Another Friday, another Phi-day. Soon after this blog is published we will be without internet access for some while. If there are errors or omissions we sincerely apologise and hopefully we will sort them out later in the day.
There were quite a few which needed verification, as far as we were concerned. As is it Phi we looked for a hidden theme but couldn’t find one. Maybe someone else can!
Joyce’s COD is 13d.
We would welcome comments on 29ac .
| Across | ||
| 1 | American’s flatulence: endless gift of stomach ailment? (7) | |
| GASTRIC | GAS (American word for flatulence) TRIC |
|
| 5 | British stamp involved pinning down one identification of issue? (7) | |
| BAPTISM | An anagram of B (British) + STAMP (anagrind is ‘involved) around or ‘pinning down’ I (one) | |
| 9 | Not significant enough to get the bank’s attention? (2-7) | |
| NO-ACCOUNT | Presumably if you did not have an account, a bank may show some interest in you! We had to check the definition though as it was a new one on us. Chambers says that it is US informal. | |
| 10 | Hearts bound in an instant – very intimate (5) | |
| THICK | H (hearts) inside or ‘bound by’ TICK (an instant) | |
| 11/23 | Staff behind senior lawyer about a trade route (4,4) | |
| SILK ROAD | ROD (staff) behind SILK (senior lawyer) around A | |
| 12 | Decide roughly about blocking a politician’s assistant (4-2-4) | |
| AIDE DE CAMP | An anagram of DECIDE (anagrind is ‘roughly) A (about) inside or ‘blocking’ A MP (politician) | |
| 14 | Occasionally and roughly experiencing blustery weather, without question (8) | |
| CASUALLY | CA (roughly as in circa) S |
|
| 15 | Agents securing revolutionary players in art form (6) | |
| CINEMA | CIA (agents) around or ‘securing’ MEN (players) reversed or ‘revolutionary’ | |
| 17 | Have another go at job listing (6) | |
| RESUME | Double definition | |
| 19 | Fried food not right for saucy woman (8) | |
| COQUETTE | C |
|
| 22 | Result of numerical calculation: fair support for plant (6,4) | |
| SQUARE ROOT | SQUARE (fair) ROOT (support for plant) | |
| 23 | See 11 | |
| 26 | Claim a gourd will contain perfect form of insect (5) | |
| IMAGO | Hidden or ‘contained’ in claIM A GOurd. We wondered about the inclusion of ‘perfect’ until we checked it in Chambers. | |
| 27 | Good sense to interrupt Cockney speech with an implied threat (9) | |
| OMINOUSLY | NOUS (good sense) inside or ‘interrupting’ |
|
| 28 | No cuts abandoned by American people at table (7) | |
| NOSHERS | NO SHE |
|
| 29 | Congenial sort of left-wing belief (7) | |
| KINDRED | KIND (sort of) RED (left wing belief(?)). We are unsure why ‘belief’ is included. Has anyone any thoughts about this? Thanks to Rishi and Phi for the correct parsing. | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Fine weather, say, brought up group of plants, perhaps (5) | |
| GENUS | SUN (fine weather) EG (say) reversed or ‘brought up’ | |
| 2 | Fixes page into narrative on board (7) | |
| STAPLES | P (page) inside TALE (narrative), which is then inserted into SS (ship) so that it is now on board! | |
| 3 | Grain cost reduced by penny (4) | |
| RICE | ||
| 4 | College regulation involving one Bishop supporting college in trial (8) | |
| CRUCIBLE | C (college) + RULE (regulation) around or ‘involving’ I (one) B (Bishop) after or ‘supporting’ C (college) | |
| 5 | Servant’s activity ignoring son over King (6) | |
| BUTLER | BU |
|
| 6 | News provider quite misrepresented Tchaikovsky symphony (10) | |
| PATHETIQUE | PATHE (news provider) + an anagram of QUITE (anagrind is ‘misrepresented’) | |
| 7 | Copy sexual activity adopted by one couple (7) | |
| IMITATE | IT (sexual activity) inside or ‘adopted by’ I (one) MATE (couple) | |
| 8 | Old weapon used around a stormed keep? Stop the fighting (4,5) | |
| MAKE PEACE | MACE (old weapon) around A + an anagram of KEEP (anagrind is ‘stormed’) | |
| 13 | Stress in following producer of horror movies (6,4) | |
