More of the good stuff form Julius. I have to say that his CDs don’t really grab me, but apart from that what more could I ask? Thank you Julius for another super puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 1, 13 | YOUR TINY HAND IS FROZEN | Air likely to get the frigid 12 23 across to 21? (4,4,4,2,6) |
| an aria from |
||
| 9 | KNAVISH | Dishonest, a bit like Jack? (7) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | CEILING | Gaelic party no good for Lawrence, likely to get plastered (7) |
| CEILIdh (gaelic party) with NG (no good) replacing DH (DH Lawrence). I have never been able to spell ceilidh, so now I have a mnemonic to help me. | ||
| 11 | NAIVE | I’m buried in part of church green (5) |
| I inside (buried in) NAVE (part of church) | ||
| 12 | PRESIDENT | Spin doctor needs it for the boss (9) |
| PR (spin) then anagram (doctor) of NEEDS IT | ||
| 13 | See 1 | |
| 15 | EDGED OUT | Narrowly defeated Democrat in nick, having been caught! (5,3) |
| D (democrat) in EDGE (nick) OUT (caught, in cricket) | ||
| 18 | ENSHRINE | Cherish sinner he converted (8) |
| anagram (converted) of SINNER HE | ||
| 19 | OSWALD | Was shot, captured by familiar killer (6) |
| anagram (shot) of WAS inside (captured by) OLD (familiar) – Lee Harvey Oswald, killer of JFK. Or was he? | ||
| 21 | BLOW A FUSE | Lose the plot, as Beowulf gets complicated (4,1,4) |
| anagram (gets complicated) of AS BEOWULF | ||
| 23 | ELECT | Vote in some revolting bankrupt celebrity (5) |
| found reversed (revolting) inside (in some) bankrupT CELEbrity | ||
| 25 | CROOKED | Warped, sick Australian newspaperman (7) |
| 26 | HILLARY | Legendary climber unable to break the glass 10? (7) |
| double definition – mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and Hillary Clinton (a woman unable to make it to the very top in politics) | ||
| 27 | HOLDING PATTERN | Delaying tactics ordered by JFK? (7,7) |
| cryptic definition – at an airport | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | YUKON | North American territory that welcomes Britain (5) |
| YON (that) contains (welcomes) UK (Britain). Are the UK and Britain really the same thing? | ||
| 2 | UNANIMOUS | UN article given Finnish backing without dissent (9) |
| UN AN (indefinite article) with SUOMI (Finnish) reversed (backing) | ||
| 3 | TRIPE | Ready to support Trump’s leadership? Rubbish! (5) |
| RIPE (read) underneath (to support) Trump (leadership, first letter of) | ||
| 4 | NO HOPE | A state of despair for Crosby, having lost his partner (2,4) |
| Bing Crosby would have NO HOPE if he lost his partner (Bob Hope) | ||
| 5 | HACIENDA | This house could require a Mexican wall! (8) |
| cryptic definition? | ||
| 6 | NOISINESS | Decibel reading of jam session featuring One Direction (9) |
| anagram (jam) of SESSION containing (featuring) I (one) and N (north, direction) | ||
| 7 | IMIDE | 1,000 fish in organic compound (5) |
| I M (one thousand) and IDE (fish). I made things hard for myself by writing AMIDE in here as my first attempt. | ||
| 8 | AGITATED | Distressed about not being allowed out to eat Italian (8) |
| A (about) GATED (not being allowed to go out) containing (to eat) IT (Italian) | ||
| 13 | FEEDBACK | Criticism voiced in guitarist’s technique (8) |
| double definition – I’m not sure what to do with “voiced” | ||
| 14 | EARMARKED | Carefully chosen Demerara rum to entertain the King (9) |
| anagram (rum) of DEMERARA contains K (king) | ||
| 16 | ON AVERAGE | Working time involving state, typically speaking (2,7) |
| ON (working) AGE (time) contains (involving) AVER (state) | ||
| 17 | UNBURDEN | To unwind, going topless, sunburn covers Demi’s upper half (8) |
| sUNBURN (going topless) contains (covers) DEmi (upper half of) | ||
| 20 | BED-HOP | Swing a part in Rising Damp? Oh, Deborah! (3-3) |
| found reversed (rising) inside (a part) in damP OH DEBorah! | ||
| 22 | OVOLO | Architectural moulding for stocky cube having capacity to replace x (5) |
| OXO ( a stock cube) with VOL (capacity) replacing X | ||
| 23 | ECLAT | Leaders of European Commission lukewarm about Trump’s swagger (5) |
| first letters (leaders) of European Commission Lukewarm About Trump | ||
| 24 | TRY-ON | Fitting attempt to sneak an advantage? (3-2) |
| double definition | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand feel to ask questions; chances are there are others wondering the same things.
