This may sound sad, but I’m starting to write this on Christmas morning. My daughter is asleep in the next room, having been woken in Richmond by planes coming in to Heathrow at 4.30 in the morning for the last week, so we’re letting her rest. So Happy Christmas to you all, and Happy New Year by the time this comes out.
The theme jumped out on a first reading – 33D being a hidden ADD defined by PUS – so pLus and NO letter EL. Following up I noted that the clues contained no letter Ls and the answers, relatively obviously, would be stripped of Ls. The only thing I didn’t immediately spot was that Ls had been stripped from the preamble too!
When 11, a synonym of 14 justifies omissions throughout this crossword. Coins may be of use at 8 and 16. One answer is an abbreviation, another a trade name.
Easy-peasy! But it wasn’t. A lot of the wordplay seemed pretty obscure, and I’m not sure I’ve got it all even now. One important point is that, in clues where the answers have Ls omitted, the wordplay refers to the L-less grid entry, though the definition refers to the whole answer.
1A was OK, but I was getting nowhere with 4A when I decided to Google “panto prop” and found a site that sold them, including ALADDINS LAMPS. This was good, but I entered it incorrectly (as Aaddin amps) and had 11D starting with an S, and no sensible letters for 9 & 10 D either. After a bit of checking and some deep thinking, I re-organised the lamps to be singular, and found PHONETICISED [Thanks to Caran @1 for pointing out the error – should read PHONETISED] for 11D. I thought, therefore, that 14A would be NOWELL and put it in faintly – wrong! I got 1D and had 14A starting with C and thought it would be CRIMB(L)E – but wrong again. It was CRIMBO – which was in the dictionary, but I had not heard of it, meaning Christmas, or its synonym, Noël. Phoneticised it becomes no el as spotted earlier.
The rest was a matter of sorting out missing and extra Ls and some tricky wordplay for this blog, and finding the missing coins (preamble). Failure to find NEOTYPE or ARS NOVA in Chambers eventually led me to re-inspect the preamble – remember NO ELs – so not coins but COLLINS, where I found the offending 8 and 16 down.
Not the greatest seasonal offering from Artix, but a reasonable workout in the end. I have been faced, at this season, by Pointer’s Boot problem last year and the 3D box in 2015 . This was at least a bit more straightforward than those. Quite a slog to finish off, particularly the bottom left corner which yielded slowly with a number of unusual words.
In the tables below the extra and missing Ls are in blue.
Across |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 1 Fop snubbed fLop (3) | DUD | DUD(E) (fop) cut short (snubbed) | |
| 4 Extras acting in amateur rep make panto prop (10, 2 words) | ALADDINS LAMP | ADD INS (extras) in A (acting) + A (amateur) + MP (representative) | |
| 12 At Stratford, say, cup’s ending first as Lovers are struck (5) | EPRIS | Shakespeare’s cup (at Stratford) is a PRISE. Move ending (E) to beginning | |
| 13 Once copied what’s pronounced as “red” by dictionary (7) | RONEOED | RONE (sounds like ROAN – red) + OED (dictionary) | |
| 14 See instructions (6) | CRIMBO | ||
| 15 HaLve study made of hiLLs cookie (4) | OREO | The trade name: Half of OREOLOGY (study of mountains) | |
| 17 Basso profundo boomer rankLed 90 (7) | BITTERN | BITTER (rankled) + N (90 in Med Rom Nums) | |
| 18 Hiding note, Mary pLays with naïveté; might she have been given this after 25th? (13, 2 words) | MATERNITY LEAVE | TE (note) in [MARY NAIVETE]* – nice &lit-ish clue | |
| 20 British sourpusses addLed 50% to standard fare at 14? (13, 2 words) | BRUSSELS SPROUT | BR (British) + [SOURPUSSES]* + half of T(O) | |
| 26 Christian Arab separates from Empire? (7) | ROMANIC | OMANI (Arab) in RC (Roman Catholic – Christian) | |
| 28 Serve cLad in one-time fabric (4) | IKAT | KA (serve) in I (one) + T (time) | |
| 29 Stokes makes boundaries with Lace cuts (6) | STRIMS | S (stokes) + TRIMS (makes boundaries with lace) | |
| 30 Forgoing inky pen, pickLed over paints for 7’s SUV? (7) | TRAVOIS | [OV(e)R (p)AI(n)TS]* – pickled over paints minus anagram of (inky?) pen | |
