Guardian 26,294 by Shed

by

Slightly on the easier side for a Shed, but lots of fun. I particularly liked 8 and 10ac, 11ac, 17ac, 23a and 4dn.

Across

8 Jam is what you’re filling with hair (8)
GRIDLOCK
=”Jam”. [crossword] GRID=”what you’re filling”, plus LOCK=”hair”

9 Othello’s principal fool absorbing energy from cat (6)
OCELOT
=”cat”. O[thello], plus CLOT=”fool” around E[nergy]

10 What you’re reading is signal to bear left (4)
CLUE
=”What you’re reading”. CUE=”signal”, around (“to bear”) L[eft]

11 Heavy machinery stacked by runner (10)
PILEDRIVER
=”Heavy machinery”. PILED=”stacked” plus RIVER=”runner”

12 Instrument with reversed polarity produces undergarment (6)
CORSET
=”undergarment”. COR[n]ET=[a brass] “Instrument”, with n switched for S due to “reversed polarity”

14 First of Russian boatmen disturbed by unspontaneous protesters (4-1-3)
RENT-A-MOB
=”unspontaneous protestors”. R[ussian] plus (boatmen)*

15 Badger securing journalist’s firm foundation (7)
BEDROCK
=”firm foundation”. BROCK=”Badger”, around ED[itor]=”journalist”

17 Woman has kids in tune? (7)
MELISMA
=”tune”, a song. MEL=”Woman” IS MA=”has kids”

20 1,000 disputes about keeping humble reptile (4-4)
SLOW-WORM
=”reptile”. M=”1,000″ in Roman numerals, plus ROWS=”disputes”, all reversed (“about”) and around LOW=”humble”

22 Soldiers beginning to talk to soldiers’ teacher (6)
MENTOR
=”teacher”. MEN=”Soldiers”, plus T[alk], plus O[rdinary] R[anks]=”soldiers”

23 Language into which to translate 12 and 24 down (5-5)
SERBO-CROAT
=”Language”. anagram of the solutions to 12ac and 24dn – (CORSET BOAR)*

24 Get out, blackbird! (4)
BOWL
=”Get [a batsman] out” in cricket. B[lack] plus OWL=”bird”

25 Fourth note on lake in wonderful world of yore (6)
FAERIE
=”wonderful world of yore”. FA=”Fourth note” on the Sol-fa scale, plus “lake” ERIE

26 Headless head of tribe on board that’s not foregone (8)
EVITABLE
=”not foregone”. [L]EVI=”Headless head of [the Hebrew] tribe” of the Levites, plus TABLE=”board”

Down

1 Writer’s tipple (bun included) (8)
TROLLOPE
=”Writer”. TOPE=”tipple”=to drink regularly, around ROLL=”bun”

2 Pointless role model, allegedly (4)
IDLE
=”Pointless”. Sounds like ‘idol’=”role model, allegedly”

3 Sweetheart writer’s keeping very quiet (6)
POPPET
=”Sweetheart”. POET=”writer”, keeping PP=pianissimo=”very quiet”

4 Songbird — Minogue? — that’s disappeared into island (7)
SKYLARK
=”Songbird”. KYL[ie]=”Minogue” minus i.e.=”that [is]”, in SARK of the Channel Islands

5 Precis of Studies in Figure (8)
CONDENSE
=”Precis” as a verb. DENS=”Studies”, inside CONE=”figure”

6 Diplomatic activity involving consular leader’s treatment (10)
MEDICATION
=”treatment”. MEDIATION=”Diplomatic activity”, around C[onsular]

7 Some more lobsters turned up to dance (6)
BOLERO
=”dance”. Hidden, reversed, in “[m]ORE LOB[sters]”

13 Town harridans lay to rest (10)
SHREWSBURY
=”Town”. SHREWS=”harridans”, plus BURY=”lay to rest”

16 Note of time consumed by needlework (8)
CROTCHET
=”Note”. T[ime] consumed by CROCHET=”needlework”

18 Low, racist organisation set up to conceal source of white dance move (8)
MOONWALK
=”dance move”. MOO=”Low”, rev(KLAN)=”racist organisation set up”, concealing W[hite]

19 Increase clout of Euro politician, one in debt (7)
EMPOWER
“Increase clout of”. E[uro] plus MP=”politician”, plus OWER=”one in debt”

21 Latitude for song about piss-up (6)
LEEWAY
=”Latitude”. LAY=”song”, plus rev(WEE)=”piss-up”

22 Blend involving art form’s formative environment (6)
MATRIX
=”formative environment”. MIX=”blend” around (art)*=”art form”

24 Hog finds love in watering hole (4)
BOAR
=”Hog”. O=”love” in BAR=”watering hole”

36 comments on “Guardian 26,294 by Shed”

  2. Thanks Shed and manehi
    I found the NW hard, not helped by carelessly entering DEADLOCK for 8a at first. I didn’t understand IDLE – thanks manehi.