| HAMMER HOME | HOME (in) after or ‘following’ HAMMER (producer of horror movies) | |
| 14 | Religious believer, rich, reorganised hospital, keeping it up (9) | |
| CHRISTIAN | An anagram of RICH (anagrind is reorganised) SAN (hospital) around or ‘keeping’ IT reversed or ‘up’ | |
| 16 | Shocking noise on connection with intervention of black bird (8) | |
| BOBOLINK | BOO (shocking noise) LINK (connection) around or ‘with intervention of’ B (black) | |
| 18 | Southern tremors, with earth moving, producing startled cries (7) | |
| SQUEAKS | S (southern) QUAKES (tremors) with E (earth) changing places or ‘moving’ | |
| 20 | Appropriate transactions involving Kindle? (7) | |
| TROUSER | TR (transactions) around or ‘involving’ ROUSE (kindle) | |
| 21 | Puts up with burns (6) | |
| BROOKS | Double definition | |
| 24 | Not a great spot for a nymph (5) | |
| DRYAD | We think this is a play on the fact that a DRY AD would not be a great advert but we have been unable to check whether AD = SPOT although it feels right. | |
| 25 | Urban area is nothing with boundaries swapped (4) | |
| TOWN | NOWT (nothing) swapping first and last letters or ‘boundaries’ | |
To answer your query on 29ac:
‘red’ as a noun might mean ‘left-wing’.
When ‘sort’ gives KIND and ‘left-wing’, RED, the’of’ in the surface reading becomes redundant.
‘of left-wing’ gives RED as adjective. So there is no detritus.
That is my interpretation.
I have known ‘on no account’ meaning ‘under no circumstances’ and ‘of no account’ meaning ‘insignificant’, ‘non-essential’ or ‘negligible’.
We use both these phrases in speech as well as writing.
In which context and how would we use just ‘no-account’?
Excuse me for separate Comments.
Re 24d
‘Spot’ in the sense of ‘ad’ is usually used wrt the clips on TV or cinema, not newspapers.
The adjectival use is just the no-account sort of lingo we pick up from Americans…
sort = kind; of left-wing belief = red (since we’re talking adjectival usage).
MAKE PEACE need not be two words in a specific context.
Thanks Phi.
In a comment above I meant to write ‘of left-wing belief’ gives ‘red’. I missed out ‘belief’.
In any case I am happy that I understood your intent.
I wish to claim the prize for spotting the theme! Thanks to the generous hint above, I can see we are in second Christian name territory. We have 5D, 8D, 14 D, 3 D, possibly 21D and 2D but I may be imagining those.It would be wonderful if Henry Bobolink Thackeray existed but I suspect not.
Quite a lot of Qs in this one, well done Phi!
Thanks for the blog B and J.
Great spot GG. Also 29ac, which is the K in Philip K Dick
Is Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley of 80s pop fame too much of a stretch ?
The only other name I can see is Butler as in W B Yeats16
Sorry, G G , I need my eyes tested! i was reading 6 for 5
GG@6 – 2D would be Clive Staples Lewis
28A looks suspicious, but all I can find is the actor Frederick “Nosher” Powell
I thought Philip K Dick might be a stretch, so well done. Between them GG and Geebs have got seven…out of eight that I put there. The eighth is the one that started it all, in fact, thanks to stumbling across it while researching the Nina of a puzzle a few weeks ago. Off you go!
Dammit! Phi beat me on the puzzle (BOBOLINK; my own arrogant fault for refusing to use reference aids pre-postsolve and dismissing ‘link’ as an ornithographic ending straightaway!). First time to my recollection.
Also beaten on the super hidden theme. Not for the first time! Now what is the eighth one? Please tell – pretty please…..
Thanks to buggers and setter.
…oops! Should be “bloggers” of course! Combination of thumbslip and predictive text – using ‘smart’ ‘phone. (That must’ve been it; there’s no such thing as a Freudian thumbslip surely?) 🙂
Funny, once I saw the mention of second christian names, the first one I remember from the grid was Dick.
Just done this after breakfast in an hotel in Seattle.