Phi on Ph-iday – just what we have come to expect and look forward to. There is one clue though that we have struggled with this week. Any thoughts on 7d would be most welcome.
Regulars will know that Phi often uses hidden themes; we normally have great fun finding them or more often as of late, missing them. We have however, uncovered the theme in this one. Click here if you haven’t spotted it and want to know more. We’ve highlighted all the theme words in green below.
Joyce only came across the theme when she was researching the Frenchman in 4d. Despite him being referred to as ‘the most controversial psychoanalyst since Freud’ neither of us had even heard of him. Maybe because she was a mathematician she noticed (along with the fact that he was also described as ‘The Shrink from Hell’) he used algebraic symbols for his concepts. A quick google using LUCAN and ALGEBRA revealed the theme. No wonder the setter knows Jacques Lacan!
Thanks Phi – all good fun. Can you help us though on the theme for 9127 please?
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | Irishman to be intimidated by Irishwoman? (7) | |
| FEARGAL | FEAR (to be intimidated by) GAL (Irishwoman) – we think the ? is included as GAL could describe any woman. | |
| 5 | Book in African country dismissing one mathematical approach (7) | |
| ALGEBRA | B (book) inside ALGER |
|
| 9 | Sign of important connection university library recalled in arrangement of music (9) | |
| UMBILICUS | U (university) + LIB (library) reversed or ‘recalled’ inside an anagram of MUSIC – anagrind is ‘arrangement of’ | |
| 10 | Spiritual figure exhibiting a small switch in opinion (5) | |
| ANGLE | ANGEL (spiritual figure) with a two letters changed round or ‘a small switch’ | |
| 11 | Prisoner getting reduced time in lots of sites (8) | |
| INTERNET | INTERNE |
|
| 12 | Encourage city to demolish street (5) | |
| CHEER | CHE |
|
| 14 | Expression of surprise when filling a recording agreement (6) | |
| ACCORD | COR (expression of surprise) inside or ‘filling’ A CD (recording) | |
| 16 | Great to bring in trap involving attraction (8) | |
| MAGNETIC | MAGIC (great) around or ‘bringing in’ NET (trap) | |
| 18 | Warmth of address following fine party (8) | |
| FUNCTION | UNCTION (warmth of address) following F (fine) | |
| 19 | Difficulty with ship entering sound (6) | |
| HASSLE | SS (ship) inside or ‘entering’ HALE (sound) | |
| 20 | One encountering refusal about most of attempt, for a start (5) | |
| INTRO | I (one) NO (refusal) around TR |
|
| 21 | English crowd coming in very much for coffee (8) | |
| ESPRESSO | E (English) + PRESS (crowd) inside SO (very much) | |
| 25 | Transport? Parking suggests a long walk (5) | |
| TRAMP | TRAM (a possible form of transport, hence the ?) P (parking) | |
| 27 | Dog leads for Labrador and husky are suggesting active OAPs possibly (5,4) | |
| LHASA APSO | LHASA (first letters or ‘leads’ of Labrador and Husky Are Suggesting Active) + an anagram of OAP’S – anagrind is ‘possibly’ | |
| 28 | Refuse to accept position out of stupidity (7) | |
| DENSITY | DENY (refuse) around or ‘accepting’ SIT (position) | |
| 29 | Look at you having a great time after end of game (7) | |
| EYEBALL | YE (you) BALL (great time) after E last letter or ‘end of’ gamE | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | Complaint over Times output (4) | |
| FLUX | FLU (complaint) on top of or ‘over’ X (times) | |
| 2 | Name observed in some cathedral banners? (5) | |
| ALBAN | Hidden or ‘observed’ in cathedrAL BANners | |
| 3 | Oriental god possibly seen in proportion (6,5) | |
| GOLDEN RATIO | An anagram of ORIENTAL GOD – anagrind is ‘possibly’ | |
| 4 | French psychoanalyst in Los Angeles prison (5) | |
| LACAN | LA (Los Angeles) CAN (prison) | |
| 5 | Police dog often placed to intervene in a capture when brought up (8) | |
| ALSATIAN | SAT (placed) inside or ‘intervening in’ A + NAIL (capture) reversed or ‘brought up’ | |
| 6 | Spanish artist not unknown in old Portuguese territory (3) | |
| GOA | GO |
|
| 7 | A considerable amount of pain evident in Les Misérables? (9) | |
| BAGUETTES | We thought this was a cryptic definition and got as far as AGU |
|
| 8 | Lot of noise after a request upset group of people (3-7) | |
