Do you know that bench that elderly people sit on in the park, waiting for something to happen? Well, I have been called off it again to substitute for a blogger who has gone AWOL. So this is a bit rushed, and there is some parsing that I will need some kind folk to fill in for me.
I enjoyed this, although it was tough to finish. As often with Tramp, there is a theme: in this case, the books/related films of Stephen King. Both clues and answers refer to him. I’ve heard of him, of course, but his is not my genre, so those that are aficionados can help, no doubt. Anyway, I am going to post this before it gets dark and leave others to fill in the details.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 Handle call for part of book
TITLE PAGE
A charade of TITLE for ‘handle’ or ‘name’ and PAGE in its verbal sense. Although I think PAGERS have gone out of fashion a bit.
10 Nose past drinkers outside room taking round …
AROMA
An insertion of ROM in AA. The ‘past drinkers’ are Alcoholics Anonymous, although strictly that’s the group rather than the participants. ROM is RO[O]M. The insertion indicator is ‘outside’ and the removal indicator is ‘taking’. I think.
11 … drinks to flow? Write book first
BOOZE
A charade of B and OOZE.
12 Sexy and single — blood repelled American
EROGENOUS
A reversal of ONE and GORE followed by US.
13 Growth: college matter
POLYPUS
A new one on me, but it’s POLY and PUS.
14 Oddly, The Green Mile lost parts form a type of message
TELECOM
Not sure about this, although The Green Mile is a Stephen King book.
17 Satisfied over constant rates
TEMPI
A reversal of MET and PI for a ‘constant’. Although some would call it a ratio. Cue heated discussion.
19,29,3 Film somewhat hard? Stephen King’s short novel
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Flipping heck. Good job that I knew the film (an excellent one, with Morgan Freeman in great form). (SOMEWHAT HARD STEPHEN KIN[G])* The film that spawned a thousand voiceovers. It’s adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, so another nod to the theme.
20 Stephen King primarily published about troubles
NARKS
A reversal of SK and RAN.
21 Writer, number one, describing punishment
PENANCE
A charade of PEN followed by an insertion of N in ACE. Those in the Catholic tradition will know what this is about. Three Hail Marys and one Our Father, and don’t have impure thoughts again.
22 King’s evil woman in Misery
KILLJOY
A charade of K, ILL and JOY. Misery is another Stephen King book.
24 Left review that is good to fill jacket for Stephen King?
SOVEREIGN
More flipping heck. An insertion of OVER and EIG for a reversal of G, IE in SN for the ‘jacket’ or outside letters of Stephen.
26 Dark Tower’s beginning — hard drink knocked back
NIGHT
A charade T for the first letter of ‘tower’, H and GIN all reversed. Dark Tower is another SK publication.
28 Left stuff to write pieces
LINKS
A charade of L and INKS.
Down
1 Shot wound
STAB
A dd.
2 Sort out line by the main character in Long Walk
STROLL
A charade of (SORT)* L and L for the first letter of ‘Long’. The Long Walk is an SK book.
4 Pet Sematary’s top minds going first
CARESS
A charade of CARES and S for the first letter of ‘Sematary’. Another SK reference. The strange spelling of ‘Sematary’ in Pet Semetary comes from the theme of the book: a misspelling by children.
5 One’s carried away, tied up — drive here?
DEPORTEE
A charade of ROPED reversed, followed by TEE. Which is allegedly where golfers start from.
6 Sort of characters in Duma Key
MAKE
Hidden in DuMA KEy. Duma Key is an SK novel.
7 Love actor playing in Mr Mercedes?
MOTORCAR
An insertion of (O ACTOR)* in MR. Mr Mercedes is an SK novel.
8 What’s meant by the end of Salem’s Lot?
MASS
I can’t work this one out, I’m afraid, although the M comes from the last letter of ‘Salem’. But Salem’s Lot is another SK novel.
