A bit of fun for a weekend morning.
Solving was fun for most of the trip – plenty of gettable clues to be picked off and enough progress to provide crossing letters for the tougher cookies. Until just over half way when I significantly slowed down.
I got 8d quickly from the definition. I was intrigued when I found there was a word for misheard/misunderstood phrases and they often make me smile like this “Knowledge is power, France is bacon” story: Reddit link
My own similar experience is that when I was tiny I was asked to recite a simple prayer at bedtime “Gentle Jesus meek and mild…” wherein there is the line “Pity my simplicity” – I often wondered where “Plicity” was and why we should be concerned about “Mice”
1d SALT had me looking up “tabernacle” to check if it was notable for holding salt (besides Ark of the Covenant etc.). Only when writing this blog did I spot NaCl
There are several unfamiliar words here, and some bits of wordplay which I cannot fathom. I need help with a few:
In particular, 7d where it is a toss up between HOOFS based on definition feet, or HOOTS from calls. In neither case can I justify the wordplay. In the end I went for Hoofs based on OF inside HOS – which would have to somehow be delivered from “Calls to stop” – How?.
Also: 21a and 21d: The down answer must be MADISON for the President but what gives us “ison”, and for the across clue the M gives M-A- P-E which can only be MEAT PIE for “dish”, and while I will admit the meat/substance correlation, I cannot see what “short pastry” is doing
Undoubtedly all my misgivings will be my own misunderstandings, so thanks to Wiglaf for the challenge.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | STRAVINSKY | Kyiv’s new “tsar” is comic, he noted (10) (KYIV’S N[ew] TSAR)* AInd: is comic. This anagram took me longer than it should have done |
| 6 | SHAM | Fake national symbol? Not half (4) I was casting around for the wordplay here too – it didn’t help that I live in a village whose name ends in “sham” so I was trying to find things whose second half is “sham”, and struggling – such as [baby]SHAM, [lewi]SHAM [amer]SHAM etc. None of which could justify the description “National symbol”. I returned to it later on and realised it is SHAM[rock] Wiki |
| 10 | LOCAL | Hostelry for weight watchers? (5) LO-CAL[orie] (for weight watchers) Is this wordplay becoming a new chestnut? |
| 11 | CHINATOWN | A municipality backs feature film by Polanski (9) CHIN (feature) A TOWN (a municipality) |
| 12 | REDDITCH | Walk out on adjoining road outside English town (8) DITCH (walk out on) after RD (road) around (outside) E[nglish] Very tricky – one of the last few I got |
| 13 | ISSUE | Difficulty producing children (5) Double Definition |
| 15 | CREMATE | Institute has limited money to burn (7) CREATE (institute) around (has limited) M[oney] |
| 17 | AQUIVER | State bridges briefly stop shaking (7) AVER (state) around (bridges) QUI[t] (stop, briefly) |
| 19 | NORFOLK | Broads here vote against people smuggling in roubles (7) R[oubles] inside NO (vote against) and FOLK (people) One of the few I cold solved mostly from the definition |
| 21 | MEAT PIE | Substance I put in a short pastry dish (4,3) MEAT (substance(?)) I inside PE – how is PE a short pastry? – Help! |
| 22 | MY EYE | Well I never watch rubbish (2,3) MY (“Well I never”) EYE (watch) |
| 24 | SODA JERK | To hell with a Yank, one serving at a fountain (4,4) SOD (to hell with) A JERK (a yank). Last one in. Not a phrase I have heard before Wiki |
| 27 | SLUMLORDS | Dotty mulls ways to conceal love letters (9) (MULLS O (love) RDS (ways – roads))* AInd: dotty Yet another new word to me – I think I will continue to say “Slum Landlord” rather than this contraction Wiki |
| 28 | UTTER | Parking-free club, say (5) [p]UTTER |
| 29 | DADA | Article on pop art movement (4) A (article) on DAD (pop) |
| 30 | BLUNDERING | Making a stupid mistake, not as much as sporting ostentatious jewellery (10) UNDER (not as much) inside BLING (ostentatious jewellery). |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SALT | Common substance used symbolically in tabernacle (4) Why? – look up tabernacle – oh good grief – taberNaCle contains NaCl the chemical formula for common salt |
| 2 | RACKETEER | Dodgy dealer, one seen in court always (9) RACKET (one seen in court) E’ER (always) |
| 3 | VALID | Almost entirely involved in film and sound (5) AL[l] (entirely, almost) inside (involved in) VID (film) |
