Independent 9,953 / Wiglaf

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Wiglaf has produced today’s puzzle for our stimulation and entertainment.

I found this puzzle to be at the harder end of the Indy spectrum, one that I had to chip away for quite a long time while deriving a huge amount of enjoyment along the way. I was held up for a long time in the SW quadrant, not being sure of the tree at 22 (despite its easier clue) and mistakenly believing that 16 had to be ACQUIRES. Once the penny dropped at 21A and 21D, however, the finally pieces of the jigsaw slotted into place. The level of difficulty of the puzzle was cranked up by the use of some lesser-known French composers and also some more extraneous vocabulary for a daily cryptic – such as the aforementioned TOTARA at 22, dug/TIT at 24, CESS at 16 and head/BOG at 18.

There is also a clever ghost theme involving actress Naomi Watts at 13/26 and director David Lynch at 11/28, who collaborated in the highly acclaimed 2001 film Mulholland Dr. (=Drive), which is spelt out in the top and bottom lines of the completed grid.

My favourite clues today are the first two across clues, both for smoothness of surface.

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

Across    
     
07 IGNOBLE Base sort elbowing women out

*(ELBO<w>ING); “women (=W) out” means letter “w” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “sort”
     
09 EXAMPLE Former politician embraces one extremely lithe model

{A (=one) in [EX (=former) + MP (=politician, i.e. Member of Parliament)]} + L<ith>E (“extremely” means first and last letters only)
     
11 DAVID French painter departs with prima donna, heading west

D (=departs, on train timetable) + AVID (DIVA=prima donna; “heading west” indicates reversal); the reference is to French neoclassical painter Jean-Jacques David (1748-1825)
     
12 AND Joiner employed in San Diego

Hidden (“employed”) in “SAN Diego”; “joiner” is to be understood as “conjunction”, i.e. a connecting word in grammar
     
13 NAOMI I complain about Ruth’s mother-in-law

I + MOAN (=complain); “about” indicates reversal; the reference is to the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament
     
14 AIRS Tunes of ‘ippie musical

<h’>AIR’s (=of <h’>ippie musical); the reference is to the Broadway musical Hair of the late 1960s, about hippie counterculture and opposition to the Vietnam War
     
15 ERIK SATIE International ice-skater is less cold when spinning, he noted

*(I (=international) + I<c>E-SKATER); “less cold (=C)” means letter “c” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “when spinning”; the reference is to French composer and pianist Erik Satie (1866-1925)
     
17 SPEECH THERAPIST ICA thesp suffering with herpes with little time to see diction specialist

*(ICA THESP + HERPES) + T<ime> (“little” means first letter only); “suffering with” is anagram indicator
     
21 JITTERBUG Jerky dancer takes Reverend William’s beer glass?

A spoonerism (“Reverend William (A Spooner)’s”) of “bitter (=beer) glass (=jug)”
     
24 AT IT Americans initially dug being in Congress

A (=Americans) + TIT (=nipple, udder, breast); “being in congress” means having sexual intercourse, hence being “at it”!
     
26 WATTS Delays making single Tesla power units

WAITS (=delays); “making single (=I) Tesla (=T, i.e. SI unit)” means letter “i” becomes “t”
     
27 GNU Animal that’s unfamiliar to Americans, we hear

Homophone (“we hear”) of US (“to Americans”) pronunciation of “new (=unfamiliar)”
     
28 LYNCH Bet the landlady gets // sentence without due process to law

Double definition; the reference is to Bet Lynch, a former landlady of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street
     
29 LARISSA Girl sporting saris in Los Angeles

*(SARIS) in LA (=Los Angeles); “sporting” is anagram indicator
     
30 OBSCENE Former student spat in public? That’s disgusting

OB (=former student, i.e. old boy) + SCENE (=spat in public, as in to make a scene)
     
Down    
     
01 MISDEALS Girl’s bridging agreement causes a disaster in bridge?

DEAL (=agreement) in MISS (=girl); the reference in the definition is to the card game bridge
     
02 UNIVERSE A Parisian with freedom to revise everything

UN (=a Parisian, i.e. a French word for a) + *(REVISE); “freedom to” is anagram indicator
     
03 LEGATE Deputy‘s limb was in a mess?

LEG (=limb) + ATE (=was in a mess, i.e. canteen)
     
04 HEADLINE The bloke nailed up a banner?

HE (=the bloke) + *(NAILED); “up” appears to be the anagram indicator
     
05 OPT OUT Choose not to get involved in work with solicitor

OP (=work, i.e. opus) + TOUT (=solicitor, as in ticket tout)
     
06 LEVITE A tribal member‘s life, cut short in general

VIT<a> (=life, as in curriculum vitae) in LEE (=general, i.e. Robert E Lee, a commander of the Confederate States Army); the Levites are one of the tribes of Israel in the Old Testament
     
08 BADE Ordered to lie about what might be classified

AD (=what might be classified, i.e. classified ad(vert)) in BE (=to lie, be located)
     
