Today’s regular blogger is away (summer holiday season) so I’m stepping in. A tricky puzzle, with one or two unfamiliar elements in the wordplay, but all very clearly clued.
There are some groan-inducing puns, particularly 26a, some neat anagrams (special mention to 13d), and double definitions (27a and 14d). My favourites were 7d and 17d, for the combination of surface and ingenious construction. Thanks to Picaroon for the challenge.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EPILEPSY | Sly peep around catches one in fit condition (8) |
| Anagram (around) of SLY PEEP, containing I (one). Medical condition causing fits. | ||
| 5 | TROPIC | Latitude given by king, subject admits (6) |
| TOPIC (subject), containing (admitting) R (king). | ||
| 9 | LOWER DECK | Show anger with ornament ratings here (5,4) |
| LOWER (also spelled lour = to look threatening) + DECK (ornament, as in “deck the halls”). Ratings = sailors. | ||
| 11 | BOOTY | A bit like Balmoral’s hot stuff? (5) |
| Balmoral is either another name for an Oxford shoe, or an ankle-high boot of a similar design. So something a bit like a Balmoral is “booty”? Groan. Booty = stolen property = hot stuff. | ||
| 12 | ABOLITIONIST | Campaigner‘s initial boost when running (12) |
| Anagram (when running) of INITIAL BOOST. | ||
| 15 | FLIP | Fellow on edge may do so (4) |
| F (fellow) on LIP (edge), with an extended definition: on edge = stressed, flip = lose one’s temper. | ||
| 16 | UNTHINKING | Rash from a French ruler unlike Louis le Gros? (10) |
| UN (French for the indefinite article “a”) + THIN KING – as opposed to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_VI_of_France, known as “Louis the Fat”. Rash = hasty. | ||
| 18 | EXORCISING | Expelling or striking guards (10) |
| OR, containing (guarded by) EXCISING (striking out, for example marking text to be removed from a draft document). | ||
| 19 | CUBA | He leaves Trojan woman in island (4) |
| HECUBA, queen of Troy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecuba), with HE removed. | ||
| 21 | IRRESOLVABLE | Setter with Observer: all new and very puzzling (12) |
| I (the setter of this puzzle) with an anagram (new) of OBSERVER ALL. The definition is slightly loose: this crossword is very puzzling but it’s not irresolvable. | ||
| 24 | ADUKI | Pulse of a police officer touring this country (5) |
| A DI (a Detective Inspector) around UK. Pulse = bean. | ||
| 25 | SEDENTARY | Tender, say — moving or not! (9) |
| Anagram (moving) of TENDER SAY. Extended definition: sedentary = sitting down = not moving. | ||
| 26 | ETHANE | Online version of Macbeth is a gas (6) |
| Macbeth’s title at the start of the play is Thane of Glamis (later Thane of Cawdor). So an online version might be an E-THANE? | ||
| 27 | IN THE CAN | American behind bars perhaps shot (2,3,3) |
| Double definition: can = US slang for prison, or “in the can” = film industry term for footage already filmed. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EELS | Keep tabs on vacuous liars — they’re slippery (4) |
| E = tab = Ecstasy tablet, twice, then L[iar]S (vacuous = empty). | ||
| 2 | IOWA | State protected in biowarfare (4) |
| Hidden answer in [b]IOWA[rfare]. | ||
| 3 | ENROBE | Stood up on end of bride’s dress (6) |
| BORNE (stood = endured), reversed (up), then the end letter of [brid]E. | ||
| 4 | SMELLING SALTS | They restore millions pocketed by retail crew (8,5) |
| M (millions) inserted into SELLING (retail) + CREW (salts = sailors). | ||
| 6 | RUB-DOWNS | Problem clues like this will be good after exercise (3-5) |
| RUB (problem, as in “there’s the rub”) + DOWN clues in a crossword (like this one). | ||
| 7 | PROPITIOUS | Promising support, promises to support it (10) |
| PROP (support), then IOUS (promises = I-owe-you notes) supporting (below) IT. | ||
| 8 | CRYPTOGRAM | Sob quietly to put on weight? One must be cracked (10) |
| CRY (sob) + P (quiet in musical notation) + TO + GRAM (weight). Cryptogram = encoded text; crack = decrypt. | ||
| 10 | KITCHEN GARDEN | Plot with king’s knight welcoming long warning to swordsmen (7,6) |
