Pleasantly straightforward from the Falcon today.
A couple of googlies to keep the interest levels up but otherwise a standard Tuesday morning net-session. Thanks, Falcon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TEA SHOP | European has cooked in leading restaurant (3,4) |
| E[uropean] + anagram (‘cooked’) of HAS both in TOP (‘leading’). | ||
| 5 | TABLET | Tense on board? A pill’s the answer (6) |
| T[ense] on end of TABLE (‘board’). | ||
| 8 | XYLOPHONE | Unknown person at university returned to polish instrument (9) |
| X (‘unknown’) + POLY (‘university’) reversed + HONE (to ‘polish’). | ||
| 9 | OVERT | Completed townhouse, initially open to view (5) |
| OVER (‘completed’) + start of T(ownhouse). | ||
| 11 | SUGAR | Sweetener from centre in Prague brought back by son (5) |
| S[on] then centre of ‘pRAGUe’. | ||
| 12 | ON THE BALL | Informed about article ahead of social event (2,3,4) |
| ON (‘about’) + THE (‘article’) + BALL (‘social event’). | ||
| 13 | CROSSING | Cause of affliction in Grand Junction? (8) |
| CROSS (’cause of affliction’, as in ‘the cross I bear’) + IN + G[rand]. | ||
| 15 | FATHOM | Understand female in one’s house? Not quite (6) |
| F[emale] + AT HOMe. | ||
| 17 | ASHRAM | A quiet artist beginning to meditate in retreat (6) |
| A + SH (‘quiet!) + RA + M(editate). | ||
| 19 | BULGARIA | Country record includes live song (8) |
| BUG (to ‘record’ covertly) includes L[ive] – though Chambers doesn’t give it – then ARIA (‘song’) | ||
| 22 | BANDSTAND | Group having to endure outdoor music venue (9) |
| BAND (‘group’) + STAND (to ‘endure’). | ||
| 23 | DINGO | Wild dog shot following row (5) |
| DIN (‘row’) then GO (a turn or ‘shot’ in a game). | ||
| 24 | E COLI | Bacteria contributing to terrible colic (1,4) |
| Inclusion in ‘terriblE COLIc’. | ||
| 25 | CASHEW NUT | Fruit ready? Large cask we brought back (6,3) |
| CASH (‘ready’ money) then reversals of WE and TUN (‘large cask’). | ||
| 26 | ROCKET | Firework plant (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 27 | CAST OUT | Get rid of all the players on strike (4,3) |
| CAST (‘all the players’ in a drama) + OUT (‘on strike’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TEXAS SCRAMBLE | Type of golf competition in US state – get along somehow (5,8) |
| TEXAS (‘US state’) + SCRAMBLE (‘get along somehow’) for a team golf format in which the best-positioned ball is selected after each round of strokes. | ||
| 2 | ALLEGRO | Scored at brisk speed, a fifty by member run out (7) |
| A + L (50) + LEG (a member) + R[un] O[ut], w lightly cryptic musical def. | ||
| 3 | HYPER | Extremely happy salesman turned up, unusually energetic (5) |
| Extreme letters of ‘HappY’ + reversal of REP. ‘Rep’ was clued as ‘saleswoman’ last Tuesday, so parity here restored. | ||
| 4 | PROFOUND | Demanding deep thought, professional discovered (8) |
| PRO[fessional] + FOUND (‘discovered’). | ||
| 5 | TREATY | Deal with Turkey, ultimately establishing pact (6) |
| TREAT (negotiate or ‘deal with’) + Y (last letter of ‘turkeY’). | ||
| 6 | BOOMERANG | Kylie and Romeo, sadly, caught in explosion (9) |
| Anagram (‘sadly’) of ROMEO in BANG (‘explosion’). ‘Kylie’ is one of those words you either know or you don’t. | ||
| 7 | EYEWASH | Rot in English trees (7) |
| E[nglish + YEW + ASH. | ||
| 10 | TELL ME ABOUT IT | I know I want your advice on computers and stuff (4,2,5,2) |
| I.e. “Explain I[nformation] T[echnology] to me”. | ||
| 14 | SLAPSTICK | Comic spat in polished custard- pie film? (9) |
| Anagram (‘comic’) of SPAT in SLICK (‘polished’). | ||
| 16 | CUL-DE-SAC | No through road learner enters wrongly accused (3-2-3) |
| L[earner] in anagram (‘wrongly’) of ACCUSED. Easy, but very nice surface. | ||
| 18 | HAN SOLO | Film character in hot saloon, boiling (3,4) |
| H[ot] + anagram (‘boiling’) of SALOON. | ||
| 20 | RUN INTO | Manage, violating it on strike (3,4) |
| RUN (‘manage’) then anagram (‘violating’) of IT ON. | ||
| 21 | MASCOT | Lucky charm male found on racecourse (6) |
| M[ale] then ASCOT (racecourse). | ||
| 23 | DRESS | Trim one-piece garment (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
*anagram
This was definitely on the gentler side, but even so contained a few little gems, including TEXAS SCRAMBLE which I’d never come across, and the meaning of ‘kylie’ which I have to confess I didn’t know. I kept trying to fit in some variant spelling of ‘budgie’, to no avail of course.
