It’s another Tees and Pierre show, I’m afraid. We do love each other in a special way, but the reason we keep bumping into each other is that Tees is a Monday regular and I only ever blog the weekday Indy on a Monday. Always a pleasure – and some less common words in this puzzle to chew over.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 Unlovely guy forced to keep large animal at home
UGLY AS SIN
A charade: Teeser is asking you to make an anagram (‘forced’) of (GUY)* and insert (‘to keep’) L into that, then follow it with ASS and IN.
10 Leave out cover in employee’s case
ELIDE
An insertion of LID in two Es for the outside letters (‘cover’) of ’employee’. ELIDE can just mean ‘omit’; but I know it better from its use in phonetics, where ELISION refers to leaving out a phoneme in speech. For example, in speech many people would pronounce ‘library’ as ‘libree’. Or ‘Prime Minister’ as ‘Pryminster’. I could think of another pronunciation of our current Prime Minister, but it wouldn’t get past Gaufrid’s blue pencil, I fear.
11 Stake stuck into companion by old woman in drama
MACBETH
A charade of MA and BET in CH for ‘companion’ [of honour].
12 Dull drunk left on time
LITERAL
A charade of LIT for ‘drunk’ (rather old-fashioned, I fancy), ERA and L.
13 Region in reactor now ripped apart
TORN
Hidden in reacTOR Now.
14 Poisonous creature threatening woman whose husband is late
BLACK WIDOW
A charade of BLACK and WIDOW gives you the arachnid. The first definition is best seen when black describes something like clouds.
15 Strange tales about firm that once flavoured beer
ALECOST
I was pleased to figure this out from the wordplay and discover it existed. An insertion of CO in (TALES)*
17 Commotion in state to China’s east
PALAVER
A charade of PAL for ‘China’ (cockney rhyming slang of ‘China Plate’ for ‘Mate’) and AVER.
19 Physicist in after explosive stores hydrogen and helium separately
FAHRENHEIT
Two separate insertions of H and HE in (IN AFTER)* The anagrind is ‘explosive’ and the insertion indicator is ‘stores’. He was a pioneer in thermometry and the temperature scale is named after him. His scale is occasionally used instead of celsius in everyday speech when it’s hot, but never when it’s cold: it might be 70 in summer, but in winter it’s always minus 10, never 14 degrees fahrenheit.
22 Short man touring India finds chicken dish
KIEV
An insertion of I in KEV. He’s ‘short’ because his real name is KEVIN.
23 Detonator needs one good American gunpowder ingredient
IGNITER
A charade of I, G and NITER, which is the US English spelling of NITRE. Its alternative name is SALTPETRE. Or SALTPETER, if you’re an annoying American.
24 Bore with instructions to mechanic?
OIL WELL
A cd cum dd.
26 Campbell for one writer briefly entertaining a mystic syllable
NAOMI
An insertion (‘entertaining’) of A and OM for the Tibetan Buddhist chant syllable in NI[B]. The short-tempered supermodel.
27 Parasite damaging to red meat
TREMATODE
(TO RED MEAT)* I guessed this because I knew of nematodes. Trematodes are flat flukes and nematodes are roundworms, since you ask.
Down
1 Story from someone we both know and like?
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND
A dd. The ‘story’ is of course Dicken’s novel.
2 Current craft beer stores offering choice
À LA CARTE
An insertion (‘stores’) of AC for ‘current’ and ART for ‘craft’ in ALE. Good surface.
3 European to consent to an audience
DANE
A homophone (‘to an audience’) of DEIGN.
4 Horse coming in locates rotten onion
ESCHALOT
An insertion of H for ‘horse’ in (LOCATES)* gives you the type of onion. Unless someone wants to persuade me otherwise, I think it’s just another name for the SHALLOT. Most folk think of the H=heroin=horse route, but on racing cards h is ‘horse’, g is ‘gelding’, f is ‘filly’, so you can go drug-free if you want.
5 As one born in Lancashire town to the north
EN BLOC
An insertion of B for ‘born’ in COLNE reversed.
6 Ducks outside mostly keep drier
TEA TOWEL
An insertion of TOWE[R] in TEAL. Tees can use the plural, ‘ducks’ (and has to, to make the surface reading work) because you can do that with birds. ‘There were three teal together on the lake.’
7 Sent over to murder, stopped by Mr Hunter
NIMROD
An insertion (‘stopped’) of MR in DO IN. The biblical ‘hunter’ (and Indy crossword setter, of course).
8 Companion on trip in pink
FELLOW TRAVELLER
Another dd cum cd. FELLOW TRAVELLER is a pejorative term for a commie sympathiser, hence ‘pink’.
16 Others, into Old English, ripping up Greek plays
ORESTEIA
You’re never short of some Classics with Tees. I vaguely knew this, and the clear clueing was a help to remember how to spell it. An insertion of REST into OE followed by AI (for A-one) reversed(‘ripping up’, since it’s a down clue).
17 Poem with two lines revised about greeting nightingale
PHILOMEL
An insertion of HI for the ‘greeting’ in (POEM LL)* I was getting excited about an OPBL, but it’s more classics. She’s a minor figure in Greek mythology, so I was never going to know her. She was the daughter of Pandion, was raped by Tereus and then turned into a nightingale. I wasn’t minded to explore further.
18 Volume — nothing cooler for speech-maker
VOICE BOX
A charade of V, O and ICE BOX.
20 Old carriage attractive according to report
HANSOM
A homophone (‘according to report’) of HANDSOME.
21 Maybe three-love regarding this point
HERETO
(THREE O)*
25 Principal guitar in heavy metal
LEAD
A dd, although of course with two different pronunciations.
Many thanks to Tees for this morning’s puzzle.
What, no bird links.
Had to cheat to get PHILOMEL and use google to get ORESTEIA.
Didn’t understand 8d. Thought it may have something to do with initials FT (famous for its pink). Maybe it does?
First guess for 5d was IN SYNC but couldn’t get it to work.
Thanks to Tees and Pierre.
Detonate ? ignite, but otherwise a fine start to the week. Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
Sorry — what appears as a question mark in my previous was meant to be an unequal sign.
Rather Donnish.
Managed to complete this, with most of the classical references going in from helpful wordplay. I was pleased to (just be able to) remember ALECOST from at least one past appearance.
BLACK WIDOW was excellent, bearing in mind the cannibalistic tendencies of the female of the species. From Wikipedia: “Male black widow spiders tend to select their mates by determining if the female has eaten already to avoid being eaten themselves.” Us humans have it pretty easy.
Thanks to Tees and Pierre
Quite a challenge for a Monday but nothing we couldn’t get; LOI was DANE after we completed 9ac (we got the first word as UGLY but couldn’t think of the rest for ages). ALECOST wasn’t exactly new to us but had to be dragged up from the depths of memory.
There’s a slight error in the blog for NIMROD – it’s MR in a reversal of DO IN.
Hovis @1: We like your connection of ‘pink’ with FT as the paper; we just saw it as ‘pink’ being a pale red. The term ‘fellow-traveller’ may have originated in this cartoon from Punch.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
Very interesting stuff with excellent clues and wordplay.
Many thanks to Tees and to Pierre for the blog.
Hovis @1:” fellow travellers” was a term for people who at least verbally supported Stalin (“useful idiots”). I think “pink” refers to poltical stance rather than newpaper colour
Hello Pierre ‘n’ all. Thanks for dissection and comments.