This is the first Gila puzzle we have blogged, although we have enjoyed all the previous offerings, including the Inquisitors. This was an interesting puzzle, but we have a couple of queries on which we would welcome your comments – see 3d.
We do have a couple of niggles. The indefinite article – A (or AN) – appears in several clues but is not required in the parsing or in the definition – the clues read perfectly well without it. And unless we have read 3d completely wrongly, the wordplay really isn’t sufficiently explicit – see comments below.
We were very annoyed with ourselves that it took a word search to find the ‘little green creature’ in 4d. As a gardener, Joyce could not get away from thinking of the two pests in the garden – aphids and cabbage white caterpillars!
Given the grid we really thought there may be a nina or theme. We imagine that a number of solvers may not appreciate the fact that many of the initial letters are ‘unchecked’, and it is effectively a grid of two halves, with only two entries connecting the left and right sides.
Once again, we are still 7 hours behind UK time, having witnessed the fantastic Solar Eclipse in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Monday – consequently, we will not be able to respond to comments very quickly as we may well be asleep or without internet access.
| Across | ||
| 8 | Rant coming from one stuck in traffic (6) | |
| TIRADE | I (one) inside or ‘stuck in’ TRADE (traffic) | |
| 9 | Acceptable way to correspond after a date (8) | |
| ADEQUATE | EQUATE (correspond) after A D (date) | |
| 10 | Female artist is in Germany advocating for women’s rights (8) | |
| FEMINIST | F (female) EMIN (artist) IST (German for ‘is’) | |
| 11 | Toy snake missing its tail (6) | |
| RATTLE | RATTLE |
|
| 12 | Equipment given to school is trash (6) | |
| KITSCH | KIT (equipment) SCH (school) | |
| 13 | I’m overwhelmed by a friend’s ill-will (8) | |
| ACRIMONY | I’M inside or ‘overwhelmed by’ A CRONY (friend) | |
| 15 | Something great in a fishing boat (7) | |
| PEARLER | We think this is a double definition but we cannot find PEARLER in Chambers as ‘something great’ although Bert has heard the saying – doing a pearler – meaning doing something well. | |
| 17 | Dog lies barking, guarding a bowl (7) | |
| SPANIEL | An anagram of LIES – anagrind is ‘barking’ around or ‘guarding’ PAN (bowl) – the ‘a’ is redundant | |
| 20 | Stressed vehicle owner crashed (8) | |
| CAREWORN | CAR (vehicle) plus an anagram of OWNER – anagrind is ‘crashed’ | |
| 22 | Woman dances around with no top on (6) | |
| STELLA | ||
| 23 | Cloth garment a fellow wears for a hunting expedition (6) | |
| SAFARI | SARI (cloth garment) around or ‘being worn by’ A F (fellow) | |
| 25 | Request user-generated content (8) | |
| PLEASURE | PLEA (request) plus an anagram of USER – anagrind is ‘generated’ | |
| 26 | A little bit of bread, occasionally nice with topping of Emmental (8) | |
| PITTANCE | PITTA (bread) N |
|
| 27 | Politicians love blocking judges (6) | |
| TORIES | O (love) inside or ‘blocking’ TRIES (judges) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Fancy, and clever too (8) | |
| LIKEWISE | LIKE (fancy) WISE (clever) | |
| 2 | Shop that is shifting pastries first and foremost (10) | |
| PATISSERIE | IE (that is) with an anagram of PASTRIES ‘first and foremost’ – anagrind is ‘shifting’ | |
| 3 | Die by essentially persisting with heroin (6) | |
| PERISH | ||
| 4 | Bird swallowing a strange green creature? (7) | |
| MARTIAN | MARTIN (bird) around or ‘swallowing’ A. We have to admit that with all the crossing letters we had to carry out a search in Chambers for this and then kicked ourselves as we scanned down the list of possibilities. | |
| 5 | Small amount of saline fluid an otologist put in a cap (8) | |
| TEARDROP | EAR DR (‘ear doctor’ – otologist) inside TOP (cap) – again ‘a’ and ‘an’ are redundant | |
| 6 | Save time for the end (4) | |
| BUTT | BUT (save) T (time) | |
| 7 | Hot Christmas cake left out (6) | |
| STOLEN | STOL |
|
| 14 | Influential teacher‘s remit soon involved taking the end of classes (10) | |
