I signed off my last Indy Saturday blog (Klingsor’s Munster-ous 9991) with ‘…see you in the 10,000s…’ and, lo and behold, here he is again on my next shift, five weeks later…
…making it three Klingsors in a row for me…lucky me and/or poor Klingsor!
A nice solid cryptic workout – no hairy-scary Munsters (that I can see) this time…but a fairly wide spectrum of ‘classical’ (or UNHIP?) references, from CANTICLE and SERAPHIM to OF MICE AND MEN, via RIGOLETTO, TIPSTAFF and OPIATES.
I hope I have managed to CUT IT, and to ELICIT the gist of this puzzle – and that my blog doesn’t leave you too CATATONIC.
Pick of the bunch was probably 25A ‘Is in charge of gas bills’, which caused some HEAD Scratching.
My LOI was PAUPIETTE (confession – anagrammer/electronic aid used here to confirm…hope that is not MISAPPROPRIATE, and that it does KNOT leave too much of a STENCH for the purists…otherwise I’ll be STRUNG-UP, or subjected to some STRONG LANGUAGE, if it makes people ANGORAy…)
I can only give HOMAGE to K – I DIGS your work…(;+>)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | OF MICE AND MEN | Commend a fine novel or novella (2,4,3,3) | (Steinbeck) novella / anag, i.e. novel, of COMMEND A FINE |
|
| 9A | INSET | Fashionable crowd offering a small figure (5) | a small figure / IN (fashionable) + SET (crowd) |
|
| 10A | RIGOLETTO | Allowed into dress circle at opera (9) | (Verdi) opera / RIG (dress) + O (circle) + LET (allowed) + TO (at) |
|
| 11A | TIPSTAFF | Officer is to reward good restaurant service? (8) | (sheriff’s) officer / if one wanted to reward good restaurant service, one might TIP the STAFF! |
|
| 12A | ANGORA | Marketplace stocks new wool (6) | wool / A_GORA (market place) around (stocking) N (new) |
|
| 13A | SERAPHIM | New Hampshire banishing leader of Hell’s Angels (8) | angels / anag, i.e. new. Of HAMPS( |
|
| 15A | SINGLE | Special fireplace is unique (6) | unique / S (special) + INGLE (fireplace) |
|
| 17A | SEPTUM | Wall Street retains old record? Let me see (6) | (anatomical) wall / S_T (street) around (retaining) EP (old vinyl record, Extended Play), plus UM (hesitation, let me see!) |
|
| 18A | MACERATE | Steep price of a spice? (8) | steep (as in soak) / the price (RATE) of a spice (MACE) might be the MACE RATE |
|
| 20A | ELICIT | Extract from unlicensed broadcast (6) | extract / homophone, i.e. broadcast – in some accents ELICIT (extract) can sound like ILLICIT (unlicensed) |
|
| 21A | STRUNG UP | Spoke in places about being sent to the gallows (6,2) | sent to the gallows / ST_UP (puts, or places, about), around RUNG (spoke, of a ladder) |
|
| 24A | CATATONIC | Immobile Tom maybe needs a medicine (9) | immobile / CAT (Tom, maybe) + A + TONIC (medicine) |
|
| 25A | HEADS | Is in charge of gas bills (5) | is in charge of / HE (Helium, gas) + ADS (advertisements, bills) |
|
| 26A | CENTRE SPREAD | This could provide recent section of newspaper (6,6) | section of newspaper / if the letters of CENTRE are SPREAD about – anagrammed – they could provide RECENT |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | OPIATES | Drugs ring spreads to cover island (7) | drugs / O (ring) + P_ATES (spreads) around (covering) I (island) |
|
| 2D | MISAPPROPRIATE | Motorway speed limits fool rugby player? One’s held in nick (14) | nick (as in steal) / MI (M1, motorway) + SAP (fool) + PROP (rugby player) + R_ATE (speed) around (holding) I (one) |
|
| 3D | CUT IT | In court, do I succeed? (3,2) | succeed / C_T (court) around UT (do, musical) + I |
|
