Independent 9533 / Crosophile

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Crosophile stands in for Dac this week.

 

 

 

It was only when we were compiling the blog that we realised that there is a theme here – given away (perhaps unnecessarily?) by the definition in 31ac. Varieties of butterfly appear in 19ac, 30ac, 31ac, 2d and 18d – maybe there are others?

We enjoyed this challenge – there were some ‘interesting’ definitions and only one slightly unusual word – the wild flower at 5d.

Across
1   A selfie that is taken and altered with Photoshop? (5)
FALSE An anagram of A SELFie with ‘ie’ (that is) omitted or ‘taken’ – anagrind is ‘altered’
4   Lover unaltered in extremes of torment is a Walter Mitty (9)
FANTASIST FAN (lover) + AS IS (unaltered) in TormenT (first and last letters or ‘extremes’)
10   Food basket hotel dropped off – it takes a long time to see what’s currently available? (8)
AMPERAGE hAMPER (food basket) with the ‘h’ (hotel) omitted or ‘dropped off’ AGE (a long time)
11   Company love notice put back to front – such things attract attention (6)
COOEES CO (company) O (love) + SEE (notice) reversed or ‘put back to front’
12   A woman with no time for such a tricky game (6)
BRIDGE BRIDGEt (a woman) without ‘t’ (time)
13   I got for nothing small tin of mostly meat – cold, perhaps? (8)
SNIFFLES SN (tin) IF (I replacing or ‘got for’ the ‘o’ (nothing) in ‘of’) FLESh (meat) with the last letter omitted or ‘mostly’
14   Remove crockery in fragments aware earthenware material lies around (5,4)
CLEAR AWAY An anagram of AWARE (anagrind is ‘in fragments’) with CLAY (earthenware material) ‘lying’ around
16   Woodland spirit stayed put a short period of time (5)
SATYR SAT (stayed put) YR (abbreviation for ‘year’ – ‘period of time’)
19   Erica and Ted? (5)
HEATH Double definition – Erica being a genus of heath(er), and a reference to Ted HEATH, former PM
21   Keep lying with brief account, one in a series (9)
FIBONACCI FIB ON (keep lying) ACC (‘brief’ account) I (one)
24   North America’s states consume last of gasoline. Make you sick? (8)
NAUSEATE N A (North America) US (states) EAT (consume) E (‘last’ letter of ‘gasoline’)
27   God of love getting a head start (6)
APOLLO O (love) with A POLL (head) in front or ‘starting’
28   Strong river has portable shelter pitched alongside (6)
POTENT PO (river) TENT (portable shelter)
29   Adult slips into busy city life after cut in service (8)
FACILITY A (adult) ‘slipping into’ an anagram of CITY LIFe (without the last letter or ‘cut’) – anagrind is ‘busy’
30   ‘S’ seen in table edge inlaid in black marble say (9)
BRIMSTONE RIM (edge) ‘inlaid’ in B (black) STONE (marble, say) – Brimstone is the old name for sulphur – S in the periodic table
31   Butterfly‘s a tiny bit orange at one end (5)
WHITE WHIT (a tiny bit) E (last letter or ‘one end’ of ‘orange’)
Down
2   E.g. Nelson, respectworthy though short and missing end of limb (7)
ADMIRAL ADMIRAbLe (respectworthy) without the last letter or ‘short’ and ‘missing’ ‘b’ (last letter or ‘end’ of ‘limb’)
3   Persevering with speed dates initially gone wrong (9)
STEADFAST FAST (with speed) with an anagram of DATES in front or ‘initially’ – anagrind is ‘gone wrong’
5   Safe places in Hackney for a wild flower (5)
AVENS hAVENS (safe places) as it might be said by an East Londoner
6   Geek taken on by astute chief (6)
TECHIE Hidden in or ‘taken on by’ astuTE CHIEf
7   Be a food critic? (5)
SCOFF A cryptic definition – a critic might SCOFF, and a food critic would have to eat or ‘scoff’ in order to critique the food
8   Natural landscape features divine around East Tyneside area (7)
SCENERY SCRY (divine, as in ‘make out’) around E (East) NE (Tyneside area)
9   A heartless naive MCP with no power perhaps? (7)
CAVEMAN Cryptic definition – An anagram of A NAiVE (without the middle letter, or ‘heartless’) and MCp without the ‘p’ (power) – anagrind is ‘perhaps’.‘Caveman’ as a contemporary euphemism for an MCP is a bit unfair on cavemen, in our opinion
15   A champ‘s assumed name as finally taken (3)
ALI ALIas (assumed name) with ‘as’ omitted or ‘finally taken’
17   Yes, greetings and thank you for going up to religious leader (9)
AYATOLLAH AY (yes) + HALLO (greetings) TA (thank you) reversed or ‘going up’
18   Military parade about to be included for head of state (7)
MONARCH MARCH (military parade) round or ‘including’ ON (about)
20   Shock upset – visit initially blocked entrance (7)
ENAMOUR MANE (shock, as in hair) reversed or ‘upset’ + tOUR (visit) with first or ‘initial’ letter omitted or ‘blocked’
22   Firm allowed computing to produce a flier (7)
COLETIT CO (firm – company) LET (allowed) IT (computing) – we think this should be two words, and weren’t aware that ‘Coal Tit’ could also be spelt this way
23   Knock on the door from rogue with cheapo wares (3-3)
RAT-TAT RAT (rogue) TAT (‘cheapo wares’)
25   Second XI in very hot water (5)
STEAM S (second) TEAM (XI – eleven)
26   I’m delicate but within limits feel fine (5)
ELFIN Hidden within feEL FINe

