I think this is a debut EV from Hillbilly – given that I can’t find any previous offerings on this site – so welcome, and what kind of ‘state’ are we seeking?…
The preamble states that:
“The perimeter must be completed with a quotation that relates to a SOUGHT-AFTER STATE and its author (initial and surname); this explains how six answers must be treated on entry. Letters in the ringed cells can be rearranged to give a relevant word, which must be written beneath the grid. Unchecked perimeter letters could give PEOPLE START BIKES. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; one answer can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of English.”
The good thing (from a blogger’s point of view, at least!) about a perimeter quotation is that it usually means there are fewer clues overall to solve/parse…depending on the payback in terms of how difficult it is to find the quotation…
After a couple of passes and some reasonable progress I stumbled across a thematic/treated entry – 33A had to be ANODYNE, but there are only 4 cells, and the crossers meant I had to fit ANOD into the first cell… A start, but nothing obvious yet. After another while, and a few more passes, I got INTERESTED at 4D…and from crossing letters again it seemed EREST had to fit in one cell. A PDM of sorts – NOD and REST seemed to be the only real words, and they could both refer to sleep, as in the Land of Nod.
My solving notes show I guessed that ‘KIP’ and ‘NAP’ might be worth looking out for, but I didn’t find them for a while…
Next up was BULL’DOZE’RS at 23D, and the circled letters looked like they might make INSOMNIA, which ties in as the opposite of the thematic words…so we are taking SLEEP away from the answers, leading to INSOMNIA?
Eventually along came SY’NAP’SE and S’KIP’PER, and by this point I was starting to consult my old friend Mr Go-ogle for quotations about sleep/insomnia – although this led to enough possibilities to keep me awake all night checking through them!
An educated guess at the top left-ish start of the perimeter suggested I could narrow things down to PUSHKIN, and then things finally fell into place, including my LOI – HOOD’WINK’:
The full quotation being:
“When trade and traffic and all the noise of town
Is dimmed, and on the streets and squares
The filmy curtain of the night sinks down
With sleep, the recompense of cares,
To me the darkness brings not sleep nor rest.”
Aleksandr Pushkin
I completed the grid and submitted without managing to parse 16D (ALLIUM), although I did get there eventually as I was preparing the blog. And the one answer (REISHI) not in Chambers was gettable from wordplay and checkable online.
(NB. For those in the UK, it is possible to get access to a huge range of Oxford reference works if you have a library card. Go to http://www.oed.com, click on ‘sign in’ and choose the ‘sign in with a library card number’ option, or something similar….)
I would place this at ‘easier-to-medium’ on the EV spectrum – clueing was good quality but generally not too taxing. Not too many obscure words/references – BULLERS and MUSTHS spring to mind, along with REISHI. I enjoyed the surface read of 25A, with teachers trying to keep control of a chaotic place. Favourite was probably the prime number device used in 9D – a nice variation on the more usual ‘alternate letters’ indications, and a great surface read as well!
Thanks are due to Hillbilly, and welcome again, if it is your debut. This took me a few sleeps to complete, probably 2-3 days, with 4-5 fifteen-minute sessions here and there, either on the train to/from work or while trying to achieve said ‘sought-after state’…Zzzzzzzzz
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Removed word | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 8 | TERREEN | Make a mistake stopping youth that’s a sizeable dish (6) / T_EEN (youth) around (stopped by) ERR (make a mistake) |
|
| 10 | AQUA | Rajah occasionally hugging queen in pale blue (4) / A_A (occasional letters of rAjAh) around (hugging) QU (queen) |
|
| 11 | NAP | SY(NAP)SE | Strain to keep bridge over connecting part? (4) / SY_E (to strain, or sieve) around (keeping) NAPS (span, or bridge, over) |
