Independent 10,018 by Filbert

by

So much for the fairly gentle Wednesdays we had when Dac was setting. This was as hard — for me, at any rate — as anything you ever see in the Independent. My initial feeling was irritation with what seemed to be rather loose and vague clues, but it grew on me: the meaning of most of them is clear and at times Filbert has been remarkably clever and imaginative. The fact that some of them still seem to be a bit weak is probably down to me rather than to him. Or her, although the name suggests a man.

For various reasons Filbert was derided a bit to begin with but then he became much liked. This crossword looked initially like a reversion to his old habits, but I suspect I’ve missed some of his subtleties.

Definitions underlined, in maroon.  Anagram indicators in italics.

Across
1 WASHINGTON One in fifty used to be on night shifts (10)
was (on night)* — I think the definition says 50 not 52 because at the time that Washington became a state there were 50 of them. I’m a bit vague on American history so may well be wrong: there certainly haven’t been 50 Presidents, and Ulysses S. Grant, not George Washington, is on the 50-dollar bill.
6 NOPE Negative number making the class sweat (4)
no. PE — PE may make the class sweat but does PE = ‘making the class sweat’?
10 UPPED Gave a lift to Johnny coming back after uni (5)
U (Depp)rev.
11 EYELASHES Delicate sensors say eel writhes before she wriggles (9)
(say eel)* (she)*
12 DERIDING Ridiculing the Camptown races? (8)
‘de riding’ is the way in which ‘the riding’ would have been said in the song ‘Camptown Races’
13 SWERVE Curl first shot around edge of wall (6)
s(w{all})erve — the left edge of wall, although we’re not told which one; for some reason, which I can’t explain since there are only two of them and it seems perfectly OK to make the solver work out which one, we are usually told — the first shot of a rally in tennis
14 TOOL A file possibly left behind on top of everything (4)
too [= on top of everything] L
15 ADMISSION Bill withdrawing denial about young woman, one? (9)
ad (miss 1) (no)rev. — an attempt at an &lit. — OK it’s one example of Bill withdrawing denial about young woman, but it does seem to me to be rather a stretch
19 TALL ORDER Big ask short term saves shaky dollar (4,5)
t(all ord)er., the all ord being *(dollar)
20 YALE Where degrees are taken by wallies, every so often (4)
{b}y {w}a{l}l{i}e{s}
22 EIFFEL Quite a sight, said the Statue of Liberty’s builder (6)
“eyeful” — Eiffel was an engineer of course most famous for the Eiffel tower, but he also built the S of L
24 ATOM BOMB Grave after grave, first of two once dropped by America (4,4)
A [= America] tomb tomb with t{wo} once dropped, &lit., rather a good one although it took some working out
26 INFLUENZA Covers of unethical fanzine stirred up widespread complaint (9)
(u{nethica}l fanzine)*
27 OMAHA Nebraska tribesmen recalled eureka moment (5)
(aha! mo)rev.
28 ECHO Environmentally friendly houses close to forty-ninth parallel (4)
eco round {forty-nint}h — houses a verb
29 DISNEYLAND Many amusements for kids sadly end in running riot (10)
(sadly end in)*
Down
1 WOULDNT IT BE NICE A single query, hearing setters’ favourite French city is Lyon? (7,2,2,4)
A song by The Beach Boys.  The statement with Nice as the French city is a sort of whimsical suggestion that Nice, not Lyon, is the setters’ favourite French city. Or so it seems …
2 SUPER BOWL Big game hunter who’d kill mice, by choice (5,4)
superb [= choice] owl [= hunter who’d kill mice]
3 IODIDE Salt ten dead fish (6)
10 d. ide
4 GREEN CARD Permit daughter to carry electric motor? (5,4)
green car above [being carried by] d
5 OP-ED Worked with a break two-thirds of the way through article (2-2)
I’m not sure here: it seems to be op’d [an archaic way of saying ‘worked’] with a break two-thirds of the way through and the arbitrary letter E inserted; but this seems very feeble and perhaps there is a better explanation [yes indeed, Andrew @2 (thanks) has pointed out that ‘worked’ is the word that has a break two-thirds of the way through and so you get ‘work-ed’, which makes it all rather good. I feared that often I might be missing the niceties.]
7 OTHER More inconvenience when late starting (5)
{b}other
8 EASTERN SEABOARD Seabirds stop to relax on the coast north of Miami (7,8)
eas(terns)e aboard [= on]
9 MAE WEST Mums in fleeces wear dull swimwear with floats (3,4)
ma(ewes)t, the mums in fleeces being mother sheep
16 MARK TWAIN Humorist‘s place for shopping cart (not back of Waitrose) (4,5)
mark{e}t wain, the e being {Waitros}e
17 INAMORATA The one Fiat a Roman insurer provides retrospective cover for (9)
Hidden reversed in FiAT A ROMAN Insurer
18 HOME RUN Big shot who married Mrs Simpson, united on third of June (4,3)
Homer U {Ju}n{e} — Homer Simpson not Edward VIII — clever clue because the abdicated Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson actually did marry on 3rd June 1937
21 EMBODY Give substance to English doctor, oddly prescribing itself (6)
E MB o{d}d{l}y — ‘prescribing itself’ indicates that it’s the word ‘oddly’ which is treated
23 FIFTH You need some proof if this taken (5)
Hidden in prooF IF THis — &lit. since it’s true: the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution says that you don’t have to be a witness against oneself, so another very good clue
25 ANTI Critical of presenter always introduced before Dec 1 (4)
Ant is always introduced before Dec (Ant & Dec), 1

