Hob-goblins maybe.
When writing the blog, I was considering having a moan about 6/12 because it appeared to have the word split in half in such a way that one half NAVI appeared to be a non-word, something which is normally frowned upon in crossword circles. Then the light dawned, the NA’VI were the blue native people from the film AVATAR which appears at 19. Then many other elements of the theme became apparent:
UNOBTAINIUM (18) was the ore mined on the moon PANDORA (5A) in the film. Avatar starred Sigourney WEAVER (1D) and was directed by James CAMERON (28) and produced by him and Jon LANDAU (2). The Na’vi’s gathering place in the forest is called HOMETREE (21/24). Have I missed any others?
I had solved the crossword without noticing the theme (of course) – even though I had been on the lookout.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WOLFRAM | Something metallic backing current McCartney album (7) FLOW< (current, backing) RAM (McCartney album) Original name of Tungsten First clue read and immediately answered – this was not what I expected from a Saturday Prize puzzle – Maybe it was the first metal that sprang to mind due to watching too much “Pointless”? |
| 5 | PANDORA | Gods holding party for first woman in ancient Greece (7) DO (party) inside PAN and RA (gods) |
| 9 | APNEA | Breathlessness of primate with tail in North America (5) APE (primate) with the E of ape inside NA (North America) |
| 10 | TITIVATED | High tea with leading singer at 4? Duke smartened up (9) TEA* AInd: high, after (with leading) TIT (singer – of an avian variety) IV ( 4 ) then D[uke] Wordplay was not deduced (assuming it’s right!) till writing the blog |
| 11 | EXALTATION | Former singer eats at lunchtime before Navy Lark group (10) EX, AT 1 inside ALTO, N[avy] One of the more famous collectives. Larks have sadly suffered a devastating population crash over the last few years due to more intensive farming. |
| 14 | MODERNISTIC | Far from traditional sitcom set around the German province (11) SITCOM* AInd: Far from traditional, around DER (the [in] German) N.I. (Province) |
| 18 | UNOBTAINIUM | Acceptable to anoint bum? I applied hard-to-get substance (11) (ANOINT BUM I U (acceptable) )* applied |
| 21 | HOME | In love, male takes unnamed female out (4) O (Love) M[ale] inside |
| 22 | NEVER-NEVER | HP sauce, repeatedly used right to the end (5-5) NERVE (sauce) with the R[ight] shifted to the end – twice. Another piece of wordplay which I struggled to decode till giving it some serious thought while writing the blog. And inevitably as a result it earns my “best clue” award. I got the answer quickly enough, my parents always referred to Hire-Purchase as ‘buying something on the never-never’ |
| 25 | OVERREACH | Go too far changing career in Hove, almost going bust (9) (CAREER)* AInd: changing, inside (HOV[e])* AInd: going bust |
| 26 | HET UP | Agitated male sheep (ram) (3,2) HE (male) TUP (sheep) |
| 27 | MASTERS | A major degree (7) Double Def. The Masters is a major golf championship <yawn> |
| 28 | CAMERON | Tory taking in a meeting initiated by the Queen (7) &Lit: CON (tory) around (taking in) A M[eeting] ER (the Queen). Close call to best clue. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | WEAVER | Independent state’s artisan (6) WE AVER ([The] Independent state(s) ) |
| 2 | LANDAU | Light gold carriage (6) LAND (light – as in set down, alight) AU (Gold). Some of the clues I got early on seemed quite simple |
| 3 | REATTEMPTS | Has another go at broadcasting “Pets Matter” (10) (PETS MATTER)* AInd: broadcasting. Liked the way this clue’s surface reading conjured up an image of a disastrous attempt to record an episode of something like “Animal Hospital” (Not that we’ll be seeing that anytime soon on Challenge TV) |
| 4 | MOTET | Second offensive piece of music (5) MO (Second) TET (Offensive – Ref. Vietnam 1968 ) |
| 5 | POTPOURRI | Hotchpotch of opportunities? Just over half potentially ‘right one’ (9) (OPPORTU[nities])* AInd: potentially, then R[ight] 1 |
| 6/12 | NAVIGATE | Steer one vehicle backwards at gunpoint (8) (1 VAN)< GAT (gun) E (point) I thought it unusual that the answer was split leaving the front looking like a non-word, but I find the NA’VI were the blue people in Avatar (see 19D) and could easily inhabit densely wooded corners of crosswordland |
| 7 | OUTLASTS | Tenor hugged by openly gay girl survives (8) OUT (openly gay) T[enor] inside LASS (girl) |
| 8 | AUDIENCE | Public house (8) Double Def |
| 13 | BIRMINGHAM | M Thatcher’s former press secretary takes one room in the City (10) 1 RM (one room) inside B[ernard] INGHAM |
| 15 | DRIVEWAYS | Foreign vineyards using 1A for new private roads (9) (VINEYARDS -N + W)* AInd: Foreign. 1 Across Wolfram, chemical symbol W, replaces N for New. I make that sound more convoluted than is was – one of the last answered though |
| 16 | MUSHROOM | Grow fast food item (8) Double Def. |
| 17 | GORMLESS | Stupid doctor logs REM sleep first of all (8) (LOGS REM S[leep])* AInd: doctor. Excellent clue. Penultimate solved. |
| 19 | AVATAR | Female model, a kind of film icon (6) AVA (Female) T (model) A R (a kind of film) Not sure about the last element. A film classification of R is American surely? |
| 20 | TREPAN | Remove piece of skull from sick parent (6) PARENT* AInd: sick. Something I would want about as much as a hole in my head |
| 23 | ETHIC | This is translated under an alien moral code (5) HIC (This – in Latin) under ET (alien) |
| 24 | TREE | Number of Irish speakers in plane? (4) THREE in ‘Irish’. Did he really do that? |
OK, Hob – I fell for this, and grumbled about the appearance of NAVI-GATE – but it’s now obvious. (I even wondered why I knew of UNOBTAINIUM so readily.)
