Not too difficult, but I really enjoyed this. 2dn in particular stood out, but there was a lot of clever cluing and surfaces here (10, 22, 24, 12dn…)
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | XEROXES | =”runs off” [copies of sth] | X X=”Kisses” around (Roe)* + ES[capes], where [capes]=”without clothes” |
| 8 | TIMOTHY | =”man” | TIM[e]=”Life is short” + O=”love” + THY=”your” |
| 9 | HERO | =”champion” | hidden in [C]HERO[kee] |
| 10 | ADAPTIONS | =”Darwinian processes” | (Panda is to)* |
| 12 | IRISH | =”whiskey” | I=”Arachne” + [b]R[a]I[n]S=”brains regularly obliterated” + H[ard] |
| 13 | GERONIMO | =”Brave” | rev(MINOR, EG)=”child, for example, rebelling” + O[rphanage] |
| 15 | MUST | double def | =”New wine” or partially fermented grape juice, =”which shouldn’t be neglected” |
| 16 | MILER | =”Coe, perhaps” [wiki] – someone who runs mile-long races | [s]MILER=”scratching front of Beamer” |
| 17, 20 | LYME REGIS [wiki] | =”where fossils are found”, [&lit] | (grey miles)* |
| 18 | WELL-KNIT | =”tightly constructed” | Spoonerism of KNELL=”ringing” WIT=”repartee” |
| 21 | PARAMEDIC | =”emergency worker” | P[iano]=”quiet” + D[edicated] in (America)* |
| 22 | LEAD | quintuple def | =”live” (lead a good life); =”wire” (guitar lead); =”shot” (as in “bullets”); =”chief” (lead singer); =”usher” ( as in “guide”) |
| 24 | DESCENT | =”Decline” | Sounds like “dissent” i.e. “express different opinion on radio” |
| 25 | HOOSIER | =”Indianan” | HOO sounds like “who” i.e. “What people”, + S[enio]R around I.E.=”that is”=”that’s” |
| Down | |||
| 1 | FETE | =”holiday” | [i]F [w]ET [h]E, with all the “heads off” |
| 2 | OOLOGIST | &lit, someone who studies eggs | L[earner]=”Student”, inside O O O=”eggs” + GIST=”substance” |
| 3 | REHASH | =”paraphrase” | HAS=”Keeps”, interrupting rev(HER)=”woman from the floor” |
| 4 | TITTERER | =”source of nervous laughter” | TIER=”Row” around [u]TTER=”non-U voice” |
| 5 | COCOON | =”wrap” | O[scar] inside COCO “Chanel” + N[ew] |
| 6 | MHOS | =”Siemens once”, Siemens having replaced Mhos as the SI unit of electrical conductance | M[unic]H=”Munich evacuated” + rev(SO)=”returning thereafter” |
| 11 | ANGULATED | =”Cornered” | (Gnu dealt a)* |
| 12 | INURE | =”temper” | IN[j]URE=”Hurt”, having lost J[ack] |
| 14 | MEMES | =”Concepts spread” | ME ME=”individual to individual” + S[unday] |
| 16 | MONUMENT | =”Memorial” | rev(UN) inside MOMENT=”less than no time” |
| 17 | LEGALISE | =”stop being criminal” | GAL=”Lass” + IS, all inside LEE=”protection” |
| 19 | LYRICS | =”words of popular song” | (Cyril)* + [Knowle]S |
| 20 | RECKON | =”Consider” | ([k]nocker[s])* |
| 21 | PLEA | =”excuse” | Hidden reversed in [Mich]AEL P[ortillo] |
| 23 | AMEN | =”Final word” | [l]AMEN[t]=”boundless sorrow” |
Thanks, manehi. “Not too difficult”… you’ve been eating more fish than I! Yes, a few easy ones to get you started but some really tricky stuff in here. (Well, for me, anyway.)
OOLOGIST (brilliant!) along with XEROXES, held me up at the end, not helped by the fact that they crossed.
Thanks to Arachne for the puzzle and manehi for the blog. I must not be getting enough fish in my diet either. Hadn’t heard of LYME REGIS but the anagram was there to be deduced. Liked IRISH and XEROXES – runs off indeed!
Cheers…
Very nice – faves as already mentioned above by NW and GP.
15a – had it but not convinced until the crossers left no alternative. Despite its etymology MUST isn’t new wine any more than dough is new bread but the clue sort of draws you towards it.
According to Simon Heffer (now of the Mail, former grammar scourge (or laughing stock) of the DT) ADAPTIONS (10a) isn’t a word (even thought Collins and OED think it is) – he was quite firm about that – so all the more reason to use it.
