Radian has provided today’s puzzle, easing us into the working week after a weekend of indulgence, cruciverbal or otherwise.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle that I solved in two sittings. I needed quite a bit of dictionary/online assistance to confirm some solutions that I had arrived at from the wordplay – 2, 10, 17, 23, … I needed to “cheat” to find 16, since I did not know the dish and couldn’t see the Saki/Munro connection, although I know that this has come up before in puzzles. I am not sure about the definition at 6, since I only know “on the dot” to mean bang on time, whereas I haven’t come across “smack” in that specific sense.
There appears to be a mini-theme going on here around punctuation/pronunciation, with the entries at 1, 5D, 19, 21 (=accent), 25 … My favourite clues today were all towards the top of the Across list and all three were selected for their surface: 10, 13 and 14.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | HYPHEN | One of two lines in hand-me-downs
Cryptic definition: there are two hyphens (“lines”) in the expression “hand-me-downs” |
| 05 | PROSODIC | Experts like lyric based on foot beats
PROS (=experts) + ODIC (=like/as lyric); the “foot” of the definition is a metric foot for e.g. verse scansion |
| 09 | OLD LATIN | Terence wrote in this former city container
OLD (=former) + L.A. (=city, i.e. Los Angeles) + TIN (=container); the reference is to the Roman comic poet Terence (185-159BC) |
| 10 | TITTLE | Jot first of thoughts in book
T<houghts> (“first of” means first letter only) in TITLE (=book); a tittle is a small part of something, hence “jot” |
| 11 | THE OTHER SIDE | Article theorised about what lies beyond
THE (=article, i.e. in grammar) + *(THEORISED); “about” is anagram indicator; the other side and what lies beyond are references to the afterlife |
| 13 | TEXT | Book former opening times
EX- (=former) in T T (=times, i.e. 2 x T=time) |
| 14 | ACOUSTIC | Dismiss one in a cricket club, subject to hearing
[OUST (=dismiss) + I (=one)] in [A + CC (=cricket club)] |
| 17 | CICERONI | Consul once reversed in for tour guides
CICERO (=consul once, in Ancient Rome) + NI (IN; “reversed” indicates reversal); a circerone is a person who shows visitors the sights of a given place |
| 18 | AVER | Mean to conceal age and state
AVER<age> (=mean, in statistics); “to conceal age” means letters “age” are dropped |
| 20 | DISADVANTAGE | I’d backed commercial vehicle into dais, creating obstacle
DI (I’D; “backed” indicates reversal) + {[AD (=commercial, i.e. advert) + VAN (=vehicle)] in STAGE (=dais, platform)} |
| 23 | COPULA | Link 100 popular clearing banks
C (=100, in Roman numerals) + <p>OPULA<r> (“clearing banks” means first and last letters are dropped); a copula is a bond, tie, link, cf. to copulate |
| 24 | ACRIMONY | This writer’s probing a familiar resentment
I’M (=this writer, i.e. Radian) in [A + CRONY (=familiar, companion)] |
| 25 | ASTERISK | Choirmaster is keen to accommodate minor star
Hidden (“to accommodate”) in “choirmASTER IS Keen”; an asterisk is a small star-shaped punctuation mark, hence “minor star” |
| 26 | NINETY | Number seven in Etymology section
Hidden (“section”) in “seveN IN ETYmology” |
| Down | ||
| 02 | YELL | Shetland island valley, last of it pointing north
“Last of it” means last few letters of <va>LLEY are taken and “pointing north” that they are then reversed |
| 03 | HALF-TITLE | One of the prelims that fill roughly middle of sheet
*(THAT FILL) + <sh>E<et> (“middle of” means middle letter only); “roughly” is anagram indicator; prelims are the informative material (contents page, etc) that appears right at the beginning of a printed book |
| 04 | NETHER | New number underground
N (=new) + ETHER (=”number”, i.e. anaesthetic) |
| 05 | PUNCTUATION MARK | Amtrak put nuncio off reading aid
*(AMTRAK PUT NUNCIO); “off” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | ON THE DOT | Smack forward child he’d brought in
