Malaysia is engulfed in a smoky haze of such intensity that schools have been closed and a state of emergency declared in certain areas adjacent to Indonesia whose open burning of forest to clear land for cultivation of crops has contributed to this annual predicament. The lack of any rain in the last ten days did not help the situation.
Perhaps this surreal scene of dire and doom has clouded my ability to fully enjoy today’s offering from Gordius. Forgive me if I have overlooked any obscurities and banalities; it’s hard to see through the haze.
Across
1 24 fortress and eastern state (11)CASTLEMAINE
CASTLE (fortress) MAINE (eastern state, USA) Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, Countess of Castlemaine, also known as Lady Castlemaine (1640-1709) was an English courtesan and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of England.
9 Figure there’s no horse working (7)NONAGON
Cha of NO + NAG (horse) + ON (working)
10 Garment to beat Sir at work (4,3)TANK TOP
Cha of TAN (beat) + KT (Knight Templer, Sir) + OP (opus, work)
11 Repeating computer science with English tar (9)ITERATING
Cha of IT (Information Technology, computer science) + E (English) + RATING (sailer, tar)
12 Boredom contributes to under-eighteen nuisance (5)ENNUI
ha
13 Consider: short and spare (4)THIN
THINK (consider) minus K
14 Complain after hackneyed performance by party leader — bully for you! (6,4)CORNED BEEF
Cha of CORN (hackneyed performance) + ED (Miliband, leader of the Labour Party) + BEEF (complain)
16 24, author of family— you keeping good? (10)KINGSOLVER
Ins of G (good) in KIN (family) & SOLVER (you) Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet
19 Act the same again, but it’s dead (4)DODO
A corny clue for the extinct bird
20 A tree about to be another (5)ARECA
Rev of ACER + A. The areca is a tree of the betel nut genus of palms, native to SE Asia and the Indian subcontinent whereas acer is a tree of the maple genus
21 Could Bass be brewed for mixers? (4,5)CLUB SODAS
*(COULD BASS)
23 Keeping one’s plate is a beast (7)LIONESS
L (learner plate for a new driver) + ins of ONE’S in IS
24 1 across or 16 (with or without typo) (7)BARBARA
Two women sharing the same forename
25 Take a part, when put together (11)DISASSEMBLE
To disassemble is to take apart; in other words join up a & part
Down
1 Bog standard menu? (11,4)CONVENIENCE FOOD
cd, perhaps a Freudian slip by Gordius in this bog standard puzzle
2 Disgrace with loss of model character (5)SIGMA
STIGMA (disgrace) minus T (Model T of Henry Ford fame)
3 I travel fast before finding a spot (7)
LENTIGO Cha of LENT (fast) I GO (travel) for a word new to me, meaning freckle or spot. The plural is LENTIGINES
4 Turn magnet around, it causes change (7)MUTAGEN
*(U turn MAGNET) for a substance that causes mutation
5 12 nod off at subtle malicious comment (8)
INNUENDO *(ENNUI, solution to 12 + NOD)
6 Relations across the Channel? (7,8)ENTENTE CORDIALE
Friendly relationship between Britain and France (across the English Channel) in French
7 Disqualified from including what’s wrong — not to be missed (13)UNMISTAKEABLE
Ins of MISTAKE (what’s wrong) in UNABLE (disqualified)
8 1/4 annually based on dubious credit (5,5,3)APRIL FOOLS DAY
What more can I say; I’m overcome with 12
15 They try metal like a detective writer (8)ASSAYERS
As Dorothy L. Sayers (like a detective writer)
17 Destroyers take position across the street (7)
LOCUSTS Ins of ST (street) in LOCUS (position)
18 Even-tempered, just without it (7)EQUABLE
EQUITABLE (just) minus IT
22 Maybe broom to brush off (5)SHRUB
*(BRUSH) The broom is also a yellow-flowered papilionaceous shrub –Cytisus scoparius
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram
yfyap88 at gmail.com = in case anyone wants to contact me in private about some typo
Thanks G and UY – hope the smoke clears soon.