Same experience as with Philistine yesterday – at first it didn’t seem to deliver the difficulty and sparkle automatically associated with the credited setter, but as the solve progressed it did. I suppose that sort of thing is specific to the solver and the order in which things fall into place for them.
Thanks for the blog, Manehi, especially for parsing 22ac, which I couldn’t see. [It’s a bit early for me but I had to make an early start because I’m out all day.] I don’t remember seeing a quintuple definition before – and what a surface!
Wonderful stuff all round, as usual from Arachne. Favourites were XEROXES [last one in], IRISH, PARAMEDIC [etc] but then I [somehow] remembered that Cyril Knowles inspired this song in the seventies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMUpwSIdpYc which makes LYRICS quite brilliant, I think.
I was very pleased to remember HOOSIER, from a trip to Indiana, with my son’s under-13 football team, also in the seventies.
Huge thanks, Arachne, for a great start to the day – go easy on the hard stuff! 😉
I had a question mark against my ‘wotsier’ having spent a week in neighbouring Kentucky 10 years ago and heard the expression quite often. Should have trusted my knowledge not to mention the setter’s superior wordplay. Hats off to Arachne for the quintuple and the beautifully crafted XEROXES.
Thanks for the blog manehi. Super puzzle. I loved XEROXES and LEAD but my favourites were TIMOTHY and GERONIMO.
I found this quite difficult: I failed to solve 25a and could not parse 4d, 6d, 16a, 21d.
On the plus side, the clues I liked were 13a, 17d, 1d, 21a, 3d, 7a, 2d, 5d.
New words for me are HOOSIER & OOLOGIST.
Thanks for the blog, manehi.
Thanks, manehi.
Yesterday’s Philistine fell out more easily for me than is usual with that setter. This was the opposite: a trickier than usual Arachne, but full of great clues with some splendid surfaces.
Favourites were LEAD, TIMOTHY, GERONIMO, MHOS, and of course OOLOGIST and XEROXES (the last in for me also). HOOSIER took me a while, not because the word was unfamiliar, but because I initially read the last word of the clue as Indian – the word break (in the paper version, anyway) served to mislead me.
‘Rocky grey miles’ alludes pleasingly to the fossil-bearing Jurassic Coast of LYME REGIS.
Bravissima!
Greetings from Spider Towers, and many thanks to Manehi for the blog, which is absolutely spot on. Thanks to all for comments, and especially to Eileen @4 for the Cyril Knowles link. The crossers at 7ac made it hard, but I think the clueing is fair.
To everyone, 8ac (or your woman).
[RIP Timothy C McCormick, d. Indianopolis 16.02.13 aged 24. Hero, Irish Miler, Regis High Schooler, paramedic, and beautiful boy. With love and deepest respect to Bob McCormick, Staten Island’s Guardian crossword solver extraordinaire].
Love and hugs,
Arachne x
Thanks, Arachne, for another superb puzzle and for revealing the very poignant theme.
Ah yes, just seen “FOR TCM” across the top and, of course, 23dn at the bottom.
Stumped by one or two, but loved the quintuple def.
Thanks Arachne, for letting us in on the theme – adds even more to an already excellent puzzle.
Disdnt’ get theme, but respecty.
Horrible grid today, very ungenerous, but some nice clues. In the dock for Rowly are 21a for the D leaedr!, 25a That’s is not that is, 2d needs QMm, 6d whaaaat!!, 11d anag rind is woolly, 19d ‘inspires’ why?. 20d, well, ‘essentrially’ cpould be anything really! Fun thoug.
Rollo.
Thanks for the fine puzzle Arachne, and a moving little tribute.
Thanks manehi and Arachne
A clever and typically witty puzzle from this setter. Some tantalising clues (especially 7a) and pretty hard, at least for me, in places. I only noticed 4 of the 5 senses in 22a and understood ‘wire’ simply as in ‘electrical lead’. Not surprisingly the theme went right past me.
I ticked 13a, 25a, 2d, 3d, and eventually 7a.
JollySwagman @3
When Simon Heffer was at school adaption was not a word – my old A level biology teacher, Mr Knight, used to fume if anyone used it – drumming it into us that there’s no such word as adaption – he was right, it should have been adaptation.
So I was surprised a while back to find adaption in a crossword & looked it up to find that persistent usage, or rather misusage, had seen it included as an alternative to adaptation.
I doubt Mr Knight is any happier about that than Simon Heffer!
@shikast #17
I wasn’t aware that Simon Heffer had gone to school or indeed had a childhood at all – I rather imagined that he had sprung from the womb as an angry middle-aged pedant.
Before he ran off to the Mail (the Torygraph having, in his estimation gone soft) his contribution to our language (unlike eg Shakespeare, who invented many words) was to ban a good many of them:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book/1435286/Telegraph-style-book-banned-words.html
No doubt had he stayed at the DT the would have fulfilled his promise and banned many more. I do credit him with being a man of his word.
