Poins today. This didn’t seem quite like usual Thursday fare, since Thursdays tend to be rather difficult, for me at any rate, and although there are several places here where I don’t fully understand what’s going on, it did seem to be rather easier than usual.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FAMOUS | Well-known opera endlessly touring Missouri (6) |
| Fa(Mo)us{t} | ||
| 5 | DIALOGUE | Discussion intended to produce agreement to help left-leaning poet (8) |
| (aid)rev. Logue — Christopher Logue | ||
| 9 | SITTER | It’s extremely easy to become a model (6) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 10 | UPRISING | Excited to perform songs around Iran about rebellion (8) |
| up ((Ir)rev.) sing | ||
| 11 | INTERVAL | Time between being at home and travel abroad (8) |
| in (travel)* | ||
| 12 | MUTATE | Change direction after hesitation over tasteless articles (6) |
| (um)rev. tat E | ||
| 13 | ISLE | Letters from Gigi’s leading man for instance (4) |
| Hidden in GigI’S LEading — Isle of Man, but isn’t this wrong? (Yes I know a whole lot of people are going to say that nothing’s wrong, it’s just what people do, but …) isn’t it a crossword sin not to capitalise ‘man’ when it needs to be capitalised? | ||
| 15 | BANK CARD | Plastic storage unit put back inside with first of barrels earlier (4,4) |
| b{arrels} an(kcar)d, the kcar being (rack)rev. | ||
| 18 | BIND OVER | Start to busk in town when subject to legal constraint (4,4) |
| b{usk} in Dover — subject is a verb here | ||
| 19 | MILK | Extract revealing masculine type (4) |
| m ilk — and here extract is also a verb, unless you regard the drink milk as an extract from a cow, which I don’t think Poins intended | ||
| 21 | ESTHER | Number written over section of book (6) |
| e(s)ther — that old crossword favourite the number ether, that which numbs | ||
| 23 | EMPHATIC | Impressive space heater originally commandeered by girl in charge (8) |
| em P(h{eater})at i/c | ||
| 25 | HABITUAL | It’s customary for a halibut to be stewed (8) |
| (a halibut)* | ||
| 26 | SLAP-UP | Excellent buffet at college (4-2) |
| slap [= buffet] up | ||
| 27 | SEASONED | Experienced deaconess caught out surprisingly (8) |
| (deaconess – c)* | ||
| 28 | SETTER | Dog with fixed expression getting clipped (6) |
| set [= fixed] ter{m} | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ALIEN | Foreigner‘s story accepted by soldier for the most part (5) |
| a(lie)n{t} | ||
| 3 | ON THE MEND | Becoming better about them getting close (2,3,4) |
| on them end | ||
| 4 | STRIVE | Split after street fight (6) |
| st rive | ||
| 5 | DOUBLE-BARRELLED | What Duncan-Smith is finding hypocritical about lines by editor in support of a particular court of law (6-9) |
| double [= finding hypocritical, as in double-dealing etc] bar [= a particular court of law] re ll ed. — but is a bar a particular court of law? I can’t find support for anything more than that it can be a division within a court of law. But it’s all a bit complicated and perhaps I have it wrong. | ||
| 6 | ACRIMONY | Arrives before Poins is overwhelmed by companion’s bitterness (8) |
| a [= arrives? Really?] cr(I’m)ony | ||
| 7 | ONSET | Acceptable to apply oneself in the beginning (5) |
| on [= acceptable] set [= apply oneself, presumably somewhere in the long list of definitions of ‘set’, although off the top of my head I can’t think what] | ||
| 8 | UNNATURAL | Monstrous of Brown to capsize in a French river (9) |
| un ((tan)rev.) Ural | ||
| 14 | SHIPSHAPE | Dispatches copy implicating hospital orderly (9) |
| ships h ape — ‘implicating’ an inclusion indicator | ||
| 16 | COME APART | Separate issue on the source of American concern (4,5) |
| come A{merican} part — a couple of slightly incomprehensible equivalences here: come = issue in a sort of sense I suppose, but part = concern maybe in some way as in ‘take someone’s part’, but I can’t quite see how they’re direct equivalences | ||
| 17 | OVERTURN | Upset on account of change (8) |
| over [= on account of] turn [= change] | ||
| 20 | OPUSES | Returning in due course carrying exercises involving American works (6) |
| P(US)E in (so)rev. | ||
| 22 | HAILS | Grasps the point of concealing the Italian addresses (5) |
| ha(il)s | ||
| 24 | IN USE | Being employed by us to stab popular Estonian leader (2,3) |
| in (us) E{stonian} | ||
*anagram
Thanks Poins and John. I took 7d in the sense “I set to it” = “I applied myself to it”
Some very neat clues here, leading to several ‘aha’ moments, e.g BANK CARD and BIND OVER. But also a few that just didn’t click, e.g 16d.
And I wasn’t happy either with the non-capitalisation in 13ac. Granted that to capitalise ‘man’ where it was would have given the game away, I think the clue could have been re-cast with ‘Man’ as the first word.
Thanks, though, to Poins and John.
I didn’t find this very easy, mainly because of some of the parsing difficulties you’ve pointed out e.g. COME APART. I think ‘A’ is OK for ‘arrives’ in the same way as ‘D’ for ‘departs’, say in a flight timetable. ‘Set’ = ‘apply (to)’ in the sense of ‘He set himself to (= applied himself to) the job at hand’ – well, sort of anyway.
Favourites were MILK (I was itching to put ‘male’) and the surface of SETTER.
Thanks to Poins and John
Agreed on Man needing a capital. To be ridiculously picky, in 5d “Duncan-Smith” is indeed double-barrelled, but the politician’s surname is Duncan Smith, which isn’t. So the definition is technically correct, but the surface is faulty.
Agree this was easier than yer usual Indy Thursday. T’was a nice solve that fell regularly – though not too quickly – with the SW corner putting up the most resistance.
My guess on the uncapped ‘man’ in 13a is typo, though as it’s an easy hidden perhaps the naughtiness was more allowable? Geebs has the same thoughts as me about 7d.
Many thanks to John for the blog and to Poins for a pleasantly smooth solve with some cunningly put together WP like 15d.
*SE corner (no wonder I had to be rescued by helicopter on the Indy orienteering awayday).
WordPlodder @3, I’m with John on questioning ‘arrives’ for the a in ACRIMONY. I don’t think Chambers or Collins has it, both preferring arr. (For departs, d is in Chambers, but not in Collins, which prefers dep.) Different crossword editors have their own preferences, obviously.
There’s no problem with ‘arrives’ = a.
The COED has: a – abbrev. (in travel timetables) arrives.
The online Oxford adds the example – ‘Penzance a 0915’
Gaufrid, thank you for clarifying – I didn’t check Oxford.
13A As I’ve suggested here before, if fake capitalisations are acceptable, why not fake non-capitalisations?
Certainly some unusual wordplay in this one, COME APART, ONSET etc, could see that’s what they must be, had to steel myself to enter them.
Thanks to Poins and John.