Well, this is our second Phi blog in two weeks! Is there something special going on tomorrow? Or is this just indicative or maybe more meaningful?
Being a Phi, we usually anticipate a theme – however, they are sometimes very obscure. If there is one today it is certainly too obscure for us.
We wondered whether there might be a theme connected with the violinist / composer at 21ac – previously unknown to us. However, we have googled him and cannot see any of his works referenced in any other entries, but maybe someone out there might notice something we missed.
On the other hand, Thursday is not usually a theme day, so maybe this is Phi unrestrained by a restricted grid-fill.
We have some queries with the last four clues (19d, 20d, 22d and 23d) but otherwise, this was a fairly straightforward Thursday brain-teaser.
Across
8 Playing lethal strategy game is no longer really fashionable (3,3,2)
ALL THE GO
An anagram of LETHAL (anagrind is ‘playing’) + GO (strategy game) – an old phrase for ‘fashionable’
9 Arab coming in to show buttocks with abandon (6)
MAROON
AR (Arab) in MOON (show buttocks)
10 Agree in not supporting scoundrel (6)
CONCUR
CON (against or ‘not supporting’ as in pros and cons) CUR (scoundrel)
11 Absence of sound or vision? (3,1,4)
NOT A PEEP
A play on the fact that ‘peep’ in the phrase NOT A PEEP refers to a sound, but can also refer to vision as in ‘peeping tom’
12 Doctor and son leaving mission without difficulty (4)
EASY
EmbASsY (‘mission’) with MB (doctor) and S (son) omitted or ‘leaving’
13 Wild or piercing music by Borodin (6,4)
PRINCE IGOR
An anagram of OR PIERCING – anagrind is ‘wild’
15 Newspaper writer spoiling customs of a perverted nature? (6,9)
GOSSIP COLUMNIST
An anagram of SPOILING CUSTOMS – anagrind is ‘of a perverted nature’
18 Elevated region that is accommodating phones (or otherwise) (10)
IONOSPHERE
IE (that is) round or ‘accommodating’ an anagram of PHONES OR – anagrind is ‘otherwise’
20 East European still disheartened by Bible (4)
SLAV
StilL without the middle letters or ‘disheartened’ + AV (Authorised Version – Bible)
21 Violinist relies uncomfortably on being accepted by King and Queen (8)
KREISLER
An anagram of RELIES (anagrind is ‘uncomfortably’) in or ‘accepted by K (king) R (queen) – a reference (so a google search informs us) to Fritz Kreisler, an Austrian-born violinist and composer. Not being up on classical music, we have to confess that we had not heard of him
23 Provide a steer around European broadcaster? That takes some brain (6)
CORTEX
COX (‘provide a steer’) round RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann – European broadcaster)
24 The writer left depressed, under the influence of drink (6)
MELLOW
ME (the writer) L (left) LOW (depressed)
25 Lenses long used by English in New Zealand, including foremost of contacts (5-3)
PINCE-NEZ
PINE (long) + E (English) in NZ (New Zealand) round or ‘including’ C (first letter or ‘foremost’ of ‘contracts’)
Down
1 Daughter in part upheld business as source of wealth (8)
ELDORADO
D (daughter) in ROLE (part) reversed or ‘held up’ + ADO (business)
2 Heavily-built, like cattle? (6)
STOCKY
A play on the fact that cattle can be referred to as ‘stock’, so they could fancifully be described as being STOCKY
3 Fool flinging out stone and gibe (4)
JEER
JEstER (fool) ‘flinging out’ or omitting ‘st’ (stone)
4 International body, company leading if our opulence failed (7,2,6)
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
CO (company) ‘leading’ an anagram of IF OUR OPULENCE – anagrind is ‘failed’ – anything to do with the original Brexit date being tomorrow?
5 Greek character in street offering porn? (4)
SMUT
MU (Greek character) in ST (street)
6 Outbreak: clean up? Working on it (8)
ERUPTION
PURE (clean) reversed or ‘up’ + an anagram of ON IT – anagrind is ‘working’
7 The French right to come in to catcall piece by Ravel? (6)
BOLERO
LE (‘the’ in French) R (right) ‘coming’ in BOO (catcall)
13 Youngster accepting work involving temporary shop? (3-2)
POP-UP
PUP (youngster) round or ‘accepting’ OP (work)
14 Undeveloped suggestion involving R&D? (5)
CRUDE
CUE (suggestion) round or ‘involving’ R and D
16 Informed about one engaged in cunning without great enthusiasm? (8)
STOLIDLY
TOLD (informed) round I (one) all ‘engaged’ in SLY (cunning)
17 Zero point of measuring system in the main (3,5)
SEA LEVEL
Clue-as-definition – ‘main’ referring to the SEA
19 Irish author set to eat cheese (6)
OBRIEN
ON (set? set to?) round or ‘eating’ BRIE (cheese). We’re really puzzled by ‘on’ = ‘set’ or maybe ‘set to’ – any thoughts out there?
