A brisk Tuesday solve, including a moment of beauty.
For a four-letter word, 25d is fairly astonishing. Well played, Jason.
| Across | ||
| 8 | SATIRE | Lampoon settled fury (6) |
| SAT (‘settled’) + IRE (‘fury’). | ||
| 9 | EXAMINER | She tests chopper circling digger (8) |
| AXE (‘chopper’) reversed + MINER (‘digger’). | ||
| 10 | DEAN | Lair housing a cleric (4) |
| ‘A’ in DEN (‘lair’) | ||
| 11 | EASY STREET | Life of Riley from undemanding cryptic setter (4,6) |
| EASY (‘undemanding’) + anagram (‘cryptic’) of SETTER. | ||
| 12 | BOSS | Manager is a stud too (4) |
| Doudle definition. | ||
| 13 | LITMUS TEST | Elaborate titles about essential touchstone (6,4) |
| Anagram (‘elaborate’) of TITLES around MUST (an ‘essential’). | ||
| 17 | FETA | Cheapskate found holding back cheese (4) |
| Reversed inclusion in ‘cheapskATE Found’. | ||
| 18 | OBELI | Asterix’s mate finally dropped Roman daggers (5) |
| OBELIx is Asterix’s mate in the French cartoon. | ||
| 19 | POOL | Mere kitty (4) |
| Another DD. | ||
| 21 | OUTER SPACE | Place with no atmosphere is free, peer’s upset about account (5,5) |
| OUT (of prison, ‘free’), then anagram (‘upset’) of PEER around AC[count]. | ||
| 23 | SNIP | Steal crop (4) |
| DD again. A ‘snip’ in the sense of a bargain, a ‘steal’. | ||
| 24 | METROPOLIS | Bumped into core of strong Irish police in capital (10) |
| MET (‘bumped into’) + centre of ‘stROng’ + POLIS (jocular Irish pronunciation). | ||
| 28 | THEN | In the Athenaeum in those days (4) |
| Inclusion in ‘aTHENaeum’. | ||
| 29 | TURNCOAT | Scab to spoil plaster (8) |
| TURN (of, e.g. milk, to ‘spoil’) + COAT (‘plaster’). | ||
| 30 | THESIS | Position article next to little sibling (6) |
| THE + SIS. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TAKE NOTE | Pay heed to appropriate reminder (4,4) |
| TAKE (‘to appropriate’) + NOTE (‘reminder’). | ||
| 2 | LIONS SHARE | New Orleans and his biggest part (5,5) |
| Anagram (‘new’) of ORLEANS, HIS. | ||
| 3 | REBELLIOUS | Excitable Oriel blue’s not easily held in place (10) |
| Anagram (‘excitable’) of ORIEL BLUES. | ||
| 4 | MESS | Jam servicemen in here? (4) |
| DD: where a serviceman might be served jam. | ||
| 5 | PASS | Soft chump’s amorous advance (4) |
| P[iano], ‘soft’, + ASS (a ‘chump’). | ||
| 6 | PIER | Pioneer one going for support (4) |
| PIoneER, missing ‘one’. | ||
| 7 | AENEAS | Hero of Rome in rough sea, neat for the most part (6) |
| Anagram (‘rough’) of SEA + NEAt. | ||
| 14 | THETA | What sets Thucydides off? A letter with aspiration (5) |
| ‘Theta’, with its sounded ‘aspiration’, is the 1st letter of Thucydides in Greek. | ||
| 15 | UNIVERSITY | Randomly survey it in place of study (10) |
| Anagram (‘randomly’) of SURVEY IT IN. | ||
| 16 | TYPESETTER | Old printer is kind to me (10) |
| TYPE (‘kind’) + SETTER (‘me’, Jason today). | ||
| 20 | OLIVEOIL | Duck, as it happens, goes with Polish dressing (5,3) |
| ‘0’ (a ‘duck’) + LIVE (‘as it happens’) + OIL (‘polish’). | ||
| 22 | USEFUL | American fuel is blended to be profitable (6) |
| US (‘American’) + anagram (‘blended’) of FUEL. | ||
| 25 | RANK | Station where taxis wait, turned off (4) |
| Quadruple definition (though, to be picky, ‘turned’ and ‘off’ are a little close and we’ve had ‘turn’ already today). And it’s an &lit, I think. Pretty dashed clever, anyway. | ||
| 26 | PLOT | Box crammed with large parcel (4) |
| L[arge] in POT. A ‘parcel’ of land, of course. | ||
| 27 | LUTE | Fellow leaving instrument finds another (4) |
| fLUTE. | ||
*anagram
Thanks Jason and Grant
Very enjoyable puzzle over a coffee. Thought that there were some nice clues throughout and a couple of things that needed to be checked up on – OBELIX (didn’t know the French comic book) and the Irish term POLIS for police.
Lots of four letter clues brings on a certain amount of trepidation … and warranted to be confident with MESS (seemed too obvious at first look) and SNIP (the steal / bargain connection). Thought the quadruple definition was excellent – if you consider OFF = coarse / vulgar (as in manner) rather than food being rotten, then I think that there is a wide enough gap in the definitions.
Initially wrote in an unparsed AITCH instead of THETA but was able to get sanity to prevail.
Finished in the SW with that RANK, TURNCOAT and PLOT.
Nice to see lots of DDs – always enjoyed Dante’s puzzles for the same reason.
Juts had a small problem with 23a – put WHIP in confidently, and then TYPEWRITER in 16d, equally certainly, just couldn’t get the crosser at 28a to work. Finally saw the light when it had to be THEN.
Thanks both.
Like JayDee @2 I initially had WHIP and TYPEWRITER until THEN didn’t work
Very enjoyable and I agree with Grant that 25d is excellent
Thanks to him and especially to Jason
Why is box= pot?
Thanks
Thanks to Jason and Grant B. I struggled with the 4-letter items and eventually failed with RANK and also TURNCOAT. I had the same question about box = pot.
@4 and @5
Same here initially … but I did find in dictionary.com:
pot:
10. British. (Dialect) a basket or box used for carrying provisions or the like; a pannier.
Thanks Jason & Grant.
In 4 down I took the definitions to be Jam and here. The second is where soldiers (men) receive service. The question mark seemed to justify the separation of servicemen.