10 AMNESIAC One forgets adult cinema’s bonkers

A (=adult) + *(CINEMA’S); “bonkers” is anagram indicator
     
16 ACCESSES Gets experts to circumvent tax

CESS (=tax, a local rate (obsolete)) in ACES (=experts, buffs)
     
18 TOBOGGAN Slide head into garment that’s old (and new)

BOG (=head, i.e. a ship’s toilet) in [TOGA (=garment that’s old) + N (new)]
     
19 INTENDED Home care for editor’s fiancée

IN (=(at) home) + TEND (=care for) + ED (=editor); one’s fiancée is one’s intended (wife)
     
20 TETCHIER More snappy drawer covers make an impression

ETCH (=make an impression, engrave) in TIER (=drawer, i.e. something that draws/ties together)
     
21 JOWELL Former minister who left us mostly happy about people in general

WE (=people in general) in JOLL<y> (=happy; “mostly” means last letter dropped); the reference is to the former minister for the London Olympics Tessa Jowell (1947-2018), who recently died of brain cancer
     
22 TOTARA NZ native is into Tarantino to some extent

Hidden (“to some extent”) in “inTO TARAntino”; the totara is a large coniferous tree, native to NZ
     
23 GOUNOD French composer gets to work with an Italian director

GO (=to work, of a machine) + UNO (=an Italian, i.e. an Italian word for a(n)) + D (=director); the reference is to French composer Charles-François Gounod (1818-93)
     
25 ELMS Sign of pleasure as one goes climbing trees

SM<i>LE (=sign of pleasure); “one (=I) goes” means letter “i” is dropped; “climbing” indicates vertical reversal
     

 

11 comments on “Independent 9,953 / Wiglaf”

  1. Managed to complete this. Always find Wiglaf to be very tough. I’ll leave it for others to decide what ‘bonkers’ refers to in the surface reading of 10d.

    Didn’t know TOTARA or GOUNOD and needed a word fit for the latter. Lots of sneaky clues, e.g. WATTS, that took some thinking.

    Spotted the nina after finishing and a quick look on Google gave the linked clues DAVID LYNCH, NAOMI WATTS. Maybe, there are other links?

    Thanks to Wiglaf and RatkojaRiku.

  2. I usually find Wiglaf’s crosswords very hard but I more or less flew through this.

    And I didn’t even spotted the theme (& nina) until the very end [which helped me to find my LOI ‘Levite’].

    As to this theme, Naomi Watts played the role of Betty ELMS. And according to Wikipedia the soundtrack (by Angelo Badalamenti) starts with a JITTERBUG.  Perhaps, there’s more.

    I liked this puzzle mainly because, for me, it had a slightly lighter touch than previous offerings from Wiglaf.

    Many thanks RatkojaRiku & Wiglaf.

     

  3. We needed a wordfinder for MISDEALS (to us, just as golf is not a proper sport, bridge is not a proper game so it’s a closed book) but otherwise completed it unaided.  Before we got JITTERBUG (bonus points to Wiglaf for cluing a spoonerism without using ‘Spooner’) we did wonder if 22dn could be ‘Otaran’ but googling showed Otara to be even more obscure as a suburb of Auckland than totara as a tree, and other crossing letters didn’t fit.  We knew the composers, though, and we got ACCESSES easily as the Indy reprint in yesterday’s i had ‘accessed’ clued in a similar way.  But we missed the theme/nina.

    Thanks, Wiglaf and RatkojaRiku

     

  5. The app presented me with the down clues first and all I got on the first pass was Amnesiac, but then the across clues were almost write-ins so the whole thing, apart from Totara, was done fairly quickly. Didn’t spot the ghost theme but did notice that the 2 composers and 1 artist were all French. Does that count? Thanks Wiglaf and RR.

  6. Theme-wise, in Mulholland Drive the character Rita, played by Laura Harring, is an AMNESIAC. I really enjoyed the puzzle, although I needed the D from the nina to get GOUNOD, which was my LOI after TOTARA which went in with a shrug from the wordplay.

  7. I agree with Mr Crabtree. Two French composers? Pah. Setters should stick to MTV, reality shows, and other stuff that doesn’t require any intelligence.

  8. cruciverbophile@6 I don’t see that carrying a list of second-rate French composers round in your head requires any intelligence but you’re obviously cleverer than wot I am or maybe all those episodes of Love Island has addled my brain.

  9. Agree with Sil as to difficulty but still v enjoyable.  Combining Mulholland Dr with the symmetrical names (and even more thematic stuff) is very neat – perimeter ninas are quite restrictive when it comes to gridfilling.  I liked JOWELL, ELMS, AT IT, but failed on LEVITE despite having the L.

    Thanks Wiglaf, RR

  10. @8 I don’t consider myself to be particularly clever, but on the other hand I am not stupid enough to ditch a very good crossword on the basis of two classical music references, and then declare that I have done so on a public forum!

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