The usual entertaining puzzle from Julius. I always enjoy getting one of his to blog. Thank you Julius.
The grid is dotted with references to Hoagy Carmichael songs. He wrote hundreds of songs so I think you could go on finding references to something of his for ever. STARDUST is one of my favourtie melodies of all time so I will just go with that one.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ALLEGROS | Some pieces of music played in hall (eg Rossini) (8) |
| found inside hALL EG ROSsini | ||
| 5 | SHRIMP | Insignificant individual, quiet, terribly prim (6) |
| SH (quiet) then anagram (terribly) of PRIM | ||
| 10 | LAZIO | Roman squad left Italian WWII battle, having lost an indefinite number (5) |
| L (left) AnZIO (Italian WWII battle) missing N (an indefinite number) – the name of an Italian football team (squad) | ||
| 11 | LOOK ALIKE | Being 50, ace leader of musical gang retired, Eisenhower’s dead ringer (4-5) |
| L (fifty) A (ace) KOOL (leader of Kool & the Gang, musical group) all reversed (retired) then IKE (Eisenhower) | ||
| 12 | BABY GRAND | Piano group covering Deck of Cards singer, mostly (4,5) |
| BAND (group) contains (covering) BYGRAves (Max Bygraves mostly, sang Deck of Cards) | ||
| 13 | YEARN | Long period of time before noon (5) |
| YEAR (period of time) then N (noon) | ||
| 14 | IN RAGS | Gran is going out looking dishevelled (2,4) |
| anagram (going out) of GRAN IS | ||
| 15 | CHAGRIN | Mortification of Greek placed in restraint (7) |
| GR (Greek) inside CHAIN (restraint) | ||
| 18 | TISANES | Sit back, taking in old-fashioned healthy infusions (7) |
| SIT reversed (back) containing SANE (healthy, old-fashioned usage) | ||
| 20 | REMOVE | Substitute always running back, tackling Salah (6) |
| EVER (always) reversed (running back) contains (tackling, taking on) MO (Mo Salah, footballer) | ||
| 22 | RITZY | Posh crackers for a yen? (5) |
| RITZ (crackers) with Y (Yen) | ||
| 24 | ARMY CORPS | Military body to give guns to Young Conservative men: an afterthought (4,5) |
| ARM (to give guns to) Y (young) C (Conservative) OR (other ranks, men) then PS (an afterthought) | ||
| 25 | UNANIMOUS | First off: Uncle Sam union to be wound up, everyone agreed (9) |
| anagram (wound up) of Uncle (the first letter off) and SAM UNION | ||
| 26 | ADORE | Love three musical notes (5) |
| A, DO and RE are all names for notes in music | ||
| 27 | TRENDY | In Turkey, final destination unknown (6) |
| TR (Turkey) END (final destination) Y (unknown) | ||
| 28 | ISOLATED | One dead and buried in the ground alone (8) |
| I (one) LATE (dead) inside (and buried in) SOD (the ground) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AD-LIBS | Like featuring revolting Bild off- the-cuff comments? (2-4) |
| AS (like) contains (featuring) BILD reversed (revolting) | ||
| 2 | LAZY BONES | Baez’s only weakness? She has a terrible work ethic (9) |
| anagram (weakness) of BAEZ’S ONLY | ||
| 3 | GEORGIA ON MY MIND | Regaining my mood, playing a classic song (7,2,2,4) |
| anagram (playing) ofREGAINING MY MOOD | ||
| 4 | ORLEANS | Loire city lists other ranks first (7) |
| LEANS (lists) following (…first) OR (other ranks) | ||
| 6 | HOAGY CARMICHAEL | A gifted songwriter? Yeah, magic choral works (5,10) |
| anagram (works) of YEAH MAGIC CHORAL – composer of the songs embedded in this puzzle | ||
| 7 | IBIZA | Independent area hosting small business somewhere in the Balearics (5) |
| I (independent) A (area) contains (hosting) BIZ (business, small=abbreviation) | ||
| 8 | PREGNANT | Quiet knight, tense, suppressing rising anger with child (8) |
| P (quiet) N (knight, chess) T (tense) contains (suppressing) ANGER (rage) reversed (rising) | ||
| 9 | NORDIC | Defined as “tall, blond, blue-eyed” in lexicon (or dictionary) (6) |
| found inside lexicoN OR DICtionary – there are various ways one could select the definition here | ||
| 16 | RIVERBOAT | A floating asset moving between banks (9) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 17 | STARDUST | Begin to comprehend taking drugs regularly – it’s magical! (8) |
| START (begin) contains (to comprehend, take in) every other letter (regularly) of DrUgS | ||
| 19 | SEASON |
Salt water, lad? (6) |
| SEA (water) Thanks to Eileen et al, this is much better. |
||
| 20 | RAMESES | Famous Egyptian recipe’s beginning with ground sesame (7) |
| Recipe (first letter, beginning) with anagram (go around) of SESAME | ||
| 21 | OSTEND | Old machine gun emplacement above Dutch North Sea port (6) |
| O (old) STEN (machine gun) before (emplacement above, in a down light) D (Dutch) | ||
| 23 | TRACE | Find time to compete (5) |
| T (time) with RACE (to compete) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks for the blog, Peedee and Knut for another highly enjoyable puzzle – loved the songs!
