Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 2, 2015
This was another tough one for me but it has a few sparkling clues topped by the brilliant &lit of 18d (LITERATO). Other gems are 14a (THEFT) with its by-reference definition and 16a (PATELLA). The clues I found most challenging were 9a (CREATION), 1d (DECODE) and 8d (SHEDLOAD).
ACROSS
1, 5 Resurrecting New Testament’s God? About him I’m sceptical (8,6)
DOUBTING THOMAS – anagram of NTS GOD ABOUT HIM
9 Making fun’s not on (8)
CREATION – [re]CREATION (fun’s not on)
10 Position in Afghanistan? C’est la vie! (6)
STANCE – hidden word. Some people maintain that hidden-word clues should not have any extra words, that is words that do not house any hidden material like “la vie” here. I am happy to see that Goliath is not one of them.
12 Land for semi-detached at first, may be with a covering of trees (9)
DISEMBARK – anagram of SEMI-D[etached] + BARK (a covering of trees)
13 Tripe à la Provençale here must be eaten to be approved (5)
OFFAL – OFF[ici]AL (approved) with “ici” (‘here’ in French) removed. I was unable to figure out this wordplay myself and thank Sil for enlightening me in a comment below.
14 Slip top off in the recess (4)
APSE – [l]APSE (slip top off)
16 An escape from 15’s cap (7)
PATELLA – P[an]ATELLA (15 with ‘an’ removed)
19 Flayed showing blood in retrospective studies (7)
SKINNED – KIN (blood) in DENS (studies) backwards
21, 20 Note my friend in the Midlands is not an effective official (4,4)
LAME DUCK – LA (note) + ME DUCK (my friend in the Midlands, colloquially)
24 We’re 21 down (5)
THEFT – THE FT (we)
25 Confined in lift in part of building (9)
CARPENTRY – PENT (confined) in CARRY (lift)
27 Form another coalition, as a matter of fact (6)
REALLY – RE-ALLY (form another coalition)
28 Suffering first signs of hangover early any day? Aspirin could help you (8)
HEADACHY – acrostic: H[angover] E[arly] A[ny] D[ay] A[spirin] C[ould] H[elp] Y[ou]
29, 30 Number 9 Lycra shorts go with bottom ends wobbling? Not true! (6,8)
CHORAL SYMPHONY – anagram of LYCRA + [short]S [g]O [wit]H [botto]M + PHONY (not true). With a clever off-beat definition! (I originally had the wordplay here wrong. Thank you Sil for setting it straight — see comment 1.)
DOWN
1 Get cracking winter lines (6)
DECODE – DEC (winter, i.e. December) + ODE (lines)
2 Use any method to be awkward (6)
UNEASY – anagram of USE ANY
3 Symbol comes up from time to time (5)
TOTEM – reverse hidden word
4 Type of light worried recent arrival (7)
NEONATE – NEON (type of light) + ATE (worried)
6 Spanked and grounded (3,6)
HIT BOTTOM – double definition
7 Adult poem mature, with several features (8)
MANIFOLD – MAN (adult) + IF (poem) + OLD (mature). “If” is the name of a poem by Kipling.
8 Lots of cargo? The woman would have to go first (8)
SHEDLOAD – SHE’D (the woman would have to) + LOAD (cargo). This is a word I did not know.
11 Snap jump (4)
SKIP – S (S) + KIP (NAP)
15 Criticise an employee of the bank on the phone with a cigar (9)
PANATELLA – homophone (“pan a teller”)
17 Arcane Eurosceptic whose cup ran out (8)
ESOTERIC – anagram of E[u]ROS[c]E[p]TIC (i.e. EUROSCEPTIC with the letters of CUP removed)
18 One fired by muse (8)
LITERATO – LIT (fired) + ERATO (muse). I think most of us are used to seeing only the plural, literati.
20 See 21 across
21 Speed of light nearly broken? That’s a crime (7)
LARCENY – anagram of C (speed of light) NEARLY
22 Carves up firm decoration (6)
STUCCO – CUTS (carves) backwards (up) + CO (firm)
23 Eclipse condition borders on seismology, zoology and geology (6)
SYZYGY – S[eismolog]Y Z[oolog]Y G[eolog]Y. Is this word widely known? I know it well from having studied astronomy. It identifies the condition of three celestial bodies in a gravitational system being aligned, usually the Earth, Sun and Moon.