13 Deviously staged, whichever way you look at it
PUT-UP
It’s a palindrome.
15 Isolation left sections without a piece of text
LONELINESS
I think that this is L followed by LINES inserted in ONES, but I am happy to be corrected.
16 Unclear — writer’s block with first?
MISTY
An insertion of IST for ‘first’ in MY.
18 They deliver Times, collecting Scotsman around 5
MINIVANS
I didn’t help myself in the slightest by carelessly writing in MAILVANS. It’s an insertion of V inserted in IAN inserted in MINS.
19 Support one in home that’s extremely small
TEENIEST
More flipping golf. A charade of TEE and I inserted in NEST.
22 State answer: awkwardly ask hosts
KANSAS
An insertion of ANS in (ASK)*
23 Puzzle creator to shake over horror film?
JIGSAW
Well, I fancy that this is to do with an anagram of JAWS, the ‘horror film’, but in truth I have no idea.
24 After It, sign detailed deal
SALE
SA for ‘sex appeal’ or It (only seen in crosswordland these days, I fancy) followed by LE[O], one of the ‘signs’ of the zodiac, ‘detailed’, in other words with its tail cut off.
25 King established support
REST
A charade of R and EST.
27 Buy Escort
TAKE
A dd. ‘I’ll take that for half a crown.’ And I’ll take myself off upstairs now for a lie-down.
Many thanks to Tramp for the puzzle. Sorry I couldn’t do it justice, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of comments to fill in the bits that I have missed or not fully appreciated.
Thanks for standing in, Pierre.
14ac: I have T(h)E and ECO M(ile) [parted by] L(ost)
23dn: JIG (shake) SAW (a horror movie)
I’m a bit stumped by the parsing of 8dn
Thanks for stepping in Pierre, and thanks to Tramp for a tricky but entertaining puzzle.
I parsed 8 as m = end of Salem, and it means MASS.
Ah yes, that must be it. Thanks, beery hiker.
I agree with ‘tricky but entertaining.’ Kept me awake in the very small hours.
Thanks Tramp and Pierre
For a rushed blog you did very well … my tuppence worth on the couple that you had gaps. M is the standard abbreviation for MASS in physics. JIGSAW is made up of JIG (to shake) and SAW (the horror movie series directed by Aussie James Wan).
A typically enjoyable Tramp which was pretty hard work all of the same. A great theme which I suspect is based on the upcoming 21st anniversary of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (still one of my all time favourite movies).
SALE was my last in – and needed to use the ‘Check facility’ which I rarely do to show that my original SELL was wrong – eventually was able to parse it properly.
A tricky time was had solving this one, especially as I’ve never read any of the books. I agree with Rog about 23d. 8dn M can apparently be used as an abbreviation for Massachusetts (although the more common Mass is the one we all remember).
Thanks to Pierre and Tramp too
Mass is m in Physics
Thanks for stepping in for me Pierre – I was just about to blog it myself after a hectic morning. On MASS, Salem also happens to be in MASS[achusetts], but I think beery hiker has it.
sue @5 m is also the standard abbreviation for mass in applied maths and physics – I think Massachusetts overcomplicates it, but also works.
@6 and @7 – sorry, we crossed
Salem is a town in Massachusetts abbreviated to MASS?
I had 23dn as Rog@1.
Struggled with this today, SK not really my thing outside of the popular films (so got Shawshank straight away without bothering with the anagram). Thanks to Tramp and Pierre for a very readable blog.
I struggled with this one (which sees to be my mantra for the week). I did work out most of the SK references even though I haven’t read any of his books yet or seen many of the films. I needed help with parsing TELECOM and MASS – thanks to all who offered it, and thanks to Tramp and Pierre for the puzzle and blog too.
1a: I saw ROM as RM (common abbreviation for “room”) taking O, but I think both parsings work.
15d: I had the same parsing as you, Pierre, but I’m still not sure how ONES = “sections”?
