There is usually something interesting in a Serpent grid.
This time, it seemed like it was was just a bunch of quite tricky clues …
… I only got 5 in after the first pass, so was beginning to panic – which is the way of it when it’s blogging duty.
After a break, I returned to clobber many more, soon realising the mistake I’d made with 14D (I still think the clue reads better “vice versa”), but slow to spot the further mistake I made with 21D. So I was left with a handful mostly in the bottom left corner.
There is a Nina here.
Around the perimeter clockwise from top right: “Either that wallpaper goes or I do”
This is known as the last words of Oscar Wilde. For a bit more info search for Wilde on this page https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_words but careful not to get sucked in reading last words for about an hour, like me.
I admit I did not see the Nina while solving, only while writing this blog. It would certainly have helped get those last pesky few – it would’ve delivered the first letters of a few of ’em.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ON THE BRAIN | Bugging Head constantly about Hebrew in school (2,3,5) ON (about) HEB[rew] inside TRAIN (school) |
| 9 | ACRE | Area covered retrospectively by Messier Catalogue (4) Reversed Hidden in messiER CAtalogue |
| 10 | GIRDLE | Bird’s beginning to fly wearing new leg ring (6) [b]IRD inside (LEG)* AInd: new |
| 11 | FENG SHUI | ‘Distress’ walls of house using fashion’s foremost interior design fad (4,4) (H[ous]E USING F[ashion] )* AInd: distress |
| 12 | RED SETTER | Eavesdropper’s scanned High Street for one dropping litter? (3,6) RED homophone for “Read” (scanned) (Homophone indicator: |
| 13 | EGRET | Bird wishes you hadn’t stripped (5) [r]EGRET[s] |
| 15 | EROSION | Number One resentful about gradual decline (7) NO. I SORE (resentful) All Reversed |
| 17 | IN TOUCH | Well aware of popular feeling (2,5) Charade of IN (popular) TOUCH (feeling) |
| 20 | PRUNE | It may help you go and manage to fit in exercise (5) RUN (manage) in PE (exercise) |
| 22 | HOME MOVIE | Projection for family that’s viewed as 1 in 17 (4,5) I (1) in HOME MOVE given from 17 = “IN TOUCH” HOME (IN) MOVE (TOUCH as in invoke emotion) Another bif’d where the wordplay came later – indeed this clue helped get 17 rather than vice versa |
| 25 | ASPIRATE | Sound of hissing initially when Serpent’s cross (8) ASP (serpent) IRATE (cross). Def. is the H of Hissing – what do we call this? Wordplay within the Definition? |
| 26 | DETOUR | The result when one’s routed a different way (6) (ROUTED)* AInd: a different way. &Lit |
| 27 | PAVE | Flag leads to violent exchanges at the end of every year (4) V[iolent] E[xchanges] after P.A. (per annum, every year) |
| 28 | SCOTCH MIST | Wet weather conditions block two roads (6,4) SCOTCH (block) MI (road) ST (road) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENGINEER | Television series following motor mechanic (8) E.R. (TV series) after ENGINE (motor) |
| 2 | SHADES | Screens Ghost on 1st of September (6) SHADE (ghost) S[eptember] |
| 3 | OBJECTION | ‘Butt’ almost transformed into ‘but‘ (9) bif’d OBJEC[t] INTO* AInd: transformed. I suppose BUTT is synonymous with OBJECT as e.g the butt of a joke |
| 4 | RAFFLES | Draws author returning after military service (7) RAF (military service) SELF< (author, ref. Wilf Self) |
| 5 | INANE | Senseless and mad, but not ultimately dangerous (5) IN[s]ANE (mad, remove the S from [dangerou]S) |
| 6 | DAL SEGNO | Pulse’s gone astray in musical instruction (3,5) DAL’S (pulse’s) GONE* AInd: astray. This one took a while even though I knew a fair bit of music theory. Despite that I’ll leave Wikipedia to explain its meaning and use. Trouble was I was thinking of LENTO from Lentil. |