Needed you to explain who the ladies were but stumbled through in the darkness and some great humour along the way.
Thanks UY – I enjoyed the crossword, I am sorry you didn’t, apparently.
I thought 1D was an excellent CD. I learned about two new barbaras – but I can’t quite make out the full explanation of “with or without”; bar = without, but what is the rest?
Dave Ellison @ 2 – I looked at 24a long and hard as well before the penny dropped…Kingsolver or king’s lover, either way you get Barbara. That moment of enlightenment aside, I tend to agree with UY – I didn’t get much joy out of this one, though it was not all that bad either. Just sort of flat.
@AC #3 – thanks – was still stuck on that. Had BARBARA quite early and the MAINE part of 1a so that started me thinking French (eg petomaine only that’s not how you spell it) and the poem Barbara by Jacques Prévert, whose name I couldn’t recall. So wasted some time pondering that.
For the non-francophonically challenged it’s here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WneAM2F0aY
Actually I think Montand did it best with no music but can only find the sung version on Youtube.
Shame UY and AC didn’t enjoy. I thought G excelled himself on this one with quite a few good chuckles packed in. Of course you have to be comfortable with his style.
I enjoyed it and thought the cryptic definitions in 1D and 8D were splendid. If there is literally a black cloud over you there’s less to smile about – I sincerely hope that clears quickly.
Thanks UY and Gordius
Sorry about the smoke/haze etc.
I didn’t bother to check the Barbara in 1a so missed the typo point. Quite clever – thanks AndrewC.
25a also puzzled me. I realised that one can see it simply as an instruction to put ‘a part’ together, but also wondered if there was an added element of ‘dissemble = act, pretend’ plus ‘as = when’.
I liked some clues e.g. 1d and 8d (sorry UY).
Strictly speaking ‘areca’ = a + reversal of acer.
Thanks UY for blogging in such circumstances.
Though Gordius seems unable to get through a grid without the occasional weak clue (eg 7d), any crossword with a mini-theme of Mrs Trailman’s first name can’t be all bad. And I did rather like 1d and 9a.
I gain much more enjoyment from these crosswords than the ones I used to do – especially when coming on here to get help or just to read the comments.
I hadn’t noticed several points made by UY (sorry to hear about the smog) and others.
Many thanks to all – and to Rufus, of course.
I liked the crossword, but failed on thin, unmistakeable (quite stupidly, on reflexion) and I did use the web to make the Barbara link thinking solver. I have not come across this site before. Excellent aid to reassess one’s acumen in thinking connections.
Thanks to UY for the blog. You explained several that I had failed to parse.
Unfortunately I am still in the dark about a couple of them.
1) Where is the typo mentioned in 24?
2) Where is the credit in 8?
Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap. I hope you have clear skies and fresh air soon.
I didn’t find this as lacklustre as you did. 1dn made me smile and I liked the interlocking Barbaras, although I had to come here to get the full
KING’S LOVER, KINGSOLVER allusion. That was clever I thought.
Incidentally, a lesser known fact about Barbara Kingsolver is that she also used to play in a rock band called ROCK BOTTOM REMAINDERS, with other published writers such as Stephen King and Amy Tan.
Thanks, UY. I got lost in the haze today!
8 was one of my last – excellent I thought, unless you were (un)lucky enough to spot the misdirection from the get-go. It’s clues like this that, for me, lift Gordius up despite the weight of a few duff clues so that the average of the puzzle is pretty good.
chas @10,
1. the typo is potential: King’s lover for KINGSOLVER
2. the April Fool is the credulous victim.
Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap. I needed your help to parse 10a, 23a, 20a, 24a.
New words for me were LENTIGO & MUTAGEN as well as BOG = ‘lavatory’.
My favourite clues were 8d, 25a, 18d, 16a, 3d.
