(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) A slow start, but it worked out okay in the end. Thanks to Paul. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Damn brilliant? (7)
FLAMING : Double defn: 1st: An intensifier, as in “a damn good pianist”.
5 Award lower degree after third from London? (7)
DIPLOMA : DIP(to lower;to drop) + [ MA(abbrev. for for a Master of Arts degree) placed after(after) the 1st two letters(out of six) of(third from) “London “].
Defn: … from an academic institution.
9 Given support as in difficulties, evidently distressing on every front (5)
AIDED : The 1st letters, respectively, of(… on every front) “as in difficulties, evidently distressing “.
10 Pose altered wearing absurd theatrical make-up (4,5)
NOSE PUTTY : Anagram of(… altered) POSE contained in(wearing) NUTTY(absurd).
Defn: … to alter the shape of the nose.
11 Responsible adult resentful – minding hell for the most part? (10)
BABYSITTER : BITTER(resentful) containing(minding) “abyss”(hell, where evil spirits dwell) minus its last letter(for the most part).
Defn: … minding one that could be hell to mind.
12,24 Possibly a Christmas cracker to pull thus contains letters on a pencil in red, say? (8)
WISHBONE : [ SO(thus;in this manner, as in “do it thus”) containing(contains) HB(the letters on a lead pencil, signifying that the lead is medium hard) ] contained in(in) WINE(a type of which;say is a red).
Defn: That which resembles a Christmas cracker when pulled, ie. splits into 2 uneven parts. (I couldn’t find a Christmas cracker that was called a wishbone.)
14 A lifesaver, as bloom catches showers (5,7)
BRAIN SURGEON : BURGEON(to bloom;to flourish) containing(catches) RAINS(showers).
18 A sucker, one who is no longer in love with farming? (9,3)
EXTRACTOR FAN : EX-(prefix signifying “no longer”;once) [TRACTOR FAN](cryptically, one who loves farming, tractor and all).
Defn: … of gases.
21 Embarrassing defeat, as swimmer drops head (4)
ROUT : “trout”(a piscine swimmer) minus its 1st letter(drops head).
22 Wild thing joining clubs as a swinger? (5,5)
TIGER WOODS : TIGER(a wild beast) plus(joining) WOODS(type of clubs to be found in a golfer’s hands).
Defn: …, professionally, on the golf course, and off it too.
25 See 3
26 Spraying of tear gas ultimately a shocking police tactic? (5)
TASER : Anagram of(Spraying of) [TEAR + the last letter of(… ultimately) “gas “].
27 That will teach you maths, other examples to some extent (2,5)
SO THERE : Hidden in(… to some extent) “maths, other examples “.
Answer: An expression indicating something is being done against someone else’s wishes, as in “I’m not doing it, so there!”. If the latter was meant as a punishment, then “that will teach you” could convey the same intent.
28 Shock provided inside nappy material (7)
TERRIFY : IF(provided;in such a case) contained in(inside) TERRY(a woven cotton fabric used for nappies;diapers, and towels).
Down
1 Overweight insect embodying a pair of insects, might you say? (6)
FLABBY : FLY(an insect) containing(embodying) [A + B,B(the pronunciation of which;might you say, is “bee,bee”;a pair of insects) ].
2 Nerves, small quantity within muscles (6)
ABDABS : DAB(a small quantity, say, of paint) contained in(within) ABS(short for the abdominal muscles).
Answer: Extreme anxiety, cf. the heebie-jeebies.
3,25 Guardian spies (no lie) out to steal Times leader – that’s corporate skulduggery (10,9)
INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE : Anagram of(… out) GUARDIAN SPIES (NO LIE) containing(to steal) the 1st letter of(… leader) “Times “. I guess it could also happen amongst newspapers, too.
4 Bloke biting tail of huge, agile carnivore (5)
GENET : GENT(a bloke) containing(biting) the last letter of(tail of) “huge “.
5 More compact packing is preferable, primarily, for pharmacist (9)
DISPENSER : DENSER(more compact;more squeezed into a smaller volume) containing(packing) [IS + the 1st letter of(…, primarily) “preferable “].
