Independent 10,098 by Nimrod

by

The puzzle can be found here.

 

Happy Saturday, everyone.  We have a Nimrod puzzle today, and you know what that means — and if you didn’t, you do now!  Many thanks, Nimrod!

As I made my way through this, I realised with delight that the answers seemed almost tailor-made for me, with their theme of uncertainty, doubt, and generally not having a clue … the clues, however, seem to have been designed for someone with a bigger-than-cat-sized brain!  After a start which gave me encouragement and kept me battling for too long in the vain hope of a clean solve, I had to do a bit of research in places.  Ah, well.  I think I’ve untangled everything, so without further ado:

 

In the clues below, definitions are underlined.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.

 

Across

1a   On swallowing drug excess, what may result (4)
BODY
BY (on) containing (swallowing) OD (overdose, drug excess)

3a   He needs convincing maths may be solved without cipher (6)
THOMAS
MATHS can be anagrammed (may be solved) around (without) O (0, cipher) to produce this doubting Thomas

8a   Cheers copper on the airwaves? (3,3)
SEE YOU
The answer sounds like (… on the airwaves) CU (Cu, the chemical symbol for copper)

9a   Green yet to receive attention of linesman? (8)
UNVERSED
This could mean yet to be put into verse — that is, not having been subject to a poet’s (linesman’s, whimsically) treatment

10a   Peak District initially not visible from curve in road (3)
BEN
The first letter of (… initially) District deleted from (not visible from) BEN[d] (curve in road)

11a   Come along – £20 for cycling trip? Rip off! (6)
ESCORT
SCORE (£20) with the letters “cycled” (for cycling), or shifted around in order with the last moved to the beginning, followed by T[rip] without RIP (rip off)

12a   Gold that’s delivered blocks my way through (8)
CORRIDOR
The combination of OR (gold, heraldic tincture) and RID (delivered) goes inside (blocks) COR (my!)

14a   On-off idea comes to alter-ego (3-1)
NOT-I
NOTI[on] (idea) with ON removed (on-off).  Not-I is defined in Chambers as that which is not the conscious ego

15a   Cuckoo clipper trimming within the law (9)
PRINCIPLE
An anagram of (cuckoo) CLIPPER around (trimming) IN (within)

17a   Home space for redevelopment, don’t you think? (4-2,3)
N’EST-CE PAS
NEST (home), then an anagram of (… for redevelopment) SPACE

19a   Fine old man perhaps enthralled by a couple of ice-skaters? (4)
ERIC
Contained in (enthralled by) a couple of copies of “ice-skater” — ice-skatER ICe-skater.  Two definitions, the first of which I had to investigate: a blood-fine in old Irish law

21a   Not the first expressing annoyance, I returned rectifier (8)
IGNITRON
Without the first letter, [s]NORTING plus I all reversed (returned).  Another definition I had to look up

22a & 25/2   Son had nothing without hobby, nothing but kinky film (6,2,1,5)
SHADOW OF A DOUBT
A charade of S (son) HAD (from the clue) O (0, nothing) WO (w/o, without), FAD (hobby), and O (0 again), followed by an anagram of (kinky) BUT.  The Hitchcock thriller

23a   Elite soldiers working off morning meal (3)
TEA
[a-]TEA[m] without (working off) AM (morning)

24a   To item (d) … disintegration of leader of jets and UFO in Independence Day (8)
FOURTHLY
In FOURTH [of ju]LY (Independence Day), the removal of an anagram of (disintegration of) the first letter of Jets and UFO

26a   I haven’t the foggiest why first love’s run off (2,4)
NO IDEA
NO I (No. 1, first) and DEA[r] (love) in which R (run) has been removed (off).  I really wanted to remove the first zero (love) from a word here

27a   In pictures, tree seen from the right branch (6)
ARMLET
Inside ART (pictures), the reversal of (… seen from the right) ELM (tree)

28a   I don’t know when I forgot to mention limits (4)
PASS
AS (when), which PS (I forgot to mention) contains (limits)

 

Down

1d   Times charged by old Conservative with too much industrial action (7)
BOYCOTT
BY (times, as in 2 by 2 is 4, while 2 by 4 is a plank) with the insertion of (charged by) O (old), then C (Conservative) with OTT (over the top, too much)

2d   See 22 Across

4d   I can’t decide if I’m doing this London borough (8)
HAVERING
Two definitions (and appropriately not a London borough which came readily to mind; I was havering over whether to consult a list — grr!)

5d   Little skill needed for loading rifle (7)
MARTINI
MINI (little) with ART (skill) having to be inserted (needed for loading) to get a type of rifle

6d   Apply for route from Florida to Maine? (3)
SUE
Thematically, I’m not sure about this one.  The best I can do is that the route from Florida to Maine runs north along the east coast of the US, so we have E US reversed (going up, or northwards, in a down answer)

7d   Exact location and speed ever unknown, I suggested that rambling begins here (10)
HEISENBERG
An anagram of (rambling) BEGINS HERE.  Werner, the German physicist awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize “for the creation of quantum mechanics” and best known for his 9d 15a which quantifies the fundamental limit to the precision to which a particle’s position and momentum can be simultaneously determined

9d   Slowness to learn about corruption – and no department’s above suspicion (11)
UNCERTAINTY
[d]UNCERY (slowness to learn) around (about) TAINT (corruption), without the D (department) at the start (and no department’s above)

13d   Plant – Orthocarpus, namely – left pricks that hurt a bit on the side (4-6)
OWLS-CLOVER
The concatenation of SC (scilicet, Latin, namely) and L (left) goes inside (pricks) OW (ow, that hurt!) plus LOVER (a bit on the side)

16d   What will singer do to mark the hour? 14! Who knows? 14! (6,2)
SEARCH ME
SEAR is what a singer – something that singes – might do.  Add a CH[i]ME to mark the hour, but not I (14: not-I, and what’s a little hyphen between friends?).  Phew!