| 4D | AEROFOIL | Wing perhaps composed of aileron mostly (8) | wing, perhaps / anag, i.e. composed, of OF AILERO( |
|
| 5D | DIGS | Searches for accommodation (4) | double def’n / to DIG can be to search for; and DIGS is informal for accommodation |
|
| 6D | EGLANTINE | Rose perhaps wants social worker kept in line (9) | (species of wild) rose / EG (for example, perhaps) + L_INE around (keeping) ANT (social worker) |
|
| 7D | STRONG LANGUAGE | An end to driving in sun – glare got awfully blinding (6,8) | (effing and) blinding / STRONG L_UAGE (anag, i.e. awfully, of SUN GLARE GOT) around ANG (AN plus end letter of driving) |
|
| 8D | HOMAGE | What about keeping old magazine as tribute? (6) | tribute / H_E (eh? Or what, about) around (keeping) O (old) + MAG (magazine) |
|
| 14D | PAUPIETTE | Stuffed meat aroused appetite? Sounds like you tucked in (9) | stuffed meat / PA_PIETTE (anag, i.e. aroused, of APPETITE) around (tucked into by) U (homophone, i.e. sounds like – YOU sounds like U) |
|
| 16D | CANTICLE | Hymn in vernacular Latin kept in reserve (8) | hymn / CANT (vernacular) + IC_E (reserve) around (keeping) L (Latin) |
|
| 17D | STENCH | Small fish? It may be smelt (6) | it may be smelt (as in smelled) / S (small) + TENCH (fish) |
|
| 19D | EXPOSED | Former model principally depicted naked (7) | naked / EX (former) + POSE (model) + D (principal letter of Depicted) |
|
| 22D | UNHIP | One local joint that’s not trendy (5) | not trendy / UN (dialect, i.e. local, one) + HIP (joint) |
|
| 23D | KNOT | Bird seen soaring in Milton Keynes (4) | bird / reversed, hidden word, i.e. soaring in, in ‘milTON Keynes’ |
|
Can’t believe I’m first to arrive, as I’m usually 24 hours late! This is due to accidentally downloading today’s instead of yesterday’s puzzle when I got round to it at 2 a.m. Also amazed to finish a Saturday Indie in reasonably fast time, only needing to consult a word list to find PAUPIETTE. Getting OF MICE AND MEN almost immediately was a big help. Struggled with RIGOLETTO and ELICIT. Lovely puzzle, thanks Klingsor and McRapper.
I happened to bung in the non-crossers in the right order for the unknown PAUPIETTE, which sounded an unlikely word. I couldn’t work out CANTICLE or the UT bit of CUT IT, but otherwise all went in parsed, more or less anyway.
More than challenging enough, but a nice way to wind down after today’s Paul Guardian Prize puzzle, which I found v. tough. The ‘Steep price of a spice’ clue was my favourite and I also liked the ‘Immobile Tom’ in CATATONIC.
Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Klingsor.
Another one needing an anagram finder to get 14db – not a word I knew – and I also needed a word search to get 20ac.
Challenging but enjoyable. We couldn’t parse CUT IT properly, and worked out PAUPIETTE as about the only combination of letters that looked like a word, which we then checked in Chambers. We liked SEPTUM and HEADS among others.
Thanks, Klingsor and mc_rapper.
Another one reporting use of an anagram solver; I also used electronic aids on a couple of others, then kicked myself (unaided).
All much enjoyed. Nice to see my CATATONIC friend Tom too.
Thanks to Klingsor and mc_rapper67.
First ever Klingsor for me. I was looking for something else to do after the 2 easy Guardian puzzles today, and the Inquisitor was already finished, which isn’t always the case on a Monday.
Really enjoyable. No cheats, no anagram help, no external aids whatsoever, and everything except 16d parsed and correct.
Thanks to K and Mc_r.