I think we’ve had L for ‘live’ before which I’ve just bunged in without thinking, but you’re right about Chambers and I couldn’t find it in the OED either. On the Wikipedia page for “L” acronyms, the only mentions for ‘live’ were in (I) LARP – (a) Live-Action Role-Playing, (ii) LJ – Live Journal (where the Other Place is hosted) and (iii) LIVE – (a) Liquid Inertial Vibration Eliminator (No, I don’t want to know, thank you). Someone will doubtless have a better explanation.
Thanks to Falcon and to Grant
I thought L for Live came from the labels on the terminals of electric plugs (Live/Neutral/Earth – see e.g. here), less familiar now than in the days when electrical appliances came without plugs already attached.
I also took L for ‘live’ as in plugs. 1d was new to me and needed to check my Chambers to make sure second word was ‘scramble’, since ‘scrabble’ just about works for the cryptic part. For 8a, X needs to mean ‘unknown person’, rather than just ‘unknown’. The blog misses mentioning the reversal needed in 11a.
Thanks to Falcon and GB. Kylie-BOOMERANG and TEXAS SCRAMBLE were new to me but both were clued well, especially when all the crossers were available. I assumed someone would find an L for live. Very enjoyable.
Forgive me for entering at this late time and I am aware that only comments relevant to the clues are permitted but after a hard day at the allotment and a glass of beer I thought I would get off an old grudge of mine: the ugliness of the British BS 1363 plug compared to other countries’.
Your correspondents are actually wrong. L is not short for LIVE but for LINE. The N (Neutral) and L (Line) are the LIVE parts and E (Earth) is neutral.
I appreciate that they were commonly confused but as they say ignorance is ?.
Thank you and I too did not know the ‘new’ words.
I haven’t got a clue what kind of ‘Live’ can be abbreviated as L.
It crops up in crosswords quite regularly and I always tend to take it for granted.
Falcon cannot be blamed: it is in Collins (def.7 under L).
As always with this setterall well clued but nothing to be afraid of.
During the last days of Dante’s Empire, Falcon looked to become the natural No 1 for the Monday spot. The FT decided otherwise (with e.g. Jason and Hamilton). Yet, it doesn’t seem to be a bad idea if a team consisting of the likes of Crux, Armonie, Falcon and an alternating fourth one would do the honours to make the beginning of the FT week more consistent again. Well, that’s what I think.
Thanks Falcon and Grant
A reasonably straightforward puzzle that was a pleasure to do.
Took a while to see that ‘unknown person’ = X at 8a.
Finished in the NE corner after taking too long to realise that the setter meant the Australian Aboriginal meaning of ‘Kylie’ rather than the name of the girl to be used as some sort of anagram fodder – a nice clue ! Just needed EYEWASH and FATHOM to complete it then.
Re: L for “Live”.
I’m still new to this, but perhaps this will work. On this side, we have a TV show you might have heard of – which is commonly referred to by its acronym: SNL.
The point with that is, ‘Rick, that abbreviations should be valid in a stand-alone situation.
In your example, Live is part of Saturday Night Live. If this were acceptable K could be seen as an abbreviation for ‘Kingdom’ [think UK].
No dictionary would agree. At least one major dictionary (Collins) accepts L = ‘Live’ and that’s fine then.
Nonetheless, just like you I always thought that L = ‘Live’ either came from ‘on air’ or the electrical issues that Andrew suggested.
But, actually, I still haven’t got a clue.
To Rick Gray @8:
The rules about initial letter abbreviations are sort of flexible but the basic idea is that they have to ‘gettable’ by everyone, within reason, so, no, ‘L’ for the Live bit of ‘Saturday Night Live’ won’t wash for British solvers (nor for all Americans, I’m sure. It’s too vague without further narrowing). Chambers Dictionary is by convention the arbiter, which is why I brought it up but I’m quite happy with the explanations above: I think that the ‘L’ on electric plugs is pretty well known and recognisable. We too have TV show abbreviations – TW3 for the 60’s satire That Was The Week That Was is for example widely known – but woe betide a setter who tried to use the W for ‘Was’. That would be definitely unfair. But do keep on dropping by. Fun, isn’t it?
This has really annoyed me. I was struggling with the top left so came to the blog.
1ac A tea shop is not a restaurant. It’s a tea shop.
1dn. I’ve never heard of Texas Scramble, and I don’t recognise ‘get along somehow’ as a definition of scramble.
8ac. A Poly was not a University.
…and then there’s Kylie
Very poor clueing.