A lovely puzzle that I’ve had to blog a bit late and in a rush thanks to technical difficulties. Many favourites including 10ac, 17ac, 3dn, 14dn and 18dn. Many thanks to Picaroon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ADAM BEDE | Novel’s plot comprehended by a fine lady (4,4) |
| =a novel by George Eliot BED=garden “plot”, inside A DAME=”a fine lady” |
||
| 5 | THEIST | Smash hit set to be I’m A Believer (6) |
| (hit set)* | ||
| 9 | DISH-RAG | Cloth coat for iniquitous husband dressed as a woman? (4-3) |
| the coat or outer letters of I[niquitou]S, plus H[usband]; all ‘in DRAG’=”dressed as a woman” | ||
| 10 | PHONEME | I’d like to be given a bell making little sound (7) |
| =a unit of sound in linguistics PHONE ME=give me a call/bell=”I’d like to be given a bell” |
||
| 11 | CASTE | Man on board hasn’t left station (5) |
| CAST[l]E=rook, a “Man on [a chess] board”, without its L[eft] | ||
| 12 | BODY BLOWS | Old boy dances with wife during Black Sabbath hits (4,5) |
| (Old boy)* plus W; all inside B[lack] and S[abbath] | ||
| 13 | MONEY-SPINNER | It will make capital, figure-hugging setter’s top? (5-7) |
| MY=”setter’s”, hugging ONE=a number=”figure”; plus SPINNER=top as in the spinning toy | ||
| 17 | CANTANKEROUS | Isn’t America able to contain rogue Korean being grumpy? (12) |
| CAN’T US?=”Isn’t America able to”?; around (Korean)* | ||
| 20 | MARIJUANA | In Spain, boy’s clad in girl’s hemp (9) |
| In Spain, JUAN is a popular boy’s name, inside MARIA, a girl’s name | ||
| 22 | REEVE | Free verse entertains old magistrate (5) |
| Hidden in [F]REE VE[rse] | ||
| 23 | EXCERPT | Short passage only about a king (7) |
| EXCEPT=”only”, around R[ex]=”king” | ||
| 24 | INFLATE | Introduce air to cool apartment number 5? (7) |
| IN=”cool”; plus FLAT E=”apartment number 5″ after apartments A, B, C, and D | ||
| 25 | STEAMY | Passionate group playing in Sleepy Hollow (6) |
| TEAM=”group” in S[leep]Y with its inside letters hollowed out | ||
| 26 | AMANDINE | A chap to scoff: “This is nutty!” (8) |
| =an almond garnish A MAN=”a chap”; plus DINE=eat=”scoff” |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ABDUCT | Illegally take sailor over Channel (6) |
| AB=able bodied “sailor”; plus DUCT=”Channel” | ||
| 2 | ASSESS | They’re stupid and second rate (6) |
| ASSES=”They’re stupid”; plus S[econd] | ||
| 3 | BARCELONA | Footballers save clubs, raising a cheer from their fans (9) |
| BAR=except for=”save”; plus C[lubs]; plus reversal/”raising” of AN OLE=”a cheer from their fans” (as in Olé, Olé, Olé) | ||
| 4 | DOG’S BREAKFAST | Follow small holiday firm in a mess (4,9) |
| DOG=trail=”Follow”; plus S[mall]; plus BREAK=”holiday”; plus FAST=fixed in place=”firm” | ||
| 6 | H-BOMB | TV channel with doctor that was dropped twice (1-4) |
| Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan; however thermonuclear H-bombs were developed later HBO=”TV channel”; plus MB=Bachelor of Medicine=”doctor” |
||
| 7 | ICEBOUND | Heavily frosted diamonds? Sure! (8) |
| ICE=slang for “diamonds”; plus BOUND=”Sure” as in ‘it was bound to happen eventually’ | ||
| 8 | TREASURY | Hear about a user playing for funds (8) |
| TRY=”Hear” a legal case; around (a user)* | ||
| 10 | PEDESTRIANISM | President aims to shatter eco-friendly movement (13) |
| (President aims)* | ||
| 14 | IBUPROFEN | Number one bread’s eaten for iron (9) |
| =a “Numb-er”, something that numbs pain I=”one”; plus BUN=”bread” around: PRO=”for” and FE=chemical symbol for “iron” |
||
| 15 | SCAMPERS | Holidaymaker boarding ship in rushes (8) |
| CAMPER=”Holidaymaker” inside SS=steam “ship” | ||
| 20 | ENTR’ACTE | React with net shot, when players are resting (8) |
| =an interval in a theatrical performance, when players/actors are resting (React net)* |
||
| 18 | NEPALI | Asian from north-east India crossing China (6) |
| Nepal is in between north-east India and China N[orth]-E[ast] I[ndia] around PAL=mate=”China” plate in rhyming slang |
||
| 19 | REDEYE | Colour error in still life finally in colour again (6) |
| =the appearance of red eyes in photos of people [lif]E inside RE-DYE=”colour again” |
||
| 21 | JORUM | Knocked back soft drink and spirits in drinking bowl (5) |
| Reversal/”Knocked back” of OJ=orange juice=”soft drink”; plus RUM=”spirits” | ||
Loved the surface for CANTANKEROUS. Took far too long over EXCERPT. REDEYE was my LOI, once the penny finally dropped.