12 PRESIDENT Spin doctor needs it for the boss (9)
anagram (spin) of DR (doctor) NEEDS IT
should be
PR (Spin) anagram of (doctor) NEEDS IT
Thanks Chas, fixed now. What I wrote was a bit of a muddle.
Isn’t Che Gelida Manina La Boheme rather than Madame Butterfly?
Thanks, PeeDee, for a great blog – but I was hoping you were going to explain 1,13, which I got, eventually, from the enumeration. I can’t fathom it at all.
Another super puzzle, as you say. [Is there no end to the exploitation of Trump?] Favourites today: CEILING – I’m grateful for the mnemonic, too – BLOW A FUSE, ELECT, HOLDING PATTERN, EARMARKED and ECLAT.
I had CROOKED for 25ac.
Many thanks for the puzzle, Julius – highly entertaining.
Nick @3 – yes it is. I saw La Boheme quite recently so I really have no excuse for the mixup.
Eileen @4 – you have the correct solution to 25ac I think, thanks for that. All I need now is a mnemonic to spell
nemonicnmemonicmnemonic.Thanks for the update re 1,13, PeeDee – but I think I’d rather have been kept in ignorance!
Thanks to PeeDee for the blog, and to others who have commented- particularly for tidying up one or two slight issues.
The puzzle’s entire objective was to deliver this punchline “YOUR TINY HAND IS FROZEN” which I see has alas fallen on stony ground.
In the 1980s, society journalist Graydon Carter, now editor of Vanity Fair but then writing in SPY magazine, described Trump as a “short-fingered vulgarian”. Instead of ignoring this, Trump bombarded Carter and other journos who latched onto the riff with countless images of his hands in an effort to prove that they are of normal size. Only last week, Trump tweeted a withering attack on Carter, and I think that this obsessive aspect of his personality is worrying and a fair target for a satirical crossword.
A simple search for “Trump tiny hands” will reveal just how much material there is out there about it.
warmest regards,
Rob/Julius
1D. Of course Britain (and Great Britain) do not include Northern Ireland which is in the UK.
Great puzzle from the Sheffield lad but in the case of small hands I may have to hand you over to Fiona Apple.
Thanks for dropping in Julius. I think if Trump story had something to do with “frozen” too I might have caught on more quickly.
@PeeDee
By using “frigid” in the word-play, I was hoping that the solver would conjure an image of The Donald as Mimi, shivering in her seamstress’ rags, as Mario Lanza sang “your tiny hand is frozen” at which point Mimi would explode in aggressive rage.
However, it has become clear to me that this particular horse is dead, and that flogging it serves no purpose; time to move on
All very entertaining – mostly straightforward but I had to check the song, the moulding and the compound, none of which I knew.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Good stuff from Julius with my fave being 20d. Thanks to setter and blogger.
And don’t neglect “CROOKED HILLARY” in row 13, Trump’s favourite sobriquet for his opponent in the presidential election.
Myelbow @ 15
And “NAIVE PRESIDENT” at 11 & 12!