| ITCH (long = earnestly desire) + EN GARDE (warning to swordsmen), all within K and N (king and knight in chess notation). Plot as in a plot of land. | ||
| 13 | AFTER-IMAGE | Lingering impression it’s time Farage is off (5-5) |
| Anagram (off) of TIME FARAGE. | ||
| 14 | BIT OF ROUGH | Lady Chatterley’s Lover, say, in some long grass, of course? (3,2,5) |
| Double definition. Slang for a sexual partner of a lower social class, as in the novelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Chatterley%27s_Lover; or “rough” = long grass on a golf course. | ||
| 17 | SCISSION | Dividing is thus splitting numbers up (8) |
| IS + SIC (thus: used to indicate that an apparent error within a quotation has been faithfully reproduced from the original) within NOS (plural of No. = number), all reversed (up). | ||
| 20 | FLINCH | Draw back and head of lion seized by bird (6) |
| L[ion] within FINCH. | ||
| 22 | MARC | Stuff from down under is alcohol (4) |
| CRAM (stuff, as a verb), reversed (from down under). | ||
| 23 | LYON | Lake by that ancient French city (4) |
| L (lake) + YON (old form of “that”, so “that ancient”). I believe yon (or yonder) generally denoted something further away than “that”: this apple in my hand, that apple on the table, yon apple on the tree in the garden. But the meaning was absorbed into “that” when the word went out of use. | ||
Very enjoyable puzzle, although I failed to solve MARC – had never heard of this before except as a male French name, of course.
My favourites were UNTHINKING (which I have probably seen before but it still makes me smile), FLIP, KITCHEN GARDEN, CUBA, PROPITIOUS (loi).
New word for me was SCISSION but it was very fairly clued.
Thanks Picaroon and Quirister.
Had walked two dogs by the time the paper arrived this morning, and had finished the crossword by 8.30am with only the NE corner proving difficult, because of the Balmoral reference (I only knew it as a bonnet, not a boot, but Chambers put me right). Thanks to Picaroon for a most enjoyable exercise, and to Quirister for the admirable parsing.
Welcome to the fray Quirister, and yes it took me ages to go Macbeth = thane, d’oh and groan, and another groan for Louis The Unthin, my loi. But a nice stroll in general, a leisurely latte’s worth, after the toils of Vlad and Paul. Wondered about striking (on its own) = excising, was helped in scission by its being a title by local author Tim Winton, and was slow to remember the chestnut yon = that. Some nice surfaces as ever from the pirate, and thanks Quirister.
Loads of fun here – as Michelle says, unfamiliar words were fairly clued, especially scission. “marc” was good too – I finally figured out it was “stuff=cram” upwards and then remembered having had a drink called “marc de bourgogne”.
Just to pick up on 11ac. A balmoral is a boot – more than ankle-high – and an Oxford must leave the ankles exposed. In America I understand they call an Oxford a balmoral, but there’s no accounting for that. In England they are quite different. At first I went for “balmy” here (a bit of balmoral-y) which felt quite in fitting with this setter’s sense of humour, but it was ruled out by the pit prop (as it were).
Many thanks Pic, and Quirister for stepping in.A lovely clear blog.
Thanks both. Didn’t know “tabs” = ecstasy, so ta for that. My knowledge of drugs slang is greatly enhanced by crosswords.
Enjoyable solve today, thanks Quirister for standing in.
Booty the last in, after learning about various Balmorals. Scission a great word, should see it more often, in contrast to ethane which is rather dull. Agree that ‘unable to be solved’ is of a different level than puzzling.
Time now for some unthinking, thanks Picaroon.
Thanks both,
I thought this was going to be a stroll in the park compared with the previous two days until I got held up by the NE corner. Not helped by entering ‘provisions’ which more or less parses instead of propitious.
When did ‘yon’ become ancient? It was widely used in Lincolnshire when I was a lad and is still in my idiolect. (And in Scottish English: On yonder hill there stood a coo. It must have gone, it’s not there noo.)
