Independent 10,055 by Phi

12 comments on “Independent 10,055 by Phi”

1. I think your explanation for CARROT is fine and I quite liked the clue myself.

   A few fairly obscure words for me but I tend to expect that from Phi. I thought LUCUBRATE was a lovely new word to learn. Wonder if I can remember it for any length of time. As a 9-letter word, it could prove useful for Countdown. Seem to remember seeing ENDUE before but don’t recall seeing that meaning of BOOT previously. Seems to be related to its use in “to boot”.

   I did know ‘manure’ could be a verb but wasn’t sure ‘dress’ could be used as a synonym but checked out in Chambers.

   Thanks to Phi and John.

2. I enjoyed this – I agree with Hovis that the CARROT explanation is fine and the clue made me smile.   I have also filed away LUCUBRATE as I word I ought to use at some point in the future, but I bet I won’t remember it for long

   Thanks to Phil and John

3. Normally I love Phi’s puzzles but this one didn’t quite meet his normal very high standards for me although I did enjoy most of it.

   There were some good but some iffy surfaces (notably 17d & 18d) and, according to Collins on-line, the answer to 6d is an archaic Americanism!  The definition in in 22d was just straight GK although actually very specific rather than general knowledge.  4a & 3d were new words for me.

   Many thanks to Phi and John.   The answer to your question, John, is we occasionally get lavatorial and sexual reference-free days in Indy crosswords but only when there are clues involving drugs.

4. Oops. I meant 22a of course.

5. Chambers gives “profit” as a meaning for “boot” (see second meaning).

   Apart from the fact that 22ac requires specific knowledge about something I know little about, I thought this was fine, but I do wonder if there is something else going on here, given the unusual grid.  Apart from RATE appearing on the SW-NE diagonal, however, I haven’t spotted anything.

   I think your parsing of 21d is right, John, but I agree that it’s a bit of an odd clue, as the whole of it is needed for the wordplay, whereas only part of it is a definition of the answer, so, if my understanding is correct, it doesn’t qualify as an & Lit.

   Thanks, Phi.

6. I found this a bit harder than the usual Phi but really liked this. The sort-of cryptic def CARROT was my favourite and I confess to quite liking TINKLE as well.

   I nominate the unlikely sounding LUCUBRATE as the clubhouse leader for word of the year.

   Thanks to Phi and John

7. I had some trouble in the end with READRESS and LUCUBRATE, but enjoyed everything up until then – and did like the latter too once I’d found it.

   Can’t choose a favourite, but that’s not for want of good clues.

   Thanks to Phi and John.

8. Actually the theme is much lighter in nature: Beachcomber’s splendid parody of court processes, featuring 12 red-bearded dwarfs and Mr Justice COCKLECARROT, and the counsel Mr TINKLEBURY SNAPDRIVER and the less consistently named Mr HONEYWEATHER GOOSEBOOTe. The course of the case is regularly suspended due to one counsel getting his elbow stuck in the jaws of the other. I thought it was quite an unassuming grid to contain that amount of thematic material.

9. Thought that was a little tougher than is usual for this setter, certainly a few new words for me and I thought 22a was a little unfair to solvers.

   19a elicited a sigh – please don’t start to go down that route, Phi.

   5 & 21d were my top two.

   Thanks to Phi and to John for the blog.

10. We didn’t find tis too difficult but had to get LUCUBRATE and TATTLETALE from crossing letters and confirm them in Chambers – we note that Chambers marks the latter as ‘chiefly American’; and the former surely falls into the category of Johnsonese.  Maybe 22a wass a bit specialised but with only four letters the choice was rather limited and we didn’t to go hunting for the league tables to find the answer.

    We liked AUDITORY in that ‘as one hears’ was the definition, not a homophone indicator; and also DRIVER for the misdirection in ‘other club’.

    Thanks, Phi and John.

11. Thanks for the enlightenment. Phi. It seemed likely that several of the answers could be paired up, and Weatherbury is a fictional village in Far from the Madding Crowd. Alas that trail led no further and I never did find the right one.

12. Ok, so I’m a lurker; and a newby at that! This one has compelled me to finally comment. Over the past few months, the most infuriating thing I’ve noticed is the amount of Americanisms (and single words that should be two words, and vice-versa) in many of the British crosswords. It’s bad enough having to suffer the American intrusion into our popular culture (the latest being American ‘football’), but is our formal language not sacred? Are the setters American or are they just pandering to their US corporate owners? I too could find no link between BOOT and PROFIT (although I haven’t been using Chambers) and if it derives from BOOTY, then clearly our language is being raped and pillaged. My fury is only dampened by the fact that I’m expanding my vocabulary (LUCUBRATE, ANTINOVEL, TATTLETALE and ARRHYTHMIA were all new to me) and picking up interesting facts along the way (I never knew my brown pair of shoes were Oxford shoes, but thanks to John for the heads-up [is that an Americanism?] for other crosswords!). Also I regard READDRESS as another one of those ‘made-up’ words which, albeit semantically possible, one would never use in real life. Incidentally, by way of introduction, my name is an anagram of my surname that gives me a bit of an identity crisis: I’m either a pikey or a nobleman; TBH, I believe they come from the same stock?!

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