I wasn’t sure I had blogged a Loglady puzzle before, so I checked the archive and found that I had, a while ago. I wrote in that blog that I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed this one as well. I have blogged puzzles with some fairly obscure themes; this one is not obscure, just random. It has given me a chance to root around in some etymology, which I have shared with you in case you are remotely interested.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Occupies the mind, muscles and eyeballs
ABSORBS
A charade of ABS and ORBS.
5 Nasty red-backed snake
MEANDER
A charade of MEAN and RED reversed.
9 Husband dined out on lettuce, an unexpected treat
HIDDEN GEM
The first of our themed clues. A charade of H for ‘husband’, (DINED)* and GEM for a type of lettuce (normally LITTLE GEM, I think, although I am no expert in this field).
10 Gives us hiccups to swallow Asian food
SUSHI
Hidden in giveS US HIccups.
11 A sorry ragged string of beads
ROSARY
(A SORRY)* Easy clue for lapsed (or indeed, practising) left-footers: it’s the ‘string of beads’ where the length of time you spend passing them through your fingers as a penance is directly proportional to how sinful you have admitted to being in the confessional box. One Hail Mary, two Our Fathers …
12 Bags of lettuce for Russian peasants?
COSSACKS
The second of our themed clues. COS is a lettuce variety, so Loglady is whimsically suggesting that ‘bags of lettuce’ might be COS SACKS.
14 On record and on sale in Paris and London, perhaps
DOWN AND OUT
A charade of DOWN for ‘on record’, AND and OUT for ‘on sale’. The reference is to Mr Blair’s 1933 novel Down and Out in Paris and London.
16 Cabbage as starter for knockwurst and beer
KALE
Themed clue number three. A charade of K for the first letter of ‘knockwurst’ and ALE.
18 Cabbage preferred by old king?
COLE
Number four. COLE is the ‘old king’, of course, who was a merry old soul. COLE is defined as ‘a brassica, especially cabbage, kale, or rape’. So ‘cabbage’ is a fair enough definition. It’s cognate with KALE, which some sources give as a northern Middle English version of COLE. It’s also cognate with the modern German Kohl and the modern Dutch kool; COLESLAW comes from the Dutch too, with the SLA bit being an abbreviation for ‘salad’. The Latin for ‘cabbage’ is caulis, whence cauliflower via French chou fleuri (modern French chou-fleur). Some authorities derive it ultimately from the Latin for head, caput – we still say ‘a head of cabbage’. That’s enough cabbage for now.
19 Wanting an appearance that confounds innate bias
IN ABSENTIA
(INNATE BIAS)* You have to read ‘wanting’ as ‘lacking’.
22 An animal uprising, overturning slaughterhouse
ABATTOIR
A charade A BAT for ‘an’ and ‘animal’ and RIOT reversed.
23 Wounds receding care of plaster
STUCCO
A charade of CUTS reversed and CO for ‘care of’, usually written C/O.
26 Part of America where lettuce hasn’t run out
MAINE
Number five. There isn’t a lettuce called MAINERO, is there? I know, because I googled it. There is, however, a lettuce called ROMAINE, so it’s [RO]MAINE.
27 Deficient naughty child fine with standing around
IMPERFECT
A charade of IMP and F inserted into ERECT.
28 Put down round tube that’s empty
DISUSED
An insertion of U for the U-tube laboratory equipment in DISSED for ‘put down’. ‘That setter dissed me at the last S&B meeting.’
29 Plant by seawater never appearing evenly
YEW TREE
The even letters of bYsEaWaTeRnEvEr.
Down
1 Stuck in present occupying address
ADHERED
An insertion of HERE in ADD.
2 Takes part in sports teams
SIDES
A dd.
3 Loaf said to be dry and seeded
RYE BREAD
A homophone (‘said’) of the two words WRY and BRED.
4 Potboilers built up into epic tale
SAGA
Since it’s a down clue, it’s a reversal (‘built up’) of AGAS. Not sure the two black labrador, corduroy-wearing Cotswold country set would appreciate their expensive Agas being described as ‘potboilers’.
5 Mother elephant catching a whiff of human’s incomprehensible speech
MUMBO JUMBO
An insertion of BO for body odour or ‘a whiff of human’ in MUM and JUMBO.
