This was a Dandy of a puzzle, giving a nice enjoyable stretching exercise for the mind. Thanks to Gaff.
As is the norm with Gaff puzzles, this one commemorates an event – the birthday, the day of the first issue, of the comic The Beano, that came out on 30 July 1938. The key clue is 3, the answers to clues 22,23 across, 26,11 across, 5 down, 6,8 down are each a character in The BEANO, defined by “in 3” or “3’s”.
Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Across
1 In the morning, applies language to a ridiculous degree (2,8)
AD ABSURDUM : AM(denoting morning time) containing(In …) { DABS(puts on;applies, as with face cream) + URDU(the official language of Pakistan, closely related to Hindi, but containing many Arabic and Persian loan words) }.
Answer: From the Latiin, to the point of absurdity.
7 City where one may pull the plug on a singer (4)
BATH : Cryptic defn: Reference to literally emptying the bath, and also figuratively to stopping a bathroom singer, which term is an ironic reference to amateurish singing.
9 Refrain from calamari appetiser (4)
ARIA : Hidden in(from) “calamari appetiser “.
Defn: One from an opera
10 Before newspaperman reported dispatch of chicken and pheasant, maybe (4-6)
RING-NECKED : ED(abbrev. for “newspaperman”) placed after(Before …) homophone of(reported) “wring neck”(how to dispatch of a chicken).
Answer: A subspecies;maybe, of pheasant, with a white ring round its neck.
11 See 26
12 Murdoch starts joining in short drunken dance (5,3)
IRISH JIG : IRIS(Murdoch, the English author and philosopher – and she is Irish-born) + { first letter of(starts) “joining” contained in(in) “high”(drunken state) minus its last letter(short) }.
13 Leaves boxing as a result of painful ordeal (3,5)
TEA CHEST : TEST(an ordeal;a trial) containing(-ful;full of) ACHE(pain).
Answer: Boxing (as a noun) used to store tea (leaves). Tricky.
15 Close result of one x two – three (4)
NEXT : “one x two” minus three of its outer letters( – three). Ditto.
17 Amaze with short trick (4)
STUN : “stunt”(a trick;a caper) minus its last letter(short).
19 Even quail cooked in 112.5? (8)
EQUALISE : Anagram of(cooked) QUAIL contained in(in) ESE(abbrev. for “east-southeast”, compass bearing 112.5 degrees from due north). Nice.
22,23 Confirmed he’d got red revolutionary in 3 (5,3,6)
ROGER THE DODGER : ROGER(in radio communications, indicating confirmation that a message is received and understood) + anagram of(revolutionary) HE’D GOT RED.
25 Aint bathin’ bad for the liver? (10)
INHABITANT : Anagram of(bad) AINT BATHIN’.
Defn: One who lives(liver?), in a specified area. Nice surface and misdirection.
26,11 3’s ground also turned into city (4,6)
LORD SNOOTY : LORD’S(the cricket ground in London, headquarters of the MCC) + { reversal of(turned) TOO(also;in addition to) contained in(into) NY(abbrev. for New York, the US city)}.
27 Extremely light (4)
VERY : Double defn: 1st: Exceedingly; and 2nd: With a capital letter, a coloured flare for signalling at night.
28 Changing drug activity in gay club (10)
EMENDATING : E(slang abbrev. for the drug, Ecstasy) + MEN DATING(one another, an activity in a gay club, presumably).
Down
2 Upset grandee (7)
DERANGE : Anagram of( Upset ,doubling up) GRANDEE.
3 Head of Scottish party (5)
BEANO : BEAN(slang for one’s head) + O(Scottish for “of”).
Answer: Short for “beanfeast”, slang for a party;a celebration – with beans on the menu?
4 “Word” and “Lord” are in performance of rude hymn (8)
UNRHYMED : Anagram of(performance of) RUDE HYMN.
Answer: “Word” and “Lord” are two words spelled with the same ending, yet do not rhyme.
5 3’s lively dance includes Olympian idea (6,3,6)
DENNIS THE MENACE : Anagram of(lively) DANCE containing(includes) ENNIS(Jessica, British athlete and gold medallist in the heptathlon in the London Olympics 2012) + THEME(a unifying or dominant idea in, eg. art, literature, discussions, etc.).
