Another Friday and another Phi-day.
It wasn’t until we had finished and were writing up the blog that we realised that there was a theme. We always check when we are blogging a Phi puzzle but we invariably miss it. Bert was checking the parsing of 1d (which Joyce had misunderstood) and it suddenly clicked. although PREFECT doesn’t seem to appear anywhere.
We are not sure that we have all the themed entries but if you click on the completed grid below you can see the ones that we have found. It is such a shame that Phi couldn’t include Zaphod Beeblebrox. Our favourite character however was Marvin the robot – check out the following quotes here
Across
7 Second way lady loses heart, to a large degree (6)
MOSTLY
MO (second) ST (way as in street) LadY first and last letters only or ‘losing heart’
8 Direction always required in police operation (8)
STEERING
EER (ever) inside STING (police operation)
9 Advantage initially held before unfortunate battle (8)
EDGEHILL
EDGE (advantage) H first letter of held or ‘initially’ ILL (unfortunate)
10 Desire to see promotion of small casual garb (1-5)
T-SHIRT
THIRST (desire) with S (small) moved forward or ‘promoted’
11 Playing of disc starts to exhibit this keyboard instrument (6)
SPINET
SPIN (playing of disc) E T first letters or ‘starts’ of ‘exhibit this’
13 Saw mops – hair, flopping (8)
APHORISM
An anagram of MOPS HAIR – anagrind is ‘flopping’
15 Amusing comments about rule or legal document (4)
WRIT
WIT (amusing comments) about R (rule)
16 Prone to hold Arab in a separate area (5)
APART
APT (prone) around or ‘holding’ AR (Arab)
17 Fellow’s sick – the maximum one’ll tolerate (4)
FILL
F (fellow) ILL (sick)
18 Time to keep quiet, beset by further financial burden (8)
MORTGAGE
T (time) GAG (to keep quiet) inside or ‘beset by’ MORE (further)
20 Tailless leporid, donkey and badger (6)
HARASS
HARe (leporid) missing last letter or ‘tailess’ ASS (donkey)
21 Happy to snare undisciplined stars (6)
GALAXY
GAY (happy) around or ‘snaring’ LAX (undisciplined)
23 Instructive end to overture, fading, with one forte interrupting (8)
EDIFYING
E (last letter or ‘end’ of ‘overture’) DYING (fading) with I (one) F (forte) inside or ‘interrupting’
25 Head of Hall without members having no influence (8)
HARMLESS
H (first letter or ‘head’ of hall) ARMLESS (without members)
26 King Lear? (6)
EDWARD
Double definition as in King Edward and Edward Lear
Down
1 Possible end for famed car (4)
FORD
F OR D (‘possible ends’ of ‘famed’)
2 Linked computers: alien seizing number in that place (8)
ETHERNET
ET (alien) around or ‘seizing’ N (number) in THERE (that place)
3 Tarty lass I played in classic sex comedy (10)
LYSISTRATA
An anagram of TARTY LASS I – We are afraid we had to cheat on this one but when Bert googled ‘classic sex comedy’ he found it. However, we realised that we did know the story and Joyce has actually read some of the play but had completely forgotten the title.
4 Apprentice overlooking one new sign of damage (4)
DENT
inDENT (apprentice) without or ‘overlooking’ i (one) n (new)
5 Old King‘s skill reduced damage (6)
ARTHUR
ART (skill) HURt (damage) missing last letter or ‘reduced’
6 Left in awful desert sun – what will finally happen? (3,7)
END RESULTS
An anagram of DESERT SUN around L (left) – anagrind is ‘awful’
8 Feels answers misplaced about American perception of individuality (4-9)
SELF-AWARENESS
An anagram of FEELS ANSWERS around A (American) – anagrind is ‘misplaced’
12 Tinder alternative – a lot of green stuff burning internally (8,2)
PERSONAL AD
PER (a) SALAD (lot of green stuff) with ON (burning) inside or ‘internally’
14 One getting nowhere giving people the finger? (5-5)
HITCH-HIKER
Cryptic definition – a play on the fact that if you are a HITCH HIKER, you might not get any lifts if you stick your finger out instead of your thumb. Our Grandson Joss would agree that a thumb is not a finger (he’s 2 and a third!).
17 Number in favour of drink as well, we hear (5-3)
FORTY-TWO
A homophone (‘we hear’) of FOR (in favour of) TEA (drink) TOO (as well) – the answer to the ultimate question?
19 A market rising with investment by university, providing shock (6)
TRAUMA
A MART (market) written up or ‘rising’ around U (university)
22 Agreement to secure volume for Frenchman? (4)
YVES
YES (agreement) around or ‘securing’ V (volume)
24 Standard number affixed to room (4)
NORM
NO (number) RM (room)
Thanks B&J. I think the only one (or two) that you’ve missed is MOSTLY HARMLESS (the Book’s description of Earth).
This was good fun – FORTY-TWO was an obvious early pointer to the theme for me, and from then I was on the lookout.
I didn’t identify all of the related entries, but it was good to be able to spot a Phi theme, an uncommon event for me. A few I had trouble with including ‘leporid’, (in)DENT for ‘Apprentice’ and ‘Tinder’ which I had to guess post-solve was some sort of Internet meeting/dating site. Did manage to remember LYSISTRATA after the anagram at first sight appeared very strange – good surface by the way.
A pleasant way to start the solving day.
Thanks to Phi and B&J
Was going to take a break today, but couldn’t resist taking a peek … which turned into doing enough to spot the delightful theme, so I was hooked. Hooked and reeled in and had for supper though, as in the end I had to cheat to get EDGEHILL/LYSISTRATA. Still, much enjoyed.
Thanks to Phi and Bertandjoyce.
Looks like I might be taking a last-minute trip away this weekend, but I will remember to pack my towel. Have a good one, everybody.
Kitty (mostly harmless) x
An amazingly quick solve for me. Spotting the theme early possibly helped. When I got FORTY-TWO and saw I already had HARMLESS, I started searching around for other themed answers. In fact, I filled it in so fast, and many answers were so obvious, I couldn’t parts many so thanks for the explanations.
I’m in California at the moment and completed this after an early breakfast. It’s still not 9 a.m. here, which makes this probably the earliest I’ve finished an Indy crossword ever, even if it was after most of the rest of you.
We did spot the theme in time to realise that 4dn had to be DENT (and not ‘rent’ hidden in ‘apprentice’ – which in any case didn’t explain ‘one new’) and that there wasn’t a perimeter nina. Last one in was APART, after we’d corrected 3dn having originally bunged in ‘Lysistitra’ without bothering to check the anagram fodder.
Favourites were SPINET, APHORISM and MORTGAGE.
Thanks, Phi and B&J