Independent 9895 / Morph – Fifteensquared

We always look forward to Morph’s puzzles, so we were delighted to encounter him today.

Lots of ingenious devices get to keep us on our toes. Being a Morph, we expected a theme, and were slightly disappointed by the rather obvious reference to it in 2d, as it would have been fun trying to find it on completion of the grid. Having said that, identifying the theme early on definitely helped in a fairly tricky solve, enabling us to complete it more quickly than might otherwise have been the case.

The thematic connections in the across entries are in GREEN below

Great fun – thanks Morph.

Across
8		Sing with mafia boss’s intimate (8)
	INFORMAL	INFORM (sing) AL (Al Capone – mafia boss)
9		Louisiana Republican and Trump getting scrap from the pork barrel? (6)
	LARDON	LA (Louisiana) R (Republican) DON (Donald…. he who shall not be named)
10		Hit parade rigged in systematic discrimination (9)
	APARTHEID	An anagram of HIT PARADE – anagrind is ‘rigged’
11		River, not in my language (4)
	ERSE	We’re not too happy with this one, but it is original! – mERSEy (river) without ‘my’
12		Mostly vulgar filth (4)
	CRUD	CRUDe (vulgar) without the last letter or ‘mostly’
13		Many dig tin recklessly, using explosives (10)
	DYNAMITING	An anagram of MANY DIG TIN – anagrind is ‘recklessly’
15		Splash out on buttocks in LA and one’ll have a big bill (6)
	TOUCAN	An anagram of OUT (anagrind is ‘splash’) + CAN (buttocks in the USA) – new to us despite all our years doing crosswords!
17		Fire disrupted road by Rugby westbound (6)
	ARDOUR	An anagram of ROAD (anagrind is ‘disrupted’) + RU (rugby) reversed or ‘westbound’
19		Victim has leadership of Kremlin mixed up in online political interference (10)
	HACKTIVISM	An anagram of VICTIM HAS and K (first letter or ‘leader’ of ‘Kremlin’) – anagrind is ‘mixed up’ – a new word for us, but an evocative combination of hacking and activism
21		Sheep run that’ll hold water (4)
	EWER	EWE (sheep) R (run)
23		Carry child with care out of car (4)
	TOTE	TOT (child) + ~~car~~E (without ‘car’)
25		I’ll have to start with cocoa, drunk like whisky (9)
	ALCOHOLIC	An anagram of I’LL, H (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘have’) and COCOA – anagrind is ‘drunk’
26		Dieter perhaps getting into anger management (6)
	GERMAN	Hidden in or ‘getting into’ ‘anGER MANagement’
27		Hanging round centre of Uxbridge with bottle (8)
	DARINGLY	DANGLY (hanging) round RI (middle two letters or ‘centre’ of Uxbridge)

Down
1		Not preferred by gentlemen, perhaps prejudiced (6)
	UNFAIR	According to legend ‘Gentlemen prefer blondes’, so they would not prefer the UNFAIR
2		Cartoon character frustrating Morph’s organisational efforts by not getting into a row here? (6,4)
	DONALD DUCK	The clue that gives away the Nina in the across entries – reading across the two entries in each row, a type of duck appears – DONALD DUCK is a down entry, ‘frustrating Morph’s organisational efforts’
3		Newer type of music by old rock and roller showed passion (6)
	EMOTED	EMO (type of music – new to us too!) TED (Teddy Boy – ‘old rock and roller’ – more our era!)
4		Doing setter’s job – giving a prompt, within which there’s latitude (7)
	CLUEING	CUEING (giving a prompt) round or ‘within which there’s’ L (latitude)
5		Waiter in play, very obscure, embraced by the French and Irish (8)
	VLADIMIR	V (very) + DIM (obscure) in or ‘embraced by’ LA (‘the’ in French) and IR (Irish) – a reference to one of the characters in Samuel Becket’s ‘Waiting for Godot’
6		Short fellow’s leaving cheese (4)
	BRIE	BRIEf (short) with the ‘f’ (fellow) omitted or ‘leaving’
7		Snow White’s stepmother, say, set up operation in forest, endlessly devious (8)
	POISONER	OP (operation) reversed or ‘set up’ + an anagram of IN fORESt (without the first and last letters or ‘endlessly’) – anagrind is ‘devious’
14		Absorbent material about right for dressing (10)
	TROWELLING	TOWELLING (absorbent material) round R (right)
15		Source of milk and energy consumed by bird that’ll dry up (3,5)
	TEA TOWEL	TEAT (source of milk) + E (energy) in or ‘consumed by’ OWL (bird)
16		Local birds find chap a bit goatish, in a way (8)
	AVIFAUNA	FAUN (mythical half-human half-goat, or ‘chap a bit goatish’) in A VIA (way)
18		Two ciphers that’ll help you find an apartment in New York (3,4)
	ZIP CODE	ZIP (zero – ‘cipher’ was apparently once the character 0) CODE (another sort of cipher)
20		Restore hymn, upliftingly encapsulating ‘I bow down before you!‘ (2,4)
	MY HERO	Hidden (‘encapsulated’) and reversed (‘upliftingly’) in ‘restORE HYMn’
22		Disbanded units, just one left performs well (6)
	EXCELS	EX (disbanded) CELlS (units) with only one ‘l’ (left)
24		Bond’s bossy, perhaps, loudly getting award (4)
	EMMY	(James) Bond’s boss was M, so if you add a ‘y’ to M (to change ‘boss’ to ‘bossy’ it would sound like (‘loudly’) EMMY – we think this is a bit ‘clunky’, but it is certainly novel!

