Independent 9,939 / Filbert

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Filbert’s latest puzzle is the subject of my 400th blog, since my first write-up was published on this site on 1st December 2010. It is only the second time that it has fallen to me to blog a crossword set by Filbert.

I did better today than on the first outing with Filbert, when I had needed to search Chambers to complete the grid. This time I managed to fill it myself, although I needed to check 12 in the dictionary. Furthermore, I am not totally convinced of my parsing of 14, 15, 19 and 28, so please let me know if the parsing has gone awry anywhere. Overall, there was a lot going on in this puzzle, and teasing out the wordplay took quite a bit of effort but was quite satisfying when the various pennies dropped. One of the last pennies to drop was the “missing As” device in 4.

It is Tuesday today, so one should expect a theme of some description. Having thought at first that the theme centred on animals, on closer inspection I have realised that the theme is around “black and white”, since many of the entries, animals or otherwise, are black and white in colour (5, 7, 11, 13D, 22A, 22D, 24A, 24D …) or indeed can by prefixed by black or white or both (10,19D ..)!

My favourite clue by far is the cryptic definition at 11, for the surface misdirection around “hide”.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
08 ALABASTER Fat Controller after salad with crusts lost a stone

<s>ALA<d> (“with crusts lost” means first and last letters are dropped) + BASTER (=”fat controller”, i.e. device for measuring the quantity of fat to moisten meat during roasting)
     
10 RHINO Greek head of reconstruction invests in informal currency

IN in RHO (=Greek letter “r”, i.e. head (=first letter) of reconstruction)
     
11 ZEBRA Hide barcode pattern uniquely identifying this?

Cryptic definition: the bars or stripes on every zebra’s hide are unique!
     
12 MEZZOTINT Soprano can finally paint picture

MEZZO (=soprano) + TIN (=can) + <pain>T (“finally” means last letter only); a mezzotint is a print made from an engraved metal plate
     
13 CHAPLIN Charlie Chan interrupts private investigator in Latin? It’s all backwards

[L (=Latin) in PI (=private investigator)] in CHAN; “it’s all backwards” indicates that the containers in the clues are actually contents and vice versa
     
14 NEWBIES Beginners try spelling bees and win in an unusual way

*(BEES + WIN); “in an unusual way” is anagram indicator
     
17 ELGIN Silly Englishman losing half his marbles?

*(ENGLI<shman>); “losing half” means 5 of 10 letters only are used in anagram, indicated by “silly”; the reference is to the Elgin Marbles, sculptures from the Acropolis brought to the UK by Earl Elgin and now displayed in the British Museum
     
19 REV Gun for man in service at the front

REV can be an abbreviation (“at the front”) for revolver (=gun) and reverend (=man in (church) service)
     
20 EVENT On reflection, it never keeps happening

Hidden (“keeps”) and reversed (“on reflection”) in “iT NEVEr”
     
21 SUNDAYS When we might hear 19 Across speak of issue with confusion

Homophone (“speak of”) “son (=issue) + daze (=confusion)”; we might hear a Rev(erend) (=19 Across) on Sundays in church
     
22 PENGUIN Get down half of Guinness – it’s black and white and cold

PEN (=get down, i.e. in writing) + GUIN<ness> (“half of” means 4 of 8 letters only are needed); according to the old joke, a penguin is what is black and white and cold!
     
24 DALMATIAN Quaking at animal after daughter spotted creature in the house

D (=daughter) + *(AT ANIMAL); “quaking” is anagram indicator
     
26 GROWN Mature reaction to terrible joke on the radio

Homophone (“on the radio”) of “groan (=reaction to terrible joke)”
     
28 CYNIC One doubting value of pricy nick-nacks

Hidden (“of”) in “priCY NICks”
     
29 NEAR THING Shave end of pin connecting appliance to ground

<pi>N (“end of” means last letter only) + EARTHING (=connecting appliance to ground); a close shave is a near thing
     
Down    
     
01 JAZZ Nietzsche’s agreed on duplication of his core notes

JA (=Nietzsche’s agreed, i.e. the German word for yes) + ZZ (=duplication of his core (=middle letter), i.e. 2 x <niet>Z<sche>)
     
02 LAMBDA One who’s innocent getting lawyer’s letter

LAMB (=one who’s innocent) + DA (=lawyer, i.e. District Attorney)
     
03 CASABLANCA Film about Saint Alban transformed the state of Hollywood

CA (=about, i.e. circa) + S (=saint) + *(ALBAN) + CA (=state of Hollywood, i.e. California)
     
04 BREZHNEV Old leader of 19 Down missing as 11 haven demolished

*(ZEBR<a> H<a>VEN); “missing As” means 2 x letter “a” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “demolished”; the reference is to Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Russians (=entry at 19 Down) from 1964-82
     
05 OREO Ducks munch on cookie

RE (=on, i.e. regarding) in OO (=ducks, i.e. 2 x O, i.e. zero score in cricket)
     
06 DIVISIVE Admit five equals four to stop causing an argument

[V (=five, in Roman numerals) IS (=equals) IV (=four)] in DIE (=stop, end, cease)
     
07 COOT In bed, love the ultimate in baldness?

O (=love) in COT (=bed); to be completely bald is to be as bald as a coot, as they say!
     
