Independent 9,275 by Knut

by

There are two clues here that are as good as any you ever see.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

Knut has constructed his crossword around the Chilcot report, which is being published today. There are references to Bush, Blair, Iraq, Chilcot himself, war, peace, Desert Storm, dossier, and that’s just after a glance at the Across clues. Probably many more that people will see.

Across
1 VOWING Swearing in noughties President, take time out from exercising democracy (6)
W = Bush?  The name Dubya is often given to George W. Bush, to distinguish him from his father, but W?  Never heard it, although maybe it exists. This clue is w replacing t in voting. But I can’t see where we are told to replace the t by w, or even to omit the t and then put ‘voing’ round w.
4 BETA CELL Elect lab to manufacture insulin agent (4,4)
(elact lab)* — but I can’t find this in either Chambers or Collins, only in Google. It seems plausible enough and I wonder if it goes by another name.
10 RUSH TO WAR 12’s haste to play the flip side of Give Peace a Chance? (4,2,3)
A CD I think. So far as I can see, Rush to War is a film and not a song, but perhaps with the looseness that generally attaches to CDs this doesn’t matter.
11 INTRO Bars, at the outset, fertilisation technique not involving sex (5)
in (vi)tro — VI = sex, the Latin for six — a brilliant clue that makes up for all my quibbles so far
12 BUSH Back-to-back winner to coach Hungary (4)
bus H — George W. Bush won two elections in a row
13 STORM SURGE Attacks drive a sudden rush (5,5)
storms urge
15 SEXED UP Piers Morgan, for example, when in drink, made to look more attractive (5,2)
s(ex-ed.)up — Piers Morgan was editor of the Daily Mirror
16 POODLE Customer for parlour Penny established in Dorset town (6)
Poo(d)le — poodle parlour — should we have been told that it is an old penny?
19 ANGLER One casting movie director’s unfinished Romeo (6)
Ang Le{e} R — the director Ang Lee — R = Romeo in the NATO phonetic alphabet
21 DOSSIER In the Stasi, the DDR citizen is in the file (7)
d(ossi)er — this seems to be der = the in German (‘In the Stasi, the’), and in this is ossi [= East German citizen]
23 REPUTATION Put in family member no longer left standing (10)
relation [= family member] no longer has its l and ‘put’ goes inside ‘reation’; the fact that it goes at just the same place as the l is I think just a coincidence
25 PALM Handy place where one can get a date easily (4)
2 defs, the first of them whimsical in that it refers to a place on the hand as being a handy place, the second referring to a palm tree
27 PLATO Father introduced lecturer to Academy founder (5)
P(l)a to — Plato founded an Academy
28 IN TATTERS Nattiest dresser’s last to go out like this! (2,7)
(nattiest {dresse}r)* — some sort of &lit. — the observant reader will have noticed that I am less than overwhelmed by some of the clues, but this one, like 11ac, almost makes up for it all; quite brilliant
29 NAGASAKI Ask again about fat man’s awful operation (8)
(ask again)* — the bomb that fell on Nagasaki was called the Fat Man. Was it ever called the fat man? And although the dropping of a bomb on Nagasaki was an awful operation, is ‘Fat Man’s awful operation’ an adequate definition of ‘Nagasaki’?
30 EMIGRÉ One fleeing Iraq, perhaps after regime change (6)
(regime)*
Down
1 VERY BEST Part of the elite, just like George (4,4)
very [= just like] Best [as in George Best]
2 WEST SAXON Texan sows destruction, in a former manner of speaking (4,5)
(Texan sows)* — West Saxon was new to me — some would criticise the use here of a noun as an anagram indicator, although in my opinion that’s being a bit Zoilist
3 NETT Get Chilcot finally…cleared of all charges? (4)
net {Chilco}t
5 EARDROP Doctor visits opera performing The Ring? (7)
Dr in (opera)* — is a pendant earring a ring? I can’t see how.
6 AT ITS WORST Jack Straw is “OTT, as bad as it gets” (2,3,5)
(Straw is OTT)*, the anagram indicated by ‘Jack’, which has so many meanings that probably one of them passes muster
7 ENTER President Erdogan holds the key (5)
Hidden in PresidENT ERdogan — the Enter key on a keyboard
8 LIONEL 51-49 for Blair? (6)
LI one L — ref. Lionel Blair
9 SWOT UP Revise odds about 12 to upset United (4,2)
s(W (to)rev. u)p — again we have W = Bush
14 IDOLATROUS A dour lot, rebels in Islamic State are not true believers (10)
I(dolatrou)S, the dolatrou being (a dour lot)* — although ‘idolatrous’ is simply an adjective, it can I suppose replace ‘not true believers’: this seems a bit odd, but just OK I think
17 LAID AN EGG I got stuck into rising tennis star, one likely to get seeded; failed horribly (4,2,3)
I in (Nadal)rev. egg — quite how an egg is one likely to get seeded I can’t see — this meaning of ‘laid an egg’ was new to me
18 PROMISEE After High School dance, I observe one taking the pledge (8)
prom I see
20 RATFINK Almost stab sailor; revolting, despicable individual (7)
(knif{e} tar)rev.
21 DROITS Motown’s to lose Spielberg film rights (6)
D{ET}roit’s — droit = right, a legal term
22 TREPAN Boring article about Congressman Brown (6)
t(rep)an — a trepan was a clylindrical saw for boring into the skull — round the outside of rep [= representative, congressman] is tan [= brown]
24 PRANG Managed to get doctor to turn out for accident (5)
(GP)rev. round ran
26 STEM Stop regularly, as it seems (4)
{a}s {i}t {s}e{e}m{s}

