Independent 8592 / Crosophile

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Crosophile on a Tuesday is unusual.  No doubt all will become clear tomorrow.

 

 

 

This is a crossword that should meet all the needs of the commuter.  The most obscure word, to me, is ABETTAL at 18 down.  For 17 down, many solvers will have come across BLUE SKY thinking in management speak.

There are a couple of entries where I am not 100% sure of the wordplay or have some queries about the wordplay, but I have made suggestions in the body of the blog.  These are at  RIGHT, 19 across and CROSSBEAM, 2 down.

My last one in was NUDISTS at 28 across.

I liked the clue for BLUE SKY at 17 down fitting the distraught ELK between the letters of BUSY.

I cannot see a nina or a pangram.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay

Entry

1

 

Tell story about Dracula? (7)

 

RE (about) + COUNT (reference COUNT Dracula)

 

RECOUNT (tell story)

 

5

 

No stamp is strange to him (7)

 

Anagram of (is strange) NO STAMP

 

POSTMAN (one who sees many stamps)  I wouldn’t classify this as an &Lit as I am sure that there are some stamps that POSTMEN have never seen.

 

9

 

Badly gashed?  Maybe the result when sportsman 15 (5,4)

 

SCORED (gashed) + RAW (ifs the SCORE is RAW it is the result of a bad gash)

 

SCORE DRAW (could be the result when a sportsman EQUALISES [15 across], i.e. if no further SCOREs occur)

 

10

 

Wood, a thick piece for turning (5)

 

(A + SLAB [thick piece of cake, for example) reversed (for turning)

(BALS A)<

BALSA (type of wood)

 

11

 

Spray gun soaks one member all over (6)

 

(RETS [soaks] + I [one] + M [member]) all reversed (all over)

(M I STER)<

MISTER (spray gun with a fine nozzle)

 

12

 

What comes of tar seeing love like this in Greek island (8)

 

(O [love, zero score in tennis] + SO [like this]) contained in (in) CRETE (Greek island)

CRE (O SO) TE

CREOSOTE (an oily liquid obtained by destructive distillation of wood tar)

 

14

 

A river delta by side of sea contracts (5)

 

DEE (reference River DEE of which there are many in Britain) + D (fourth letter of the Greek alphabet; delta) + S (first letter of [side of] SEA)

 

DEEDS (contracts)

 

15

 

A sequel is remade, becomes more of the same (9)

 

Anagram of (remade) A SEQUEL IS

 

EQUALISES (becomes more of the same)

 

17

 

Blow up a stomach almost full of wind (9)

 

BOMB (blow up) + A + (STICK [tolerate; stomach] excluding the final letter [almost] K)

 

BOMBASTIC (pompous; inflated; full of wind)

 

19

 

Correct uniform before high temperature (5)

 

RIG (uniform) + H (high) + T (temperature)  Note: I think the wordplay I have given is what is meant, but I can only find H as an abbreviation for ‘height’ and HT as an abbreviation for ‘High Tension’. I can’t find H for ‘high’ or HT for ‘High Temperature

 

RIGHT (correct)

 

21

 

All college poetry (8)

 

UNI (university; college) + VERSE (poetry)

 

UNIVERSE (all that is)

 

23

 

Stout through eating duck, right? (6)

 

PER (in the manner of; through) containing (eating) (O [zero; duck in cricket scoring] + RT [right])

P (O RT) ER

PORTER (dark brown malt liquor; stout)

 

25

 

Head of state was in tears, moved with indignation (5)

 

S (first letter of [head of] STATE) + WEPT (was in tears)

 

SWEPT (moved forcibly; moved with indignation {?}])

 

26

 

Swallowed by you next remedy is having few side-effects? (9)

 

UNEXTREME (hidden word in [swallowed by] YOU NEXT REMEDY)

 

UNEXTREME (having few side-effects)

 

27

 

Heard you’re going to make a record, seasonal fare (4,3)

 

YULE LOG (sounds like [heard] YOU’LL LOG [you are going to make a record])