Thanks, Picaroon and Manehi.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi
An other good puzzle from one of my favourite compilers. I was convinced that 10a would end “ring” and wasted a lot of time trying to justify “purring”. PHONEME is much better, and favourite (along with DISH-RAG).
I didn’t see the “cheer” in BARCELONA, and so wasn’t happy about apparent looseness of the definition; of course it works nicely.
Pity about the mistake at 6d. I tried to find out how many H-bombs have actually been “dropped”; I’ve only found one definite, but (unsurprisingly) facts are a bit difficult to find.
6d is simply wrong and should have been caught by the editor. Aside from that, some good clues. Thanks Picaroon and Manehi.
I suspect Picaroon will be a bit embarrassed about 6d. I’m sure I’m being thick, but can someone give an example of where ‘only’ means ‘except’.
3dn reminds me of one of the Barça fans’ chants:
Ole-le, Ola-la, ser del Barça és el millor que hi ha!
Good stuff, Picaroon – and thanks manehi.
I enjoyed this much – the only one that really held me up was 19d because I’ve always thought it was two words although I’ve just checked and it can be 3-3 too
Thanks to Picaroon for the fun – shame about 6d – and to Manehi for the blog
Or even ‘very much’
Hovis @4: I don’t know if this works in British English, but in colloquial North American you can say “I would like one like this, only in blue.”
As is often the case, my opinion of the crossword improved considerably after reading the blog. However OJ seems pretty tenuous for soft drink w/o any abbreviation indicator, and don’t see how the surface of 14d makes any kind of sense.
Otherwise, great crossword.
I should make it clear that the H-bomb drop was a test, of course – it was in 1956.
See here.
Thanks Picaroon, an enjoyable crossword.
Thanks to manehi for a good blog, and for picking up the H-BOMB error.
I particularly liked BARCELONA, INFLATE and IBUPROFEN (the old number trick.)
BlogginTheBlog @9
I’m not absolutely sure (it’s a long time since I’ve seen it), but I think in the denouement of the film Trading places the frozen orange juice futures that are being dealt are referred to as “OJ futures”.
@muffin
Indeed; FCOJ (frozen concentrated orange juice) is traded with the ticker symbol OJ.
Also, OJ Simpson was known as “The Juice” during his, er, playing days.
V nice puzzle by Picaroon as always. The H-bomb thing didn’t occur to me. Dunno if the clue had the “dropped aitch” idea at some point in its life cycle
I really enjoyed this – it’s been a good week for puzzles so far. Too many favourites to mention them all, but PHONEME stood out.
I didn’t notice the mistake at 6d!
Loveditloveditlovedit.
I keep changing my choice of favourite setter but The Pirate is always in the top 3.
He’s sometimes dropped in with an explanation or two so let’s hope he does re the H-BOMB thing. (I have to say I didn’t spot it myself).
DISH-RAG, PHONEME, CASTE, & STEAMY all beautiful examples of the setter’s art.
Many thanks, both.
Nice week, all.