When I was at school there were many “dustbin words”. Semi-colons were also banned and ball-point pens were considered to be the work of the devil.
JollySwagman @18
At my school ball-points were banned, but semi-colons were allowed.
Heffer’s list of banned words is an amusing mix of ‘he’s absolutely right’ & ‘that’s just a personal irrational dislike’ – but then isn’t that always the way with right-wing pedants?!
& I certainly would never use adaption – my own pedantry, perhaps, or maybe just a result successful indoctrination?
Rowland @12
21a: the leader device is fine by me unless the full word is something random like ‘doughnut’. Here ‘dedicated’ is OK anyway and in addition appropriate to the theme.
25a: I assume you mean “that’s is not IE”. Lots of abbreviations are clued in a two-step way. In this case I agree that ‘that is’ is slightly better as it does no harm.
2d: &lits are rife in the Azed clueing competition and not all have ‘?’. But I agree that in general they should have, rather than need. It’s a little more helpful.
6d: “whaaaat!!” – I don’t know how much of this is accidental but I take it you mean “what?” with emphasis. In which case I don’t what you mean!
11d: There are lots of “woolly” anagrinds but I admit to being surprised to find ‘blow’ in the long, but far from exhaustive, list in the Wiki Cryptic crossword article.
19d: ‘inspire’ – see Eileen @4.
20d: ‘essentially’ can’t mean anything. I think it should always mean central so in the case of ‘knockers’ there are three possibilities. The enumeration eliminates two of them. The application of ‘funny’ affords 720.
Having said all that, thanks for being so explicit.
Sorry, what I meant to say re 6d was14 I don’t know what you mean.
That’s and i.e. t wo different mngs, ID EST !!can’T!! mena that’s!!
Chrs
Rolls
Thanks to Arachne and manehi
Great fun, although I failed on MHOS. I also raised an eyebrow at ADAPTION, and was intending to point out that “adaptation” is more correct – others have got there first.
I got DESCENT eventually, but I don’t think it’s particularly close to “dissent” – perhaps it’s my accent.
The quintuple (LEAD) was a tour de force, and I also loved OOLOGIST.
The adoption as a word of adaption makes sense. Why prefer adaptation when there is no such word as adaptate? Nor is there a word adoptation. In the Darwinian context mutation springs to mind. However so does evolution. The more synonyms the richer the language. The French Academy continues to be pedantic about their language. They want to keep it pure. English has about four times as many words as French because it is mongrel. That is why French crosswords are not much good.
I agree that ‘that is’ is better for IE. IE is not the same as that’s. My point is that L is not the same as beginner or student. There is a host of similar accepted examples. A while ago, for surface reasons, someone clued L as ‘money’ and no-one complained.
Forgot to say – brilliant puzzle.
Stephen Jay Gould used (and, I think, may have coined) the word EXAPTION for a change that later (fortuitously?) became the starting point for some other adaptation (he compared it to “the spandrels of San Marco” in Venice – triangular regions that look like they were placed to be the basis of mosaic decoration, but were actually needed to support the dome). If he can get away with “exaption”, I suppose “adaption” is no worse!
To Sarah Hayes: Thanks and thanks and ever thanks.
I loved Timothy so.
rhotician @ 24
So we can look forward to repution for reputation, depution for deputation, invition for invitation? – no such words as reputate, deputate or invitate.
Evolution involves many dead-ends in the Darwinian context – and here too, I think – adaption is less a fresh synonym for adaptation & more a result of mass misapprehension of the correct word leading dictionary compliers to be forced to include it. It’s certainly a mutation – but, to use the Darwinian context again, most mutations are deleterious.
Great puzzle, especially poignant, once explained.
Thanks manehi; a lot of fuss about ADAPTION, but it’s in Chambers so it’s OK by me for a crossword, even though I would always say “adaptation.”
Some great clues here including those for MILER, XEROXES and OOLOGIST [tops!] Had to cheat on HOOSIER as I thought Indianan might be a Grauniadism for Indian. 🙁
Those would all be horrible. As horrible as adoptation would be. I can’t quite say why but I would prefer adaptation in most contexts, especially Darwinian. I think I might speak of a film as an adaption of a novel. I certainly wouldn’t think less of anyone who did so. The notion of “correct” English is one I have yet to come to grips with.
rhotician @31
They’re all horrible to me, too – but then so is adaption.
Since it has now been adopted in the dictionaries, of course anyone can use adaption as they wish. However, I’m sure you would describe my 3 examples as ‘incorrect’ English, not just ‘horrible’. Yet the only difference between them & adaption is that the latter once-incorrect usage has become so commonly (mis)used that it has been deemed a ‘correct’ word – it could happen with any of my 3 egs, or indeed many other equally ‘horrible’ & equally ‘incorrect’ words.