I particularly liked SOVEREIGN and the long anagram.
As always with Tramp, no familiarity with the theme was required, as long as the film title was familiar – and that cannot be regarded as obscure. Last in for me was SALE, favourites MASS and CARESS.
Re LONELINESS, I think I had L and S S (sections) around ONE (a) LINE (piece of text), but that could be overcomplicating too
Sorry to spoil the love-in, but I wasn’t at all impressed by this puzzle. It came across as laboured and contrived. I stuck with it because I wasn’t going to be beaten by it, but it’s a wasted forty minutes of my life. So many bad clues and definitions stretched way beyond the limits. Flow equals ooze? Do me a favour. One’s very different from the other.
That’s three awful crosswords in a row from the Guardian. Pull your socks up, editor.
They all illustrate the downside of trying to fit around a theme. It’s great when it’s done well, but it’s all too rarely done well, and the setter has to resort to obscure words and thin clues. It all looks laboured and a bit silly – like a footballer who tries to score from a bicycle kick and makes a hash of it.
I’d prefer setters to remember that their primary role is to entertain, not to try to show how clever they are.
Let’s hope there’s a Paul soon.
Everyone expressing admiration for The Shawshank Redemption you are not alone!
It’s been top of the IMDB Top 250 chart [link] for as long as I can remember.
beery hiker @12
That makes more sense to me. Thanks!
Well said David.
Well, no admiration for SHAWSHANK from me. The film is rather ordinary and I fail to see how it has become so highly rated. Please don’t tell me. I didn’t think too highly of the puzzle either. It was much easier than yesterday’s but seemed rather bitty to me.
I did like KILLJOY and EROGENOUS, and I did get MASS from Massachusetts. I’m sure the simpler parsing is correct in retrospect.
This is not proving to be one of the Guardian’s finest weeks for crosswords.
Thanks Tramp.
Thanks to Tramp and Pierre. Last in for me were MASS and SALE, neither of which I could parse correctly. With the latter, I missed the “it” in “After it” as “SA/sex appeal” because It is another SK novel (where the figure is definitely not sexy) so I was futilely pursuing the wrong It.
Thanks Tramp and Pierre
Another very elegant and enjoyable from Tramp.
Re 15, I’d like to lob another possibility into the mix: L(eft) ONE (a) LINE (piece of text) SS (the symbol § for section).
Any takers?
Like Pierre, I don’t know much about Stephen King either – until now, I didn’t know he had anything to do with THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION – but it didn’t really matter. I don’t share David’s rather hedgehoggy concerns either; I thought Tramp was deft and amusing in how he used the theme. Apart from it = sex appeal. What, still?
Top clue for me led to STROLL.
I thought the deinition of 23D was “Puzzle creator”.
21 Paul D – that was my take on it too – otherwise creator is redundant.
Thanks both. I had 15d as LONE=left SS=sections without LINE= a piece of text
Agree with PaulD above. Does one use a jigsaw to create a jigsaw? Clue says one does.
Liked this as I know next to nothing about Stephen King and didn’t need to. Different to yesterday’s where knowledge of the film was needed (or Google, or both in my case).
Like yesterday’s puzzle, this was very slow to start and a satisfying reveal when the answers started to fall which happened quickly once I realised SK knowledge wasn’t needed.
Thanks to Tramp and Pierre.
PaulD @ 22: yes – sorry: I didn’t spot that Pierre hadn’t underlined ‘creator’ when I offered my parsing, and I agree.
Thanks for stepping in, Pierre.
I’m afraid I’m rather with David @13 here. My usual pleasure at untangling tricky clues infected by the doubt over the unparsed solutions. Felt the same about yesterday’s Imogen but decided not to post on that occasion.
Tramp is has posted some excellent puzzles in the past and I’m rather surprised by this one.