I had SEASON for 19dn.
Thanks Julius, but how could you remind us of that Max Bygraves song.
There have of course been loads of parodies of said song. Here’s one
Easier than the usual Julius I thought. Like Eileen I too had ‘season’ for 19dn. 20dn spelling should be ‘Rameses’.
22ac was my last one in as I could not recall the cracker brand.
Thanks setter and blogger.
Steven – I smiled as I entered 22ac as my last one in, as I bought some only yesterday.
Thank you for the corrections, fixed now.
Smooth sailing on this one though I had “sailor” for “salt water, lad” thinking that “salt” and “water lad” were both descriptive of sailors. It’s amusing that ARMY CORPS was the answer that dislodged sailor and led me to SEASON. Thanks Julius for another fine crossword and Peedee for clarifying some of the parsing.
I got them all but I don’t understand 16d and the above does not help.
Hi Tony – for example : a ferry is a floating asset (something of value, a moneymaking venture) that moves between banks (of the river). The surface reading is meant to mislead you (especially in the FT) into thinking of monetary assets and merchant banks.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Tony @ 7
To expand PeeDee’s comment @ 8, I think the clue is an excellent example of misdirection, in the phrase “moving between banks”.
As PeeDee rightly says, a ferry would move between banks, ie from one bank to the other.
However I think the sense intended is that a riverboat moves between banks, ie with one on the left and one on the right, so up- or down-stream. If so I think it’s a brilliantt twist.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. I got SEASON and knew Mo Salah but not Max Bygraves and took a while before getting LAZIO. LAZY BONES was one of my HC favorites along with STARDUST.
Simon – I like the boat moving down river between the banks better. That is what a riverboat does.
It never occurred to me to interpret it other than literally about boats and river banks. So basically it is a non-cryptic clue, and a rather bad one because boats that go between banks are ferry boats, not river boats.
Thanks to PeeDee and Julius
Very pleasant. 12a my favourite for its cheesy memories of Max.
Tony @ 12
I see what you are saying but it is a valid (if not terribly cryptic), clue.
If the answer were FERRY, then the clue would be something like:
“Floating asset employed in bank transfers”
Thanks, Julius and PeeDee. Loved all the musical layers of this puzzle, besides the Carmichael songs themselves. ALLEGROS, ADORE, use of Baez in 2d and BABY GRAND (needed blog to parse this). And does LAZYBONES combine with RIVERBOAT to allude to “Up a Lazy River”?
I parsed 26a as A,D or E
GreginSyd @15 – interesting, I hadn’t thought of that. Strictly speaking I suppose “A D or E” would be “one of three notes”. I wonder what Julius had in mind? I hope he drops by.
Tony @12 – riverboats go between banks on a river the same way that cars go between the lane markings on a motorway.
good morning PeeDee
Thanks for your blog, and thanks to those who have commented on the puzzle.
In my parsing file, I have A +do +re as the three musical notes making up ADORE. I realise that cryptic definitions aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and a fair few of mine have had rotten fruit lobbed at them, but I honestly can’t see what’s wrong with RIVERBOAT
warmest regards to all,
Rob/Julius
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Writing this whilst listening to Willie Nelson’s “Stardust” album which features a couple of songs from the puzzle. Found it quite challenging but was pleased to finish the grid fill without aids – did require it for confirming the Rome-based football side, the Italian WW2 battle, the singer (who I seem to be the only one not to have known him) and his songs scattered throughout.
TRENDY was my last one in – had spotted it as the most likely answer quite early but couldn’t unravel the word play to validate it until the end. Also failed to parse UNANIMOUS, the BYGRA part of BABY GRAND (Max didn’t enter my head at all) and the KOOL part of LOOK ALIKE (vaguely recalled the name of that group after reading the blog).