It’s not as if Avatar is unknown here in Wellington…and James C lives (some of the time) just over the hills from me.
This was indeed a satisfying crossword.
Thanks for the blog, beermagnet, which explained 21ac to me (it’s surely HE[n]).
The only thing I didn’t (and still don’t) understand is the “first of all” device in 17d for taking only the first letter.
As to 24d (TREE), I suspect that Hob lives in Ireland and that he knows what he’s talking about.
Oh, and good to see CAMERON not being (ROMANCE)* this time.
Not sure whether it’s an &lit.
Good stuff!
This one defeated me in the end, but not helped by my entering LANDOR for 2dn. Yes, I know the carriage is a landau, but I was thinking one think and writing another.
UNOBTAINIUM has been an SF concept long before the film, I think, and I’ve never seen Avatar, so the them was lost on me.
The southwest corner (16d,18a,21a and 27a)defeated me, partly because I had CLOSTRIDIUM entered at 18a from the checking letters alone. This was the only word that would fit having never heard of UNOBTAINIUM (is this really a word?)and not having seen the film AVATAR which may or, more probably, not have helped. I’m also not sure about MASTERS as a degree; the degree is MASTER although I admit you do talk about having a “masters”. I also couldn’t see where the R comes from in AVATAR and hope that the explanation lies elsewhere than in an American film classification.
So I can’t say that this crossword was one of my favourites, but no doubt this view would have been different had I seen the film and spotted the theme. Thanks beermagnet for explaining all.
Thanks to Hob and beermagnet,
The theme went straight over my head I’m afraid, but I enjoyed the crossword nonetheless. Thanks for explaining 22 which I had to guess at. COD and LOI for me was 21 – a deceptively simple looking 4 letter answer, but difficult to parse correctly and easy to be misled.
Like Howard L@4, I had an American related quibble. For 9, APNEA is the American spelling and the answer would usually be spelt as APNOEA in the UK. In the word play, ‘in North America’ therefore does “double duty” – I suppose this was intended.
I started on this late on Saturday when I got back from an alcoholic day out with some friends. I really don’t recommend trying to solve a prize puzzle under such circumstances. I went to bed with about a third of it unsolved, but managed to polish it off relatively quickly this morning. I’d solved UNOBTAINIUM last night and knew it was from a film but I couldn’t remember which one, despite having already entered AVATAR. D’oh! The theme went over my head completely even though I’d seen the film. APNEA was my LOI after WEAVER. It was an enjoyable puzzle, all things considered.
26A TUP means specifically male/ram when referring to sheep, so “(ram)” in the clue is there for a purpose and this may be parsed as HE (male) + TUP (sheep (ram)).
Have not seen the film so also raised my eyebrows at the word split in 6D/12A and had no chance of getting 18A, since don’t read sci-fi either.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Sil, I see what you mean about the “first of all” device in 17d, “first” would do just as well and there is no other use of first in this manner in the puzzle, so I agree “of all” is extraneous. Doesn’t really matter though does it.
Is CAMERON clue an &Lit? I often think a clue is &Lit when it isn’t but I cannot see how else to describe this one – the whole clue can define the answer not just “Tory”.
And you are right on HOME: On reflection it has to be HE[n].
Wordplodder, I didn’t notice that APNEA is the US version, but at least “North America” is available in the clue to give it support, unlike the R of Avatar. Like Howard at comment 4 I was hoping someone would spot an alternate to the US film rating to explain it.
When writing the blog I had a strange problem and lost all the formatting. Rather than attempt to fix it I restarted from a pre-prepared early draft, which meant that the final version was slightly different. In particular I now realise I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed the crossword, and this time I particularly enjoyed blogging it as that led me to discover the theme.
So thanks Hob!
Interesting. I just looked up “unobtainium” on Wikipedia and there it is claimed the term was first used by aerospace engineers back in the fifties to describe the alloys they would need to make their designs work.