Defn: … or one who dispenses pharmaceuticals.
6 Innocent, possibly, as a satirist (4)
POPE : Double defn: 1st: The Roman Catholic leader, a number of whom;possibly, were titled Innocent; and 2nd: Alexander, 18th century English poet famous for his satirical verse.
7 Stranger diet, sour balls (8)
OUTSIDER : Anagram of(… balls up) DIET, SOUR.
8 All the possibilities in a US state, fine and good (8)
ANYTHING : A + NY(abbrev. for New York, the US state) + THIN(fine;of very small thickness) plus(and) G(abbrev. for “good”).
13 Just about survive seeing nurse possibly pocketing wad, unexpectedly (5,5)
TREAD WATER : TREATER(how one might;possibly, describe a hospital nurse) containing(pocketing) anagram of(…, unexpectedly) WAD.
Defn: Just keeping one’s head above water, spending effort but achieving little or no progress.
15 Frightfully nice trait is involved (9)
INTRICATE : Anagram of(Frightfully) NICE TRAIT.
16 Unblinking female lacking features on the head? (8)
FEARLESS : F(abbrev. for “female”) + EARLESS(without;lacking the hearing organs located on the head).
17 Group claiming tycoon is a harlot (8)
STRUMPET : SET(a group of similar things) containing(claiming) TRUMP(Donald, American tycoon)
Answer: I guess his detractors might call him that.
19 Capital once cut, reported shortly as showing little growth (6)
BONSAI : Homophone of(…, reported) [“Bonn”(once capital of Germany) + “scythe”(to cut with a, well, scythe)] minus the last phoneme(shortly).
20 Item no longer in pubs, hard to lose – is lost! (6)
ASTRAY : “ashtray”(an item no longer seen in pubs since the smoking ban) minus(… to lose) “h”(abbrev. for “hard”).
23 Occurrence where detainee finally gets let out (5)
EVENT : The last letter of(… finally) “detainee ” plus(gets) VENT(to let out gases and liquids).
24 See 12
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks sschua. My take on 19D was not a homophone but BON(N) + SAI(D). I trundled through this happily, benefiting from excellent clueing to get the unknowns like GENET and NOSE PUTTY. Enjoyed the 22A swinger, wondered whether ABDABS are ever without screaming before them and wasn’t sure about damn grammatically equalling FLAMING until you convinced me.
@molonglo- you are spot on re19d(Really fun puzzle)
Thanks Paul and scchua
Somehow I never seem to enjoy Paul puzzles as much as some others do, and that ws the case here. I made a quick start with the easy 3,25 anagram., and it didn’t take all that long after that, with several other very straightforward clues (INTRICATE, for instance). I did like ABDABS and EXTRACTOR FAN.
I didn’t see “third from London” as LO. I hadn’t heard of NOSE PUTTY, but it was clued fairly enough. I was convinced for some time that one of the words in 22a would be NIGHT; “wild thing” is a bit loose for TIGER. For me TERRIFY is frighten (severely) rather than “shock”.
“Agile” in 4d seems superfluous.
scchua – I assume you know the reference to “pulling the wishbone” of the Christmas turkey? Another clue that had to be guessed and then parsed.
I enjoyed the humour of this puzzle, with a few of the solutions really making me laugh out loud. I liked BRAIN SURGEON (FOI), FEARLESS, STRUMPET, ANYTHING, ASTRAY, FLABBY and my favourites were WISHBONE, EXTRACTOR FAN, TIGER WOODS.
New words for me were ABDABS & GENET.
I needed help to parse 19d – I was able to parse BON(n) but I failed to parse the SAI bit.
* I think I prefer the parsing of 19d by molonglo@1 and will be interested to see what others think.
Thank you Paul and scchua
I find myself wishing that my LOI had been SO THERE.
Good one, Paul.
Lots of fun as usual from Paul. My only quibble was that I reckon that LAMB is as good as POPE for ‘Innocent, possibly as a satirist’. Favourites were BABYSITTER, FLABBY, EXTRACTOR FAN and ABDABS. Many thanks to Paul and scchua.
