Independent 9,472 by Knut

by

A good challenge from Knut today, as is appropriate on a Tuesday. Some nice clues. I don’t seem to have blogged one of Knut’s before, but would be happy to do more.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

The theme is the strangeness (to say the least) of Donald Trump. Many of his idiosyncrasies are included — fake news, alternative facts, tax return, pussy, twitter feed, and no doubt others.

Across
1 BEAR PITS Endure filthy places in beastly lodgings (4,4)
bear [= endure] pits [= filthy places]
5 ITSELF Reflexive form of response to “what’s your favourite Xmas film?” (6)
“It’s Elf” — I only had a vague awareness of the film so I wasn’t sure about this until Google
9 ARTISTIC Creative heart is ticking somewhat (8)
Hidden in heART IS TICking
10 STREAK Smear Republican implicated in cut got from stock market (6)
st(R)eak — the stock market refers to animal stock
12 EARLY Premature, almost a non-starter (5)
{n}early
13 TAX RETURN Filing awaited from Trump to challenge court action? (3,6)
tax [= challenge] return [as in tennis], referring to Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns
14 BAZAAR Where Arab shifts the full range in store? (6)
AZ [the full range] in (Arab)*
16 SEA VIEW Dodgy weave is an expanse of rollers (3,4)
(weave is)* — an expanse of rolling waves on the sea
18 SKIP OFF Leave work early to captain cricket side (4,3)
skip [= captain, the hearty term some sportsmen use to address the captain] off [as opposed to on, cricket]
20 SHEKEL Currency used in controversial bank settlements? (6)
CD referring to the West Bank
22 OVERSLEEP Don’t turn out for some play at Lord’s, shelter by Pavilion End (9)
overs [= some play at Lord’s] lee P{avilion}
23 CARLA She‘s into Scarlatti (5)
Hidden in SCARLAtti
24 IRAQIS Regularly ignoring Piers, acquits Middle Eastern nationals (6)
{P}i{e}r{s}a{c}q{u}i{t}s
25 REFUGEES Match official motivates United to get stuck in – they’re struggling away from home (8)
(ref U gees)
26 HATRED Intense dislike of “Fiery” bowler possibly opening? (6)
red [= Fiery] with hat [= bowler, possibly] at the beginning — nothing to do with Fiery Fred Trueman the bowler
27 LEFTISTS Corbynite faction reshuffled 5 way back (8)
Since 5 is ITSELF, this is (itself)* (st)rev.
Down
1 BEAVER State support for engineer, specialist dam-builder (6)
aver under BE [Bachelor of Engineering]
2 ALTERNATIVE FACT VAT-free Atlantic trade is something offered by the White House (11,4)
(VAT-free Atlantic)*, the anagram indicated by ‘trade’
3 PUSSY A weak man, United States President leads security evacuation (5)
US with P leading s{ecurit}y
4/19 TWITTER FEED According to Spooner, more suitable material for the President’s policy platform? (7,4)
Spoonerism of “fitter tweed”
6 TITLE PAGE “Tea with Piglet” – funny start to book (5,4)
(Tea Piglet)*
7 EXECUTIVE ORDERS “They’re sent out by Trump to kill four captured men” – Der Spiegel’s lead (9,6)
execut(IV)e OR Der S{piegel}
8 FAKE NEWS France was keen to spread propaganda (4,4)
F (was keen)*
11 AXIS 6, a revolting alliance (4)
(six a)rev. — not in this case referring to 6dn
15 A DOG’S LIFE Cocking leg, Fido’s a metaphor for this! (1,4,4)
(leg Fido’s a)* — I was a bit unsure about ‘metaphor’ but I suppose that if a dog cocks his leg this is a sort of description of ‘a dog’s life’
17 ASTONISH 14 lbs, more or less; wow! (8)
a ston{e} ish — to wow is to astonish — so far as I can see ‘more or less’ is doing double duty: it indicates that the word ‘stone’ isn’t completed, and is also a definition of ‘ish’ — but perhaps you could argue that ‘a stonish’ is a (doubtful?) way of spelling ‘a stoneish’
19   See 4
20/23 SUPREME COURT Diana Ross reportedly arrested on a bench in DC? (7,5)
Supreme [Diana Ross was a Supreme — but was she a Supreme herself or did she just sing with The Supremes? So far as I can see she started off as one of them but then she separated herself from them — there are plenty of people on this site who know all about this sort of thing and will be able to say] “caught”
21 CASSIS Russian Commonwealth welcomes idiot in syrup (6)
C(ass)IS — Commonwealth of Independent States
23   See 20 Down

*anagram

13 comments on “Independent 9,472 by Knut”

  2. Thanks, John.

    Yet another top class puzzle from Knut. I don’t know how he keeps doing it – and it’s only a week since the last one.

    I keep saying I simply cannot bear another mention or sight of That Man – many thanks to Knut for helping me keep reasonably sane.

  3. Very enjoyable – lots of clues with * by them – getting more than a little fed up with the themed person now but this was a good airing of all his foibles

    Thank you to Knut and John

  4. Excellent trolling of the Orange one. One of Knut’s best for me with outstanding surfaces and creative usage of the theme. Just hope Knut isn’t hoping to travel through US airspace anytime soon…

    Thanks John for the blogging too.

  6. Entertaining stuff and super theme. Puzzle was enjoyably challenging, finally beating me by one: for 21d I just kept trying to stick various sorts of wigs over an ass, which is a statement I didn’t think I’d be making … ever. Lots of funny clues, but my fave was the def for 5a which elicited a real giggle on solve so thanks to Knut for the fun and to John for the blog.

  8. Very good puzzle. Made me smile, although like some others, being reminded of the narcissistic, ignorant, sexist, racist idiot who is now President was a less welcome experience.

    I thought all of the themed clues were worth the entrance fee alone: to John’s list, I’d add REFUGEES, SUPREME COURT and EXECUTIVE ORDERS. And maybe BEAVER, which is a synonym for 3dn, although that’s probably not what Knut intended.

    Many thanks to S&B.

  10. Good topical stuff from Knut, excellently clued.

    K’sD@8: I thought you description of D***** T**** was rather restrained and an understatement!

    Thanks, Knut and John.

  11. I was going to use f**kw*t, Allan, but house rules don’t allow that sort of language, so I was more temperate.

  12. Many thanks to John for the blog, and to those who took the trouble to comment. In addition to the “dodgy weave” alluded to by Geebs@9, the “idiot in syrup” in the word-play for CASSIS is supposed to be another dig.
    I try to be topical, and the “ignoring Piers regularly” in the clue for IRAQIS was bunged in on the off-chance JK Rowling is tuning in.
    @9 K’s dad
    *arches Roger Moore eyebrow*
    Warmest regards,
    Rob/Knut

Comments are closed.