| 31 Right back drugs swab (5) | SUJEE | JUS (right) reversed + E+E (drugs) | |
| 32 Dancer’s tips: Troy goes on stage with no intro, bringing in New Year (10) | TREY ANTLERS | Dancer is a reindeer: T (troy weight) + (e)NTERS (goes on stage with no intro) round [YEAR]* | |
| 33 PLus emanating from dead dormouse (3) | ADD | Hidden in deAD Dormouse | |
Down |
|||
| 1 Overthrowing square, I met Bestuzhev-Ryumin at first, red beginning to conspire? (10) | DECEMBRIST | &lit clue – conspirators to overthrow Tsar, organised by Bestuzhev-Ryumin : [S(quare) I MET B(estuzhev-Ryumin) RED C(onspire)]* | |
| 2 BabeL Ruth’s head nicked by winning stroke? (6) | UPROAR | R (Ruth’s head) in UP (winning) + OAR (stroke) | |
| 3 Crack on underside of Dutch Afrikaner’s Ford (5) | DRIFT | D(utch) + RIFT (crack) | |
| 4 French Lass one targeted? (5) | AIMEE | If an aimer aims, then an AIMEE is aimed at! | |
| 5 E.g. this cLue to eat right fLood (5) | DROWN | DOWN (e.g. this clue) round R (right) | |
| 6 Chow chow? (10, 2 words) | DOG BISCUIT | &lit Chow = dog & chow = food | |
| 7 N American dressed for work after dropping off son (5) | INUIT | IN SUIT (dressed for work) minus S (son) | |
| 8 Is this used to name odd specimens of tree peony another way? (7) | NEOTYPE | Collins definition “A specimen selected to replace a type specimen that has been lost or destroyed” – not quite what the clue says, I think. Odd specimen serves a dual purpose in the clue: T(r)E(e) + [PEONY]* | |
| 9 Once sweet husband fished out of CaLm… (5) | SOOTE | SOOTHE (calm) minus H (husband) | |
| 10 …in the year before this research centre was shut down (4) | AERE | formerly, Atomic Energy Research Establishment: A (year) + ERE (before) | |
| 11 See instructions (10) | PHONETICISED | ||
| 16 Academy ruLe soprano star’s Burgundian music (7, 2 words) | ARS NOVA | Collins definition contains no reference to Burgundian, but the Wiki article does: A (academy) + R (rule) + S (soprano) + NOVA (star) | |
| 19 Doctor pinched earL after very dubious sound; Yankee swore! (6) | VUMMED | VUM is a US dialect form of VOW: V (very) + UM (dubious sound + MD (doctor) round E (earl) | |
| 21 Spicy titbit from Sun’s predecessor? Yes! (5) | SATAY | SAT(urday) precedes Sun(day) + AY (yes) | |
| 22 Camera-maker moves top 90° to find image (5) | EIKON | NIKON (camera maker) ; N(orth) turned by 90° anticlockwise becomes E(ast). Thanks to Ho for explaining this! | |
| 23 Antiquated gate waLLy inside perimeters of site (5) | SASSE | ASS (wally) in S(it)E | |
| 24 In 2, “Remove MP and put in Queen” these NZ MPs hoot (5) | RURUS | A RURU is a New Zealand owl or mopoke (presumably the MP in the clue, but see comment 6 below): in RUMPUS (uproar – 2D) remove MP and insert R (queen) | |
| 25 Might this raise dead European aye-aye? (5) | OUIJA | OUI and JA are respectively French and German for yes, | |
| 27 ILL ream; ILL dream (4) | MARE | mare can be a nightmare: [REAM]* | |
Reading the blog has made me feel this crossword was better than I thought at the time of solving! For me, the ‘remove L’ device was perhaps too similar to the ‘remove M’ (and a few other letters) in the previous week’s Inquisitor. Still, I really liked the Jolly title.
PS. ‘Phoneticised’?
Thank you Caran, for pointing out that the blog says phoneticised, whereas the grid contains the (infinitely uglier) PHONETISED. I have made an alteration.
Also thanks for pointing out JOLLY – I hadn’t thought of no els in the title, though JOY and JOLLY both seem to be acceptable titles.
My experience was similar to yours: 33 across was the first one in and I also assumed that 14 across would be Nowell. And although the top half of the puzzle fell into place reasonably swiftly, it was the southwest corner that held me up at the end. I never did understand what coins meant in the instructions (I thought it might mean “coinages”) so thanks for explaining that.
The parsings for more than a few passed me by, as did the coins bit, perhaps because I used Google to check both the clues in question, but apart from that this was a pleasant pre-Christmas puzzle that left me time to get on with the things I probably should have been really doing.
