It is the last Wednesday of the month and so Crosophile’s time to tease us with his latest puzzle.
I made fairly swift progress through this puzzle, helped to no small extent by the strategically placed 15-letter entries, two of which – at 1A and 1D – provided a healthy crop of initial letters of intersecting entries.
22 was a new word on me, but eminently gettable from the clue. 4 was the last clue that I managed to parse, although it was obvious from the letters already entered and the clue definition what the answer had to be. I hope that my parsing of 11 and 24 are correct, but if I have slipped up, please let me know!
My favourite clue today was 15A for its smooth surface, using an idiomatic expression as definition. I don’t ever recall having seen the word in question defined in this way before.
Incidentally, the completed grid is also a pangram.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | |
| 01 – WASHING-UP LIQUID | Leftovers in annexe at college – that’s £51 for cleaner
[ASH (=leftovers) in WING (=annexe)] + UP (=at college) + LI (=51, i.e. in Roman numerals) + QUID (=£) |
| 09 – SAN JUAN | Janus transported round a new Hispanic capital
[A + N (=new)] in *(JANUS); “transported” is anagram indicator; San Juan is the capital of Puerto Rico |
| 10 – EXCLAIM | Cry out “Phlogiston exists!” perhaps
Phlogiston is an invisible element, believed in the 18C to separate from every combustible body in burning, hence “ex (=former) claim”, since debunked |
| 11 – FUTON | Offensive text not withdrawn? Sleep on it
FU (=offensive text, i.e. F*** You, written SMS-style) + TON (NOT; “withdrawn” indicates reversal) |
| 12 – RHEOSTATS | Wounded hero has hard information for controllers of resistance
*(HERO) + STATS (=hard information); “wounded” is anagram indicator |
| 13 – LAME DUCKS | Fortune’s getting made somehow for liabilities
*(MADE) in LUCK’S (=fortune’s); “somehow” is anagram indicator |
| 15 – OBELI | Old bishop and priest, daggers drawn
O (=old) + B (=bishop) + ELI (=priest); obeli are dagger signs in printing, hence cryptic definition “daggers drawn” |
| 16 – HYMEN | God of marriage ecstasy featuring in anthem
E (=ecstasy, i.e. drug) in HYMN (=anthem) |
| 18 – MONTEZUMA | In silence note troubled last character, leader of Aztecs?
[*(NOTE) + Z (=last character)] in [MUM (=silence, as in keep mum) + A<ztecs> (“leader of” means first letter only)]; partially & lit., since “leader of Aztecs” does double duty in clue |
| 20 – NIGHTGOWN | Next old Axminster maybe about £1000? It’s worn
G (=£1000, i.e. grand) in [NIGH (=next old, i.e. archaic word for old) + TOWN (=Axminster maybe)] |
| 23 – RÖSTI | Duck stir fried in dish*
(O (=duck, i.e. in cricket) + STIR); “fried” is anagram indicator; a rösti is a dish of grated potatoes shaped into a pancake and fried |
| 24 – ICEBOAT | One liner about to go down shortly – it cuts through arctic seas
EB<b> (=to go down; “shortly” means last letter dropped) in [I (=one) + COAT (=liner, i.e. something that covers, coats, lines)] |
| 25 – STAMINA | It’s a man resolved to show grit
*(IT’S A MAN); “resolved” is anagram indicator |
| 26 – GLOBE ARTICHOKES | World culture is about to obstruct heads that might be in hot water
GLOBE (=world) + ART (=culture) + [CHOKE (=to obstruct) in IS] |
| Down | |
| 01 – WISHFUL THINKING | “All dreams come true” wink – Henry’s insightful that’s false
*(WINK + H (=Henry) + INSIGHTFUL); “that’s false” is anagram indicator |
| 02 – SANCTUM | Don’s companion has stomach for stop in sacred place
SANC-HO (=Don’s companion, i.e. Sancho Panza in Cervantes’ Don Quixote); “has stomach (=tum) for stop (=ho, as an interjection)” means the letters “ho” are replaced by “tum” |
| 03 – IGUANODON | It used to eat plants one has fertiliser to put on
I (=one) + GUANO (=fertiliser) + DON (=to put on, i.e. clothes); an iguanodon was a herbivorous dinosaur |
| 04 – GONER | Somebody adopted by the late king – he’s dead
ONE (=somebody) in GR (=late king, i.e. George Rex) |
| 05 – PRE-SEASON | Time to prepare // marinade?