  3. Thanks Shed and manehi
    I found the NW hard, not helped by carelessly entering DEADLOCK for 8a at first. I didn’t understand IDLE – thanks manehi.
    SKYLARK was my favourite.

    [The site seems to be running very slowly today – just had a “timed out”.]

  5. My ignorance has been found out today. For 40 years I’ve thought an Ocelot was a type of bird. . .

  6. Thanks Manehi.

    Not sure I understand IDLE either.

    I’ve come across MELISMA before and sort of understood it was singing one syllable across several notes. I asked my singer wife about it and she tells me the mistress of the melisma was Whitney Houston who famously took about 6 seconds to sing the “I” in an early recording of “I Will Always Love You”.

    Nice week everyone.

  7. Finished slowly today but still before the blog appeared. FOI was ocelot, LOI was melisma which I stared at for at least five minutes before ‘getting it’. Otherwise all ok, so thanks all!

  8. Very enjoyable puzzle.

    I had one (BOAR) of the two words required to make up SERBO-CROAT, but got the latter before working backwards to get CORSET!

    Thanks to Shed and manehi. I was stuck with the parsing of MELISMA – still not fully convinced, since Mel is a man’s name too!

  9. I’m with William: although melisma is Greek for tune or song, in English it is used, so far as I know, only to mean an ornamental phrase sung over one syllable, which isn’t necessarily (and indeed rarely is) in itself a tune. I suppose the obvious rare example of a melismatic tune would be Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, though even there strictly speaking the tune is made up of more than one melisma.

  10. Thanks manehi.

    I took the definition of “idle” = “pointless” as in “idle talk” or “idle remark”.

  11. [And I’d add that, for that reason, MELISMA was my LOI. I stared at it for a long time, and had even thought of, and dismissed, MELISMA; and the cryptic part eluded me for quite some time, although I’m happier with it than Abhay]

  12. I can usually take or leave Shed’s puzzles, and on this occasion I wish I had taken the latter course.
    I agree with Abhay about the clue for 17a , which was the one clue I failed to solve unaided. As may be expected, I disliked the clue for 21d.

  13. Thanks all
    I usually struggle a bit with shed but not with this one….except I never did write in ‘melisma’ since it is a new word to me and I was not confident enough to bother looking it up in the dictioary.

  15. Well, horses for courses and all that. I enjoyed this greatly, with MELISMA and MOONWALK the standouts for me, as well as being the last to fall.

  16. Thanks Shed. A grid where 16/26 answers have no interconnecting first letter is always going to be a bit of a struggle.

    Thanks manehi; MELISMA was new to me. Perhaps the Collins: ‘an expressive vocal phrase or passage consisting of several notes sung to one syllable’ is more accurate than Chambers description but maybe ‘several notes’ could be construed as a tune.

    I liked the MOONWALK.

  17. Thanks, manehi.

    I’m with ulrica @15.

    I look forward to Shed’s [rather rare, these days] appearances and I wasn’t disappointed.

    I wasn’t aware of the English meaning of MELISMA but I agree with Robi @16 about the interpretation of ‘tune’. As for MEL also being a man’s name – does that matter? In this context, I immediately thought of the Spice Girls and saw no problem.

    I particularly liked CLUE, SKYLARK, SERBO-CROAT, MOONWALK and BOWL and – sorry, George – LEEWAY.

    There were some fairly vivid story-telling surfaces today – but most of them made some whacky sort of sense. [I thought lobsters only danced the Quadrille?]

    Many thanks to Shed for the fun.

