Phi is well known for crosswords with themes …
… but I cannot see one here.
When I got Karelia and Korngold I thought there might be other twentieth century classical music references but I cannot see any more.
So I will sit back and expect to be astounded when one is revealed.
[ I now realise Phi relinquished his more usual Friday slot to allow Serpent’s excellent homage to Richard Feynman to appear on the correct day, yesterday. ]
Solving was fun with a good swathe of answers entered on the first pass.
Struggled slightly to finish with 26 and its crossing 18 feeling wrong, though I had most trouble in the top right corner.
Officially last one in was 25 ATTIRE though it seems obvious now.
Help needed understanding 26, and something creaky about 18
Across | ||
---|---|---|
1 | ETHANE | English title for Macbeth? It’s a gas (6) E[nglish] THANE (Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor) <link to> C2H6 |
5 | KORNGOLD | Composer‘s traditional stuff on radio in the first place (8) Homophone “Corn” (traditional stuff, as in corny) HInd: on radio, then GOLD (in first place) After reading this wiki page I realise I know more of Korngold‘s music than I thought |
9 | AVENGER | Claim to involve English comic-book hero or heroine (7) ENG[lish] inside AVER (claim). Topical: New film “Infinity War” out this week |
10 | UPLOAD | University policeman, rudely called, seizing a bit of web content (6) U[niversity] PLOD (policeman, colloquially) around (seizing) A. |
11 | STRIFE | Trouble everywhere? Stumped, first of all, by that (6) ST[umped] RIFE (everywhere) |
12 | LISTENER | Auditor set to travel aboard ship (8) SET* AInd: to travel, inside LINER (ship) |
13 | MARROWFATS | Friend quickly swapping last two peas (10) MARROW (friend) FAST (quickly) S T swapped. That seems an odd word to me. I would always say “Marrowfat Peas” |
15 | YANK | American giving no backing to Knight (4) NAY< K[night] |
17 | SKIS | Avoids relinquishing power – goes downhill (4) SKI[p]S |
19 | SACROSANCT | Bag and various cartons not to be touched (10) SAC (Bag), (CARTONS)* AInd: various |
22 | RESEARCH | Advanced study about to get attention in school (8) RE (about) EAR (attention) inside SCH[ool] |
25 | ATTIRE | A lot of motorcycling has passion for gear (6) A TT (a lot of motorcycling) IRE (passion). Last one in |
26 | TARMAC | Power in tractor turning over material for road (6) I assume this is correct from the crossing letters and definition but I cannot see the wordplay. I think it may be ARM (power, as in Arms/guns) inside CAT< (tractor, as in caterpillar). Hmm Probably not |
27 | SKATING | Sporting giants circling rink ultimately displaying this (7) (GIANTS)* AInd: sporting, around (circling) [rin]K. |
28 | NEUROSIS | Disorder, note, or issue with rioting (8) N[ote] (OR ISSUE)* AInd: rioting |
29 | SULTAN | Good weather surrounding start of loud cheers for ruler (6) L[oud] TA (cheers) inside SUN (good weather) |
Down | ||
2 | TOAST RACK | Sequence of actions involving oven for breakfast essential (5,4) OAST (oven) inside TRACK (sequence of actions) |
3 | ATELIER | Artist upset about the vacant position in studio (7) RA< around T[h]E LIE (position) |
4 | EAGLE OWLS | Spain e.g. allows flying birds (5,4) (E (Spain) EG ALLOWS)* AInd: flying |
5 | KARELIA | King over region home to 51 – as immortalised by Sibelius? (7) K[ing], then LI (51) inside AREA (region) |
6 | ROUTS | Losing scenarios not accepted among senior scientists (5) OUT (not accepted) inside RS (Royal Society, senior scientists) |
7 | GALLERY | Sensitive response seeing advancement of good display space (7) 7 ALLERGY (sensitive response) with G[ood] advanced to the front |
8 | LEAVE | Sanction one occupying flat? Not entirely (5) A (one) inside LEVE[l] |
14 | STOWAWAYS | Get taken off, having boarded ship? We might (9) TOW AWAY (get taken off) inside (having boarded) SS (ship) |
16 | NICARAGUA | Hispanic country about to invest in shifting grain to America not Sweden (9) CA (about, circa) inside (GRAIN)* AInd: shifting, then U[s]A from USA – S[weden] |
18 | STEAMER | Banner spurned by first river boat (7) ST[r]EAMER. Wordplay seems wrong way around to me – surely: First river spurned by banner. Or: Banner having spurned first river |
20 | CO-HOSTS | What one pays to engage foremost pair of honest TV presenters? (2-5) HO[nest] inside COSTS (what one pays) |
21 | ANT HILL | A new problem involving two-thirds of the soldiers’ quarters? (3-4) TH[e] (two-thirds of the) inside A N[ew] ILL (problem) |
23 | EVADE | Escape notice in the preceding period (5) A D (notice) inside EVE (preceding period) |
24 | ROCKS | Looks impressive in topless dresses (5) [f]ROCKS topless dresses |
Not Phi at his best, I thought. I would also say ‘marrowfat peas’, but this seems to be ok. Failed in the top right: didn’t get KORNGOLD (never heard of him) or ROUTS or LEAVE. I parsed TARMAC as you did beermagnet. As for STEAMER, I guess you could argue that if something is spurned by something then they might leave it in disgust, so R leaves STREAMER. Not great but the best I can come up with. Can’t see any theme.