Simon S @20 – yes, that is neater than my version
Some may see it as a love-in, but for me this has been another excellent week, but I like a challenge and don’t expect to finish everything quickly. Here’s hoping we get Enigmatist again soon, which would put this week into perspective!
I really enjoyed this. I thought the long clue was a masterpiece, especially since i think the film was based on one of SK’s short novels. I also liked the theme-related surfaces, esp 6d, 7d – very cute. I was ready to help Pierre with parsings for 10a, 14a, and 23d but others have done so already. I did not fully parse 8d, though mass=m occurred to me, should have persisted.
Many thanks Tramp for an entertaining puzzle and Pierre for the review
Thanks all for filling in the gaps. I think we’re just about there now, aren’t we?
Manehi @ 7: didn’t mean to tread on your patch, but we were just worried that you might be indisposed for the whole day.
David @ 14: entitled to your opinion, of course, but I think you’re being a bit harsh. Just because most people think it’s a good puzzle doesn’t mean it’s a ‘love-in’. When there really is an iffy puzzle, people here can be pretty brutal. OOZE for ‘flow’? Works for me: ‘the blood oozed/flowed from the wound.’ It’s the third synonym in my thesaurus.
MWD @ 25
Indeed one does. Apparently traditional jigsaws are now called scroll saws. They have a blade which is basically a toothed wire fixed to a reciprocating jig, which allows tight curves to be cut.
hth
With the weather we’re having, I’m reminde of some old London doggerel:
Wi’ the days loomin’ dark
And the cold and the damp
And the shiverin’ marshes of Hackney
Is there much to look forward to save for a Tramp
And a rare visit from dear Arachne?
(There are two of my favourite setter so will be saving this for some weekend pleasure. Hope it’s as good as some have been….)
Thank you to Pierre and Tramp – I completed this correctly, but was uneasy about several 4-letter solutions, eg MAKE, LINKS, TAKE – crossers gave confirmation but … If anyone is still out there, I’d much appreciate more help with the parsing of 8 down: ie where does ASS come from?
Thanks Pierre and Tramp.
After yesterday’s Imogen-flagellation, it felt good to complete a Tramp puzzle today. I had doubts on parsing of the same clues that you mention. Comments here cleared them up. Once past 19, 29, 3 as FOI, it was a slog but enjoyed the different ways the theme is used by Tramp. Liked ‘motorcar’ and ‘night’.
‘Erogenous’ appeared recently (?), I recall, here it has been clued nicely, I thought.
Are we done with themed X-wds for this week?
judygs@34
End of Salem is M
M is the symbol for Mass in Physics. So, Mass is meant by M. Also,mass = Lot.
That’s how I see it.
There is no ‘ass’ in parsing. Hope this helps.
Flipping heck indeed, Pierre. I’m with those who found this puzzle tedious and contrived. I struggled with lots of the clues – that’s not rare – but all too often the solution just left me feeling flat, irritated or mystified. Far too clever, clever. Tramp was trying too hard, in my opinion.
ilippu @ 35
Is this the one?
Sexy one to go on about “me” (9)
It’s from 26475 on January 22 this year, and was clued by, wait for it, Tramp!
Thanks for stepping in, Pierre.
Late to the party today – solved the puzzle early on but had to go out before the blog appeared.
Not much point in adding to the controversy – just want to add my support of beery hiker’s comment @29 in response to David’s @ 14. I’ve been most enjoyably entertained by this week’s puzzles. As I’ve said so often before, what a good job we’re all different – and that we’re all so well catered for.
I have no interest at all in Stephen King’s books or films but, as usual, that didn’t stop me solving the puzzle or being amazed, when coming here, at Tramp’s genius for incorporating so much theme material. Huge thanks, as ever, to him.
Thank you Simon S. My knowledge of saws and all things related ceased when I dropped woodwork for German 30 years ago.
Like most, I think it has been a really good week of puzzles.