| AGE-BRACKET | RACKET (lot of noise) after A + BEG (request) reversed or ‘upset’ | |
| 12 | Join cetacean (not at sea) (11) | |
| CONCATENATE | An anagram of CETACEAN NOT anagrind is ‘at sea’. Bert had heard of the word but didn’t know what it meant. | |
| 13 | Stopped keeping healthy to embrace women? That’s stupid (4-6) | |
| HALF-WITTED | HALTED (stopped) around or ‘keeping’ FIT (healthy) around or ’embracing’ W (women) | |
| 15 | Restrict transport for opposition? (9) | |
| CONSTRAIN | A play on the fact that transport for people who are against something could be described as a CON’S TRAIN | |
| 17 | Theatre group set about most of historic acting therapy (4,4) | |
| ROLE PLAY | REP (theatre group) LAY (set) around OL |
|
| 22 | Stage keeps absorbing power and energy? On the contrary (5) | |
| PHASE | HAS (keeps) inside (rather than around or ‘absorbing’ as it is ‘on the contrary’) P (power) E (energy) | |
| 23 | I will probe copies turning up, appearing a shade nostalgic? (5) | |
| SEPIA | I inside or ‘probing’ APES (copies) reversed or ‘turning up’ | |
| 24 | Concealing head in funny acrobatic manoeuvre (4) | |
| ROLL | ||
| 25 | Greeting at bottom of page: “Here I am!” (3) | |
| PHI | HI (greeting) at the bottom of P (page) – The setter is PHI – hence – “Here I am” | |
Hi
Thanks to Phi and B&J for the blog.
I just took 7d to be a sort of pun. As you say pain is French for bread so a lot of French bread would be baguettes. Les Miserables just indicates that there is a French dimension to the clue and answer.
Well I spotted that there was a theme with several terms from mathematics and/or physics, but failed to see how they were all connected by the setter’s pseudonym.
And after failing to make anything else of 7dn I would agree with Daniel @1 about BAGUETTES.
A couple of dogs, but hardly worth considering as a second theme.
Thanks, Phi and B&J
Nice puzzle: some near the bottom foxed me, though. Thanks to both.
Well, well. I got as far as thinking there was something going on at back of this but the blog came as a bit of a marmalade-dropper.
Having read round B&J’s link I am now, as they say, none the wiser but measurably better informed.
Thanks to Phi and our esteemed bloggers for a morning of revelation.
Thanks Phi and B&J. I gave up slightly short of the finish, but it was because of lack of time rather than lack of fun. I’m a bit aggrieved at FLUX, which I didn’t get, being defined as “output” when it could equally well be an input. I’ll forgive it only because 25d is so neat and neatly placed.
Thank you Phi and Bertandjoyce.
I was sure this PHI crossword would soon appear, well spotted Joyce. The only reference I can perhaps add is that according to Leonardo da Vinci’s theory of proportion, the height of an adult human being in relation to the height of his UMBILICUS from the ground is the GOLDEN RATIO, PHI.
Have to admit i thought the Lacanian algebra reference would slip past. UMBILICUS was unintentional.
I needed to go back two weeks to check 9127 – I have to confess that by the time a puzzle is published it can be difficult for me to spot its theme, let alone remember its predecessors. Anyway, 9127 arose from attending a stage production of Hound of the Baskervilles, and wondering whether Holmesian villains would do as a theme. I stuck to the novels expecting to have to do some grid trickery to get some unfamiliar proper nouns in, but in the end only STAPLETON (from H of B) needed splitting across two entries, the others being perfectly credible grid entries (DOUGLAS, HOPE, SMALL).
So not a lot to spot. But they aren’t always meant to be spotted of course. (That isn’t always true – let’s just note that I’m about to embark on April ‘s puzzles…)
Thanks again Phi, great fun. This evening, listening to music, it occurred to me there might be a relationship in music to the GOLDEN RATIO, e.g. c – g, 8 semitones, c – c, 13 semitones, 13/8 gives 1.625, checked on the web and found this has all ready been accounted for!
I wonder if the GOLDEN RATIO can also be applied to colours? When doing my PhD thesis, where the study of peanut leaves was involved, I kept getting a 1 : 0.6 ratio which intrigued me, I cannot remember the details, its over 40 years ago, but am looking into it…