20 Lake circled by element of shipping line (6)
SERIES
ERIE (lake – one of the Great Lakes) in or ‘circled by’ SS (‘element of shipping’) – we’re not too happy with SS representing an ‘element of shipping’ – presumably Phi is thinking of SS as a single ship, which could be described that way, but it seems a bit of a stretch!
22 Guided to embrace wife in a suggestive manner (4)
LEWD
LED (guided) round or ’embracing’ W (wife) – we have a bit of a problem with the definition here – ‘lewd’ being an adjective, like ‘suggestive’, but the clue suggests that the definition is ‘in a suggestive manner’, which would be ‘lewdly’
23 Ice cold individual (4)
CONE
C (cold) ONE (individual) We weren’t too happy with this one either, but Chambers has ‘ice’ as ‘portion of ice cream’ and ‘cone’ as ‘an ice cream cornet’, so it’s probably just about workable
Morning both, and thanks for blogging. Is there something happening tomorrow? I’ve got nothing special in my diary.
Usual good stuff from Phi. For 19ac, I think the equivalence we need is shown in ‘is the alarm set/on?’. I was okay with CONE but share your reservations about LEWD.
Happy Brexit for tomorrow – I think one of our regular setters can be guaranteed to give us a cruciverbal send-off.
Aha, we said, Phi’s been bumped again – what’s happening tomorrow? Except that it won’t be – yawn! Anyway, a Phi puzzle’s welcome any day and today was no exception.
We did find 20ac and dn a bit tricky; in 20ac our first thought was B for ‘Bible’ which could have led to ‘Serb’ although we couldn’t parse it, and in 20dn we got stuck for a bit on the idea of L for ‘lake’ and a single S as the element (first letter) of ‘shipping’. Otherwise, no real problems, apart from LEWD; possibly ‘being suggestive’ would be better than ‘in a suggestive manner’ although the surface might not be quite so smooth.
Favourites were PRINCE IGOR, KREISLER and BOLERO – which probably says something about our taste in music.
Thanks, Phi and B&J
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Phi
Is there a “fill in the blanks” theme here?
Dansar@3 – Can you fill in some of the ‘blanks’ for us please? We are rather puzzled. Thanks.
I’m not sure I know exactly what’s going on, but the vertical edges skip letters of the alphabet.
Also, the only letter entirely absent in the grid is Q.
There seems to be a message in the middle – POP UP HERE.
Some of this may be coincidence of course, but Q to leave might be a cryptic reference to tomorrow. I may be stretching things a little!
BTW
I took ON in 19a as “Are you on/set for tonight”, but 20 and 22a, I agree are a bit loose.
Well spotted Dansar. We totally missed that!
Dansar @5; well spotted; I’m not sure what is going on but at the top it says ALL THE — GO. All the intervening letters not in the vertical edges are represented in horizontal or vertical unchecked letters, except W [I can’t find that in the grid] and Q. There is also NOT A P. Anyway, I’m sure the missing intervening letters are there for a purpose, if only as a start to filling the grid with a ‘theme.’
I enjoyed this, although I didn’t know the violinist. I particularly liked CORTEX, PINCE NEZ, ERUPTION and COUNCIL OF EUROPE (now there’s a thought …)
I didn’t know the violinist and haven’t previously come across the expression in 9a – ‘All the rage’ was as close as I could get.
Particularly liked 24a & 2d.
Thanks to Phi and to B&J for the blog. I think the veracity of 23d has been debated previously – maybe with regard to a DT puzzle.
Is our setter a Brexiteer?
We have 3 instances of GO (4 if you count PEE).
UKIP colours top right and bottom left.
And perhaps a rude homophonic slogan from the letters that do not appear in the perimeter at all, but I think that is a coincidence.
I don’t understand the potential theme at all, but am still feeling smug about getting the Shostakovich film music connection a few weeks back!
I had hoped someone might have cracked it by now. I don’t normally pay much attention to themes, but this one may haunt my dreams tonight. I hope to be put out of my misery in the morning.