 

YULE LOG (cake shaped to resemble a log; seasonal fare at Christmas)

 

28

 

They’ve uncovered whiff of dishonesty’s kept under wraps by madmen (7)

 

(DIS [first three letters of {whiff of} DISHONESTY]) contained in (kept under wraps) NUTS (madmen)

NU (DIS) TS

NUDISTS (people who take their clothes off; they’ve uncovered)

 
Down

1

 

Problem in woodwind section continued (7)

 

SUM (problem) contained in (in) REED (part of a woodwind instrument)

RE (SUM) ED

RESUMED (continued)

 

2

 

Expression of mixed messages?  It might hold the opposing sides together (9)

I’m not too sure of the word play here, but I’ll make a suggestion … CROSS (mix) + (BE + AM – different forms of the verb ‘to be’) hence giving mixed messages about the future or the present.  No – I don’t think much of that interpretation either.

 

CROSSBEAM (a large BEAM stretching across a building and serving to hold its sides together)

 

3

 

Poor with nowhere to live after half of home’s demolished (7)

 

HOUSELESS (with nowhere to live) excluding (demolished) HO (half of the letters of HOME)

 

USELESS (poor)

 

4

 

I left apples etc all over the grass (4)

 

FRUIT (apples etc) reversed (all over) excluding (left) I

TURF<

TURF (grass)

 

5

 

Feeding time for fat cats? (5,5)

 

POWER (reference business men with influence; fat cats [wealthy, prosperous people, especially those who are thought to have gained excessive rewards.) + LUNCH (feeding time)

 

POWER LUNCH (a high-level business or political discussion held over lunch)  I’m having difficulty separating the definition from the wordplay here as it is, to me, simply a cryptic definition

 

6

 

Pays in advance for fossil fuel that’s under the ground (7)

 

SUBS (advance payments) + OIL (a fossil fuel)

 

SUBSOIL (a layer of broken or partly weathered rock underlying the soil, especially that part below the layer normally used in cultivation)

 

7

 

About leaving tremolo playing, it’s very musical (5)

 

Anagram of (playing) TREMOLO excluding (leaving ) RE (about)

 

MOLTO (musical term for ‘very’ or ‘much’; very musical)

 

8

 

Orders without end close on decades (7)

 

(NEAR [close] excluding the final letter [without end] R) + TENS |(decades)

 

NEATENS (orders)

 

13

 

A rich man’s fortified town, the president’s address (10)

 

GETTY’S (reference Jean Paul GETTY [1892 – 1976], extremely wealthy industrialist) + BURG (fortress or walled town)

 

GETTYSBURG (site of President Abraham Lincoln’s GETTYSBURG address in 1863)

 

16

 

Expresses regret about titles, it not being available for the blind (9)

 

SIGHS (expressed regret) containing (about)  (TITLES excluding [not being available] IT)

SIGH (TLES) S

SIGHTLESS (blind)

 

17

 

Of no obvious use this is oddly busy protecting distraught elk (4-3)

 

BLUE SKY (the letters of BUSY form letters 1, 3, 5 and 7 [oddly] of the entry (protecting) (an anagram of [distraught] ELK as letters 2, 4 and 6)

BLUE SKY

BLUE SKY (having no immediate practical application)

 

18

 

Amateur’s chance with short story to provide dubious help (7)

 

A (amateur) + BET (chance) + (TALE [story] excluding the final letter [short] E)

 

ABETTAL (incitement or encouragement to commit a crime; provide dubious help)

 

19

 

Perched jumpers on tops of the escritoire and divans (7)

 

ROOS (kangaROOS; jumpers) + TED (first letters of  [tops of] each of THE, ESCRITOIRE and DIVANS)

 

ROOSTED (perched)

 

20

 

E.g. start to repair marks (7)

 

Anagram of (repair) E.G. START

 

TARGETS (marks)

 

22

 

Perfect island with a small town (5)

 

I (island) + DEAL (small town on the South coast of England)

 

IDEAL (perfect)

 

24

 

Commenced taking German’s pulse (4)

 

BEGAN (commenced) excluding (taking) G (German)

 

BEAN (pulse)

 

 

17 comments on “Independent 8592 / Crosophile”

  1. Re. 2: To beam is to send a signal, so crossbeam could be construed as crossed (mixed) signals (messages). At least, that’s how I parsed it, after having got the word from the definition and the crosses.