| 4 | NECKTIE | Connection down after changing order for fashion accessory (7) TIE (connection) NECK (down) changing order |
| 5 | KRISHNA | A shrink getting drunk as a lord? (7) (A SHRINK)* AInd: getting drunk |
| 7 | HOOFS | Calls to stop binding of feet (5) Or HOOTS from calls – in each case: Help! |
| 8 | MONDEGREEN | Misheard lyrics in Madonna’s first number when going round on stage (10) M[adonna] and N[umber] going around ON DEGREE (on stage) I got this early on from the definition |
| 9 | CALIGULA | Roman emperor crushed a Gallic uprising initially (8) (A GALLIC U[priding])* AInd: crushed |
| 14 | ECONOMISED | Did husband‘s condoms, Elite, occasionally burst? (10) (CONDOMS E[l]I[t]E)* AInd: burst excellent clue – doubly so as one of the top selling condom brands is Durex Elite! Also my first one in after concentrating on the anagram knowing it would deliver a clutch of first letters |
| 16 | ABOVE ALL | One has to throw up after eating meat especially (5,3) A (one) LOB< (throw, up) around (eating) VEAL (meat). My favourite clue from the surface reading |
| 18 | VAPORETTI | Old TV pirate messing about in boats (9) (O[ld] TV PIRATE)* AInd: messing about |
| 20 | KESTREL | Predator takes Trelawney’s sandwiches (7) Hidden in taKES TRELawney |
| 21 | MADISON | Wacko is about to become president (7) MAD (wacko) IS ON ( is about to become ??) – Help! |
| 23 | EQUID | An ass perhaps will take cryptocurrency? (5) Fancifully “E-QUID” An Equid is a member of the horse family Wiki |
| 25 | JOULE | Juliet and Leo fancy ringing university physicist (5) J[uliet] LEO* AInd: fancy, around U[niversity] Top Physicist: Wiki |
| 26 | BRAG | Clothes piled up in game of bluff (4) GARB< (Clothes, piled up) |
SODA JERK ?? SLUMLORDS ?? VID ?? etc …
Although there were some good clues, there was too much Googling required for my taste and I really didn’t enjoy this overall particularly with its sprinkling of Americanisms.
Like beermagent, I have no idea which is the correct answer for 7d (I have written in HOOTS, but who knows?) nor how the wordplay works for 21a.
I think in 21d “about” = ON and “to become” is just a link between wordplay and definition.
Thanks to Wiglaf, I hope others will have enjoyed this more than me, and to beermagnet.
Thanks beermagnet
To clear up the queries, 21ac is MEAT (substance) + I in PE[r] (a short) with the definition ‘pastry dish’.
For 7dn, Chambers give ‘ho’ as an interjection for ‘stop’ (and as a verb – to stop) so it’s OF in HOS = HOOFS.
Rabbit Dave has already covered the ‘about’ = ON in 21dn.
Thanks very much for the explanations for 21a & 7d, Gaufrid.
Yup, I definitely enjoyed it more, but then I like Americanisms and didn’t have to google anything. 14’s a great clue. Had the same trouble with meat pie but otherwise ok.
Thanks Wiglaf, beermagnet
A slow but ultimately satisfying solve, though I couldn’t see how NECKTIE worked until coming here. The Americanisms were an unusual feature but at least the unfamiliar ones such as SODA JERK could be solved from the wordplay.
I liked the ‘Did husband’ def and the surface for 21d. I can’t imagine who first sprang to mind.
Thanks to Wiglaf and beermagnet
Re mondegreen: a favourite of mine is the hymn “Gladly the cross-eyed bear”.
We had to have two goes at this but got it all eventually; no googling required but some recourse to Chambers. Held up for a long time on 14dn trying to figure out exactly what the anagram fodder was, and we couldn’t fully parse 21 across and down either. MONDEGREEN, though, was a write-in from the definition.
We liked the surface of 1ac with its topical reference to Ukraine electing as President a clown with no experience of politics – obviously following the example of a country on the other side of the Atlantic!
CoD was SALT, one of us being a chemist.
Thanks, Wiglaf and beermagnet.
Well, a bit of a struggle but I completed it without having to look anything up, although I totally missed the NaCl in 1dn. Thanks for explaining that.
I knew 24ac from the lyrics to Office Krupke in West Side Story, although in that it’s soda jerker to scan.
There’s actually a singing group I’m told called Lady Mondegreen, it includes the author Seanan McGuire. I knew the mishear lyrics meaning from way back and happened to use the word in the presence of the friend. He didn’t know that meaning and assumed I was talking about the group.