| MONTESSORI | An anagram of REMIT SOON (anagrind is ‘involved’) round or ‘taking’ S (the last letter or ‘end’ of ‘classes’) | |
| 16 | I soon made up with them, with no hard feelings (8) | |
| EMOTIONS | An anagram of I SOON and T |
|
| 18 | Bloated? Stop drinking dodgy lager! (8) | |
| ENLARGED | END (stop) around or ‘drinking’ an anagram of LAGER – anagrind is ‘dodgy’ | |
| 19 | Salesman is very critical about fish (7) | |
| SNAPPER | REP (salesman) PANS (is very critical) reversed or ‘about’ | |
| 21 | Advert in a Latvian city about one in Morocco (6) | |
| AGADIR | AD inside RIGA (Latvian) reversed or ‘about’ – ‘a’ is not required | |
| 22 | Hustler almost confused a private detective (6) | |
| SLEUTH | An anagram of HUSTLE |
|
| 24 | A tipple from East Italy? Quite the opposite! (4) | |
| ASTI | Hidden inside eAST Italy – Asti comes from the Piedmont region which is in NW Italy – hence the phrase ‘quite the opposite’. Again, ‘a’ is not required in the definition. | |
Blogging, eclipse chasing … an exciting life you lead.
Thanks for this one. Certainly an odd grid, suggesting something is going on (but don’t ask me what it is). It was not solver-friendly, for certain.
I failed on PEARLER. Having ?E?R?E? with less than 50% checking, no starting letter, and common letters as the crossers is going to defeat this solver, I’m afraid. In addition, I’d always spell it PURLER: ‘Sunderland’s new striker has just curled it into the top right-hand corner – that’s a purler’. Or more likely, given the bent of footie commentators for screaming and using verbal exclamation marks: ‘That’s a PURLER!!!’ The PEARLER spelling is Australian according to some sources. So not a great clue. And not a great goal, because at the Stadium of Light Sunderland never play well enough to warrant one exclamation mark, never mind three.
The surfeit of indefinite articles didn’t strike me.
A strange one. Thanks to Gila.
Didn’t care for this I’m afraid. Like Kathryn’s Dad@1, I only know ‘something great’ as PURLER, not PEARLER. Wasn’t aware of Australian spelling, but, if so, is hardly acceptable and seems to be an error. Didn’t know MONTESSORI or AGADIA and made copious use of wordfit to complete – mainly my stupidity to be fair. Thanks to BJ for the explanations.
I really enjoyed this but failed on PEARLER too.
Thanks to all three
Yes, we needed a word search for PEARLER. But it’s in Collins and indicated as Australian. As for PURLER, we’ve always known a totally different meaning: a heavy fall as in “come a purler” – a definition found in both Chambers and Collins.
We too noticed the superfluous indefinite articles, and also thought ‘cloth’ was superfluous in the clue to 23ac. But we agree with the PER + IS + H parsing of 3dn.
A generally enjoyable solve, though. Several great clues, including MARTIAN for the smile it raised.
Thanks, Gila and B&J
Whether it is cloth, garment or cloth garment, sari is woman’s. If a fellow wears it, he must be a transvestite or maybe acting in a comedy. Unlikely to be on a hunting expedition, where the garment, even if only 5.5 metres and not the whole nine yards it used to be, is likely to be a hindrance.
Liked this one and solved all except 15a.
Found it mostly straightforward, but the NE put up some resistance for a while. Defo thought there must be a theme or nina what with the grid and few interesting choices of answer word, but couldn’t spot one so be interesting to hear if there’s someut lurking in there.
Naturally, me fave clue was 18d so thanks to The Monster for the puzzle and to The Globetrotters for the blog.
Found this a sound puzzle except for pearler, next to impossible to solve, a dd with iffy defs and no word play to help and less than 50 checking. Sorry Ali that’s not on. Enlarged was a cracker though.
Many thanks to B+J for the blog and to all who commented. All the feedback on grids, definite articles, etc. is very much welcome and appreciated.
And sorry for PEARLER, which was clearly anything but. Truth be told, I never even knew that PURLER was also a word!
Ali/Gila