6 Beasts of burden at square price
ASSESS
A charade of ASSES and S for ‘square’.
7 Drier, meaning unusual conditions for accidents
DESICCANT
(ACCIDENTS)* gives you an often misspelled word.
8 Old record sure is broken with style, ultimately
REISSUE
A charade of (SURE IS)* and E for the last letter of ‘style’.
13 Given name Setter would change for definite
IDENTIFIED
A charade of I’D for ‘setter would’ and (DEFINITE)*
15 Marsupials consisting of dam perhaps with uninitiated offspring
WALLABIES
A charade of WALL and [B]ABIES.
17 American police department deliberately lose location of worst offenders
DEATH ROW
The American Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA is followed by THROW.
18 Lucky me, tucking into edible leaf
CHARMED
An insertion of ME in CHARD. It’s a beet, not a cabbage, in case you’re wondering.
20 Preacher perhaps bitter when entertaining afterwards
APOSTLE
An insertion of POST for ‘afterwards’ in ALE.
21 River mammals in rocks, hiding head
OTTERS
[T]OTTERS. Otters are cool.
24 Popstar touring England to sound of appreciative audience
CHEER
An insertion of E in CHER, the setters’ favourite singer.
25 Special prize for showing agility
SPRY
A charade of S and PRY. This is a bit distant, I think, because PRY is an American English synonym for PRISE, and PRIZE is given as a British English variant spelling of PRISE.
Fine puzzle from Loglady – thank you to him or her for the entertainment.
Good fun. When I saw all the cabbages etc scattered in the clues I thought I’d have no hope but the wordplay and a bit of guesswork made them all possible. The [RO]MAINE and GEM ended up being the only ones I hadn’t heard of. I was a bit thrown by S for ‘square’ in 6d, but I think we’ve had it before and “it’s in Chambers”.
Favourite was the ‘Potboilers built up into epic tale’ at 4d. It would almost do as a cryptic def for ‘Aga saga’ and reminded me of the “a tale of illicit rumpy-pumpy in the countryside” description quoted in the Wikipedia article on the subject.
Thanks to Pierre, especially for his etymological digging into all things brassicoid (it’s definitely not in Chambers) and to Loglady (‘him’ I think?)
Cryptic setters seem fixated on Cher (there are many other, much better, pop singers), and Agas (a reflection of their demographic, perhaps).
Good crossword for The Greens.
I’m only familiar with ‘little gem’ but I liked that clue anyway. Other picks were MEANDER, DESICCANT (yes, I would have misspelt it) and SAGA.
Chambers gives PRY as a form of prise (or prize) so I guess it’s OK.
Well, we almost got there. We were convinced that the ‘square’ in 6dn was T so we were trying to find a dictionary with ‘assest’ as an archaic form of ‘assesed’ used as a noun to mean ‘price’ – doh!. And we’d forgotten about romaine lettuce so couldn’t understand 26ac.
Talking of forgetting, Pierre, we think you’ve forgotten the green wellies in your comment on 4dn.
An enjoyable puzzle, though no real CoD – it was all good.
Thanks, Loglady and Pierre.
Thanks to Pierre and Loglady
Nice, fun crossword, a little light on cabbages (I like cabbage), but I think RED also appeared a couple of times if one looks hard enough.
I’m just not sure of the role of PREFERRED in 18a.
I think it’s just whimsical, Dansar.
We thought that as COLE is an old name for cabbage, ‘preferred’ suggested that older people might prefer that name, with COLE being just ‘king’ rather than ‘old king’.
Did you know, btw, that Cole introduced rules for the preparation of salad – Cole’s Law.
I’ll get my coat.
Cheers pierre and all commenters
Dansar, allan_c – preferred in the sense of proffered/offered, that’s in chambers too! I like your contrivance though allan
Geoff Wilkins – I’m in my thirties and relatively poor, and don’t know enough about agas to develop any sort of fixation, my partner says she’d love one though. Cher just makes me think of that autotune song where she sounded exactly like my cat
In 28A I thought the parsing for the “U” was tube=underground – is the London Subway abbreviated with a U or did I just make that up?
Favorite clue was 5D.
Nice puzzle, not sure I’ve encountered Loglady before. Thanks to setter & blogger for all you do!