Hopefully, none of your feared mutations will happen, let alone survive. But I hope that English Correctness does not flourish. And now it’s time I shut up before Admin intervenes.
Adaption first appears in 1615 according to the OED.
Apart from the woolliness referred to elsewhere, I can’t see “less than no time” being a MOMENT, “live” meaning LEAD (however they are pronounced) or “thereafter” or “there” equating to SO. Of course you can get there, but they are imprecise. But I suppose if I want precision Arachne isn’t for me.
Well bratties, there’s no definition for ADAPTION in Collins, it simply says, ‘another word for adaptation’, and you can clearly see why. Both Chambers and Chambers 21st don’t include it at all (that’s my old 1990-something one, anyway) either. But in theory at least it could go into a Times puzzle. I’m in favour of adding new words, but not when we have one that’s more or less the same, especially when it’s nicer. Of much more concern to me at this moment is (e.g.) the use of ‘momentarily’ to mean ‘very soon’ creeping into English, when it is a most hideous Americanism.
To return to the puzzle itself, while THAT’S gets a run-out today for IE when it shouldn’t, it has been seen before in horrid Graunie-speak. However, I think it is incumbent on compilers to zap horridness in all its forms, even when it lurks in dread Crosswordese, so as to clean up this dratted mess we’ve got ourselves into: a New Ximenean Crusade! I don’t know why people here worry so much about correctness. It’s not as if it’s a bar to progress or creativity in any way that I can see.
jeceris @35: See Chambers for no time, lead and so. Also adaption.
I thought this was an excellent puzzle, and since Arachne dropped in to explain the theme very poignant too.
I didn’t trust the wordplay enough in 6dn and went for OHMS as my last in (yes, I know there was no inclusion/enclosure indicator). When the check button showed me it was wrong I entered the correct MHOS. I had come across MHOS before in a crossword but had forgotten it, and science subjects were never my strong point.
As my comment seems to have been swallowed by my PC, I’ll just post this instead. It’s a quote, sorry, quotation, from the OED, featuring Paul B’s least favourite Americanism:
Momentarily […]
4. Chiefly N. Amer. At any moment; in a moment, soon. […]
1961 E. Waugh Let. 9 June (1982) 567 The Last or General Judgement is something quite different… The Christians of the first century seem to have expected it momentarily.
Yes, that Evelyn Waugh.
Might as well add that my contribution on “that’s”/”i.e.” was going to involve “One in sixty people in the UK, that’s a million of us, are over 80”.
Well an excellent puzzle.
I failed to complete 8a and 6d even though I had considered MHOS but discounted it as not being a possible word.
Lots of fun though.
Thanks to Arachne.
And thanks to Manehi who now joins Uncle Yap in my “I don’t believe you!” club. “Not too difficult..” indeed!!
I think the responses show that the majority of solvers disagree.
I’m a Hoosier, so the solving process for that one for me went like this:
“Indianan? That’s not the word for it–no one says that. It’s Hoosier. Wait–it’s Hoosier! Now how does the clue work?”
–M.
Are there any other setters who come on the blogs to slag the work of other setters? If it’s just the one prolly best to ignore them.
Hopefully (sic) they’ll give up eventually.
@28
Your words resonate. I feel the weightiness, observe the disregarding `flow`
so send respectful love. s
Thanks Arachne and manehi
I was another who found this pretty difficult and finishing with the excellent OOLOGIST and very cleverly constructed XEROXES.
A great variation of clue types and what turned out a touching tribute to someone who obviously meant a lot to her.
This was a lovely puzzle and a touching tribute, inventively clued. Thanks Arachne.
IMHO 8ac was, rather aptly, the COP. Chambers indeed contains ADAPTION, and that’s (!) frequently used in advanced computational maths, in which adaptive-mesh techniques invoke recursive “adaptions” of an initially uniform 2-D or 3-D triangulated computational mesh so that resources are directed to only those areas requiring increased levels of resolution, e.g. at a localised shock wave in an otherwise quiescent gas or fluid. Is anyone still awake?
@monk #46 – You took the words out of my mouth.
But can you work Darwinian into that? BTW I think you mean 10a – not 8a.
This GW puzzle seemed impenetrable at first, because I am not used to this setter. So, I studied the solution for the last Arachne puzzle. Then I could get 1 Down, 9, 10, and so on. Surprised to see “Hoosier” instead of a famous Indianan. Had to cudgel my brains to get Xeroxes, oologist, and rehash. Got Geronimo from GE and MO, but didn’t understand why till I came here.
Sad theme; nice tribute.