Welcome to Radler … with a large number of clues and a long preamble:
“Sixteen thematic items in eleven answers: one is the theme; two are the person that coined it; six are types of the theme; four are characteristics of the theme, and three are varieties of one of those characteristics.” Also we have some extra letters to be removed before solving, spelling out a quotation omitting one of the sixteen items. And then some information about unchecked & mutually checking letters. (This last addition proved to be largely redundant.)
Rather slow at first – solved a handful of clues including JAMES and GREEN before grinding to a halt. (Note to self: don’t start at 1:00 in the morning when the guests have gone home and the kitchen’s tidy.)
Fresh(er) the following morning, I could see that the quote started THREE and found JOYCE rather later than I should have. At this point a little bell rang, and I dragged the full quote from some recess with the help of other redundant letters in the across clues: THREE [QUARKS] FOR MUSTER MARK (from Finnegans Wake). I hadn’t found QUARK yet, but quickly located it in the centre of the middle row, immediately followed by the intersecting CHARM.
The rest followed in good order, including my realising that I’d solved some of the ‘specials’, such as STRANGERED at 38a, without noting their significance. Anyway, here are the thematic items:
| theme | QUARK |
| author | JAMES JOYCE |
| flavors | BOTTOM TOP UP DOWN CHARM STRANGE |
| properties | CHARGE COLOR MASS SPIN |
| colors | BLUE GREEN RED |
I was impressed by the grid with all that thematic material, but less enamoured with some of the clues, 15a (hover over “clue” in the table below), 2d and 42d in particular. Nevertheless, a fine debut from Radler.
And I can recommend The Quark and the Jaguar by Murray Gell-Mann, who named the particle, pronouncing it “kwork” and later finding the phrase quoted from Joyce.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Removal | Wordplay | |
| 1 | JAMES | thematic | JAMES (Jesse, outlaw) {ref.: Henry James, author} |
|
| 5 | BOTTOM–UP | thematic × 2 | MOTTO (saw) in PUB (drink supplier) rev. | |
| 9 | OVERCOME | T: | met | OVERCOAT (winter clothing) with ME for A T(ime) |
| 10 | SMALT | H: | hall | S(omerset) M(arket) A(ll) L(ater) T(urn) |
| 14 | OXIDE | R: | badger | ID (identity card, badge) in OXEN (cattle) − N(ew) |
| 15 | ECCO | E: | etc | ECO (environmentally friendly) around TC − T(emperature) {don’t really see how this clue works} |
| 16 | CHARGE DOWN | thematic × 2 | CHARGED (assaulted) OWN (individual) | |
| 19 | NARC | E: | below | C (cocaine, blow) + RAN (controlled) rev. |
| 21 | STIRS | F: | first | (re)ST IRS(t) |
| 22 | GROANS | O: | mood | GRANS (old women) around (m)O(d) |
| 23 | ÉLAN | R: | renal | [ENAL]* |
| 24 | LIEF | M: | morally | LEAF (blade) homophone (orally) |
| 26 | QUARK | thematic | QUAR(t) (4/5 of quart = 1.6 pints) + K(raft) | |
| 28 | LOTI | U: | out | OT in LI (£1, a quid) |
| 29 | COSS | S: | ass | COS (because, as) + (i)S |
| 30 | PEPSIN | T: | snippet | [SNIPPE]* |
| 34 | BOORS | E: | rose | BO (body odour, smell) + [ROS]* |
| 36 | MAGE | R: | amir | IMAGE (perception) − (am)I |
| 38 | STRANGERED | thematic × 2 | ST (street, way) + [GARDENER]* | |
| 39 | STOA | M: | make | (Athen)S TO A(ke) |
| 40 | EATEN | A: | launched (def.) | (merchandis)E + NET (realise) A rev. |
| 43 | EARLY | R: | her | (h)E + ARLY (French river) |
| 44 | HOLOCENE | K: | look | [LOO HENCE]* |
| 45 | BLUE MASS | thematic × 2 | [BLAMES US]* | |
| 46 | GREEN | thematic | GEN (facts) around RE (God) | |
| Down | ||||
| No. | Answer | … … … | Wordplay | |
| 1 | JOYCE | thematic | (publi)C after JOY (transport) + E(nergy) <<< amended, see comments @2 & @3 {ref.: William Joyce, “Lord Haw-Haw”, hanged for treason} |
|
| 2 | AVE | … … … | (r)AVE (rash) {a bit loose} <<< amended, see comments @2 & @3; see setter’s comment @5 |
|
| 3 | MELANO | … … … | MO (modus operandi, way of working) around ÉLAN (style) | |
| 4 | SCOGAN | … … … | S(hocked) + GO (quit) rev. in CAN (prison) | |
| 5 | BOXERS | … … … | double definition {people that put e.g. gifts in boxes} | |
| 6 | TED | … … … | (jus)T (on)E (thir)D | |
| 7 | OMENTAL | … … … | O (nothing) MENTAL (to do with the brain) | |
| 8 | ULCERATIVE | … … … | [ACUTE LIVER]* | |
| 10 | SEWS | … … … | homophone SO’S (so-and-so) | |
| 11 | ACTIN | … … … | ACTIN(g) (working) | |
| 12 | TOPSPIN | thematic × 2 | TOPS (bras) PIN (constrain) | |