| 12 | THATCH | Time to develop something on top (6) / T (time) + HATCH (to develop) |
|
| 13 | ENAMEL | Glossy coat, huge nameless clothes (6) / hidden word in, i.e. clothed by,’hugE NAMELess’ |
|
| 18 | DEEPLAID | Secret of French/English material (8) / DE (of, French) + E (English) + PLAID (material) |
|
| 19 | REISHI | Begin to eat Irish fresh fungus (6) / anag, i.e. fresh, of E (beginning letter of Eat) + IRISH |
|
| 21 | ELIZA | Social climber in borderless Central American country advanced (5) / ( |
|
| 22 | OUT TO | Having the aim of regularly robust turnover (5, two words) / OUT (regular letters of rObUsT) + TO (turnover) |
|
| 24 | WRITER | King maybe in court order against Queen (6) / WRIT (court order) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, queen) – reference to Stephen King as ‘writer’ |
|
| 25 | NUTHOUSE | Teachers keep a chaotic place (8) / NUT (National Union of Teachers) + HOUSE (keep) |
|
| 29 | ALMAIN | Dancing-girl with trendy German (6) / ALMA (dancing girl) + IN (trendy) |
|
| 31 | ENGAOL | Lock up English internet provider (6) / ENG (English) + AOL (America OnLine, internet provider) |
|
| 33 | NOD | A(NOD)YNE | Harmless article upset doyen (4) / AN (indefinite article) + ODYNE (anag, i.e. upset, of DOYEN) |
| 34 | THAW | Warm? Hot wearing leather! (4) / T_AW (leather thong, or whip) around (worn by) H (hot) |
|
| 35 | REOPENS | Regarding work, nurse, 70, begins once more (7) / RE (regarding) + OP (Opus, work) + EN (Enrolled Nurse) + S (seventy) |
|
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Removed word | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | URSA | One in charge of money skinned bear (4) / ( |
|
| 2 | HEWED | Cut and ate missing canine (5) / ( |
|
| 3 | KEEL | Cool boat (4) / double defn. KEEL can be a flat-bottomed boat; and KEEL is a Shakespearean variation of to cool |
|
| 4 | REST | INTE(REST)ED | Curious till taken on by angry dentist (6) / INT_STED (anag, i.e. angry, of DENTIST) around (taking on) ERE (until, before) |
| 5 | NAH | Solo, ascending? For some, definitely not (3) / HAN (Solo, Star Wars character), ascending, gives NAH, dialect form of No |
|
| 6 | OUTWAITS | Hangs around and is the best restaurant worker? (8) / double defn (of sorts?) – to OUTWAIT can mean to hang around, wait, outside; and if you OUTWAIT then you might wait, in the restaurant sense, better than everyone else. |
|
| 7 | MACE | Member with great sign of authority (4) / M (member) + ACE (great, excellent) |
|
| 9 | EYNE | Beyoncé in prime positions for lights (4) / prime numbered letters, i.e. 2, 3, 5, 7, of ‘bEYoNcE’ – ‘lights’ meaning ‘eyes’, or ‘eyne’ (archaic) |
|
| 14 | MUSTHS | Wine in this sense excited states (6) / MUST (new, unfermented, wine) + HS (hoc sensu, Latin, in this sense) |
|
| 15 | KIP | S(KIP)PER | Second swimmer to sleep rough (4) / S (second) + KIPPER (fish, swimmer) |
| 16 | ALLIUM | Plant matter that’s transported, not light? (6) / ALL( |
|
| 17 | SIT TIGHT | Don’t move model drunk (8, two words) / SIT (pose, model) + TIGHT (drunk!) |
|
| 20 | WINK | HOOD(WINK) | Mislead criminal writing about women (4) / HOOD (criminal) + INK (writing), around W (women) |
| 23 | DOZE | BULL(DOZE)RS | Seethe about twelve southern big movers (6) / BULL_ER (Scottish, to seethe or gurgle, of moving water) around DOZ (dozen, twelve), plus S (southern) |
| 26 | ELTON | Musk overwhelms tense singer (5) / EL_ON (Elon Musk, entrepreneur and general nutcase?!) around T (tense) |
|
| 27 | JINN | Judge bar’s spirits (4) / J (judge) + INN (bar) |
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| 28 | ANTS | Six-footers are ‘special’ about books (4) / A (are, metric unit of land measure) + S (special), around NT (New Testament, books) |
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| 29 | AREG | Sandy region, say, headed by Arab (4) / AR (Arab) + EG (e.g. – for example, or say) |
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| 30 | AYER | Philosopher runs to support yes vote (4) / AYE (yes vote) + R (right) |
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| 32 | OWN | Possess topless dress (3) / ( |
|