This Saturday’s puzzle seemed very difficult at first, though I kept coming back and nibbling away at it and finally managed to finish it unaided by Wednesday or Thursday.
Well, I say unaided, but the final one was a bit of a guess—poets not being my strongest subject—and I did need to try a couple of likely-sounding names before the applet confirmed I’d stumbled on the correct one.
Very enjoyable all the same, with some classic Klingsor clueing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | THE CAT’S WHISKERS | High street store’s opening? Ask which is the best (3,4,8) |
| (STREET S[tore] ASK WHICH)*. | ||
| 9 | PROFANE | Inclined to hold nothing sacred? The opposite (7) |
| FA in PRONE. | ||
| 10 | RAPTURE | Runs to catch first departing transport (7) |
| R + [c]APTURE. | ||
| 11 | ORATE | To give speech in front of class is nothing (5) |
| 0 + RATE. | ||
| 12 | DISORIENT | Bad directions lacking clarity principally will do this? (9) |
| DIRE[c]TIONS*. | ||
| 13 | DRIPPING | Daughter’s excellent roasts may make one this fat (8) |
| D + RIPPING. | ||
| 15 | BOBBIN | Reel requires goin’ up and down (6) |
| BOBBIN‘. | ||
| 18 | SLEAZE | Succeeded with lie about restricting European corruption (6) |
| S + (E in LAZE). | ||
| 19 | CALABRIA | Charlie has a party song about region of Italy (8) |
| C + (LAB in ARIA). | ||
| 22 | IMPLICATE | Incriminate one politician, a whip involved in deceit (9) |
| I + MP + (CAT in LIE). | ||
| 24 | BLAME | To find fault with Britain’s unfashionable in America (5) |
| B + LAME. | ||
| 25 | DEGRADE | Humble pie of rag’s hacking editors making comeback (7) |
| RAG* in (ED + ED)<. | ||
| 26 | ISLANDS | One son comes down for Christmas and Easter, perhaps (7) |
| I + S + LANDS. | ||
| 27 | NON COMPOS MENTIS | Maybe corporal punishment’s introduction sorted out sons with time? That’s insane! (3,6,6) |
| NON COM + P[unishment] + (SONS + TIME)*. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TYPHOID | Literal mind oddly rejected taking drug for disease (7) |
| H in (TYPO + [m]I[n]D). | ||
| 2 | EVOCATIVE | eBay’s upset about a TV I flogged? That’s awakening memories! (9) |
| (A TV I)* in (E + COVE). | ||
| 3 | ABASE | Lower one’s voice when speaking (5) |
| Sounds like “a bass”. Great surface reading there. | ||
| 4 | SPEEDING | Services initially slashed by elected Government, creating offence (8) |
| S[ervices] + PEED + IN + G. | ||
| 5 | HARASS | Raised a brief cheer at heart for basset hound (6) |
| (A RAH)< + [ba]SS[et]. Klingsor is terribly good at these clues where you have to mentally split a term that your brain really wants to parse as a unit, in this case “basset hound”. | ||
| 6 | SUPERNOVA | Senior copper formerly county’s rising star (9) |
| SUPER (as in Superintendent) + AVON<. | ||
| 7 | EXUDE | Sweat, being examined by university dean? Not half! (5) |
| EX + U + DE[an]. | ||
| 8 | SKELTON | Outline omits an English poet (7) |
| SKEL[e]TON. Unknown to me, but it seems easy once you know the answer. John Skelton, I presume. | ||
| 14 | PIZZICATO | Plucked energy up to stay in command in South Africa (9) |
| (IC in ZA) in (ZIP< + TO). | ||
| 16 | BAR MAGNET | School over in London area could be something attractive (3,6) |
| GAM< in BARNET. | ||
| 17 | BAKERIES | I seek a bloomer extremely desperately one of these may have one (8) |
| (I SEEK A B[loome]R)*. | ||
| 18 | SWINDON | Family member conceals current location in Wiltshire (7) |
| WIND in SON. | ||
| 20 | ASEPSIS | A special fizzy drink’s heading off sterility (7) |
| A + S + [p]EPSI‘S. | ||
| 21 | MAKE-UP | Kohl could be part of this constitution (4-2) |
| Double definition. Some nice misdirection to make us think of old Helmut. | ||
| 23 | PAGAN | Priest once more saving one unbeliever (5) |
| P + AGA[i]N. | ||
| 24 | BELIE | To misrepresent is essential to libel, I explain (5) |
| [le]BEL I E[xplain]. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
Another good Klingsor puzzle. Count me as another who got SKELTON from the wordplay, although he did sound vaguely familiar. I had the most trouble in the SW and PIZZICATO was my LOI from definition alone. It took me a while to see DRIPPING because I was fairly sure the answer was going to start DAI????? from the D (daughter) and AI (excellent) in the wordplay.