| 13 | ARNA | … … … | A (one) + RNA (acid) | |
| 17 | HORIZONTAL | … … … | (aut)HORI(sed) + T (bar) in ZONAL (partitioned) | |
| 18 | ODER | … … … | (c)REDO rev. {ref.: river, rising in Czech Republic} |
|
| 20 | CHARM | thematic | CHAR (scorch) M(arks) | |
| 22 | GLOBOSE | … … … | [GOES]* around LOB (shot in tennis) | |
| 25 | FOR SALE | … … … | [LOAFERS]* | |
| 27 | USER | … … … | USE (good) R (king) | |
| 29 | COLOR | thematic | COL (pass) + OR (alternative introduction) | |
| 30 | PANELS | … … … | PLANES (aircraft) with L(ine) nearer end | |
| 31 | EGGNOG | … … … | EG (like) + [GOING]* − I (first) | |
| 32 | PEED | … … … | DEEP (in a long way) rev. | |
| 33 | SIRREE | … … … | [(ch)ERRIES]* | |
| 35 | STEY | … … … | S(econd) + YET (by now) rev. | |
| 37 | ADMEN | … … … | [NAMED]* | |
| 41 | AHA | … … … | AA (addicts) around H(eroin) | |
| 42 | ONE | … … … | O (nothing) + homophone ANY (whatsoever) {a bit clunky} | |
|
|
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I am in awe, HG, of anyone who can remember a quote from Finnegan’s Wake!!!
I don’t see your problem with 15A – you seem to have explained it perfectly – ECO round (e)TC minus T(emperature), and the definition is “there!”
I do see your problem with 42D, however! I don’t pronounce “one” O+ANY, nor NE as ANY, so I would like to know if anyone else (or indeed our esteemed editor or setter) could enlighten us.
Though 27A is a good clue, I found it difficult as I had not connected the word “head” on its own with the definition of user – I knew of coke-head and crack-head etc, but not the word unconnected, nor was I familiar with “use” meaning “good”!
I see your problem with 15A – the word order seems not to work properly as wordplay to drop the t in etc before eco ‘assumes’ it.
On 2D I think you meant (r)AVE = welcome – I couldn’t think of an obvious synonym for rash – rave must be right though – ‘extravagantly enthusiastic; crazy’ in Chambers.
& on 42D, I agree with you, too.
I think a gremlin has got into the parsing of 1D – it should be (publi)C under JOY plus E.
I really enjoyed this puzzle despite the issues with 15A & 42D – though I was surprised that although there were lots of theme words in the grid, there was no instruction to highlight them – like you I had quite a few themed answers before I twigged what the theme was & went looking for the hidden characteristics – but only for my own satisfaction of ‘completeness’.
Thanks, shikasta @2, for spotting my glitch in 1d (a leftover from a previous blog) – I’ll fix it this evening. And in 2d, I should have written “(r)AVE (rash)”, as I generally don’t provide the definition, only the wordplay.
And Hihoba @1: I recalled the quote from its citation in Murray Gell-Mann’s book that I mention, not from its source!
I’m not really sure how we get from QUARK to the colours (or colors as H___ G____ prefers.) My only guess while solving was blue cheese, green cheese and red cheese – QUARK being a cheese but I don’t think that’s right.
Thank you for well-constructed review and for the feedback.
2d I’d intended Wave = Rash
15d I think this can be read so that it logically hangs together, though the word order is not ideal
42d As you have surmised, this clue was a homophone of spelling out the solution as Nothing + “N E” (any). I was pleased with it at the time I wrote the clue; sorry it fell a little flat.
You can read about Quark colors and their other properties on the Wikepedia page
Thanks HolyGhost for the blog and Radler for the puzzle and comment.
We only managed to sort out wave = rash when we looked up rash in Chambers Thesaurus.
The theme of the puzzle was really interesting and we were very impressed with the way that the thematic references appeared in the grid. We were a bit stuck for a while as we had the wrong answer for 12d. It was only when we started really looking for SPIN that we realised our mistake.
As it turned out, if our memory serves us correctly, the extra bit about unchecked letters helped us sort out an answer as we knew which letters we had to choose from!
We look forward ti the next Radler Inquisitor.
A bit late posting here but I did enjoy this by dint of being a physicist (by degree). I too got the quote fairly early and cracking the theme let me fill in some of the theme words very quickly. Like the blogger I didn’t recall the quotation from its original source but from my physics notes, despite how long ago they were.