6,8 3’s car sounds definitely an old one (6,3,4)
MINNIE THE MINX : Homophone of(sounds) “Mini”(the small British car introduced in 1959) +THE MINX(another British car, definitely an old one, produced under the Hillman marque).
7 Retired accountant taps into unimaginative orgy (9)
BACCHANAL : Reversal of(Retired) { CA(abbrev. for a Chartered Accountant) + C,H(the symbols on cold and hot water taps) } contained in(into) BANAL(unimaginative;ordinary).
Answer: Named after Bacchus, a god of wine and giver of ecstasy.
8 See 6
14 Any centre could be used for celebration (9)
CENTENARY : Anagram of(could be used) ANY CENTRE. This misdirected me into looking for the centenary of an event as the theme.
16 Had more girl-friends than was fashionable (8)
OUTDATED : Cryptic defn: As “outproduced” is to have produced more than another, so “outdated” is to have dated (or had) more girl-friends than another. Nice.
18 Crush tree tops with weight (7)
TROUNCE : First 2 letters of(… tops) “tree” plus(with) OUNCE(a unit measure of weight).
20 Admit president‘s vice limited damage (5,2)
SWEAR IN : SIN(a vice) containing( limited) WEAR(to erode;to damage, as in “wear and tear”).
Answer: To ceremoniously admit the president into office, by him/her swearing to …. etc.
21 Viciously set about free march (6)
STRIDE : Anagram of(Viciously) SET containing(about) RID(to free of, especially unwanted things).
24 Potter production sad elf took part in (5)
DELFT : Hidden in(… took part in) “sad elf took “.
Answer: Pottery;earthenware in a style originating from Delft in the Netherlands.
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For answers to pics 2 and 4 please click here (cf. 23rd row in the leftmost column of the table, though of course, you can’t believe everything on the internet), to pic 3 here, to pic 7 here (cf. Etymology).
Thanks scchua and Gaff,
I thought NEXT was a hidden word, with an extra bit after the question mark because three is next after 1 x 2.
Lovely theme and great fun all round.
Muffyword, re 15across: my first thought was that it was a hidden word, but then I couldn’t fit in “three”. I had copied the clue with a dash (instead of a hyphen), which the blog software apparently doesn’t recognise, and substituted with a “?”. So there is no question mark but a dash in the clue (at least in the online version), which I took as a minus sign (I’ve amended the clue above accordingly, though I may be wrong about it being a minus sign).
Thanks, scchua, for the blog.
I took a while to get into this, having come fairly fresh from Puck’s Guardian puzzle and thinking I knew what the birthday was. I also didn’t help myself my having ENRAGED for a while for 2dn [having rejected ANGERED!]
It was therefore a lovely moment when the penny finally dropped [with 22,23]and I fairly romped home.
Some lovely clues: I particularly liked TEA CHEST – a very nice variation on ‘Art teacher’, which is one of my all-time favourites.
Many thanks, Gaff, for the fun. – and the memories. 😉
[I read 15ac as muffyword did.]
Wow Icouldn’t get TEA CHEST! I liked the definitoon part very much, but the cryptic defetaed me TOTALLY!
Lovely puzzle though, and lots of fun wih scchua’s piccies!!
Thanks
REowly.
Thanks Gaff for an enjoyable crossword and scchua for the blog.
15ac: I originally thought this was just a hidden answer, and could not account for the “- three” on the end. Then I thought of the same explanation as muffyword@1. I greatly prefer scchua’s explanation in the blog.
20dn: Nicely matched selection of synonyms for the components and containment indicator. I think the clue would read more smoothly with “limiting” instead of “limited”, but, as always, I have no quarrel with those who think differently.
Important omission from my comment @5: I forgot to say “far too many good clues to single one out”.
Like Eileen, I came to this one after Puck and did start off trying to find solutions for the theme in that puzzle Minnie the Minx soon put me right.
Lots of good clues and fun throughout, thank you to Gaff and scchua.
Thanks, scchua. Unlike the others, I solved this before moving on to the Puck puzzle. With this anniversary in mind, Puck’s anniversary theme took a while to crack.
LORD SNOOTY showed me the way in and the other themed answers soon followed including the BEANO itself.
Did others experience parental censorship? My brother and I were not allowed to take the Beano or the Dandy but I must have seen them somewhere.
[[Scchua, I can’t make head or tail of your picture quiz. I don’t recognise any of the photos.]]