Thanks Paul and scchua, this was quite a relief after yesterday. My favourites were 10a, 11a, 22a and 28a, which all had particularly apt surfaces. This being Paul, I suspect it’s no coincidence that I had F???ING daring me to guess an answer right up until the end.
Thanks Paul and scchua.
Yes, a relief after yesterday. I thought it was hABDABS, the OCED, 1995, gives ‘habdabs’, not ‘abdabs’, but on the web I find ‘abdabs’ is now more common. Like muffin @3, TERRIFY does not mean ‘shock’ to me, I cannot find it given as a synonym on a quick check, but I guess Chambers gives it.
Among many others, I particularly liked EXTRACTOR FAN and ASTRAY!
Thanks Paul and scchua
Cookie @ 8: immediately before Pink Floyd renamed themselves in 1965 they were called The Flaming Abdabs.
Simon S @9, perhaps that explains the change, none of the original members were born in London as far as I can see, but they might have dropped the ‘h’ on purpose?
Cookie@10
the online dictionary on my Mac has this entry:
abdabs |?abdabz| (also habdabs)
plural noun Brit. informal
nervous anxiety or irritation: that idea gives most lawyers the screaming abdabs.
ORIGIN 1940s: of unknown origin.
so if it orginates in the 1940s I guess that it was pre-Pink Floyd
but maybe there is a Pink Floyd theme to the puzzle as SimonS mentions the Flaming Abdabs?
michelle @11, thanks, I have checked further and found it was 1937 RAF slang “the screaming habdabs”, however, it has been suggested the ‘h’ was added as an over-correction, it being assumed that the speaker had dropped the ‘h’.
I forgot to mention that I prefer molonglo’s @1 parsing of BONSAI.
Simon S @ 9
Sorry, Simon, it was the Screaming Abdabs
Yours,
Mr. Pedantic
This was a bit of a relief after recent puzzles. I had started to wonder whether I’d completely lost the knack of solving cryptics. The top left was the last part to fall even though I already had 3d and 4d, but once the penny dropped for BABYSITTER it was soon finished. There are lots of nice clues, but I didn’t have any particular favourites.
I parsed BONSAI in the same way as molonglo @1 and others. I took “Christmas cracker” in the clue for WISHBONE as referring separately to the time of year when one traditionally served a bird and to the aim of ‘cracking’ it when pulled, with the combined term intended as misdirection. ABDABS took longer than it might have done because I too tend to think of it with an initial H.
Thanks to Paul and scchua.
Aoxomoxoa @ 13
Sorry, I should have checked…memory is a fickle thing
Thanks Paul and scchua for mainly gentle fun on the Edinburgh to London Train.
Spent a long time thinking the first word of 22ac was “night”…
Thanks to Paul and scchua. Like others I found this one a relief after yesterday. ABDABS was new to me (thought it was clear from the clueing) and I knew GENET from a previous puzzle. I got WISHBONE without seeing HB as “medium hard” (my pencils are marked “No. 2”). Either parsing of BONSAI works for me.
Like marienkaefer, I had ‘night’ as the first part of 22a for ages, not helped by having the first crosser in justification. I can’t imagine we’re alone and I’m sure that’s what Paul would have wanted.
Usual good fun, EXTRACTOR FAN and FLABBY my favourites. NOSE PUTTY / ANYTHING caused problems at the end.
For those wondering where they’d seen EXTRACTOR FAN before, see Enigmatist 25680 “I used to be ardent about farm machinery, but I’m cooler now”. [I’ve been extracting a list of Guardian clues and solutions from the Guardian archive, and so far my list contains most of them since January 2010 – the most popular solution is ISLE with 18 clues, USED is second with 17].
This was quite a gentle Paul, certainly compared with last Saturday, but as always there was plenty to enjoy. GENET was new to me, and I have no idea why NOSE PUTTY was familiar. TIGER WOODS was last in.
