Independent 10,276 by Loglady

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I’ve blogged a puzzle by Loglady once before, in March of this year, when I was generally pretty favourable towards it. This puzzle has given me no reason to change my mind. There are plenty of very nice clues, including some clever &lits. Not at all easy, but most enjoyable.

Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.

Nothing that I can see in the Nina department.

Across
1 BUNGEE JUMP 16 ‘E’s on bounce? Get nearly as high again after each comedown? (6,4)
16 being SWEETENER, this is Bung E E jump
6 BIDI Try one Indian cigarette (4)
bid 1 — I’d never heard of them, but here you are
10 ELASTIC Flexible material found during the last ice-age (7)
Hidden in thE LAST ICe-age
11 BRITAIN Country of a mind to repress sex (7)
br(it)ain — the old crossword equation of it with sex appeal, something I’ve only heard in the expression ‘it girl‘
12 PREEN Clean feathers before hens de-winged (5)
pre- [before] {h}en{s}
13 SIGHTSEER Quote reportedly visionary traveller (9)
“cite” seer [visionary]
14 APT Answer with point that’s pertinent (3)
A pt
15 DAR ES SALAAM Old lady unhappily retired after ventures yielding no more capital (3,2,6)
dares (ma alas)rev. — the former capital of Tanzania, superseded in 1974 by Dodoma
17 HOMO SAPIENS Man’s posh moniker, used regularly in evolution? (4,7)
(Man’s posh {m}o{n}i{k}e{r})*, &lit.
19 PAS Dad’s dance move (3)
Pa’s
20 REFORMIST Authority figure or obscure challenger to establishment (9)
ref [eree] or mist
22 AHEAD Upfront as a drug user (5)
a head
24 NAIVETE In Genesis, Eve ain’t displaying innocence (7)
*(Eve ain’t) — rather an original anagram indicator — one has to read G as g
25 NAIPAUL Writer‘s a pain to reinterpret, university lecturer concludes (7)
(a pain)* U L — ref V.S. Naipaul
26 SAGS Sulphur vapours around sinks (4)
(S gas)rev.
27 ASTRINGENT Biting a peanut on and off to take in fibre (10)
a(string)ent, the aent being a{p}e{a}n{u}t
Down
1 BLEEP Electronic noise from bass getting radio DJ upset (5)
B (Peel)rev., ref John Peel
2 NEATEST Dine in residence that’s most immaculate (7)
n(eat)est
3 EATING DISORDER This unfortunately could make digestion ‘arder (6,8)
*(digestion ‘arder), &lit. — maybe, but in fact it’s more likely (eating disorder)* which could make ‘digestion ‘arder’, so perhaps I’ve got it all wrong and it’s ‘This unfortunately could make digestion ‘arder’ [Yes, this confirmed by Loglady]
4 JOCKSTRAP This stops junk escaping from DJ’s mouth (9)
jock’s trap is DJ’s mouth, but junk is a word new to me in the sense of — I suppose  — one’s private parts
5 MR BIG Mere beings, every other character, but not this guy? (2,3)
M{e}r{e}B{e}i{n}g{s} — possibly a complete &lit., not quite sure (no: there is no place for ‘not this guy’ in the wordplay), but certainly some &littery going on
7 IPANEMA A certain girl’s from here – name gone astray after beer (7)
IPA (name)* — ref ‘The Girl from Ipanema‘
8 IGNORAMUS I skirt around doubtful utterance brought up by fool (9)
I (s(um)arong)rev. — although is a fool an ignoramus?
9 MISTRANSLATION Weather event dashed most of roof tile particle into faulty conversion (14)
mist ran sla{te} (into)* — a shame that we have mist for the second time after 20ac — just noticed, when I came to do the anagram indicators, that something seems to be awry: ‘faulty’ is so far as I can see doing double duty, both in the definition (a mistranslation is a faulty conversion) and to indicate the anagram of ‘into’. Perhaps the definition is just ‘translation’, which makes it sound, but is it what Loglady intended? [NeiW@1 has it right, and you won’t believe it but I did originally too, then forgot when doing the blog — age — it’s … slat{e} ion]
14 ADHERENTS Followers of colonisers burying dead in this place (9)
a(d here)nts
16 SWEETENER Carrot used as dietary substitute (9)
2 defs, one of them as in ‘carrot and stick’
18 MUFFING Cake abiding by gravity and spoiling (7)
muffin g
19 PREDATE Come originally to hunt (7)
2 defs, one of them probably pre-date in some dictionaries
21 ITEMS It gets large print spaces in newspaper features (5)
it ems — em spaces
23 DELFT Latin etched into artful pottery (5)
de(L)ft

*anagram

9 comments on “Independent 10,276 by Loglady”

  2. Thanks Loglady and John, very enjoyable with much head-scratching but I just about finished it over breakfast.  I too had to think twice about Predate at 19D but it makes sense.  At 23D I briefly considered Willy, which sort of fits, and apparently there’s a Belgian potter known as Willy, but I soon threw that idea out the window.

  3. 9d was my LOI (parsed as NeilW). Took some figuring out. Guessed the SLAT(e)ION bit then the penny dropped.

    Had to cheat to get BIDI. Never heard of it and “bid” isn’t the first word to come to mind for “try”.

    Thanks all.

  5. I was too lazy to bother parsing MISTRANSLATION and had to get BIDI by an alphabet trawl – lots of wasted time after the correct answer came up so early! I didn’t know that meaning of ‘junk’ either, but there it is at that impeccable source, urbandictionary. I had 3d as a whole clue as def, but I see what you mean about an alternative parsing.

    I thought BRITAIN was a classic.

    Thanks to Loglady and John

  6. 6ac defeated me.

    I thought that meaning of “junk” was well known, so either you all have been leading sheltered lives or I’m hanging out with the wrong sorts.

  8. Thanks John and commenters

    A bidi is a tiny bit of tobacco in a brown leaf that sold for about a penny for two last I knew. Good cigarettes for non-smokers, unfortunately.

    I only see one parsing for 3 down, an &lit where the wordplay is ‘answer anagrammed could make fodder’. What am I missing?

    Dormouse@6 as long as you don’t have a pet name for your own you’re probably alright! There’s a few i wanted that didn’t have any dictionary confirmation. ‘Dilberries’ has stood out to me since childhood – overheard once and used regularly since. Are they a real thing?

  9. oh. I just looked up dilberries online, I think I got the wrong end of things there! Consider the tone definitively lowered

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