(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) Today, Gaff has given us a nina, with a pun in the caption. The nina actually helped me this time, shortening the time it took to solve. Thank you Gaff. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 Group in Kuala Lumpur with a hot esoteric doctrine (8)
KABBALAH : ABBA(the Swedish singing group, once) contained in(in) KL(abbrev. for Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia) plus(with) A + H(abbrev. for “hot”).
Answer: A body of mystical teachings, often based on an esoteric interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
9 Siberian airgun’s gone off (6)
UGRIAN : Anagram of(…’s gone off) AIRGUN.
Answer: A member of a group of peoples of western Siberia.
10 Wallace’s sidekick largely cut out (4)
OMIT : “Gromit”(stop motion animated character Wallace’s doggy sidekick) minus its 1st letter(largely).
11 One objective of tree maintenance (10)
DESCENDANT : Cryptic defn: Reference to a family tree. An objective, and result, of maintaining an ancestral line is the production of a descendant;an heir.
12 Status of well-connected surfer (6)
ONLINE : Cryptic defn: Reference to a surfer of websites.
14 Tending to set short clue about intelligence, is hard to follow (8)
CLIQUISH : “clue” minus its last letter(short) containing(about) I.Q.(abbrev. for “intelligence quotient”, a measure of intelligence) placed after(… to follow, in an across clue) [IS + H(abbrev. for “hard”).
Defn: Having the tendency to join into a set;a small exclusive group of friends or associates.
16 Cheek of young male holding race for second (7)
BUTTOCK : BUCK(a young male of some animals, or a spirited young man)containing(holding) [TT(abbrev. for “Tourist Tropy”, the annual motorcycle races held on the Isle of Man) + 2nd letter of(… second) “for ” ] .
18 Roll of dice in roll-back and taxi (7)
PEDICAB : Anagram of(Roll of) DICE contained in(in) reversal of(…-back) BAP(a large soft bread roll).
Defn: A sort of taxi;a passenger vehicle for hire. And she must surely have lots of fares:
20 Break up sergeant’s mess (8)
ESTRANGE : Anagram of(…’s mess) SERGEANT.
21 Oriental dwarf training (6)
BONSAI : Cryptic defn: The Japanese art of training, by selective pruning, etc., ornamental trees and shrubs to be dwarf-sized, smaller than what they would normally grow into.
22 Watch final – loser can’t dance (10)
CHARLESTON : Anagram of(dance) [the last letter of(… final) “Watch ” + LOSER CAN’T]. The anagram indicator doubles up as the defn. A nicely apt surface.
24 Barbarian begins bowing out of rugby (4)
BOOR : 1st letters, respectively, of(begins) “bowing out of rugby “.
25 Signal bewildered allies (6)
ALIGNS : Anagram of(bewildered) SIGNAL.
Defn: As a verb.
26 Parisian cop in continued clash (8)
CONFLICT : FLIC(slang for a French police officer) contained in(in) CONT.(abbrev. for “continued”).
Down
1 Smells surround a minor operation to pump organs (10)
HARMONIUMS : HUMS(unpleasant odours;bad smells) containing(surround) anagram of(operation) A MINOR.
Answer: Musical instruments of the organ family, operated by pumping air out of bellows.
2 Neighbour returns instrument (4)
ABUT : Reversal of(returns) TUBA(the musical instrument).
Defn: As a verb.
3 Bond, say, turned on soft light (6)
PLEDGE : Reversal of(turned) EG(abbrev. for the Latin “exempli gratia”;for example;say) placed below(on, in a down clue – this indicator works for an across clue, but I’m not sure it does for a down clue) [P(abbrev. for “piano”, musical direction to play softly) + LED(abbrev. for “light-emitting diode”;the modern technology light bulb) ].
4 Subject to drugs (7)
PHYSICS : Double defn: 1st: One of the science subjects; and 2nd: Medicinal drugs, especially those used to purge.
5 Solvers will even like sound of Christmas (8)
YULETIDE : Homophone of(like sound) [ “you’ll”(contraction of “you will”, “you” being the pronoun used by setters to refer to solvers) + “tied”(to be even in points in a competitive match) ].
6 Organised Labour in true can-do fashion without Conservative leader (5,5)
TRADE UNION : Anagram of(fashion) “in true can-do ” minus the 1st letter of(leader) “Conservative “.