Simon S@38, Thanks. Maybe. Now, I can’t parse that one! Well, …
No one has yet observed, re 24 Down, that It is another Stephen King doorstop. (Trailman @21: hope that explains what “it” is doing there.)
Note that in Salem’s Lot, the clue cannot actually be a reference to Massachusetts, since the Salem in Salem’s Lot isn’t the one in Massachusetts.
~~~~~
Incidentally, Shawshank Redemption is one of the handful of cases I know of where a movie adaptation improves the book. True also of Stand By Me (based on King’s novella The Body. But not of The Shining, with due apologies to Stanley Kubrick, who apparently was too insane to understand the book.)
King has an interesting quirk as an author: he can’t do endings. The first three-quarters of The Shining are wonderful. The first four-fifths of It are wonderful. And then…all hell breaks loose, and he ditches everything about the book that made it good in the first place. The Dark Tower–which is a seven-book series, actually–has five brilliant books and two that you honestly wish were never written.
So I’d say, if you’re going to read just one Stephen King book, make it The Gunslinger, the first (and shortest) of the Dark Tower novels. It’s really brilliant, and doesn’t have to deal with King’s utter failure at endings, since it’s got a big To Be Continued sign on it. If you like it, read the second one and so on. But do NOT read the last one, even if you still liked it after #6.
~~~~~
Thanks for the interpretations of MASS and TELECOM, whose parsing quite eluded me.
It’s all been said, but I would like to add two more to the “movie better than book” list – “Sense and sensibility” (though I love Jane Austen) and “About a boy” (ditto for Nick Hornby – though “High Fidelity” almost makes it into this category too).
P.S. I solved it, but there were too many where either the wordplay escaped me for me to be really satisfied by this – my fault, though.
Just in case it hasn’t been said already. A JIGSAW (23dn) is used to create a (jigsaw) puzzle. Thanks for the blog
I’m with David, William,Median & co, I can’t remember getting to Thursday without having really enjoyed any of the week’s puzzles & this was only a little less disappointing than yesterday’s. Too clever by half, as my mum would have said.
Thought this was an excellent use of a theme – very enjoyable.
Really liked The Shawshank Redemption clue (and indeed the film).
ilippu @ 41 – from this site’s blog by PeterO:
EROGENOUS
A reversal (‘about’) of ‘one’ plus (‘to’) ‘go’ plus RE (‘on’), to give EROGENO; plus US (‘”me”‘ – “give us a look”). The reversed EGO caught my eye, but it turns out to be a red herring.
All good fun, eh?
Simon S@47. Thanks.
I didn’t bother commenting on this although it was a superb puzzle. (Far superior to the Imogen IMHO)
Only commeting now to say how brilliant the “THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION” clue was. One of my favourite films so unfortunately my knowledge if the “novella” which ws the basis for the wordplay etc made it a write in.
I can only think that the person who said the film was overrated doesn’t like films! Just watch it without the sound on once. Perhaps you might notice the genius of the cinematography then!!! And then you’ve still got the screenplay, brilliant plot and superb acting to come! (Not enough car chases and shooting I assume!)
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it, but 18d also has a Stephen King connection. According to wikipedia, he suffered serious injusies after being hit by a minivan and nearly decided to stop writing?
I don’t rate The Shawshank Redemption (though I like many of King’s books, at least in theory) so this puzzle was maybe doomed to rub me up the wrong way from the start. I found it rather laborious to get through, though I probably wasn’t just having a clever enough day – I needed to come here to acquire sensible parsings of SOVEREIGN and TELECOM, so many thanks for those blogger & co!
I found this too hard to finish (MASS and DEPORTEE beat me), but I’m afraid the cleverness of the anagram for THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was wasted on me as the surface gave it away immediately – I’ve always know the (somewhat overrated) film was based on a Stephen King short novel.
I managed to finish this but had many unparsed. Thanks to all for clearing up most of my confusions. I still don’t get 14ac, though. I can’t find any dictionary support for L = lost.