I’m sure I’ve seen UNTHINKING clued this way before with a reference to Henry VIII, but this was a clever construction that had me thinking there was an extra “un” in it before I parsed it more carefully. I liked ETHANE, FLIP, and SMELLING SALTS. Didn’t know ADUKI, but it’s always a pleasant surprise when the wordplay leads me to a doubtful-looking string of letters and Collins confirms that it’s actually a word.
Thanks to Picaroon and Quirister.
Loved the wordplay in 13d, if only!
We had Jim and now James this week. Both superb-didnt need the satnav so much on this.
Thanks to Picaroon and Quirister. Very enjoyable again, but less challenging than the last two days. Mostly went in quite steadily, but another held up for a bit in the NE, which was last to fall. I was another who liked unthinking and ethane, and I also liked lower deck and a bit of rough. Thanks again to Picaroon and Quirister.
Challenging and amusing, thanks to Picaroon and Quirister. Favourites include ABOLITIONIST for the clever anagram and smooth surface, SMELLING SALTS, the THIN KING and MARC, the upside down stuff which was my last in as -A-C wasn’t initially promising. Not come across SCISSION before but it was fun assembling it from the bottom up.
Fun puzzle. I liked AFTER-IMAGE.
I’ve never heard anyone in the US call an Oxford a Balmoral — in fact I had no idea the thing was a shoe, all I knew was the castle. I’ve also never heard anyone call a prison a can, though I’ve read it, I think. It must be old 40’s slang.
Many thanks to Picaroon and Quirister.
Enjoyable as ever from this setter. My favourites were the little gem FLIP, ETHANE, CRYPTOGRAM and UNTHINKING. We’ve had several variations on [UN] THIN KING but this one was particularly neat because the surface referred to a French king.
[You may have missed Don’s overnight comment on Wednesday’s Vlad blog, which gave a link to a hilarious and very clever song, based on 1ac’s STABLE GENIUS. I recommend it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A ]
I will never forget Thane, not so much from the play itself but from an ISIRTA sketch on it,
Witch: Hail Macbeth, Thane of Glamis.
John Cleese as Macbeth: Thane? (roaring) THANE!!!??? What the hell’s a Thane?
Brilliant G&S par/ody/aphrase, ta Don and Eileen.
Picaroon is a class act, and this was another fine puzzle. No major hold-ups – annoyingly FLIP was last in
Thanks to Picaroon and Quirister
Enjoyed this but took an age to see ‘abolitionist’ and had the entire NE blank after the rest had gone in, was beaten by booty (never heard of the boot).
Not convinced by the looseness of tab = tablet = ecstasy tablet parsing of 1d and the clue seems to confuse Ecstasy with LSD.
Thanks to Picaroon and Quirister.
Very enjoyable. Did like unthinking and after-image. TILT was Balmoral=boot. Also found that frim is actually a word although is an adjective so did not really fit the clue – thought of flip after hitting check-all, so a DNF today.
Thanks to Picaroon and to Quirister.
Valentine @13 I suspect “can = prison” is up there with “gun = piece = gat = rod” as being something not heard outside of black and white movies but which every crossword solver has to know. Our sense of slang terms is as bizarre as our geography, in which the Ure, Ouse, Exe and Dee are more important rivers than the Severn, Thames or Avon, and Ur is a more important ancient city than Troy or Knossos (where the heck even is Ur?). We must all be dipsomaniacs too as “red” and “white” immediately bring to mind wine, “odd” is “rum” and drinks are usually “ale” and “beer”. Crosswordland is a strange world to live in!
A lovely enjoyable time-consuming (for the right reasons) solve
Thanks very much to Picaroon and Quirister – like Eileen, I thought the un thin king was really good
Re 22d, my last to finish, I put in SALC which stands for South Australian Legislative Council 🙂 , and is also part of “is alcohol” so I suppose it is a DNF. Par for the week of toughies.
Thanks S&B.
TheZed @20: yes, and Crosswordland also has a worrying level of drug usage, judging by the slang we need to know. I once got some very odd looks from younger crossword-solving colleagues when I explained why reefer = J. (I knew the latter term from a Paul Simon song that they weren’t old enough to remember.)
