Independent 8864 / Phi

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

Phi has given us an entertaining puzzle to end the working week

 

 

 

There were a few unusual words in here, most of which I was able to deduce from the word play.  EMOJI at 23 down was the last one in.  I don’t think I’ve come across PALOOKA at 19 down before, but it couldn’t be anything else once the crossing letters were in.  CABALLERO (22 across) seems to be a well established inhabitant of crossword world these days.

AMATI at 10 across, a name I have seen before along with GIOCOSO (25 across) and COLONEL BOGEY (11 down) gives us a musical interlude in the puzzle.

I can’t see a nina, a theme or a pangram.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry
1

 

 United by work in location these people? (8)

 

 (OP [opus; work] + U [united]) contained in (in) PLACE (location)

P (OP U) LACE

 POPULACE (the common people)

 
6

 

 Left during conflict making escape (6)

 

 L (left) contained in (during) FIGHT (conflict)

F (L) IGHT

 FLIGHT (escape)

 
9

 

 Mountaineer initially considered supple (7)

 

 C (first letter of [initially] CONSIDERED) + LIMBER (supple)

 

 CLIMBER (mountaineer)

 
10

 

 That’s my present?  Right? Not any more (6)

 

 FOR ME? (that’s my present?) + R (right)

 

 FORMER (past; not any more)

 
12

 

 Top item replaced on our menu (6,3)

 

 Anagram of (replaced) ON OUR MENU

NUMERO UNO*

 NUMERO UNO (number one; the most important thing; top item)

 
13

 

 Playwright ignoring doctor and saint for luthier (5)

 

 DRAMATIST (playwright) excluding (ignoring) DR (doctor) + ST (saint)

 

 AMATI (a violin or cello made by the AMATI family (circa 1550 – 7100) of Cremona.  A luthier is a maker of lutes, guitars, and other stringed instruments, like the AMATI  family)

 
14

 

 Old woman leading lines for the shops (4)

 

 MA (mother; old woman) + LL (lines)

 

 MALL (pedestrian shopping area)

 
16

 

 Straggly ford circled by smart water creature (9)

 

 Anagram of (straggly) FORD contained in (circled by) SWISH (smart)

SW (ORDF*) ISH

 SWORDFISH (fish; an example of a water creature)

 
17

 

 Financial activity‘s popular stuff after being without money (9)

 

 BROKE (without money) + RAGE (something in vogue; popular stuff)

 

 BROKERAGE (the business of people employed to buy and sell for others; financial activity)

 
19

 

 Millions absorbed by musical genre?  It’s something impressive (4)

 

 M (millions) contained in (absorbed by) POP (musical genre)

PO (M) P

 POMP (great show or display; something impressive)

 
21

 

 Subordinate but nursing hint of leadership (5)

 

 SAVE (except; but) containing (nursing) L (first letter of [hint of] LEADERSHIP)

S (L) AVE

 SLAVE (subordinate)

 
22

 

 Cowboy injured by local bear (9)

 

 Anagram of (injured by) LOCAL BEAR

CABALLERO*

 CABALLERO (a Spanish gentleman; esp in south-west US, a horseman; cowboy)

 
24

 

 Anger about team knocking back ‘miracle juice‘ (6)

 

 (RILE [anger] containing [about] XI [eleven in Roman numerals; number of players in a team in many sports]) all reversed [knocking back]

(EL (IX) IR)<

 ELIXIR (a liquid chemical preparation once supposed to have the power of indefinitely prolonging life  or of transmuting metals; miracle juice)

 
25

 

 Lively US soldier circles round company Sergeant initially (7)

 

 GI (US soldier) + ([O and O [circle shapes] containing [round] [CO {company} + S {first letter of (initially) SERGEANT}])

GI (O (CO S) O)

 GIOCOSO (musical term meaning ‘played in a lively or humourous manner’)

 
26

 

 Show of respect in receiving silver (6)

 

 HOME (in) containing (receiving) AG (chemical symbol for silver)

HOM (AG) E

 HOMAGE (reverence; show of respect)

 
27

 

 Girl in second swim recalled features of sandy area (8)

 

 (MARY [girl’s name] contained in [in] [S {second} + DIP {swim}]) all reversed (recalled)

(P (YRAM) ID S)<

 PYRAMIDS (structures that can be seen in the sands of Egypt)

 
Down
No. Clue Wordplay Entry
1

 

 US actor / director mostly adjusting plot development nothing more (6)

 

 PACING (adjusting the speed with which a story unfolds or a fictional plot develops) excluding the final letter (mostly) G + O (nothing)

 

 PACINO (reference Al PACINO, American actor / director)

 
2

 

 Adherence to essential values not universal – here’s source of splitting (5)

 

 PURISM (adherence to essential values) excluding (not) U (universal, in film classification terminology)

 

 PRISM (a triangular piece of glass or the like for resolving [splitting] light into separate colours)

 
3

 

 Dodgy Bill curtailing period of tolerance (7)

 

 Anagram of (dodgy) BILL containing (curtailing) ERA (period of time)

LIB (ERA) L*

 LIBERAL (tolerant)

 
4

 

 Entertainment taking in money to beat church event (12)

 

 (CIRCUS [form of entertainment] containing [taking in] M [money]) + TAN (beat) + CE (Church [of England])

