Relatively straight forward in the preamble department – extra letters from the wordplay spell out a quotation and this will enable the solver to complete the un-clued perimeter cells. Sounds straight forward enough.
Well not that straight forward some tricky but perfectly fair clueing from Kruger. Lots of unfamiliar meanings of familiar words and many unfamiliar words – the BRB took quite a thumbing.
Anyway what was the quotation. Not one I was familiar with – THE CHILDREN’S TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE. A biblical quotation from Ezekiel 18.2 about the suffering of the Israelites.
“The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?”
And what of the perimeter – well that is where the teeth are. From Top left going clockwise FANG and GNASHER sharing a G, MASTICATOR, MOLAR, PEARLY WHITE, CANINE and TUSK. On the edge, or the perimeter of the title.
Thanks Kruger, a hard slog I thought.
Key
Underline definition
* anagram
Rev. reverse
DD Double definition
| ACROSS | |
| 9 Half of American tribe at mostly brusque talks (7) | |
| Nation (American tribe) – ion (half) + terse (brusue) – e = NATTERS | |
| T | 10 Bone left inside fish(4) |
| L (left) in tuna (fish) = ULNA | |
| H | 11 Bob from Ayr keeps apparently an animal with no ventral fins (4) |
| Hod (Bod from Ayr (Scottish term)) around ap(apparently) = APOD | |
| E | 12 Sexton’s dilapidated car is restored outside (7) |
| Set (restored) around (caris)* = SACRIST | |
| C | 13 Old uncle’s astute in uprising (6) |
| Eme(uncle) + cute(astute) = EMEUTE | |
| H | 15 Scots marked with ruddle vegetable returned to drug user not accepted (6) |
| Rev(leek(vegetable)) + head(drug user) – a (accepted) = KEELED | |
| I | 16 South African and Nigerian upset about … (4) |
| Ibo (Nigerian) + rev (re – about) = BOER | |
| L | 17 … working in disgusting trade of church’s income (6) |
| Slimy (disgusting trade) around on (working) = SIMONY | |
| D | 19 Starts to observe some flowing and ebbing — no longer like a river mouth (6) |
| O + s (starts to observe some) + tidal (flowing and ebbing) = OSTIAL | |
| R | 20 Recognize, so to speak, unusually rare shell (6, 2 words) |
| Sea (Homonym of See Recognize) + (rare)* = SEA EAR | |
| E | 22 Greeting husband forgot after tribute in prearranged fight long ago (6) |
| Due(tribute) + hello(greeting) = DUELLO | |
| N | 23 Tension in muscles from weight (4) |
| DD Tonne = TONE | |
| S | 24 Tree’s unknown in wild US, alas (6) |
| X (unknown) in (alasus)* = SAXUAL | |
| T | 27 Tensely educated on radio and telly, oddly (6) |
| Homonym (Taut – Taught (educated)) + TeLlY = TAUTLY | |
| E | 28 Overturned weak drinks in mugs (7) |
| Rev(gone(weak)) + gins = NOGGINS | |
| E | 29 Change direction of Humvee erratically (4) |
| Hidden HumVEE Erratically = VEER | |
| T | 30 I incorrectly told false notion (4) |
| I + (told)* = IDOL | |
| 31 Money affected place for obese children in Texas (7, 2 words) | |
| Fat (money) + camp (affected) = FAT CAMP | |
| DOWN | |
| 1 Sleep, we hear, in folded sheet (5) | |
| Homonym (Nap (sleep)) = NAPPE | |
| H | 2 Reparations fix new home in Australian camp (9) |
| (nhome)* in a (Australian) + tent (camp) = ATONEMENT | |
| A | 3 Interpreter of scriptures and curious men sit here at university (12) |
| (mensitherat + u)* = HERMENEUTIST | |
| R | 4 Sinned, putting bishop in pen (5) |
| Reed (pen) around RR (bishop) = ERRED | |
| E | 5 Silently reflect about old food in opening of canal (6) |
| Muse (silently reflect) around eat (old food) = MEATUS | |
| S | 6 Passage of time can easily cut characteristic of dialect (12) |
| ACCENTUALITY | |
| E | 7 Undoubtedly, French investigators waste time (4) |
| Surete(French police) – t (time) = SURE | |
| T | 8 William’s to withdraw Christmas decorations left outside hospital (7) |
| H (Hospital) in tinsel (Christmas decorations) = INSHELL | |
| O | 12 Sweaty American returned smelling badly (8) |
| Rev(Us (American)) + odorous (smelling badly) = SUDOROUS | |
| N | 14 Aussie native certainly stood up in front of Alan — rude fellow! (9, 2 words) |
| Rev.(Ok (certainly))+ alan + bear(rude fellow) = KOALA BEAR | |
| E | 18 Ideas (mostly poor) to cook some crustaceans (7) |
| (ideas + poo)* = ISOPODA | |
| D | 21Forward son of Jesse almost swallows insect (6) |
| David – d (son of Jesse) around ant (insect) = AVANTI | |
| G | 24 Stop leaving African pigs standing up in bedding material (5) |
| Rev(warthogs(African pigs) – ho (stop)) = STRAW | |
| E | 25 Expounder of the law (corrupt male) not about to enter United Arab Emirates (5) |
| (male-a)* in uae (united arab emirates) = ULEMA | |
| 26 Stare at headless spectre (4) | |
| Bogle (spectre) – b = OGLE |
Thanks for the blog. This was my 1st EV & I thought it both interesting & challenging. I needed the blog to parse 24d completely, though.
btw 24a has a typo – should be (USalas)*, not (wildus)*
Thanks Shikasta – have corrected 24ac
I enjoyed this thanks Kruger. I am not sure what it is with the titles though having recently solved ‘5 Down’ as well! Maybe Kruger is going for a full set! I did think that there were a lot of title possibilities with this one ‘False Wisdom’ etc.
This was my 1st EV too. Completed ok after quite a wrestle but I was left pondering the preamble – 2,3,4,5,6&7. Are these word lengths ? If so they don’t square with the phrase (children’s teeth etc). Can anyone enlighten me? I’ve probably missed smthing obvious.
paul
Paul, it means the quote is in editions 2 through 7 of the ODQ.