  18. Thanks to manehi for the blog. I needed you to explain why MELISMA works: I had the answer but not the reason why.

    On 5d I saw that CON is one meaning of study and I saw that DEN is another meaning but the rest of it eluded me. 🙁

  19. I really enjoyed this, but had never heard of Melisma so had to come here to look it up.
    Thanks Shed, and manehi for the blog. 🙂

  20. Given some vociferous posts on the matter in the past, I am surprised there haven’t been more complaints about 2 (IDLE). Whilst I have usually defended homophones where regional or even lazy accents might make them iffy, especially where they only form part of the answer, in this case I think any accent would distinguish between IDLE & IDOL.

    If someone talked about the Python Eric “Idol”, they would soon be corrected.

    That’ll be three pennies, please…

  23. Hmmm…a bit of Googling would seem to reveal a certain amount of debate on IDOL/IDLE with the example of Eric Idle and Billy Idol given in a few places. I definitely pronounce those particular examples differently but maybe not as differently as I thought I did when I unleashed my venom…

    For what it’s worth (already established – three pennies!), I think they SHOULD be pronounced differently.

    Ra.

  24. Enjoyed this – thought it was going to be straightforward but my last in MELISMA took almost as long as the rest put together. MATRIX=womb was new to me too. Liked GRIDLOCK and SHREWSBURY…

    Thanks to Shed and manehi

  25. Count me as another who looks forward to Shed puzzles. I had a similar experience to beery hiker@24 inasmuch as I got through it very quickly with the exception of MELISMA, and used aids to find it in the end. I didn’t know the word and for some reason couldn’t see the “Mel is ma” interpretation of the wordplay until I saw it in a list of searched words in OneLook. I don’t have a problem with the idol/idle homophone.

  26. Fairly easy for a Shed except for for 17A and 26A which were gettable from the wordplay.

    Here we go with the “homophone” debate again. A homophone is “Each of a set of words pronounced the same”. However this is not what is required or indicated here. This type of clue almost always indicates “sounds like” or “could sound like”.

    Thanks to manehi and Shed

  28. Thanks Shed and manehi

    I very much enjoyed this, and having heard of melisma wasn’t phased by it at all.

    I think the homophone indicator in 2 is fine: if something is alleged it is “said to be”, which I think works well and is a novel twist.

  29. Thanks all, especially alm3@14 for a very succinct defence of MELISMA, though on reflection I think it was a rather obscure word to put in with only three checked letters and a somewhat lateral clue.

    Eileen@17, yes I was thinking of the Lobster Quadrille when I wrote that one and was wondering if anybody would spot the reference.

  30. Obscure? It is just what you know.
    Spotting that it is a three letter word for a woman + IS MA, is the essential thing here. So, entering ?E?ISMA is in fact understanding the clue and a victory (ah well, half).
    My PinC knew the word and I had to think of the 80s duo Mel & Kim, so there we are.

    Easy crossword, perhaps not up to the Guardian standard as it is nowadays (surely gone up in the last few weeks) but enjoyable nonetheless.

    Thanks Shed.
    And manehi for blogging.

  32. In 22 ac I’ve spent a lifetime believing that OR stood for Other Ranks. Is Ordinary Ranks a new, more ‘inclusive’ formulation to avoid offending the ranks? I was pleased to solve more than I usually do when Shed is setting.

  33. Tom don’t worry as I think many “others”, including myself, have spent there lives in the same “delusion”.

    The SOED lists OR as

    …
    3 Military. Other ranks.Other Ranks

    so we are in good company.

  34. I do agree with Eileen (as ever – though unsure about the recent interloper Irene!) in that 21dn (“leeway”) was a favourite. This is a perfect example of the kind of clue kept up my mental sleeve for those occasions when I have a chance to introduce someone to the joys of Crossworddom……

  35. I’m just trying to think of a song, notable for its absence of MELISMA. Our national anthem has little (or of anything else for that matter), as does Onward Christian Soldiers, perhaps.

    Thanks one and all.

  36. Thanks Shed and manehi

    Only got to this one today for some reason and whilst it may not have been as hard as Shed can get, it was far from a pushover for me.

    Had no problem with either MELISMA (which I had to look up to check its meaning after getting it from the wordplay) nor the ‘sounds like IDOL’ clue which was my last one in.

    SERBO-CROAT was interesting, as I got it first, and that allowed me a free throw at both BOAR and CORSET.

    Liked both EVITABLE and MOONWALK.

Comments are closed.