18d   Bus, say, or an alternative for transporting gear (7)
TRIGRAM
An alternative to a bus might be a TRAM, and here it contains (for transporting) RIG (gear)

20d   A desire to recycle cash (7)
READIES
A DESIRE anagrammed (to recycle)

22d   In cahoots, Ant and Dec’s visitor? (5)
SANTA
December’s red-suited bedroom visitor is hidden in cahootS ANT And.  While I loved the theme, this one might just be my favourite clue today

25d   See 22 Across

 

(After that, I’m off into town to join crosswording friends and bathe my aching brain cells in beer, so any corrections to the blog will have to wait until the evening.)

19 comments on “Independent 10,098 by Nimrod”

  1. Thanks Kitty for the entertaining blog. Always like the cat pictures.

    Failed to parse ERIC and didn’t get (and don’t fully get) SUE. I guess up along the E(ast) US just about works.

    Also failed on N’EST-CE PAS. Unbelievably really since I thought of NEST followed by an anagram of SPACE but that dratted apostrophe eluded my meagre wits. Put it down to ‘duncery’. Manage to get the rest but had to check on a few words, so very pleased over all.

    Thanks to Nimrod and Kitty.

  2. Great blog and great puzzle. It was the short ones like BEN and PASS  that foxed me.

    17 was a huge tea tray-it was only when i was reading Zola that it hit me.

    I couldnt make up my mind on 6d-SUE = apply but could not justify it- my first answer was SEE as in going from SE to E.

    I’ll keep watching this post.

    Phew!

  3. Hovis @1 I like the idea os E US(6d) but I cant see a reversal indicator.

    But I’d almost feel disappointed if I didnt get something wrong in a Nimrod. Wouldnt like him to get soft round the manor.

  4. Copmus @3. I was just paraphrasing the parsing from (Schrodinger’s) Kitty (sorry, couldn’t resist) where the reversal is because you need to travel upwards.

  5. thanks to Nimrod & Kitty. I spent far too long convincing myself that the film had to be SNAKES ON A PLANE – the idea of son + nake(d) – had to be right somehow , didn’t it?

    Then I saw BEN which put the kibosh on that in half a second….

  6. Kudos to Kitty for correctly parsing everything, including 6dn for which I (a numpty when it comes to geography) needed to consult an atlas before the penny dropped. N’EST-CE PAS was my LOI, and provided an even bigger kick-self moment. Given that N’ and EST are really two words, I’d argue that the enumeration ought to have been (1’3-2,3), but maybe that would have been too much of a giveaway? Good fun though – thanks Nimrod.

  7. Thanks to Kitty and Nimrod

    Well, I know exactly where I was when solving this so I clearly can’t say exactly how long it took me, lets just say “a while”.

    I parsed everything as per the excellent blog except perhaps the tricksy 6d.

    I must have spent as long unpicking this as the rest of it put together and I came uo with 3 possibilities:

    In keeping with the theme, someone with limited knowledge of American geography such as Richard@6 might answer:

    1 I’m not entirely SUrE

    2 As you have said: up eastern us

    But I think I prefer:

    3 South to Upper East

    But I’m still uncertain!

     

     

  8. I was stymied by SUE but eventually rationalised something like the blogged parsing, but Dansar’s post has a certain appeal.  People in the southern US (e.g., Florida) refer (or did in my mother’s day) to the northern Atlantic states (e.g., Maine) as “up east,” but that may be too obscure a usage from this far away.  I’m not aware, though, of “up east” being abbreviated U.E.

  10. Tony @9. Nice link. I was going to see if I could find a cartoon linked to my Schrodinger reference @4 but then forgot. Saved me a task. Loved it.

  11. I found this really tough, needed word searches to complete it, and there were many I couldn’t parse.  Thanks for all the explanations.

  12. Well, we actually finished, but not without electronic help along the way.  But we spotted what was going on quite early – having got BEN and ESCORT 2dn could only be DOUBT and from the enumeration 22/25/2 became obvious.  Never heard of orthocarpus – it’s not in either Chambers or Collins – so we had to google it, but we did know ERIC – a useful word for Scrabble.

    BTW has anyone else noticed that the unches down the right hand side and up the left read DREW A FINE S – is this a nina or just coincidence?  We can’t imagine what it means if it is a nina.

    Thanks, Nimrod and Kitty

  13. Hi Tony @9 – thank you twice over.  You are quite right: OODN is not a word, nor is it the same as BODY.  I’ve amended the blog.  I like the cartoon too. 🙂

  14. I spent about an hour on this earlier today and I’m about half way through it, almost all in the RHS. I haven’t looked at the solutions, as I haven’t given up yet. I’ll look at it again later.

  15. Cheers, Kitty. I think I remember learning that you studied Physics (?), so it was likely to appeal. Now, who was it that showed that Schroedinger’s wave mechanics and Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics were equivalent?

  16. Could someone kindly spell out what the definition of BODY is in 1a?  Just about understand the rest, also ‘a while’ later.

    Thanks Nimrod, Kitty

     

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