Thanks to Phi and beermagnet.
Hint: Our local cat café is called NEKO NGERU from the Japanese and Maori for cat. There are some more to be found.
If your event is spurned by me then it’s me who fails to make an appearance, surely?
Needed to look up both of the music references and haven’t come across MARROW = friend before today.
All I know about cat cafes is from a photo sent to me by Kitty! Not something that has found its way to the wilds of Anglesey.
Thanks to Phi and to beermagnet for the blog.
Thank you for giving us a hint Phi.
You’ve been herding cats again
So besides
NEKO (Japanese) in row 1 and
NGERU (Maori) in row 3
I can see
FELIS (Latin) in row 5
KISSA (Finnish) row 9
CHAT (French) row 11
MACSKA (Hungarian) row 13
[ also KAT (Danish and others) but that doesn’t cross two lights ]
but I cannot see any word for cat in
row 7 MARROWFATSYANK
row 15 NEUROSISSULTAN
or any in the down lights.
Is that the lot?
Phi@2 That’s more or less what I was meaning: leave in disgust or not turn up at all. Taking ‘reject’ as a synonym for spurn, saying STREAMER rejects R still feels more natural than STREAMER is rejected by R (so R doesn’t make an appearance) but either works.
I meant to add that, like Jane, I have never met MARROW for friend. My Collins says NE dialect, chiefly Durham, so, perhaps, a bit obscure but I’m ok with that since you didn’t really need to know it to get the answer.
Alas my cat knowledge ends with TS Eliot (AL Weber’s best librettist?)
Nice puzzle-and thanks-I asked for Phi for today (after giving thanks for Serpent yesterday)
Struggled a bit with this but we got it all in the end, though we couldn’t parse ATELIER or ROUTS (in the latter case we were looking for someting we could remove ‘in’ from – doh!) We hadn’t encountered ‘marrow’ for ‘friend’, either; but Chambers confirms it to be Northern dialect. CoD was 1ac – ETHANE.
Does Phi possibly have cats named FATSY or (S)ISSU for rows 7 and 15?
Thanks, Phi and beermagnet.
I’ve never been to a cafe serving cat. It probably wouldn’t taste too good, given what cats eat.
The word in 13 is pronounced MARRA and I didn’t know it had a Sunday spelling.
Quite an accessible puzzle for a Phi I thought, despite Korngold. Phi has an impressive knowledge of composers who never made it to Eurovision levels of popularity.
Nul points for the UK again?
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog.
Quite a quick solve, completed in the time to travel on the tube from Walthamstow to Waterloo.
I grew up in County Durham, so I didn’t realise “marrow” was regional.
Korngold is quite a favourite of mine. His music for the 1938 Robin Hood is one of the great film scores of all time, and his violin concerto is one of the top romantic violin concertos. It is not so much that Korngold’s music sounds like film music, but that much film music sounds like Korngold. The Star Wars fanfare is a complete rip-off of the fanfare that opens Korngold’s score to King’s Row.
Ironically, much of Karelia is now part of Russia, having been lost in the wars with the Soviet Union. Last year in Finland I had a traditional Karelian stew. It wasn’t as interesting as it sounds.
No,just the six cats – I couldn’t manage every row! Also I was running out of splittable options on Google Translate.
I’m a County Durham lad as well, so marrow (or marrer) was always around – and I also agree with Dormouse re Korngold. You really wouldn’t have a lot of the opulent Hollywood stuff were it nor for his example. Korngold (also one of musical history’s great prodigies) doesn’t get nearly his due.
Fine puzzle, which I found pretty difficult. Had to cheat on KORNGOLD. When I saw his middle name I immediately recalled it from film credits for orchestration.
Although spending only my youth in the UK (Sussex), I’m sure I heard “marrer” quite a lot in “When The Boat Comes In”.
Thanks to Phi and beermagnet (you should more faith in your own parsing).