Entertaining puzzle; the KINGSOLVER/KING’S LOVER was a classic, although I didn’t see it at the time
Thanks UY & AndrewC @3; I liked APRIL FOOLS’ DAY, being misled by the 1/4. I also liked the simple NONAGON and TANK TOP.
Chas
Credit=believe.ou have to credit the story to be April fooled.
The typo is KingSOLVER or King’sLOVER
Thanks to those who explained the questions I raised.
Thanks all I enjoyed this!! Since nobody has mentioned it before welcome Macsenerkwlff good to get new blood keep posting and enjoying the site!!
Thanks Gordius and UY
Actually thought that this was one of the best from Gordius – with more meat in it than usual from him.
Was only in my final parsing run that I picked up the numerous and ingenious typo of 24a.
Parsed ARECA wrongly by going down the ARE (to be) and CA (about) path – much more clumsy than the correct way.
The arrogance and culpability by Indonesia of the cause of the mist in Singapore and KL makes my blood boil each year – and all for the sake of palm oil!!!!
Humerous* typo 🙂
I had CASTLEMAINE early on, and for a short while I thought the mini-theme might have been Australian lager. KINGSOLVER didn’t go in until near the end from the wordplay, and BARBARA was my LOI when I realised the two linked clues had to refer to females, neither of whom had I heard of. When I looked them up on Wiki post-solve I didn’t see the Kingsolver/King’s Lover possibility, so thanks for clearing that up.
In 8d ‘dubious credit’ indicates ‘incredulity’, a la Rev. With a ? this would be a very good clue.
1d would also be very good with ‘fare’ instead of ‘menu’. It’s fast food you get on menus and the suggestion of rail fare might have misled.
24,16,1ac reminded me a bit of Araucaria’s Iris/Murdoch/Rupert/Brooke link but that was more extensive, the characters better known and the clueing tidier. Here the typo conceit results in a tangle, rather than a neat knot.
25 DISASSEMBLE also tries to be clever and doesn’t quite make sense. 7’s surface is also nonsensical and ‘disqualified’ does not mean unable.
I could go on but UY’s ennui…
For ‘incredulity’ above read ‘credulity’. Very bad. Can’t even claim a typo. Tired and confused.
I quite enjoyed this. Gordius has been much improved of late in my opinion.
After initial slowish progress I suddenly saw KINGSOLVER from the fodder which made 24A clear. (Just given up on “The Posionwood Bible” after persevering to 30% (Kindle). Truly awful IMHO!) The rest followed fairly quickly.
Trailman @7 Why is 7d weak. Seems a pretty bog standard “container” as far as I can see with a decent definition? Am I missing something?
Thanks to UY and Gordius.
Who knows what you’re missing. Trailman should have been more forthcoming, but he’s quite right.
@B(NTO) #23 re 7a – agree.
Bog standard – a commonplace mechanism accurately implemented.
Ximeneans (not sure if he actually covered this sort of thing) and some other pedants may not like it but you have to wonder why they solve Gordius puzzles, knowing, as we all do, his regular style.
Maybe they do it as a penance.
Whatever the reason it would be nice if site rule #2:
was observed more often.
Having ‘mistahke ‘ cxlued as ‘mistake’ in ‘unmistakeable’ is what Trailman onbljectys to, Joloys Swagman. i don’t like Gordius much so didnt borther, but I agree with Trailman for that pointy He was noot rude??.
Cheedrs
Row;lu
For sweeping statements, always keep a good broom.
22 (broom/shrub) owned me. I should have known. Slyest anagram I have seen in some time. The middle of the solve was fun, but some of the edges were clunky. Oh well. Being used to American dates the 1/4 never clicked for me even though I pencilled it in. The rest of that clue seems pretty useless.
6 was a bit over the “cryptic clue” range for my taste. Why ia “CORNED BEEF” “bully for [me]”?
But as always, thanks to Gordius, Uncle Yap (hope the “weather” improves!) and the rest of you lot.