feedback. As far as I know the Saturday prize crosswords are initially published only in the paper version of the Independent – very 20th Century, I know, but worth buying as you also get the excellent Inquisitor in the magazine section. These puzzles are then posted online a week ‘in arrears’ – so you can still access them/solve them online, but the ‘prize’ element is taken away, as the deadline is the Friday…
mc_rapper67
thanks for the information. I’ll continue to do the online Prize every Saturday morning as I am located outside the UK and cannot buy the hard-copy of the newspaper.
I am slightly disappointed that Phi got to the fact about 4d and 5 d before I did. Now when am I ever going to get the chance to use that piece of information again? 🙂
The usual entertaining brainstretching from Nimrod. Lots to enjoy. My particular favourite was the small but perfectly formed 22a.
Thanks to Nimrod for an Easter Saturday diversion and to mc_rapper67 for the explanations.
Nice blog, thanks. But come on give those of us who are challenged a clue, what is this “Mr Ed”? I got the clue, but had and still have no idea what Mr Ed is. Thanks.
Eric @7
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Ed
Thanks, Gaufrid – and apologies to Eric – I do usually try and put a few explanatory links in, on the more ‘obscure’ references…although obscurity and clarity can depend on perspectives and locations/backgrounds…
Found this completely intractable, so have given up after a couple of weeks! Thanks, Mike, for putting me out of my misery.
Slight pedantry here (and apologies, because it annoys me when people do this to me!) but I think this was #8255 rather than #8225.