Thanks to Gaff and scchua – a very nice follow up to the Puck in the Guardian (or did I do this one first … can’t remember.
[[2 – Silver Disc – anything to do with 75th anniversary?]]
[[3 – Dandy Dan from Bugsy Malone?]]
[[4 – Silver Rose – 75th anniversary again?]]
[[5 – Beckham aka Golden Balls ]]
[[Basically – no idea! 🙂 ]]
[[ps. Fergie and Beckham appeared in the Beano’s 75th anniversary edition.]]
Thanks Gaff & scchua.
Nice puzzle but I had to cheat a bit on this one as I had forgotten the names…..
[[1 is a PyraMINX
2 are the Ramones, I think??
3 is Jack Wild who played the Artful DODGER
4 are platinum artefacts for a 75th Jubilee Anniversary
5 Beckham & Fergie appeared in the Beano 75th Anniversary Edition
6 Marilyn Monroe – Some Like It Hot ??
7 Buffy the Vampire Slayer??]]
[[stanXYZ and Robi: it is a PyaMINX; Jack Wild/The Artful DODGER; Beckham and Ferguson/BEANO 75th anniversary edition; I think you have the connection between the artefacts and 75th Jubilee. Ramones, Monroe, and Buffy are correct, but what are the connections?]]
[[Happy Birthday!: Ramones on the Simpsons / Monroe to JFK / Buffy ??]]
Thanks for the blog Scchua. Some lovely touches here – particularly 112.5 degrees= ESE. 16dn was a lovely surface, too. However, I did not enjoy this crossword because GAFF chose to clue 3 down so badly and this was the key to unlocking the somewhat obscure theme. Bean as a synonym for head? No way.
Lynette @14: See for example Chambers 2011: bean n the head (inf).
Thank you for the’textbook’ response, Pelham Barton. I guessed somebody would throw the dictionary at my complaint.
I should be genuinely interested to know what the dictionary compilers can cite as an example of this usage. I have certainly never seen or heard an example of it during my lifetime.
Thanks scchua,
I think you are correct about NEXT!
15a was indeed meant to be read as a hidden word with ‘- three’ meaning minus three letters. I can quite understand the confusion if the on-line version had a ‘?’ Instead of the ‘-‘ !
I try to make a key clue, such as 3d, harder than average. My reasoning is firstly that it unlocks the whole puzzle and if it’s too easy, then the solver does not get the full benefit of the lightbulb moment which I don’t think should happen too early in the solving.
Secondly, once you suspect the theme, you know what 3d must be and can fit the clue to the solution, so a hard clue is OK.
I think Lynette’s complaint is that the clue is unfair, rather than too hard. The setter’s defence “It’s in Chambers” is perhaps overused; my defence is that I did know of this usage of ‘bean’, but maybe it’s more obscure than I thought!
[[And Scchua, great blog and I am baffled by your pictures, as I always am!]]
Gaff @18: Thank for dropping in. Just to pick up one point you made, I would say that “It’s in Chambers” (or any other respectable authority) is always a fair defence to a complaint of unsoundness, but not necessarily to a complaint of obscurity.
… or even “Thanks for dropping in”. I did not intend such mean-spiritedness as a single Thank.
…my Oxford Dictionary of English gives bean=head as ‘informal, dated.’ So, probably not in current usage, then [Lynette @16]
Thanks for the blog, sschua. Having never heard of The Beano on this side of the pond, I was fortunate to solve Roger the Dodger, which then led me to The Beano and the other themed answers. Very as a type of flare was also new to me.
[[Marilyn sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 75 years is the Diamond Jubilee. Rutger Hauer, the villain in Buffy (the film), also starred in a film called Dead Tone, originally released as 7eventy 5ive. Is that a platinum record of the Ramones? I’m a bit confused by the references to platinum, as that’s most commonly associated with 70 years, not 75 (though, apparently, 75 weeks in South Asia).]]
Thanks for dropping by Gaff. Always a kick to have a setter comment about his modus operandus (especially if one has got the parsing right!).
[[Keeper, you’re right about those diamonds around Marilyn. That is Rutger Hauer, but not the link you mentioned. And that is a platinum record for the Ramones, and, sorry, Robi, I have to take back what I said about the platimum-coated roses and the 75th anniversary. I have pasted links to the answers under the pictures.]]