I too struggled to mentally separate the “basset hound” element of 5dn, and the same went for the “humble pie” element of 25ac.
Thanks Klingsor and Simon.
I didn’t know SKELTON the poet but I grew up near a place with that name so the checkers suggested it and then I saw the wordplay.
I parsed 19A as C + A + LAB + AIR< – your parsing works but it would imply that the "a" is redundant (or that there is a slight inconsistency in that party is given an article but region isn't).
As usual, it was so long ago that I have no memories of filling this in. I think I finished in good time (for me) on Saturday except that I now see I have 13ac wrong. I put DRIPPANS. Didn’t read the clue correctly, I guess. I parsed it as D(aughter) + RIP for excellent + PANS for roasts, and you collect fat in a drippan. Ah well.
I’d never heard of 8dn, but it seemed obvious from the wordplay and I didn’t bother to check it.
I couldn’t parse 9ac, but it’s obvious, now you explain it, thanks.
You appear to have some superfluous numerals in your blog.
A few things I wasn’t keen on in this, but that’s just me! Managed to finish it though, with a bit of guesswork.
Can someone explain GAM in 16d, please?
Did like 15ac.
almw3
From Chambers: gam – a collective noun for whales, a school.
Thanks very much – one for my pub quizzes!
I knew Skelton from Vaughan Williams’s Five Tudor Portraits (as, I would have expected, would Dormouse), but also because a few years ago some academic tried to defend Eminem’s use of the vernacular by making him out to be a modern-day Skelton. Other academics were not impressed, which is why it generated a few column inches. It did strike me that SKELETON – E to give SKELTON would generate more comment than dropping E into (‘there must be some poet called’) SKELTON to give SKELETON.
Any idea what the captcha wants for ‘six – 6’? 0 is wrong, apparently.
Know the work, Phi, just didn’t remember the names of the poets.
I recall enjoying this, though had a couple of ‘concerns’. Why was ‘requires’ in 15ac – would not ‘is’ have been sufficient? And I’d written “weak?” next to 7dn – I think ‘examined’ giving ‘ex’ left me feeling unsatisfied?
Thanks to Klingsor and Simon.
Apropos Phi’s comment on the captcha, what should one do when the correct answer isn’t acknowledged? It’s only happened once to me, but resulted in wasted typing time and a forced abortion…..
You either know stuff or you don’t I suppose. I have a long treasured selection from Skelton’s poems on my shelves, recommended to me (and edited by) my old prof Vivian de Sola Pinto.
William F P@10: It’s happened to me only once or twice, but what I do is cut and paste the text into a Notepad window to save it so I don’t have to re-type.
Thanks Dormouse –
That’s one obvious solution, of course, for many devices. But with my particular Samsung “smart” ‘phone this is not possible. Instead, my efforts are wasted; so my question is, more precisely, is there some way one can have an alternative ‘captcha’ offered up while keeping one’s original comments? (without having to retype)
With most interface software that relies on a ‘captcha’ it is simply reset for the next attempt. Why is this software so unhelpful? I cannot be the only contributor facing, therefore, the possibility of his/her efforts being wasted. We can’t all afford a phone and a laptop/PC so are discouraged from commenting.
So, while I am grateful for your advice, it doesn’t help and I am still left with the concern.
For all I know, this comment may not reach 225 should the ‘captcha’ not work and I doubt I’ll repeat this (done with my weary – and slow – thumb)!
It is the same with those bloggers who underline (as I’ve mentioned before, including to Eileen) but no-one cares :’-C
William F P. This is maybe too little, too late: have you tried copying your post into your device’s paste buffer before attempting the submit? I can do this on an iphone and should think the same it might also work on Android.
Thanks Jenks – I’ve made a mental note that you must be a great guy! I’ve some odd operating system so can’t paste at all, hence my original frustrations. But so good of you to bother, especially after all this time….