Re: small hands, in Feb 2016 then candidate Marco Rubio made issue of Trump’s supposedly small hands, adding “And you know what they say about guys with small hands” (pause for laughter) … “You can’t trust ’em”.
At the next debate Trump made a point of saying “Look at those hands, are they small hands? .., he referred to my hands — ‘if they’re small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee.” So CNN reported this as “Donald Trump defends size of his penis”
If it’s any consolation Julius, I did derive FROZEN from “frigid” and did look for TINY HAND when I’d filled in the words in the clue. With the checking letters, all I had to do was look up the song.
I wonder how much overlap there is between the set of solvers that know La Boheme and those that have followed Trump’s hand issues? Anyway I very much enjoyed the punchline, so you’ve pleased one solver at least.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee.
Tough one but I liked it a lot. There were still a few gaps when I came here to check. With a couple of errors e.g. Amide instead of Imide. The final song was beyond my ability. Thanks for the crossword and the solution here.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Found most of this puzzle filled in a lot quicker than normal for this setter – until the last few clues ! I guessed the words from the crossers of 1a, 13a (my last one in) and had to google them to find the La Boheme song which I didn’t know (opera far from being one of my strengths) and only learnt of the relevance to Donald Trump after coming here.
On reviewing the crossword, there were a number of clever references to past and to-be US presidents in both the surface readings and the actual answers, some of which were picked up during the solve, some in the post-solve parsing (didn’t get the HILLARY Clinton part of 26a at first) and some after reading the blog.
Missed the VOL for X substitute at 22d – had replaced C for it and wondered how the LO bit was supposed to work.
All in all, a totally entertaining challenge that slowly revealed it’s true depth in the three various stages – solve, post solve and blog.
Found this last night (in a little forgotten pile – don’t often solve FTs these days so imagine it was a recommendation). I’m posting in case Julius (baerchen/Rob) should see since I wanted him to know I really appreciated and was amused by the “….TINY HAND….” joke. I enjoyed watching our beloved MrT squirm at the accusations of his having little hands, as set out by Peacelovewoodstock above, with delight – and he does seem to have little hands (“it’s true, folks, tiny hands, big wall it’s great, they’re really tiny really great again…..”) so I loved the clue and its construction!
And PeeDee – I’ve just noticed your appendix: “I write these posts to help people get started……”. Oh dear! I often go months (or longer) without being stumped by a clue or its parsing (Guardian, Times and until I recently stopped, the Indy); does this mean I’ve been visiting fifteensquared these past three years or so on false pretences?!
….And many thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
[PeeDee – very strangely, have just solved (re-solved?) Araucaria’s New Year prize “Spooner” puzzle from 2011 and it’s your first blog here! Neither that nor many others you’ve blogged, and I’ve seen, have those words added…..]
William, I added the postscript quite recently to try to encourage more people to comment. I think some people are reluctant to ask questions as it comes across that this is a site “for experts”.
I really do write these posts for beginners. My view is that if you can can already solve the clues yourself you don’t need someone on the Internet to explain them to you.
Pee Dee – That explains it! I do like your thinking in your first paragraph – I have a feeling that we share our hobby with a growing number of new addicts (which bucks recent trends?) and in some measure it’s thanks to your blogs, and others here, that the habit is spreading. You crossword pusher, you! Seriously, as a spreader of the crossword bug myself, after I’ve hooked the target with some choice clues and a fun easy (invariably a Guardian, an Everyman or a Dac) I then point them in the direction of fifteensquared. It can take a year or two – but I’ve trapped a few unsuspecting dabblers that way!
And how odd that I should solve two of yours consecutively (given how rarely I solve FTs these days and your debut New Years Day Araucaria Prize solved immediately before). Quite bananas. There has to be a reason; it must be to give me the chance to thank you – sincerely – for doing your bit, and so well, and for keeping it up through the years. I know you’re but one of a number, but they won’t read this! 😉