After my last EV slog blog (Mynot’s atomic numbers), hopefully an easier week with Chalicea. The preamble was straightforward, so all boded well:
In TEAM, 20ac (two words) in the 27ac was the origin of events immortalised by 14dn. In every clue, the wordplay leads to the answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; in clue order, the additional letters give an instruction that must be followed, ensuring that mirror symmetry is observed. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
Although some of the early clues were slightly tricky, everything came together fairly quickly. The grid was nearly full when I could see Sergei EISENSTEIN trying to make himself known at 14dn, and I knew we had to be dealing with BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, the only film of his that I have seen — I’m sure he made others. This has the famous baby in a pram trundling down the steps in Odessa, Ukraine. I needed to read up on the film (it’s at least forty years since I saw it) and found that Act I was entitled Men and Maggots and had the sailors complaining about the MAGGOTY MEAT in their BORSCH.
Some more highlighting finished things off, including A RED FLAG, waved by the protesters at the end of the film.
Now, I have to confess at having had a bit of a rant towards Chalicea when I finally sussed 1ac Preposterously careless and not right type of house (4) SEMI. At first, I thought it was an indirect anagram… shock, horror! However, I eventually looked up preposterous in Chambers to find “literally inverted, having or putting the last first”. It made me wonder how many steps from clue to solution was fair. Here we had REMISS (careless) with S moved to front (SREMIS) – R (right) = SEMIS with extra letter then dropped SEMI. Imagine an 8-letter word going through the same shenanigans.
I know we’re supposed to be clever clogs, but anyone else agree? [Obviously not. Ed.]
As expected, this was a fairly easy solve. (When is solve as a noun going to make it into Chambers?) Thanks for a bit of reminiscing, Chalicea (and for tolerating my rant).
Solving time: about 1hr 10mins.
Legend:
Definition in clue
X = Corrections to misprints
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | SEMI | S | Preposterously careless and not right type of house (4) REMISS (careless) with S moved to front (preposterously) – R (right); see above if you haven’t already |
| 6 | BALLOT | H | On balance reluctant to draw lots (6) BAL (balance) + LOTH (reluctant) |
| 10 | OXIDE | A | Purpose behind animal compound (5) IDEA (purpose) after OX (animal) |
| 11 | ERBIUM | D | Rare element derived from buried material originally (6) (BURIED M (Metal, originally))* |
| 12 | SCARED | E | Startled bird swallowing fish? On the contrary (6) SCAD (fish) being swallowed by (ie not swallowing) REE (bird) |
| 13 | NEAR | T | Almost finished recipe (4) NEAT (finished) R (recipe) |
| 15 | ALOOF | W | Distant gypsy returns carrying the can (5) FAW< (gypsy, back) carrying LOO (the can) |
| 16 | LAGGING | E | Wobbly aging legs mostly walking slowly (7) (AGING LEG[S])* |
| 19 | RECKON | N | Judge to be not pursuing concern (6) RECK (concern) NON (not) |
| 20 | MAGGOTY MEAT | Unclued | |
| 22 | APPEACHMENT | T | Poet’s finding fault with suitable attractive girl fellows ultimately want (11) APT (suitable) PEACH (attractive girl) MEN (fellows) T (wanT, ultimately) |
| 27 | BORSCH | Unclued | |
| 29 | TRIVIUM | Y | Bizarre multiversity, lacking Latin, set up historical introductory curriculum (7) (MULTIVERSITY – L (Latin) – SET*)* |
| 30 | RATOO | S | Ruler in Fiji, prince in Africa as well (5) RAS (African prince) TOO (as well) |
| 31 | LOCO | I | Crazy old turmoil making a comeback (4) (O (old) COIL (turmoil, back))< |
| 32 | EPRISE | X | Expires, drunkenly captivated in le Moulin Rouge (6) EXPIRES* |
| 34 | BATTLE | L | Contend with ill-made ballet taking time (6) BALLET* taking T (time) |
| 35 | SHIPS | E | Takes on board revolutionary secret agents circling front of harbour (5) SPIES< (secret agents) around H (front of Harbour) |
| 36 | CAPOTE | T | Symbolic headdress over the top on European cloak (6) CAP (symbolic headdress) OTT (over the top) + E (European) |
| 37 | IN SE | T | Implant in itself (4, two words) INSET (implant) |
| DOWN | |||
| No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | SOLAR SALT | E | Occasionally spoil Maoris’ earliest natural condiment (9, two words) occasionally in SpOiL mAoRiS eArLiEsT |
| 2 | EXILE | R | King on island supported by the French expelled person (5) REX (king) + (island) + LE (the, French) |
| 3 | MISOCAPNIC | S | Hating smoke, disregarding it in odd mixture of stoicism and panic (10) (STOICISM PANIC)* – IT |
| 4 | SEA FOG | W | Lack of clarity in the main, of age struggling with extremes of woolly-mindedness (6, two words) WS (extremes of Woolly-mindednesS) + (OF AGE)* |
| 5 | GER | A | Equipment with a purpose, Mongolian accommodation (3) GEAR (equipment for a purpose) |
| 6 | BREADTH | R | Slight suspicion about road area considered for its width (7) BREATH (slight suspicion) about RD (road) |
| 7 | LINGAM | S | Maligns rude phallic symbol (6) MALIGNS* |
| 8 | OMANI | H | Eccentric Hanoi male, Gulf inhabitant (5) (HANOI M (male))* |
| 9 | TAR | I | Viscid stuff, Indian dish returned, not accepted (3) (RAITA< (Indian dish, back) – A (accepted) |
| 14 | EISENSTEIN | Unclued | |
| 17 | GUY | P | Secure with rope local tug turning up in front of entry to Yalta (3) PUG< (tug, dialect) + Y (entry to Yalta) |
| 18 | GATEHOUSE | A | Locally afoot, with moderation, to put to some purpose porter’s dwelling (9) AGATE (afoot) + HO (moderation) USE (to put to purpose) |
| 21 | OCTUPLE | N | Tenor included in revised Poulenc consisting of a number of parts (7) T (tenor) in POULENC* |
| 23 | EX VOTO | D | Essentially favour detox in a fashion, by reason of a vow (6, two words) (VO (faVOur, essentially) DETOX)* |
| 24 | AMI | B | Casually cheat one friend (3) BAM (cheat) (one) |
| 25 | MORISK | A | Moor in the past, source of danger beneath gigantic old NZ bird (6) RISK (source of danger) under MOA (large NZ bird) |
| 26 | AROBA | N | Baron running wild with a wheeled carriage (5) BARON* + A |
| 28 | COOPS | N | Prisoner operations officer confines in cell maybe (5) CON (prisoner) OPS (Operations officer) |
| 31 | LAC | E | Intertwine resinous substance (3) LACE (intertwine) |
| 33 | REM | R | Be inaccurate about mass unit once (3) ERR< (be inaccurate, back) M (mass) |
Fun, and on the easy side. Like you, as soon as I spotted the director I guessed what we were looking for. I could have named some of his other films once upon a time, but now only the one springs to mind. There’s a lovely tribute to it in The Untouchables, with a recreation of the famous Odessa Steps scene.
Indeed, Dave, as I said to you when we discussed that clue, when I received the proof of the crossword (as always, quite a long time after setting it), I initially suspected that I had slipped in an indirect anagram – the very first no-no I was given when I set my very first crossword a very long time ago. I had to look up that really useful word ‘preposterous’ – then thought, rather wickedly “They invariably claim that a Chalicea crossword is easy, so let’s begin with a really tough clue!”