*anagram

36 comments on “Independent 9,275 by Knut”

  1. Many thanks, John, for the blog and Knut for a magnificent puzzle. Like others, I’m sure, I guessed the topic when I saw the name today.

    I look forward to spending more time ferreting out the references but, for now, I’m tickled by the [almost]juxtaposition of SEXED-UP DOSSIER and REPUTATION IN TATTERS. Lots more to spot, I’m sure.

    John, in 1ac, we’re asked to ‘take time out’ from voting and ‘swear in’ W, noughties President.

    Lots of ‘favourites’ but an extra-big tick for 8dn – a real laugh-out-loud moment.

    Stunning stuff, Knut – thanks again.

  2. Nothing short of wonderful, as you admit John, so hats off to Knut, the king off topical ticklers.

    You have a number of cavils John. Let me deal with some of them.

    No trouble at all with 1 across. We are explicitly told to use W not T, and I’ve seen W loads of times.

    16 across, surely one tries both P and D?

    29 across. The bomb was certainly just Fat Man (the other bomb was Little Boy.)

  3. Not my favourite Knut puzzle, I regret to say. Too many inadequate clues leading to frequent checks make for a less than enjoyable solve. I agree with John regarding the two favourite clues. But 17 was too close for comfort!

  4. Is the poodle Dubwa (obeying the dark powers in the Pentagon) or Blair(Tony not Lionel) obeying he who helped him to power ih his gutter press?

    Another cracker from Knut.

    But would VI=”six” work better in NewZealand ?

  6. PS Collins gives sex- (comb. form) six, as in sexcentenary. I am a New Zealander and “six” did not come to my mind.
    11a is a super clue.

  8. I like it! As soon as SEXED-UP and POODLE came from my first pass I thought there must be something topical going on, and I wasn’t disappointed.

    In 1ac isn’t the point that W = Dubya from his mispronunciation of that letter, and hence W = noughties President – or am I stating the obvious?

    Thanks, Knut and John

    PS: Oh, and btw, the site is working properly again on Firefox.

  10. Eileen @1: W can’t be ‘swearing into’ vo{t}ing since ‘swearing’ is the definition.

    Conrad @2: surely you’re not saying that one tries both P and D and if one works then that’s OK. Doesn’t it matter to indicate properly whichever one is correct? Of course it’s quite easy to solve, but … In 29ac my point was that it is questionable whether we should accept fat man as a definition of Fat Man.

  11. John, an egg gets seeded by a process your parents should have told you about. It’s what Tony Blair did to Iraq.
    A clever puzzle rather than an enjoyable one, in my opinion of course. Other, less correct opinions, are available.
    I’ve never thought of an eardrop as a ring, but am not complaining.
    Thanks to setter and blogger

  12. Dubya is not so much a mispronunciation of the letter W, but the letter as pronounced by a Texan and doubtless others from the southern States of the USA.

    Agree about the excellence of the puzzle. Particularly liked 8D, this time Blair not being Orwell. Several brilliant clues.

    Thanks to Knut and John.

  13. John@10

    >>surely you’re not saying that one tries both P and D and if one works then that’s OK
    Yes I am. It’s a puzzle, and to indicate one or the other makes it too easy. (In view of other similar debates, the reason I don’t mind ‘you’ being ‘u’ is that if the clue signals texting, it again makes it too easy.

    As for Fat Man, your comment said ‘the Fat Man’ so I the definite article caused me to misread your intention. If you are in fact complaining about misleading ‘un-capitalisation’ you have a point and I am right with you.

  14. Nice stuff – plenty of allusions and references woven into some nifty clues.

    Already fielded by CC but I can’t buy this sort of quibbling (re 16a) that “penny” has to be “old penny” or “new penny” according t whether P or D is required.

    When we are given “singer” it might be S, A, T, B, or their equivalents in full or a host of other possibilities, including the names of every singer who ever lived.

    If the setter wants “A” singer will do – we don’t need “abbreviation for female choral singer with a fairly low voice”.

  15. Re You-U (off-topic but mentioned above)

    A lot of complaints recently. I’ve always been happy with unindicated short homophones like that (the great setters of the past used them) but the reason that even the starchiest setters are now using them is not a sudden abandonment of standards. It’s because they go by the rule that anything that’s in their dictionary of reference is perforce OK.