ON (=forward, as in move forward/on) + [HE’D in TOT (=child)]; “smack” appears to be being used as an adverb meaning exactly, precisely |
| 07 | OATHS | Engineer has to take these in courts
*(HAS TO); “engineer (as verb)” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | ILL-ADVISED | One large boy struggled to limit onset of spotty rash
S<potty> (“onset of” means first letter only) in [I (=one) + L (=large) + LAD (=boy) + VIED (=struggled)] |
| 12 | FELICITOUS | Noticed old American over here in Paris getting lucky
ICI (=here in Paris, i.e. the French word for here) in [FELT (=noticed, sensed) + O (=old) + US (=American)] |
| 15 | STATESMAN | Southern Dutch explorer keeps note for politician
TE (=note, in music) in [S (=southern) + TASMAN (=Dutch explorer, i.e. Abel Tasman (1603-59), after whom Tasmania is named)] |
| 16 | SOUVLAKI | Munro carries round UV lamp primarily for Greek dish
[O (=round, i.e. pictorially) + UV + L<amp> (“primarily” means first letter only)] in SAKI (=Munro, i.e. pen name of British writer H H Munro, 1870-1916); a souvlaki is a Greek lamb dish, similar to a shish kebab |
| 19 | MACRON | Sign covering letter // for foreign president
Double definition: a macron is placed over a vowel to indicate that it is long in e.g. Ancient Greek, while Emmanuel Macron (1977-) is the current French president |
| 21 | ACUTE | Serious reduction in hospital department
CUT (=reduction) in A (&) E (=hospital department, i.e. Accident and Emergency) |
| 22 | UNIT | Ammunition’s more than adequate for platoon
Hidden (“is more than adequate for”) in “ammUNITion” |
Thanks for the blog, RR (and for letting me know that I wasn’t in a minority of one in having to cheat on SOUVLAKI (my cheat wasn’t even in inverted commas).
I too found this pleasingly hard, but I was engaged by the theme so perservered until it all came together. There are a number of nods to linguistics throughout the clues and solutions – as well as the ones you mention, you could add PROSODIC, BOOK, TEXT, ETYMOLOGY, and perhaps HALF-TITLE.
COPULA might fit in as well: a COPULAR verb is a linking verb, like to be, to seem, to feel. The deal is that they can only be followed by adjectives, not adverbs: you can say ‘he argued intelligently’ but you can’t say ‘he appeared intelligently’. You’d need ‘he appeared intelligent.’ However, if I ask you how you are, don’t say ‘I’m good, thanks.’ You may well be pious, but ‘I’m well, thanks’ remains the only acceptable reply in our house.
Thanks to Radian for the puzzle.
We’d agree that this was a medium-difficulty puzzle as we solved it without help (apart from confirming guesses such as COPULA in Chambers) but a fair amount of headscratching. Our main difficulty was spotting the hiddens, including the ‘half-hidden’ YELL. We knew the Munro reference in 16dn but had to check how to spell the Greek dish. Our ‘doh’ moment was when we got HYPHEN – that has to be our CoD. Didn’t spot the theme, though.
Thanks Radian and RatkojaRiku.
Another quite thorny one after the holiday.
In a good puzzle with many nice things I particularly liked the idea for hyphen.
Many thanks Radian and RR.
Enjoyable stuff. I too liked hyphen, a fine PDM. Other clues were tidy in this well-made Indy puzzle.
Thanks both.
To continue the printing theme, Collins gives another meaning for tittle ‘ a small mark in printing or writing, esp a diacritic’. Others might be ‘acute’, even ‘on the dot’. I’m another who didn’t know the Greek dish and had forgotten the old favourite, Saki.
What with one thing and another, I didn’t get round to looking at this till late and I had great difficulty, especially on the left side, and did quite bit of cheating. Curiously, 16dn I didn’t have to cheat. I knew the dish and Saki had come up twice in conversation in the last week (in connection to his famous last words).
Had to cheat SOUVLAKI and another couple at the end, but found it a nice puzzle of medium difficulty up until then. Thanks R and RR.