CIRCU (M) S TAN CE

 CIRCUMSTANCE (event)

 
6

 

 Yoga practitioner’s habit being fat, holding end of foot up (7)

 

 LARD (clarified fat of the pig) containing (holding) (TOE [end of foot] reversed [up; down clue])

L (EOT)< ARD

 LEOTARD (a skintight garment [habit] worn by dancers, acrobats, yoga practitioners, etc, sleeveless or long-sleeved, with legs varying from none at all to ankle-length)

 
7

 

 Area for nude display – dreadful sin – may stick around (9)

 

 GUM (stick) containing (around) (an anagram of [dreadful] SIN MAY )

G (YMNASI*) UM

 GYMNASIUM (originally in ancient Greece, a public place or building where youths exercised, with areas for running and wrestling, baths, and halls for conversation;  athletes performed nude in those days)

 
8

 

 King in European country beset by this rioting regarding republic (7)

 

 (R [Rex; king] contained in [in] UK [United Kingdom; European country]) all contained in (beset by) an anagram of (rioting) THIS

T (U (R) K) ISH*

 TURKISH (describing [regarding] the Republic of Turkey)

 
11

 

 Officer not under par having air of POWs? (7)

 

 COLONEL (officer) + BOGEY (the term for a one over par score in golf)

 

 COLONEL BOGEY (a march tune used as background music in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, and, I think, ‘The Great Escape’ which both featured prisoners of war)

 
15

 

 Musical style that’s almost in A, possibly (9)

 

 Anagram of (possibly) ALMOST IN A

ATONALISM*

 ATONALISM (a musical style that does not depend on any scale or tonic)

 
17

 

 Happen to visit church to pray (7)

 

 BE (happen) + SEE (visit) + CH (church)

 

 BESEECH (pray earnestly)

 
18

 

 Still in Government, though it’s late in the day (7)

 

 EVEN (still) + IN + G (government)

 

 EVENING (close of the day; late in the day)

 
19

 

 Old man retaining a view, the lummox (7)

 

 PA (father; old man) containing (retaining) (A + LOOK [view])

P (A LOOK) A

 PALOOKA (stupid or clumsy person; lummox)

 
20

 

 Mostly to tease, entrapping solver, is very pleasant (6)

 

 JOSH (tease) excluding the last letter (mostly) H containing (entrapping) YOU (the solver)

JO (YOU) S

 JOYOUS (very pleasant)

 
23

 

 I judge most of sign to be inverted ideograms (5)

 

 (I + J [judge] + [OMEN {sign} excluding the last letter {mostly} N]) all reversed (inverted)

(EMO J I)<

 EMOJI (ideograms or smileys used in Japanese electronic messages and Web pages, the use of which is spreading outside Japan

 

11 comments on “Independent 8864 / Phi”

  1. Unusually for me, I see a glimpse of a musical nina, with POMP and CIRCUMSTANCE both appearing, and can GIOCOSO and JOYOUS be related?

  3. I enjoyed this puzzle. I noticed the same music-related answers as Duncan, together with POMP and CIRCUMSTANCE as pointed out by Paul A@1, but I’m not sure they constitute a theme. I found the LHS much more straightforward than the RHS. The GIOCOSO/EMOJI crossers both went in from the wordplay with fingers crossed, and I didn’t know what a luthier was so I needed all the checkers before I saw the wordplay for AMATI, who I did know as a violin maker so I was able to assume the connection of lute to luthier.

  4. Thanks, Duncan. I failed on EMOJI, I’m afraid, but otherwise it all fell out eventually. The surface for CABALLERO was very good.

    Is there a theme? You’re asking the wrong person.

    Thanks to Phi and good weekend to all.

  5. I was quite pleased to get emoji – shows I’m really up on all this internet stuff! I too found the right side a lot harder than the left and I didn’t help matters by putting Colonel Bogie for 11. Amati was my LOI: I looked up luthier but it didn’t help other than to confirm I was probably looking for a name. Only got to dramatist after I’d gone through the (admittedly short) list of playwrights I could think of.

  6. Thanks Phi and Duncan

    My thought for a possible theme might be Marches – with Colonel Bogey and Pomp and Circumstance. A quick bit of Googling suggests that TURKISH would also fit, but I have not tried to look any further.

  7. Pyramids is a book by Terry Pratchett, so a bit of unexpected topicality.

    On the matter of marches, the march from Schoenberg’s Serenade Op. 24 is a rather catchy example of ATONALISM.

  8. It seemed reasonable to do marches in March particularly once I’d noticed CIRCUMSTANCE was the same length as COLONEL BOGEY. The others are TURKISH (Beethoven), JOYOUS (Chabrier) and HOMAGE (Grieg). PYRAMIDS was sadly topical.

  9. Come on Phi, there is the Marche Slave of Tchaikovsky, March of the Pyramids by Ployhar, sure there are others.

    This was fun, thanks, and thanks to duncanshiell for the helpful blog.

  10. Ah – forgot to mention Marche Slave (which was deliberate), but never knew of the Pyramids one. I did have the war March of the Prophets on the shortlist. I’d be surprised if there isn’t a piece called March Evening, too…

  11. I hadn’t heard of the pyramids one either, it is out of print, but on U-Tube.

    Do hope Cyclone Pam won’t be too strong if it passes close to New Zealand.

Comments are closed.