It took me a long time to get started on this – I’d made several attempts but just couldn’t see anything I could even pencil in. I did briefly consider ADD at 33A, but it wasn’t until I finally worked through to the last few clues that I found one I could make sense of, OUIJA, and that made me look again at the clue for ADD and finally the penny dropped. After that it still wasn’t easy to work through to the end, but I enjoyed the challenge, which filled in several lulls over the festive period. I liked the variety of missing Ls, even if I sometimes over-thought it, convinced for example that the definition at 21D would be ‘yells’. I had a lot of question marks on clues I hadn’t fully parsed: was it the moon that followed the sun in 21D? How did catho (or cathol?) define an Arab to be taken from Roman Catholic in 26A? What was the mysterious clam that must be part of the word play in 9D? But I got there eventually (apart from the mysterious MP you mention in 24D). I hadn’t noticed the Jolly option in the title though, so one more smile raised.
As with the blogger, 33a ADD revealed the theme, and 1a DUD provided more evidence. CRIMBO went in very early, then 4a A[L]ADDIN’S [L]AMP showed me it was answers as well as clues that were affected. The “see instructions” at 14a and 11d had felt somewhat stilted until I realised that it was a necessary alternative to “see preambLe” and I smiled at the carefully capitalised “Coins” there.
I missed the “his” -> “hiLLs” at 15a so thanks to Hi for pointing that out, but all the other missing L’s check out between the blog & my notes.
Can I offer a different (better?) explanation of the definition for RURUS at 24d? They are indeed New Zealand owls (aka mopokes) and MPs are Members of Parliament – a little-used collective noun for a group of owls.
Happy New Year, everyone.
OPatrick @5, I also wasted a lot of time trying to find an Arabic cathol
Great fun, this. I was lucky enough to guess the old gag NO EL from the timing and slightly strained wording here and there — gosh, a lipogram! — and 1A immediately succumbed to experimental insertion of an L. Still it took a long time to finish, with the SW corner especially recalcitrant (I see Hihoba agrees on that point). Only when I had MARE completely checked did I twig that we needed to add four Ls to that clue.
Nice to have several festive references as bonus: panto, seasonal fare, the Nativity, Santa’s reindeer, December and (eventually spotted) Jolly.
Thanks, Artix; thanks, Hihoba; Happy New Year all round.
HG @6, thank you for your alternative explanation for RURUS – I think you are correct, and have made a note in the table.
Am I the only one dubious about the word “inky” in 30A?
After last week’s space odyssey, I was expecting a stinker, so I was surprised to get Maternity Eave and Brusses Sprout quite quickly (though for a long time Iy entered Brusse Sprouts); Add confirmed the no-el theme. And then… a tough slog, in several corners (I never did guess a clue with a double L missing).
Thanks to Artix and Hihoha, and a happy new year.
Hihoba @9: Chambers gives “inky” = “drunk (esp Australian slang)”, so that’s OK.
This was a tough Christmas challenge and it took a long time to complete after spotting the theme very early. We had no idea what “Coins” referred to.
Happy New Year to everyone.
I enjoyed this very much. The Noel device may be a bit corny (and not just used in crossword puzzles) but so what? Christmas in the UK is a celebration of corniness so it fitted right in as far as I was concerned – a mince pie in one hand and the IQ in the other. Coins/Collins me laugh out loud and was one of the first indications of missing Ls that I got. There were some obscure words in here but I have been solving the IQ (and blogging Azed) for a couple of years now and it has got to the point where I hardly notice if a word is obscure any more. I now take it for granted that I check everything in the dictionary before I write it in. I have ceased to distinguish.
Many thanks to all.
There are a couple of interesting “extras” recently revealed. First that the removed Ls are all from the thematic, Christmas-related answers and second that an appropriate 25 Ls were removed from the clues. Respect to Artix!
Hi @14: despite what I said earlier (me @6) there are only 24 L‘s removed from the clues in the blog. The missing missing L is from 20a: addLed.
True HG. I have add(L)ed the missing L.
I too spotted No-el immediately after ADD, and had no real problem after that, except for puzzling over missing MPs … had finally assumed they were MoPokes or MorePorks, but HG’s “parliament of owls” explanation was a lovely denarius drop, post eventum !
How many others enjoyed Chalicea’s wonderful Listener 4458 last year ? … where not a single O appeared anywhere … not in title, preamble, clues or grid. A sheer joy.
As a very late post, this may not be seen, but thanks and HNY to Artix, Hihoba, and all.
I saw it Murray! and HNY to you too.