7 Be paid attention by knight (4)
EARN : EAR(sympathetic attention, as in “to lend an ear” or “to bend someone’s ear”) plus(by) N(abbrev. for “knight” in chess).
13 Rash in grottier folds (10)
INTERTRIGO : Anagram of(folds) IN GROTTIER. A WIWD(wordplay intertwined with defn.) clue, as the answer is a rash that develops in, maybe the more unwashed;grottier? body folds.
15 Buffoon fell with force and cry of pain (10)
SCARAMOUCH : SCA(Fell, the mountain in the Lake District, the second highest in England) plus(with ) RAM(to force) plus( and) OUCH(a cry of pain).
Answer: Usually spelled with an “e” at the end, the clownish character in Italian farce.
17 He’ll sit uncomfortably on rough ocean (8)
CANOEIST : Anagram of(uncomfortably) SIT placed below(on, in a down clue – cf. comment for 3 down) anagram of(rough) OCEAN. A clever WIWD.
19 Condition of leaving will challenge a country’s borders (7)
TESTACY : TEST(to challenge;to ascertain the worth, capability or endurance of someone or thing) + A + 1st and last letters of(…’s borders) “country“.
21 From Durban, a narcotic plant (6)
BANANA : Hidden in(From) “Durban, a narcotic “.
23 Use lethal force in proportion (4)
HALF : Hidden in(Use) “lethal force“.
24 Exposed wound reported (4)
BALD : Homophone of(reported) “balled”(wound into a ball, like yarn, say).
Defn: Without covering.
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The pictures below have unidentified links to the puzzle:
Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.
Thanks scchua – this is cool.
Pic 4 is Queen, who used SCARAMOUCH in Bohemian Rhapsody (the only context in which I have heard this word – now I even know what it means).
Pic 1 sort of relates to PHYSICS and HARMONIUM as Hooke’s Law deals with the physics of harmonic motion.
I hope nobody posts distracting comments about the crossword inside double brackets.
Maybe:
#3 Madonna, for the song – I’m Going Bananas
#5 is on line
Madonna is also a student of the Kabbalah
Is that Bald Head in two?
Muffyword, Jolly Swagman, matt: you’ve got #3 and 4 right (note the red string bracelet, an amulet worn by Kabbalists to ward off the Evil Eye). Hooke’s Law is part of physics, but there is a more direct link.
Thanks for the crossword blog and bonus picture puzzle scchua. Re #1, I don’t know if it’s relevant but I looked up Hooke’s Law in Wikipedia and thought this was interesting: Hooke’s law is named after the 17th century British physicist Robert Hooke. He first stated this law in 1660 as a Latin anagram,whose solution he published in 1678 as Ut tensio, sic vis; literally translated as: “As the extension, so the force” or a more common meaning is “The extension is proportional to the force”.
#2 is a scene from the film ‘The Descendants’
#5 maybe refers to birthday astrology and the nina?
I meant #6 for the last comment
#5 appears to be a (model) Chinese caboose but not sure of the connection to the puzzle.
@Steve – let’s not hide our anoraks under a bushel – #5 is a Bachmann HO Chinese caboose with E-Z mate couplers.
Caboose, being the rear end of the train, is another US slang term for butt (ie buttock) – hence A-BUT.
and BUTTOCK itself.
At any point on earth you can see about HALF the milky way, the rest being beyond the horizon. That’s all I can think of for #6 -but I can’t identify it exactly.
Anyway – thanks for the quiz scchua – I always enjoy them when I get to them in time.
Hi Muffyword, Jolly Swagman, matt, and Steve:
Pic2: Is from The Descendants.
Pic6: You got the astrology part right – DESCENDANT and ascendant are terms often used in astrology.
Pic5: “cabooses” is slang for BUTTOCKs, the rear end. (That’s a big anorak you’ve got, JS.)
Pic1: You got the connection to harmonic motion, Muffyword, but to be more exact, the HARMONIUM, aka Hooke’s atom, is a theoretical atom (-ium to show its similarity to the helium atom). It’s useful in solving some equations in quantum physics. It’s named after Hooke, as the intra-atomic forces are defined as following Hooke’s Law. (And that was a mouthful).