    I didn’t know that “unextreme” was a word – am still not convinced it is (or should be!).

    Thank you, Crosophile and duncanshiell, for your respective efforts!

  2. Thanks duncanshiell and Crosophile. Rets was new to me in 11a but the answer was clear enough (even through the MIST!). I was also a bit vague about 2d but I think Abhay has it right. Good stuff.

  5. Sorry, stuck that in as one word so as to try to best everyone to it.

    Mister….postman, creosote, deeds, bombastic, right, universe, porter, bean. I may have mister target(s). My other half calls me Mr Useless sometimes. Does that count?

  6. I saw “Mister Deeds” (11 and 14) and thought it was going somewhere, but couldn’t spot anything further. Didn’t think of a series of Mister [something]s!

  7. An enjoyable puzzle but I didn’t spot the “mister” theme. No surprise there. I had CROSSBEAM from the definition alone so thanks to Crosophile for dropping in @3 to explain it. I parsed RIGHT like Duncan and didn’t think too much about the correctness of the abbreviations used in the wordplay. SWEPT was my LOI after BLUE-SKY.

  8. When I was a little lad, our mam always used to cook leftovers from Sunday dinner on a Monday, fish on Fridays, and Saturday tea was always ham, egg and chips. So I can’t be doing with this Crosophile on Tuesdays stuff. It’s just confusing.

    Theme? No, crosophile doesn’t do themes. Good puzzle? Deffo. Didn’t warm to CROSSBEAM. Liked SUBSOIL. Took ‘delta’ in 14ac to be the phonetic alphabet version. Hope Conrad enjoys the setter’s prize for the Spot the Nina competition.

    I’m going out now.

  9. Thanks to setter & blogger,
    Challenging but not impossible for me, though as always missed the theme. Apologies if someone else has already pointed this out, but H is for ‘high’ on a synoptic weather chart (and L is for ‘low’ of course), so I think 19a works OK as you’ve parsed it. COD for me was 2d.
    Thanks again.

  10. Also couldn’t parse CROSSBEAM and didn’t spot Nina.

    28A I parsed as D+IS in NUTS ie D for whiff of dishonesty + IS for ‘s. Surely “whiff of dishonesty” can’t mean the first three (as opposed to one, two, four say)letters of the word?

    Thanks to Crosophile and duncanshiell.

  11. I parsed 28a as gwep did. I also failed to spot the nina. I also parsed ‘crossbeam’ as a sort of oxymoron.
    I enjoyed the puzzle – that’s two good ‘uns today.

  12. Thanks Crosophile and Duncan, ghost theme stuff passed me by. So what’s with tomorrow? May day is Thursday, hmm.

  13. Also Mr Blue Sky- a twentieth century popular song my lord.
    I found this hard in places, and unextreme is not a word you often hear on the old omnibus…. Plus my iPad doesn’t recognise it.
    Thanks to both setter and blogger.

  14. 5ac could be seen as an &lit if you think (a letter with) no stamp would be strange to the POSTMAN. Although perhaps not so strange these days, with things like Freepost and Business Reply around.

    Thanks Crosophile and Duncan

  15. Thanks all for the interesting comments, but especially to Duncan of course for another very fine blog. 5d, by the way, was simply a cryptic defn.
    Conrad deserves a set of Mister books – but I haven’t got one, sorry!

  17. Very, very late to the party!

    Enjoyed the puzzle and missed the theme but once Joyce read the blog and mentioned it to Bert, he also came up with Blue Sky!

    Thanks Duncan, we came here to check the parsing for 2d. Thanks Crosophile for the puzzle.

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