09 TIMON Tiny boy performing lead role in Shakespeare

TIM (=Tiny boy, i.e. Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol) + ON (=performing); the reference is to Shakespeare’s play Timon of Athens, first published in 1623
     
13 CHESS Caught Nazi battling to overthrow king?

C (=caught, on a cricket scorecard) + HESS (=Nazi, i.e. Rudolf Hess)
     
15 WEEKNIGHTS Short men sensibly don’t party on these evenings

Homophone (“sensibly”, i.e. perceptibly) of “weak (=short) + knights (=men, in chess)”
     
16 SATIN Attended to observe material

SAT IN (on a lesson, for example) (=attended to observe)
     
18 GANGLAND Worry about prostate, perhaps it’s a dangerous world

GAN (NAG=worry, pester; “about” indicates reversal) + GLAND (=prostate, perhaps)
     
19 RUSSIANS Devious Iran’s detaining America’s countrymen

US’S (=America’s) in *(IRAN’S); “devious” is anagram indicator
     
22 PANDA Two characters boxed in spar, one with two black eyes

P and A are the middle two letters (“two characters boxed”) in <s>PA<r>
     
23 UTOPIA Great place, upstanding top-class president? Not quite

A1 (=top-class) + POTU<s> (=president, i.e. P<resident> O<f> T<he> U<nited> S<tates>; “not quite” means last letter is dropped); “upstanding” indicates vertical reversal
     
24 DICE Mould covering cold chop

C (=cold, on tap) in DIE (=mould); to dice is to “chop” up finely
     
25 ARCO Orca shot with a bow

*(ORCA); “shot” is anagram indicator; arco means to be played with the bow, as a musical instruction
     
27 NIGH Almost the end of the day; time flies

NIGH<t> (=end of the day); “time (=T) flies” means letter “t” is dropped
     

 

14 comments on “Independent 9,939 / Filbert”

  1. Thanks Filbert and RatkojaRiku (and congratulations)

    I took REV as “gun” as in step on the accelerator in a car, with “man in service at the front” being the minister.

     

  2. Thanks to Filbert – lots of clues to smile at, including 7d

    I parsed REV in the same way as Muffin

    Thanks to RR too – congratulations on the milestone

  3. I think CYNIC might be a reference to Oscar Wilde. In Lady Windemere’s Fan, Oscar Wilde had Lord Darlington quip that a cynic was ‘a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.’

  4. I also had PANDA and PENGUIN in quite early and thought it might be types of animal….then saw WEEKNIGHTS, NIGH(T)_then SATIN and the list went on including CHESS, RUSSIAN etc

    Great gridfill. Filbert is becoming a favourite.

    And thanks for blog RR.

  5. I liked the theme, or almost combination of themes, which I only spotted at the end. The one that brought back the most memories was 16d – specifically The Moody Blues.

    Couldn’t parse the POTU (reversed) bit of UTOPIA and lazily put in ‘dock’ for DICE, so unfortunately a DNF. Agree about ZEBRA which was excellent.

    For 19a I had the same parsing as muffin @1 and crypticsue @2. For 15d I had WEE (=’Short’) + KNIGHTS (=’men’ (pieces in chess)) but then it doesn’t really work as a homophone.

    Thanks to Filbert, and congrats to RR on your 400th.

  6. I’m rationing my crosswords this week, but very glad I included this one as I thought it really brilliant.

    MEZZOTINT was new to me and I looked it up to confirm before finishing.

    Saw the animals but didn’t twig the black and white nature of things.

    Thanks to Filbert (I really like your style), and thanks and congratulations to RatkojaRiku – I really like your style.

  7. Agree with WordPlodder @5 for parsing 15d. Can’t see ‘sensibly’ for a homonym indicator (perhaps relating to the sense ‘hearing’) and ‘sensibly’ works as part of the definition. Mind you, Friday night is a weeknight. Lots of clever stuff with DIVISIVE being my favourite.

  9. I don’t like MEZZO = SOPRANO. They’re two different voices – the former is not a subset of the latter.

  10. We needed three sessions to finish this – mainly due to other things needing our attention – but that probably helped.  We saw the theme just as we were finishing; the animals first but then plenty of other things that are black, white or black and white.

    Some very crafty cluing, e.g. ‘backwards’ in 13ac and ‘as’ for a plural of ‘a’ in 4dn.  Others we liked were RHINO, ZEBRA and GROWN.

    Thanks, Filbert and RatkojaRiku.

  11. Thanks all for comments, & thanks and congratulations to RatkojaRiku on your milestone.  I’ve lost count already and this is only my sixth, seventh or eighth puzzle.

  12. Ooh, good spot on the theme! Other potentials to be categorised as black & white are MEZZOTINT, CHAPLIN, REV, ALABASTER and ELGIN (white), CASABLANCA (contains white, but also b&w film, like CHAPLIN), DIVISIVE (bit lateral but a b&w issue is divisive), SUNDAYS can be black (political mostly), possibly even JAZZ (not sure about this one).

    Always fun to finish a satisfactory puzzle and take it further once complete! Thanks to Filbert and RatkojaRiku! Congrats on your 400th blog! Great achievement.

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