26 Turn out to be a poof? (3,2)
END UP – double definition
Thanks Pete.
13ac works like this (I think):
to become ‘approved’ (which is OFFICIAL) the solution must contain ICI (which is French for ‘here’, ‘a la Provencale’).
It took me some time to see it but there you are.
I did find this one of the easier Goliath puzzles, also less adventurous than usual.
I am afraid I do not agree with you on what you said about padding in 10ac.
That said, I am happy here as “C’est la vie” is surely an entity.
Normally, I don’t mind nounal anagram indicators but I didn’t like the use of ‘method’ in 2d very much.
Pete, I am glad you liked THE/FT but I’m afraid I’ve seen this enough now.
CHORAL SYMPHONY (29,30ac) is indeed clever, and the definition is too.
The parsing, however, needs tweaking:
(LYCRA + [short]S + [g]O + [wit]H + [botto]M)* + PHONY.
‘Ends’ indicates here last letters of the preceding words, a device that Goliath uses very often.
How does “end up” = “be a poof” please?
Thanks to Goliath and Pete.
11dn: Pete, I couldn’t find ‘skip’ as a synonym for ‘snap’. Is it one?
Instead, I went for Snap = S+NAP = S+KIP.
26ac: Bamburger @2
As the last clue (and with a question mark) I thought perhaps the parsing needn’t
be too rigorous. Turn out = END UP. The whole clue could then be read as another
(indirect) definition: Turn out to be a poof = COME OUT = END UP.
A one-and-a-half clue?
mike04, Thanks for pointing that out about 11dn. I feel unsure now about ‘skip’ being a synonym for ‘snap’ but, whether it is or not, I prefer your interpretation and will edit my explanation of the clue accordingly.
I don’t know what to make of 26dn. One possible interpretation I see could potentially be offensive. I prefer not to describe it because it could well not be the intended interpretation.
I struggled to parse 26dn (wrongly referred to as 26ac @3 & @5 above) at first, but eventually reckoned the wordplay is probably meant to be [s]END UP via [s]poof. Bit of a leap there though, so the question mark much needed.
Pandean, that is a leap indeed but a very clever one!
Yes, Pandean, I meant 26dn. I prefer your explanation to mine;
I doubt I’d have come up with that myself!
Thanks for your reply, Pete.
Mike
Sorry but I don’t see how you get [s]end up via [s]poof. Would someone please explain -thanks
Thanks to Pete Mclean for the kind comments. Pandean is absolutely right: a spoof is a send-up.
Well I still don’t see how we are told to take off the leading “s” -sorry just being dense on this.
Bamberger, I think that Goliath is being a bit non-PC with 26d. If you take “end” to be “bottom” as in a person’s bottom then the allusion to homosexual behaviour (being a poof – slang for homosexual) is clear.
8d wasn’t a problem but put manifest for manifold in 7d and that threw me out for several clues.
Thanks Goliath and Pete
28ac: I read this as initial letters of the last eight words & lit. Certainly the whole clue works as a definition, and all but the first word can make the wordplay. I think Pete’s parsing requires “first” to do double duty.
However 26d was constructed – and the send up construction is extremely contrived – it is clearly deeply offensive and I don’t see how anyone could not think so. However my complaint to the FT went unanswered.
Goliath, Thank you for the clarification.
Bamberger, It seems to me that the question mark on 26d may be the intended indicator that we need to do something like take off a leading ‘S’. Is it sufficient? I am dubious.
Pelham, Thank you! Your interpretation of 28ac is much better than mine and must be the right one.
Thanks Goliath and Pete
Found this pretty hard going some 15 months on !! Was able to eventually get it finished, but am afraid that I had to resort to a lot of electronic help and still come here with four of them not properly parsed – OFFICIAL (too good for me with the French ICI not even close to coming to me), LAME DUCK (more as an oversight, but doubt that I would have picked up on that very English phrase), HEADACHY (I usually spot the leading letter type clues) and END UP (which is pretty oblique but a not uncommon ploy used by this setter).
Finished in the NW corner with TOTEM (a cleverly reverse hidden clue), NEONATE and DECODE the last one in.