9 comments on “Independent 9895 / Morph”

Hovis

#1 - Sat 30th Jun 18, 08:25

Another great Morph crossword. I thought the clue for 2d was a bit weak and, as you say, did give away the Nina (not that I mind that particularly). I did think of Howard (the) Duck briefly. I also agree that the clue for EMMY was a bit ‘clunky’. ERSE was my FOI and I rather liked it. Pleased to drag the word AVIFAUNA out of the old memory banks.

Thanks to Morph and Bertandjoyce.

Kitty

#2 - Sat 30th Jun 18, 09:38

Loved the puzzle, loved the theme. Needed the review to explain ERSE. Thanks ducks!

I’m trying to work out how “in” does what it needs to in the ERSE clue, and also wondered about “find” as a link in the AVIFAUNA one. Extra thanks to anyone who can help out this birdbrain. 🙂

Hovis

#3 - Sat 30th Jun 18, 10:24

Kitty@2. My reading is that: if ERSE was in MY, you would get MERSEY but, since it isn’t, you just have ERSE; and, if you look at AVIFAUNA, you find FAUN inside A VIA.

James

#4 - Sat 30th Jun 18, 10:28

Great puzzle, loved the ducks. I didn’t find it disappointing to have them pointed out – it’s much more fun to know what’s going on while you’re doing the puzzle, but then I didn’t get Donald too early.

I don’t think find is a link – more an instruction, like ‘put faun inside a via’. Also not sure about the in in ERSE, though it was the not I wondered more about.

Thanks Morph, B&J

Kitty

#5 - Sat 30th Jun 18, 10:44

Thanks Hovis and James. I certainly find I’m now completely happy with AVIFAUNA – was being a bit Daffy there.

jane

#6 - Sat 30th Jun 18, 10:52

I had to look up quite a few things in this one and failed miserably on 19a.

Not overly happy with either 11a or 24d but as B&J said, certainly novel.

Tops for me were UNFAIR and ZIP CODE.

Thanks to Morph and to B&J for the blog.

PS The nina meant nothing to me at all – obviously didn’t pay enough attention to 2d!

allan_c

#7 - Sat 30th Jun 18, 18:19

We made hardly anything of this until a few crossing letters suggested DONALD DUCK and the U therein suggested the ‘big bill’ belonged toa TOUCAN, but we had no idea how to parse either of them. But they set us on the road to completion, although we were quite surprised, having unscrambled the anagram fodder in 19ac, to discover that HACKTIVISM is already in the latest Chambers – we thought it might be too new a coinage for that. Having completed it in the end (LOI was EXCELS), though, we failed to spot the nina/theme so we were still in the dark about 2dn.

We liked 5dn. Not an &lit but nevertheless hinting that the play might be considered ‘obscure’ and including a nod to Beckett being Irish but spending most of his adult life in France.

Thanks, Morph and B&J.