6d went in early on my solve. I may have raised an eyebrow but I proceeded to solve and enjoy thoroughly. Was there a Russian bomb test-where it was actually dropped?Dunno and dont really care as Pickers is a favourite of mine.I hope all those critical of that clue are aware of the differences between fission and fusion!
Many thanks to manehi and Picaroon.
I actually entered A-BOMB at 6d, but had to change it when I solved THEIST
Returning to the GK theme: I don’t know the word at 21d even though I’ve probably seen it in cryptics before over the years.
But the clueing once you’ve parsed it left little doubt as to the answer – isn’t that the sign of a good puzzle / setter?
Redeye my LOI too…
VinnyD@8, yes that works fine. Both words can mean ‘but’, just couldn’t think of it at the time. Thanks.
6d has been edited but….Good old Graun.
I enjoyed it. My favorites were DOG’S BREAKFAST and CANTANKEROUS. I would have enjoyed PHONEME much more if “give me a bell” was a phrase I had ever heard anyone say when requesting a phone call. Great (and unfortunately currently true in my country) surface for PEDESTRIANISM. Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi.
BlogginTheBlog @9, surely the clue at 14d makes perfect sense: to get your iron intake, you eat the number-1 bread.
This and the clue for CANTANKEROUS I thought were marks of genius.
Unlike some, I got REDEYE before I finished the NW corner. That’s often the case with me – I get the wrong idea with early clues, which delays progress in that corner.
Great puzzle, great blog. Thank you, both.
I always enjoy Picaroon – as always this was inventive and entertaining. On the whole the left hand side was pretty easy. REDEYE was last in.
Thanks to Picaroon and manehi
There is no castle on a chess board
Bernoulli @21, still none the wiser. I have never heard of number-1 bread and neither has Google. If it just means the best sort of bread, I still think that’s a pretty stretched surface. Hope I’m not dispatched to Pedant’s Corner!
copmus @21: but the correction will need to be corrected!
Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. Great fun. I took a while before spotting the “bound” in ICEBOUND, and MONEY-SPINNER was my LOI.
BlogginTheBlog @26, just use your imagination! Setters are surely allowed to inhabit an imaginary world that makes some kind of sense. Where Picaroon lives, the number-one bread is rich in iron. I’m OK with that.
Less satisfactory, to my mind, is the surface of 13, along with its question-mark. But I’m not complaining: the puzzle as a whole is brilliant.
Copmus @21 As you say, dear old Graun…“We apologise for the mistake in the correction of the initial error…”
Fine puzzle with a couple of problems for me: like manehi I noted that the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 were A-BOMBS, not H-BOMBS. In fact I tried to fit in A-BOMB at first.
Also REDEYE, LOI for me as for several others. I’ve only ever seen it hyphenated as RED-EYE (both in connection with photography and with the transatlantic flight).
But apart from the above, excellent work. Didn’t parse MONEY SPINNER but I suppose that’s excusable! Thanks Picaroon.
Quite liked this. AMANDINE was new to me but easy to get. I liked CASTE and I can’t see a problem with castle. OED has it as old fashioned for rook. Liked ABDUCT and SCAMPERS.
REDEYE was LOI.
Thanks Picaroon.
Aaargh! Not surprising I couldn’t get AMANDINE – I had put in PEDESTRIANISE instead of PEDESTRIANISM. Great puzzle. Favourites were ADAM BEDE, DISH-RAG, BARCELONA and DOGS BREAKFAST. Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi.
Bernoulli @29: You are right, 13 is worse! Still a great puzzle in any universe.
I’ve been out all day since before the blog was published and there’s not a lot left for me to add to the praise for this great puzzle. CANTANKEROUS is one of my favourite words and this was a lovely clue.
I’d just like to say to Lippi @18 and Hamish @39 that I first met JORUM in a Puck puzzle that I blogged a couple of years ago. It was clued as ‘Endless task, getting drink for punchbowl? (5) and I commented, ‘Isn’t it satisfying to construct an unlikely-sounding word from the wordplay and then look it up and find out that it does exist?’. A couple of us said that we would thenceforth call such clues ‘jorums’ so it was nice to see it again today. [There has been one more instance from Imogen in between: ‘Endless delight, alcohol in a big bowl’.]