*anagram

17 comments on “Independent 10,018 by Filbert”

  3. I enjoyed parts of this but some of it seemed rather contrived.   For example, 1d is one of my favourite songs, but the wordplay doesn’t really give the solver a fair chance of working out the answer. 15a is incomprehensible to me in spite of John’s explanation.

    I think 3d is an American term for an article in a US newspaper on the comment page which normally faces the editorial.  I didn’t understand the wordplay but that given by Andrew @2 seems to work.

    Is the setter American, or does he perhaps live in America?   Nearly half the clues appear to have some sort of US connection.

    Thanks to Filbert and to John.

  4. A mixed bag indeed –  agree with RD@3 about 1d – and that’s before you are left with an earworm

    Also RD should note that he’d remember this setter in his ‘amateur’ days as Mucky

    Thanks to Filbert – I did like 22a and 25d – and also to John

  5. I liked the American theme, as pointed out by Rabbit Dave @3, presumably as tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. I thought Filbert was being very clever in arranging the clues geographically (WASHINGTON beginning up in the NW, the Beach Boys song along the W and EASTERN SEABOARD down the E), but last time I looked OMAHA wasn’t in Florida or Alabama.

    I took a long time to twig to the theme and it certainly helped with a few such as SUPER BOWL and HOME RUN. I loved the idea of HOMER as ‘Big shot’ – not exactly King of England material!

    A few such as ATOM BOMB and ADMISSION were too hard for me to parse, so thanks for the explanations.

    Thank you to Filbert and again to John.

  6. As others have said – this was a really mixed bag and I had question marks alongside several of the clues.

    I did like SUPER BOWL and ANTI raised a smile but overall it wasn’t one for me.

    Thanks anyway to Filbert for his compiling and to John for the blog.

  10. I realised there was a lot of Americana but failed to make the connection with thanksgiving day, thank you wordplodder. I admired the inventiveness of the setting, and at the same time I was grateful to John for an excellent blog which explained the bits I wasn’t sure of. not Omaha, but perhaps Disneyland is in Florida – or is that disneyworld, I never know – except the family wants to go there for reasons beyond me.

    Many thanks filbert, quite the puzzle.

  11. Totally missed the theme, y’all.

    I also wondered about the PE of NOPE and the definition of ADMISSION, but my other question marks (and I did have a few) all turn out to be me being owls, or letters to that effect.  I enjoyed it anyway.

    Thanks to Filbert and John.

  12. Evening, all

    Thanks for commenting, even if it didn’t quite hit the spot.  Thanks to John for fine blog, particularly for checking (or even knowing?) the Simpson wedding date and saving me from having to casually drop it in myself.

    If you google ‘how many states in the USA?’ as I did on reading the blog, the top alternative suggested question is ‘are there 52 states in the USA?’, but thankfully that turns out to be no.

    Dansar@7 yes, though I admit it’s not the most obvious reference

    Dutch@10, Wordplodder It’s Disneyworld in Florida, but it doesn’t fit, so I fudged it.

    Happy Thanksgiving for tomorrow for those involved.

    James

     

  13. Have you ever had it happen that you’ve been reading about something only for it to turn up in a crossword the next day?  I’m currently reading Antony Beevor’s book about  D-Day and reading last night all about OMAHA beach, so 27ac went in quickly.  I’m also an America sports fan so 2dn and 18dn weren’t hard, although it took me a while to work out why it had to be SUPER BOWL.

    But I wouldn’t have got 1dn without a word search, and I needed the first letter to get 1ac.  5dn, another word search, and 6ac totally defeated me.

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  14. And Kaspersky wanted to know if their password manager was appending that text to my posts if I don’t properly enable the extension.  Now I know it does.

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  15. Almost totally defeated.  “Irritation with what seemed to be were rather loose and vague clues” sums it up.  I doubt we shall bother tackling the next Filbert.  Thanks, though, to John for struggling to make sense of it all.

  16. Reproducing the problem for Kapersky.

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