My solving partner Timon and I knocked this off in under an hour, but once we had the long anagram the rest slotted into place without much difficulty. As usual, Paul demonstrates a variety of cluing techniques and witty wordplay.
Somewhat belatedly, I take this opportunity to add my tribute to Araucaria, whose puzzles I had the privilege of blogging on several occasions. I am down to blog the puzzle due for publication on the Saturday before Christmas, and had hoped that it might be one of his specials, but that seems unlikely now, as there has been no suggestion from the crossword editor that there remain any unpublished puzzles.
Finally, apologies for the fact that I may be unable to respond to any comments. I am away on a singing weekend and may have neither the time nor the energy (not to mention internet access) to check the site.
| Across | ||
| 1,5,10,23,25,15 | IF I SAID YOU HAD A BEAUTIFUL BODY WOULD YOU HOLD IT AGAINST ME | Number of words from Marx, as revolutionary duo iffy — habitual adulation and dubious mythologies died away (2,1,4,3,3,1,9,4,5,3,4,2,7,2) |
| This 50 letter anagram (*DUO IFFY HABITUAL ADULATION and DUBIOUS MYTHOLOGIES DIED AWAY) is indeed a saying attributed to Groucho Marx. Congratulations to anyone who worked it out the hard way; I guessed it from the enumeration and a few of the crossing letters. | ||
| 5 | See 1 | |
| 9 | REBUS | Puzzle solver? (5) |
| Ian Rankin named his character Inspector John Rebus after a word which means a pictorial puzzle. | ||
| 10 | See 1 | |
| 11 | AUTOMATON | Midas-touched fruit ending in bin, being made of metal? (9) |
| TOMATO in AU (bi)N. | ||
| 12 | RULER | Queen, perhaps, but one’s straight (5) |
| Double definition, with a misleading surface. | ||
| 13 | STEEP | Lofty soak (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 15 | See 1 | |
| 18 | PANHANDLE | God requires name for the shape in some states (9) |
| PAN, HANDLE. Defined as “a strip of territory stretching out from the main body like the handle of a pan”. | ||
| 19 | EYRIE | Treetop home — why in lake? (5) |
| Y in ERIE. | ||
| 21 | EMBER | One’s dying to execute politician (5) |
| (m)EMBER. | ||
| 23 | See 1 | |
| 25 | See 1 | |
| 26 | OLIVE | Green ball, then the brown one of the three? (5) |
| 0 LIVE (as in the live wire in domestic wiring). Nothing to do with snooker. | ||
| 27 | DEHISCE | Seed, contents of which dispersed in rupture (7) |
| *(SEED (w)HIC(h)). A botanical term. | ||
| 28 | LEGLESS | 18 down worms so? (7) |
| One of many synonyms for being drunk. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | INROADS | Raids — and no mistake! (7) |
| *(RAIDS NO). | ||
| 2 | IN-BETWEEN | Hotel admitting stay affected, neither here nor there (2-7) |
| BE, TWEE in INN. | ||
| 3 | ASSAM | A considerable portion served up for tea (5) |
| A MASS(rev). | ||
| 4 | DEBIT CARD | Month without coin then ’arsh for buyer (5,4) |
| BIT in DEC, ‘ARD. | ||
| 5 | YEARN | Long thread binding feline’s tail (5) |
| E in YARN. I wrongly guessed SKEIN at first. | ||
| 6 | UTTERANCE | Truncate difficult European statement (9) |
| *TRUNCATE, E. | ||
| 7 | AWFUL | Right abandoning summit, as hellish (5) |
| (l)AWFUL. | ||
| 8 | AT LARGE | Free, on the whole (2,5) |
| Double definition, with thanks to Timon, who saw this immediately. | ||
| 14 | PLAYROOMS | Royal characters among Englishmen abroad in places of leisure (9) |
| *ROYAL in POMS. | ||
| 16 | ANECDOTAL | Unreliable point in material brought up to support article (9) |
| AN; DOT in LACE(rev). Almost the last one in for us. | ||
| 17 | TURQUOISE | Turn out risqué, somewhat blue? (9) |
| *(OUT RISQUE). A brilliant clue. | ||
| 18 | PIE-EYED | Pastry observed as wasted (3-4) |
| PIE EYED. Wasted is here another synonym for drunk. | ||
| 20 | ENDLESS | Incessan? (7) |
| INCESSAN(t). Very easy, as long as you spot the missing letter at the end. | ||
| 22 | BRUSH | Black plant in bushes (5) |
| B RUSH. One definition of BRUSH is an area of shrubs, or bushes. | ||
| 23 | BUDGE | Shift bird, half gone (5) |
| BUDGE(rigar). | ||
| 24 | WRONG | Out of keeping, Norwegian uprising (5) |
| Hidden reversal in “keeping Norwegian”. “Out of keeping” does double duty here, both the definition and part of the wordplay. | ||
*anagram
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