Many thanks, as ever, to setter and blooger
Sorry, manehi, that was a bit of a bloomer! 😉
It sits in the corner next to the horsey.
The Guardian cryptics (the only ones I can find the time to do at this stage of my life) and the blogs and discussions of same on this website are always, to me, a richly satisfying jorum of bummock, metaphorically speaking.
I am on tenterhooks to see whether Eileen’s prognostication is correct and there will be a post by Hamish @39. 🙂
It isn’t ‘number one bread’. It is number one (=I), followed by BUN (bread) around PRO (for) FE (iron).
Crossbencher @39
I think that BlogginTheBlog and Bernoulli were discussing the surface rather than the parsing.
Pedantic quibble: a phoneme is not a sound.
David Robson @41
Wikipedia (amongst other resources) thinks it is. See the first sentence here
Howard March @25, I haven’t heard of the term “rooking” in chess 🙂
Thanks manehi and Picaroon.
A phoneme is the smallest distinct unit of sound in a given language. There are approximately 44 in English but only 26 letters which does make spelling the wonderful and tricky thing it is!
Howard March does have a bit of a point. Wiki (again) says this:
Rooks usually are similar in appearance to small castles, and as a result a rook is sometimes called a “castle” (Hooper & Whyld 1992). This usage was common in the past (“The Rook, or Castle, is next in power to the Queen” – Howard Staunton, 1847) but today it is rarely if ever used in chess literature or among players, except in the expression “castling”
A beautiful puzzle. 17a, 24a, 3d, 4d are among my favorites.
I can’t make sense of the hugging in 13. It seems to me that MY SPINNER is hugging ONE, but the clue has it the other way around. Even with a modicum of Yoda syntax, I can’t see how to work it out.
Hi Ted @46 – the hyphen is crucial: my [setter’s] is ‘figure-hugging’ – as you say, hugging ONE.
Ted@46
Setter’s equals my, which is figure-hugging – i.e is hugging a figure (one).
Hope that makes sense.
BlogginThe Blog @9: In last night’s Coronation Street (just been watching it on catch-up) Alya asks for an OJ in the Rovers Return. (I’m fairly sure she meant an orange juice.)
DaveMcC @22: “Give me a bell” is a very common phrase on this side of the Atlantic. It would be nice to think it had something to do with Alexander Graham Bell, but probably not.
A phoneme is the “smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language”, but that does not mean it is a sound, in the sense it can be pronounced. Rather it is an abstract entity, indicating a group of phones (called allophones if they are in the same group), which requires realisation as a phone (which of course can be pronounced). eg in standard English the phoneme /r/ is normally realised as the phone [?]
JimS @49
Thanks for that info about “give me a bell”. It is common here in the US for people to say “give me a ring” (referring to a phone call — not in the sense of an ultimatum from long-time girlfriend who has grown tired of waiting for a marriage proposal), but I think that saying “give me a bell” to someone here would probably elicit a bewildered look.
DaveMC @51 Right you are. But while we do say “Give me a ring,” it’s the transatlantic folks in the UK who say “ring me.” We say “call me” instead. “Jim called” would mean “Jim gave me a ring,” not “Jim dropped by,” as it might to the other lot.
21D G and S fans might remember the couplet from the Sorcerer
None so knowing as he
At brewing a jorum of tea
Lovely crossword. I too got stuck on ‘redeye’. Got as far as ‘re-dye’and spent half the night trying to find how rest of clue fitted. So obvious when you see the answer!
Excellent piracy! The clues I ticked were mostly as manehi and my namesake – with BARCELONA particularly neat. PEDESTRIANISM and CANTANKEROUS have surfaces that reflect some (the only?) value in Trump’s outrageousness. Are crossword solvers the only thinking folk who might miss him (very, very slightly) when he goes (soon with luck, but the grimness of current reality makes me wonder….!)
Many thanks to P and m.
My jorum: years ago when the New York Daily News used to carry the Times puzzle I found a solution from the wordplay that meant nothing to me. So I googled it, and found that it was explained in “Times for the Times,” the blog for the Times cryptic. (Turned out to be some kind of china, I don’t remember the word now.) So that got me going with TftT, and at some point I noticed fifteensquared referred to in a column down the side. So I clicked on that, and now here I am.