The Spider Woman never fails to entertain with her wits and craft. I found some of the clues so devilish that I had to enlist the assistance of my helpful neighbour in Jakarta, NeilW. Thank you, Neil and thank you, Arachne for giving us such pleasure.
Across
1 Sweet variety, cold in the middle (4,3)CHOC ICE
Ins of C (cold) in CHOICE (variety)
5 Initially inauspicious cloud has silver lining for poet (7)IMAGIST
I (first letter of inauspicious) + ins of AG (argentum, chemical symbol for silver) in MIST (cloud)
10 Howled out loud, having lost hair (4)BALD
Sounds like bawled (cried, howled)
11 Marvellous Madoff? (5-5)SUPER-DUPER A tichy cd alluding to the financial scandal perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, a Wall Street financier who defrauded billions of dollars in one of the biggest Ponzi schemes. On June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.
12 Instantly high-octane (2,4)AT ONCE
*(OCTANE)
13 Yearn to take extended trip (4,4)LONG HAUL
Cha of LONG (yearn) & HAUL (take)
14 Transform an annoying person into a B-lister? (9)HYPHENATE
To convert a BLISTER (annoying person) to B-LISTER, one needs to hyphenate
16 Disclose opportunity to stop working (5)BREAK
Triple definition
17 Attempt to report Brownshirts (5)ESSAY
Sounds like SA – Brownshirts are Nazi stormtroopers, Sturmabteilungt
19 Two English animals on the loose in Pacific region (9)MELANESIA
*(E E ANIMALS)
23 Beetle having quiet time in steaming ordure (8)PROTRUDE
P (piano, quiet) + ins of T (time) in *(ORDURE) Another meaning of BEETLE is to jut out, overhang or protrude.
24 Makes fun of relative wearing trousers inside out (6)TAUNTS
Ins of AUNT (relative) in TrouserS (inside out, lovely device)
26 Bitchy person I could strangle very fast (10)HYPERSONIC
ha
27 Half of mild, ten Navy Cut and a tot (4)MITE
MI (half of MILD) + TEN (minus N, navy)
28 Doctor lays out basis of treatment and cure (3-4)DRY-SALT
DR (doctor) + *(LAYS) + T (first letter of treatment)
29 Holiday home for setters? (7)KENNELS
cd for the place where you leave your dog, an Irish setter to be cared for while you go on holiday
Down
2 Sound, selfless injunction to physician (7)HEALTHY
Luke 4:23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
3 Genetic information obtained from false leg (5)CODON
COD (false, sham, see Chambers 4) + ON (leg as in cricket) for a triplet of three consecutive bases in DNA or in messenger RNA, which specifies a particular amino acid in protein synthesis.
4 Monk spies retreating tank (7)CISTERN
CISTERCIAN (order of monks established in 1098 in the forest of Citeaux (Cistercium) in France, an offshoot of the Benedictines) minus CIA (Central Intelligence Agency, spies)
6 Regularly overlooked, our town is south of Maidenhead, Berks (6)MORONS
M (first letter of Maiden) + OuR tOwN iS (alternate letters) Maidenhead is located in Berkshire but BERKS in the singilar is also short for Cockney rhyming slang Berkeley Hunt, for c**t, a fool or a moron.
7 Articulating demand that Blair resign for blunder (9)GAUCHERIE, social awkwardness
Sounds like “Go, Cherie Blair” Cherie Blair, CBE, QC, known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a British barrister practising in England and Wales. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair
8 Plastic capsule, which may be inserted into orifices (7)SPECULA
*(CAPSULE) Singular is SPECULUM, an instrument for inserting into and holding open a cavity of the body so that the interior may be inspected
9 Squealed as elephant’s bits stirred (5,3,5)SPILT THE BEANS
*(ELEPHANT’S BIT)
15 Unmoved, as I was after visiting San Francisco? (9)HEARTLESS
Allusion to I left my heart in San Francisco made famous by Tony Bennett – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryF9p-nqsWw
18 She wanders away from Rex, boring chap who goes on and on (7)STRAYER
Ins of R (Rex) in STAYER (chap who goes on and on)
20 Diplomat’s encouragement of revolutionary? (7)ATTACHE
ATTA (from attaboy, word of encouragement) CHE (Che Guevara, the revolutionary)
21 Altogether fascinated by muscle reflex (2,5)IN TOTAL
INTO (fascinated) + TAL (rev of LAT, short form of latissimus dorsi, a muscle in the lower back)
22 Removing meat from menu, serves exceptional seafood (6)MUSSEL
MenU, ServeS ExceptionaL (removing meat)
25 Ban is such as to make one fearful (5)UNMAN
BAN KI-MOON, current Secretary-General of the United Nations is a UN MAN
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
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