| 7 | ORDURE | Men broadcast rude filth (6) OR (men, Ordinary Ranks) (RUDE)* AInd: broadcast |
| 14 | INTERDICT | Butt in, taking Jedi’s other half instead to bar (9) INTERJECT (butt in) swap DI with JE. The clue could work vice versa – I pencilled in INTERJECT initially but 26A put me right |
| 16 | SENTINEL | Watch cuckoo line nest (8) (LINE NEST)* AInd: cuckoo |
| 18 | CLIQUISH | Exclusive cash asset’s first to become liquid mostly (8) CASH swap A[sset] with LIQUI[d] |
| 19 | COME NOW | You can’t mean that bully has taken warning to heart (4,3) OMEN (warning) inside COW (bully) |
| 21 | RASCAL | Knave or jack changing hands (6) LASCAR (jack) Swap the R[ight] and L[eft] (changing hands). At first I had the L/R wordplay idea but thought of “lifter” for jack, and wondered if a Rifter was a knave. Of course, I was thinking of grifter. |
| 23 | OPTIMA | Aim to profit at the outset, changing the best possible outcomes (6)(AIM TO P[rofit] )* AInd: changing. |
| 24 | BALSA | Hoisted American flag in tree (5) A[merican] SLAB (flag) All reversed |
I was stumbling a bit so it was time to examine the grid so far. And hey presto-the nina helped me finish it.Great puzzle yet again from Serpent.
Thanks for the blog. Some nice clues here but red setter seemed far-fetched and the parsing of home movie is very obscure. But then again I am hampered because I never see a nina!
Eric: Your comment made me re-read the entry for 12A Red setter, and I realised my fingers hadn’t typed what I meant – now corrected
Thanks serpent, took me a while, but very enjoyable and clever with the Nina without needing to introduce obscurities – I’d only not heard of dal segno, but found it quickly.
I didn’t manage to parse red setter or home movie, so many thanks beermagnet for the explanation. Oh, and interdict.
Plenty to like, I enjoyed ON THE BRAIN, EGRET, IN TOUCH, PRUNE, ASPIRATE, SCOTCH MIST, and that is just the across clues..
Congrats & thanks
Well, we struggled with this and eventually had to resort to a wordfinder for CLIQUISH and HOME MOVIE – but we did manage to parse them (and everything else except OBJECTION). And we found the nina – but too late for it to be any help.
We thought RED SETTER was a rather extreme example of definition by example – but a clever misdirection. Favourites, though were SENTINEL and DAL SEGNO.
Thanks, Serpent and beermagnet.
To avoid embarrassment, I shan’t say by how much this one beat me, so lets just say I lost gracefully. Shame because I like Serpent’s cluing and puzzles and would’ve loved to clock the Nina wot was by one of me fave writers. Cheers to The Snake for the fun and the torture and to BM for the usual interesting and informative blog.
Thanks to beermagnet for the excellent blog and to everyone who took the time to solve and comment.
Yes, I’m another who found this pretty difficult, so was pleased when I got there in the end with minimal cheating (think I looked up a couple of possible words constructed from wordplay just in case they turned out to exist. They didn’t) and found it well worth the time spent.
I spent far too long on GIRDLE and CLIQUISH – both cases where I missed that a word had to be taken, minus only one letter, from the clues. That last was penultimate in followed by HOME MOVIE, where I loved the penny-drop as the parsing clicked.
Allan C’s comment @5 about RED SETTER had me nodding agreement. I liked it when I got it, but had I not I might (just possibly) have had a little grump.
I noted down EGRET, ASPIRATE, SCOTCH MIST, SHADES, OBJECTION and INANE as clues which I enjoyed for pleasing surfaces which weren’t let down by the wordplay.
From the grid I guessed there might be a nina. I even remembered to look for it. Did I spot it? Hahaha…
Thanks to Serpent and Beermagnet.