 

22 comments on “Independent 9533 / Crosophile”

  1. Well played the bloggers. SNIFFLES defeated me (a really hard parse with SN for ‘small tin’ my nemesis) and I was slowed for ages by having SLATE for ‘be a food critic?’ (jokey back-formation from Nigel SLATER. No, you’re right it’s rubbish).
    Tough stuff today. Thanks to all.

  3. I had ROAST in 7d!
    And why not?
    Therefore I couldn’t finish this crossword which I found hard.
    Missed the butterflies.
    Not sure whether ‘initially’ is in the right place in 3d.

    Thanks to B&J and Crosophile.

  4. Way beyond me today. Got about two-thirds of it, then had to replace the displacement activity with real work. So the butterfly theme passed me by.

    MCP? Still no idea what that is. Surely ‘altered’ in 1ac is doing double duty? SCRY is a new one on me.

    I’ll stop now and thank all three.

  5. I think there might be a case for “with Photoshop?” as the definition for 1a.

    MCP is in the usual dictionaries. Male Chauvinist Pig.

  6. Thanks Crosophile and B+J

    Stymied myself by putting CODLIN in 11A: CO + {NIL + D(-Notice) reversed}, a codlin being a sort of moth, and at the time I thought the theme was butterflies and moths…couldn’t quite parse the rest of it, though!

    Never mind, tomorrow’s another day.

  10. Simon @ 8 – those two were mentioned in Bertandjoyce’s preamble.

    Is the missing butterfly 1a? There’s a so-called False Apollo butterfly as well as the Apollo.

  13. And thanks to you for the blog!

    I feel sure Ali is deliberately thematic, right there in the middle of the grid. Should have spotted it sooner, I guess.

  14. I hadn’t thought of the Ali butterfly link. Nice one. 🙂
    No, it’s a lurking hidden entry.

  18. That is superb! Thanks for the hint – it was only a matter of time before the gibbering set in and a man in a white coat approached me with a giant butterfly net.

    Many thanks to crosophile. I’m off to watch Papillon. 😀

  20. It feels like half of these comments invoked chaos theory, so the hidden message was doubly appropriate. 🙂

  22. Missed the theme although I did notice 30 and 31 but thought it just coincidence – should have realised that ‘butterfly’ in the clue to 31 was a hint.

    A bit harder than the usual Wednesday fare; I struggled with this, notably the right hand side and particularly the NE corner. And couldn’t parse ENAMOUR (which was the only word that would fit). But some great clues – my CoD is the aforesaid 30, BRIMSTONE; as a chemist I appreciated the periodic table reference.

    Thanks, Crosophile and B&J.

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