Independent 9,486 by Punk

by

As I said once when posting a remark about a Mudd puzzle in the FT, we don’t appreciate this setter enough. This puzzle contains a whole lot of utterly good, straightforward clues with sensible surfaces and no straining involved. I suppose that if you’re being picky there are rather a lot of full or almost full anagrams, but they’re all clued quite naturally.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

If there is a Nina I can’t see it. As you might expect.

Across
7/16 AT THE END OF THE DAY When all’s said and done, that’s when to retire? (2,3,3,2,3,3)
The end of the day is the time to retire to bed
8/17 DUNG BEETLE Coleopteran, brown insect heading for turd in endless joy (4,6)
dun g(bee t{urd})le{e}
11 GOD SLOT Time for services, perhaps, to depart: plenty on backs of crowded platforms (3,4)
go {crowde}d {platform}s lot
12 TROTTER Trump shaking buttocks, scoundrel, bit of a pig (7)
T{rump} rotter — I’m not totally comfortable with shaking = shaking off; but it’s probably in some dictionary somewhere
13 TRIPE Rubbish, fifth journey? (5)
trip E, as opposed to trip A, trip B, …
14 ELIMINATE Remove a line with time for a rewrite (9)
(a line time)*
15 WARMTH Comfort not unknown in legend of conflict? (6)
war m{y}th
17   See 8
21 APPLE TART Sweet painting, say, on web page program (5,4)
applet art
23   See 1 Down
25 SPINACH After drive, a companion leaves (7)
spin a CH
26 FUCHSIA Stupid if such a bloomer (7)
(if such a)*
27 HUTU African shack for everyone (4)
hut U
28 WORDSEARCH Record was unlikely with hard puzzle (10)
(Record was)* h
Down
1/23A CAUGHT SHORT Suddenly needing to go out, tot (6,5)
caught [= out, as in cricket] short [= tot, as in drink]
2 STODGIER More difficult to eat, digest or otherwise (8)
(digest or)*
3/4 TELL ME ANOTHER All ten suspicious with theorem that’s hard to believe (4,2,7)
(All ten theorem)*
5 FOX-TAIL Brush surface of French soup (3-4)
F{rench} oxtail
6 AGGRIEVE A good girl almost corrupted, girl upset (8)
a g (gir{l})* Eve
9 ULTRA Somewhat difficult, radical fanatic (5)
Hidden in difficULT, RAdical
10   See 19
15/22 WHATS THE POINT North, south, east or west? Why bother? (5,3,5)
N, S, E and W are points: which one?
16   See 7 Across
18 TROUSERS Consumer in type lifting bags? (8)
user in (sort)rev.
19/10 FASHION POLICE If I choose plan that goes wrong, clobber officers? (7,6)
(If I choose plan)*, with a fanciful definition: officers dealing with clobber (clothes)
20 STIFADO A cook after tough cut for Greek dish (7)
stif{f} a do
22   See 15
23 SUCKER Mug, one with a straw perhaps? (6)
Someone who sucks may be using a straw
24 TRASHY Cheap wood, crack around it (6)
tr(ash)y

*anagram

13 comments on “Independent 9,486 by Punk”

  1. I struggled to enter 23A in the on-line version – there seemed to be some glitch in the system linking the clues to the places where they fit. But I managed in the end.

  2. Same experience as Jason @1. Across/down clue combinations throwing a wobbly, and had to restart 3 times. Nice advert tune. Got there in the end and enjoyed the usual rude humour from Punk. Thanks to S&B.

  4. Thanks Punk and John

    Mr Halpern obviously likes FASHION POLICE as he used it in the grain in mif-February. I wonder when it will appear in a Mudd puzzle?

    The online entry diffculties are probably down to the Indy software being a bought-in American package which struggles with multi-light entries, and can’t handle alphabeticals at all.

  5. I didn’t know 20dn (and it didn’t turn up in a word search) but I guessed it and put it in a search engine and got lot of recipes. It doesn’t appear to be in Chamber, either.

    I print out the puzzle as I prefer to solve that way, so I had no problems entering 23ac. Couldn’t parse it though, so thanks for the explanation.

    Seems to be a bit of food theme, APPLE TART, SPINACH, STIFADO, TROTTER, STODGIER, DUNG BEETLE. Well, maybe not the last.

  6. Good stuff that was, as John said, pretty straightforward for the most part – though I did miss the unknown to me ‘Stifado’ (now stored in the brain box for later use as possible answer or an Italian term for something non-food related). Fave clues were 12a and 15/22d so thanks to Punk for an enjoyable puzzle and to John for the blog.

    BTW, for anyone on Twitter who missed it and wants to follow him, Punk is now posting at the new account @crosswordpaul. Oh, and Dormouse @5 I’ll swap your ‘dung beetle’ for ‘tripe’ to further the food theme.

  7. Didn’t know STIFADO (not in Chambers or Collins) but it was easily got from the wordplay and confirmed by googling – and I’ve now got another recipe to try out. Crosswords aren’t just an intellectual exercise, as others have remarked before on this site!

    Anyway, an excellent crossword with just the right amount of this setter’s trademark humour.

    Thanks, Punk and John

  8. Fine puzzle, which I enjoyed; liked the foody mini-theme. Although I think I’d prefer DUNG BEETLE in red wine jus to TRIPE. And I’m from oop north.

    Thanks to S&B.

  9. Hoskins@6: Yes, I was meaning to include TRIPE in that list but forgot to type it.

    Incidentally, as fans of Aristophanes know, you can used dung beetles for flying up to meet the gods.

  10. Thanks for the Aristophanes (defo a suitable character for a TLS answer if ever there was one) info Dormouse – though I would hope the ride to the Gods was just for a bit of a chinwag and not a ride to the Gods after dying as by dung beetle would be a crappy way to go …

  11. The play is Peace, and in it Trygaeus does indeed use a giant dung beetle to venture to the gods whilst still alive to negotiate peace for Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Like all his plays, it’s a political satire. The opening scene has two slaves with the thankless task of preparing large amounts of dung to feed to their master’s beetle so it will grow large enough to carry him. I first read this nearly fifty years ago.

  12. We enjoyed the puzzle and Dormouse’s comment@11 about preparing endless amounts of dung. If the political satire was set in the present day, in our opinion there would be copious amounts available to feed any number of beetles!

    We can however recommend stifado if you are in Greece.

    Thanks to Punk and John.

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