Re Balmoral, I didn’t know the boot so my definition has come from the internet, where the US usage probably gets higher precedence than UK readers would like. Going by the pictures I could find, it’s nearer to ankle-high than knee-high. To answer your other question: Ur was in what is now southern Iraq.
Lots of groaners here, which is the way most of us like it. I like the E-THANE, of course the un-thin king, and BOOTY. On that note, a long while ago, I came up with this clue (uh, with apologies to Arachne, Nutmeg, and others):
The stereotypical crossword setter is stinky? (7)
And I went for BURNY for the hot Balmoral…surely there are lots of burns for the queen to paddle in on the estate.
Enjoyed this very much after the rigours of Vlad and Paul. Laughed out loud at ETHANE and UNTHINKING.
Thanks for the fun, Picaroon, and thanks to Quirister for stepping in today.
And thanks Don and Eileen for the STABLE GENIUS link… Made yesterday’s effort worthwhile!
DNF for us sadly, as did not know ADUKI. The anagram element for IRRESOLVABLE was nice we thought, referencing the sister paper. And a lot of very elegant surfaces – as Eileen notes, UNTHINKING has that little bit extra. Many thanks to Picaroon and Quirister.
Like many above I found this a very enjoyable solve with lots of wit. It took me ages to see pulse in the ADUKI sense. As well as favourites already mentioned I had TROPIC and EXORCISING ticked – and BOOTY was also my loi and SCISSION a new word. Thanks to Picaroon and to Quirister. I’m going to look at yesterday’s Klingsor now – my favourite non-G setter.
After giving up after getting six answers in Vlad’s puzzle and after TWO answers in Paul’s puzzle, I’m gratified to confirm that my brain has not completely collapsed in on itself. I made it all the way through being defeated only by LOWER DECK (I should have remembered ratings from previous puzzles), BOOTY (never heard of the shoe) and CUBA (I always confuse Hecuba with Hecate so I never associate her with The Iliad).
Favorites were MARC and UNTHINKING. I do refuse to accept ADUKI as a legitimate transliteration of katakana AZUKI / ADZUKI though.
I can’t think of an example of “stood” being used in the passive voice to correspond with “borne” although I can accept it theoretically, so I struggled to get ENROBE. I was also not convinced by “from down under” as a reversal indicator, so didn’t get MARC.
I enjoyed the E- THANE and IRRESOLVABLE (is that a reference to the new Everyman?).
Overall, lots to like. Thanks, Pickers and Quirister for stepping into the breach.
In the Netherlands, CRYPTOGRAM (8d) is the totally normal word for what you and I call a ‘cryptic crossword’.
Funny, isn’t it?
Hi phitonelly @30
It doesn’t have to the passive tense: how about, ‘I couldn’t have stood / borne another minute of such nonsense’?
VOICE, of course – not tense!
Eileen @32
Oh yes, that works. Perfect, in both senses!
Liked this. More user friendly than the last two days. ETHANE and UNTHINKING were brilliant.
Thanks Picaroon.
COD for me was BIT OF ROUGH. Had me chuckling. New words similar to others and like @Roberto input in SALC but it was rather UNTHINKING which was close second COD.
Thanks Picaroon and Quirister for the parsing.
Another plea from those of us who are unable to do the crossword every day but like to catch up later … can people please try and stop making spoiler references to earlier crosswords in this blog. There was no need here to give away the solution to a crucial clue in the Vlad puzzle in encouraging people to view a YouTube clip.
My apologies, Van Winkle. The link to the clip was posted quite late and I thought it was too good to miss – but I shouldn’t have given the solution to the clue.
To be fair Van W, if you’re going to catch up later, would you not do so in order of day?
Then there’s the question of how long do you leave it.
Anyway, as others have said, this was so much more amenable and enjoyable than the previous 2 days. (Also concur with Peter A @35)
Pedro – Not so. Some may, for example, wish to save a favourite, or trickier, setter to relish at the weekend. This may be a treat they’ve been looking forward to – and there’s nothing more loutish than ruining another’s pleasure by flouting the site rules.
I take your point William (and Van W)
Not that anyone’s going to see this, but I did this Sunday night and Monday morning. Thanks to s and b.