    The dictionaries now show various txtmsg abbreviations – so on that basis they use them.

  16. BTW – lots of smiles – I thing EX-ED (Piers Morgan) was my fave at the time.

    Thanks all round.

  17. I liked this, including (maybe even especially) the politically non-topical bits. I took 4 to be a sort of &lit. The beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas make insulin, hence are an ‘Elect (=specialised) lab to manufacture insulin agent’. I admit though that I don’t quite know how ‘agent’ fits in. Lots of v. good clues, my favourites being LIONEL and RATFINK.

    Copmus @7, don’t worry, as a non-vowel mangler (ie non-Kiwi) myself, I liked your little witticism. I’m not being anti-NZ – even if I mightn’t mangle, what my accent does to vowels is a lot worse than anything the Kiwis can serve up.

    Thanks to Knut and John.

  18. Hi Folks,
    Thanks for the blog, John, and thanks for the comments. I accept that the line between misdirection and, er, cheating may have been compromised by the fat man/Fat Man idea in the clue for NAGASAKI.
    @Jolly Swagman
    Eimi was responsible for the Piers Morgan ref (my original submission contained a cheeky “Rusbridger”); I’m also grateful to him for making today’s slot available to coincide with the release of the report.
    warmest regards,
    Rob/Knut

  19. Thanks, both.

    My kind of theme – political and very topical. Sadly I couldn’t quite finish it this morning; got stuck in the SW, mainly, and don’t have time to have another crack this evening.

    The Piers Morgan reference was very good (you can’t expect the Indy editor to give you a cheeky reference to an editor in Another Place, Knut …)

    Friends of mine from Australia always hang their coats up on PIGS, it appears, so copmus’ comment made me smile. But please let’s not get into a discussion about the NZ and the Oz accents being different. Are they?

  20. Admitting defeat on this one due to lack of time, but I greatly enjoyed the three quarters that I did.

    Thanks to Knut and John

  22. I agree with those who say that it’s no big deal to try P and D for penny and see which works, unless both give a plausible answer. After all, “about” can be CA or ON or RE and what about all those notes and compass points?

    Not keen on you = U though, not so much from a crossword point of view as because I hate text speak!

  23. I loved the idea of precluding the Chilcot enquiry, but so many of the clues fell short, I hope and believe (ha ha ha), of the required standard. There is this curious thing, called English grammar, that so many compilers fail to grasp in the excitement of all their trendy fun clues. A pity. Just relax, and remain calm.

  24. Oh hi AmandaLynne – welcome to the site.

    I see you’ve only made a few comments so far.

    Good to have someone around who picks holes in puzzles on the basis of supposed grammar – an expert on what is or isn’t an &lit etc – eminently filling the gap left by the departures of Rowland and Hedgehoggy.

  25. @AmandaLynne We all welcome constructive criticism, but simply dismissing a puzzle without giving examples really won’t do on this site. So please, enlighten us.

    I have to plead guilty to meddling with 15A, but couldn’t resist the opportunity to make fun of the buffoon Morgan.

  27. This is rather dreadful. A fairly new poster (AmandaLynne @23) makes what seems to me to be a fairly good point, but she doesn’t quote chapter and verse. So instead of people explaining diplomatically to her that she should do so (I don’t call “really won’t do on this site” diplomatic), she is greeted with patronising and dismissive comments. I thought this site was supposed to be reasonably civilised, and wouldn’t be surprised if she now says to hell with it, I’m not going to post again.

  28. In my opinion, it won’t do. I’m sorry if you disagree with that, but there are sites where people leave gratuitous insults about a particular puzzle or setter. To its credit, that has rarely happened on fifteensquared. It isn’t sufficient to make a fairly serious accusation, and put it in a very condescending way, without giving any examples, or naming names of these ‘so many compilers’.

  29. Your chivalry is admirable, John, but I suspect JS is right on the money at 24. I may be wrong – I hope so – and if that’s the case, apologies in advance.

  30. What was that instrument that Captain Corelli played? And what’s the usual advice? Don’t feed the troll.

  32. Paul B @31

    This is an inflammatory comment, not in keeping with the ethos of this site (nor the Site Policy, so I could have removed it). Please desist.

  33. Oh come off it. It’s a bit of fun as anyone can see, and JS never misses a chance to get on about his hedgehogs and sock-puppets. Relax and smile for once.

  34. Re grammar, I’m an English teacher when I’m not playing my guitar (yeah, a mandolin it isn’t!) or modelling, so why wouldn’t I? Sorry to offend of course, but must I be a ‘troll’?

    Hedgehogs? WTF? You guys are nuts.

  35. come on – we weren’t all born yesterday – from a neutral perspective one has to be suspicious when certain people who shall remain nameless choose to defend the indefensible. In my view Knut and eimi’s comments were spot on. Light the blue touchpaper and retreat to a safe distance 🙂

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