Thanks to Paul and scchua
Beery Hiker @ 19
Have you ever heard Viv Stanshall’s “Sir Henry At Rawlinson End”? There’s a reference in that to ‘chimpanzee nose putty’, though I think he meant something different 😉
Simon @20 – I have a copy, but I’d forgotten that line!
b h @ 21
Somehow it stuck!
Thanks Paul and schuaa
Another entertaining puzzle from JH. Took a little while to get started – but found TASER and was able to build from there. The long clues were quite gettable without needing too many crossers and that helped to open it up.
Finished down in the SE corner with BONSAI, TIGER WOODS and EVENT the last few in.
Smiled at a couple as I wrote them in – the surface of STRUMPET, the TIGER WOODS clue, the two insects inside of FLABBY and INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE.
I parsed BONSAI as molonglo had.
That was more like it. Paul on top form. Too many great clues to list. I was held up in the NW corner and like several others because of 1ac, the weakest clue by far here. I put ‘amazing’ which seems to work just as well.
It was the NE corner that held me up as I put in LAMB instead of POPE. I’ve never heard of NOSE PUTTY but it made absolute sense once the P was in. A nice gentle, enjoyable Paul- for the other side of Paul see last Saturday.
A great relief to have a puzzle which I enjoyed.
Thanks Paul.
Simon S,
Are you the same “Simon S” as at ET?
I remember the extractor fan joke from the early 1990s (it probably goes back before then). There was a similar one doing the rounds at the time about a chap who was HGV positive.
aoxo @ 26
Yep.
A year or so back I asked over there if anyone was you [if that makes sense] but didn’t get a definitive answer…which one are you?
Simon S @ 28
I’m t’other Simon (I did Early Dylan for you a few weeks ago).
Aoxo
Simon @ 30
small world, innit…what was the giveaway?
I think it was the “Simon S” that first gave me a clue 🙂
I I agree with molongo. Bonn cut = Bon + said (reported) shortly = sai
Habdabs v. habdabs. I’m 54, Cornish and had never encountered habdabs until today’s crossword forums.
And believe it or not, my tablet just corrected abdabs to habdabs without me noticing!
Thanks scchua and Paul.
As Jennyk @14 says:
“This was a bit of a relief after recent puzzles. I had started to wonder whether I’d completely lost the knack of solving cryptics.”
My sentiments precisely, for the last 10 days or so, with the exception of Boatman. I had been on holiday in Grasmere, so no access to cheat books didn’t help.
I had NOSE PATCH for 10a (NATCH for ABSURD, which kind of works) so of course I couldn’t complete 8d and 12a till I came here.
A well constructed and clued puzzle from Paul.
My only small gripe is that as it wasn’t so difficult anyway why was the clue for 3,25 such a giveaway. It was so obviously an anagram and the fact that “spies” was actually in the anagram fodder made it a write in! So much so that I assumed this was a double bluff and actually checked the letters. Sadly all was as it so obviously appeared.
A complete contrats to the rest of the week which I suppose was to be expected.
Thanks to scchua and Paul
The first answer I wrote in was “Diamond” for 1a (Damn = D = Diamond; Brilliant = Diamond; Damn Brilliant = Diamond (as in geezer). I was utterly convinced that it was right and enjoyed the clue, especially as it fits with 2d which I saw straight away. Sadly this blinded me entirely to the rest of the NW corner, even the obvious 3d. I still think “Flaming” is a bit of a stretch.
Anyway, it gave me the abdabs!
Same unknowns as many others in this enjoyable puzzle.
Harlot or not, 17d may well contain the next POTUS.
ulaca @38
Heaven forfend! Surely even the Americans couldn’t be that dumb.
You never know what flyover country may decide….
Thanks scchua for the blog and Paul for yet another entertaining puzzle.
Took a while to get into other than the simple AIDED and TASER. Then I got INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE and I was off and racing.
Abdabs was my new word of the day.
Particularly liked BRAIN SURGEON and WISHBONE.
Sense of deja vu with STRUMPET and ASTRAY – maybe I’m doing too many of these things.