Double definition: the reference is to preparing for the football season |
| 06 – INCUS | Metal element tipped by American to make anvil (so we hear)
<z>INC (=metal) + US (=American); the reference is to incus or anvil, one of the small bones in the inner ear |
| 07 – UNAWARE | Girl’s clothing, say, in the dark
UNA (=girl) + homophone (“say”) of “wear” (=clothing) |
| 08 – DOMESTIC ANIMALS | Maybe dogs come and sit when trained and one with many tricks rolled over
*(COME AND SIT) + I (=one) + MALS (SLAM=many tricks, i.e. in cards; “rolled over” indicates reversal); “when trained” is anagram indicator |
| 14 – COMFORTER | Job didn’t need such as this // dummy
Double definition: the references are to the expression Job’s comforter AND a baby’s dummy |
| 15 – OVERREACH | Old veterans at first stray and all separately go too far
O (=old) + V<eterams> (“at first” means first letter only) + ERR (=stray) + EACH (=and all separately) |
| 17 – MAGNETO | Got name wrong for engine part
*(GOT NAME); “wrong” is anagram indicator; a magneto is a small generator with a permanent magnet, used for ignition in an internal-combustion engine |
| 19 – UNSTICK | Blasted Sun’s habitual response – Kelvin’s let loose
*(SUN) + TIC (=habitual response) + K (=Kelvin, i.e. temperature scale) |
| 21 – THOSE | Sort of shirt and breeches for the more far out?
T (=sort of shirt) + HOSE (=breeches); those are “further out”, i.e. further away from the speaker, than these |
| 22 – NISEI | To some extent this man is either Japanese or American
Hidden (“to some extent”) in “maN IS EIther”; & lit., since a nisei is an American or Canadian born of Japanese immigrant parents |
I enjoyed this puzzle, with my favourite clues being 18a, 23a, 1a, 10a, 8d & 26a.
New words for me were INCUS, NISEI, PHLOGISTON & RHEOSTATS.
I was unable to parse 24a.
Thanks for the blog, RatkojaRiku. I agree with your parsing of 11a.
A very enjoyable puzzle, and thanks, R, for the blog as I couldn’t fully parse 10A or 24A and I couldn’t see HO as “stop” either in 2D, so I’ve learned something there.
FWIW, I had the same for 11A. 6D I’d parsed in a much more convoluted way, using indium, carbon and adding US to the “tip” of these symbols but I think your solution much better and the one Crosophile had in mind.
I enjoyed this but I must confess that I entered some of the long answers without bothering to unpick the wordplay. My excuse is that I came to this puzzle after doing battle with today’s difficult Times puzzle, and my brain was still a little fried. INCUS was my LOI after I finally saw (z)inc for the first part of the answer.
Thanks RR for some of the parsing as I just put the obviously right answers in without fully working them out this morning, I guessed early on this would be a pangram but certainly it sisn’t change the solve, I too solved 11&24 as you have in the blog.
Crosophile often has rather hidden Ninas but can’t see anything so far. Thanks CP for the puzzle.
Thanks, RR. Like flashling and Andy, I was a bit lazy with the parsing of some, reckoning that some kind soul would blog here and explain it all to me. Good puzzle – just right for a daily cryptic. Can’t see any theme or hidden stuff. And I never knew HYMEN was the god of marriage. That explains a lot.
Interestingly my experience of the long answers was opposite to yours, RR. I solved quite a few of the other entries first which gave me letters to work out the long ones.
I parsed INCUS rather differently: IN (metal, i.e.the chemical symbol In for indium) C (carbon, an element) plus (tipped by) US. But your parsing is undoubtably correct – ‘zinc’ just didn’t occur to me.
Liked the &lit-ishness of 8dn, and was helped to get 26ac by having seen a recent TV programme showing how to cook GLOBE ARTICHOKES.
Thanks, Crosophile and RR
Oh dear! I seem to have coined a new word – ‘undoubtably’ should be ‘undoubtedly’. It didn’t look right when I typed it but I couldn’t think why.
Indubitably.
Paul b I was waiting for that!
Nice blog. Thanks RR and for the further comments. No ninas today, just the pangram.
It’s getting late so we missed the pangram but at least we finished it this evening with no electronic help.
We enjoyed this one especially after the last two days’ offerings. Some well constructed clues which called for a good bit of lateral thinking.
Thanks to Crosophile and RR.
I find Crosophile makes a very satisfactory for Dac when he is having his Wednesday off. 1 dn wishful thinking was a nice clue.
I was not keen on the liner=coat in 24ac Iceboat. If something coats then it is on the outside , whereas a liner is inside.
Funny, 21 dn “those” was my last in: sometimes an easy clue just escapes you.
@pennes – I see what you mean about liner=coat, but it’s close enough for our purposes, I think