Chalmie tries to add some flavour to a wet Thursday morning.
Herbs appear all over the puzzle in clues and answers, and in most cases the clues work well, with some raising a smile, but I can’t work out 26dn.
I was disappointed in the weak definitions at 19ac and 21dn, but did give a tick to WETHERBY, LORNA DOONE and TRADE FAIR.
Thanks, Chalmie.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ALBUMS | Records white space replaced by square (6) |
| ALBUM(en>S) (“white” of an egg with EN (“short space” in printing) replaced by S (square)) | ||
| 4 | BASILICA | Herb I see beside American church (8) |
| BASIL (“herb”) + I + C (see) + A (American) | ||
| 10 | CADILLACS | Luxury cars about to get active control system containing herb (9) |
| CA (circa, so “about”) to get ACS (Active Control System) containing DILL (“herb”) | ||
| 11 | CHARM | About to impair ornament (5) |
| C (about) + HARM (“to impair”) | ||
| 12 | IRIS | Goddess, one rejecting title (4) |
| I (one) + [rejecting] <=SIR (“title”) | ||
| 13 | BREATHLESS | Steals herb mixture when short- winded (10) |
| *(steals herb) [anag:mixture] | ||
| 15 | EAT CROW | To humiliate himself wore cat out (3,4) |
| *(wore cat) [anag:out] | ||
| 16 | ERRANT | Wandering bulldozer ran through walls (6) |
| Hidden in [walled by] “bulldozER RAN Through” | ||
| 19 | INK-SAC | Drinks a concoction including some cuttlefish (3-3) |
| Hidden in [including] “drINKS A Concoction”
Definition is weak, would one say that an opposable thumb is “some human”? |
||
| 21 | PENANCE | Act of contrition by last character to leave coastal town (7) |
| Z (“last character”) to leave PEN(z)ANCE (“coastal town”) | ||
| 23 | LORNA DOONE | Storm heading off to stop solitary heroine (5,5) |
| (t)ORNADO (“storm” with its heading off) to stop LONE (“solitary”)
Lorna Doone was a novel by RD Blackmore, published in 1869. |
||
| 25 | WASH | Shampoo used to be hot (4) |
| WAS (“used to be”) + H (hot) | ||
| 27 | ELUDE | Avoid Spanish article due for revision (5) |
| EL (Spanish for “the”, so “Spanish article”) + *(due) [anag:for revision] | ||
| 28 | TRADE FAIR | Farted about with gas mixture at expo (5,4) |
| *(farted) [anag:about] with AIR (“gas mixture”) | ||
| 29 | TWENTIES | Scores left in knots (8) |
| WENT (“left”) in TIES (“knots”) | ||
| 30 | PARLEY | Section missing from herb discussion (6) |
| S (section) missing from PAR(s)LEY (“discussion”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARCHIVES | Records Central Park herbs (8) |
| [central] (p)AR(k) + CHIVES (“herb”) | ||
| 2 | BADMINTON | Notice herb in good French game (9) |
| AD (“notice”) + MINT (“herb”) in BON (“good” in “French”) | ||
| 3 | MOLY | Actor Herbert turns up with unknown but fabulous herb (4) |
| <=LOM (“actor Herbert” turns up] with Y (“unknown”)
Moly was a magic herb given to Odysseus to counteract the spells of Circe in Greek mythology. |
||
| 5 | ASSUAGE | Soften cooked sausage (7) |
| *(sausage) [anag:cooked] | ||
| 6 | INCOHERENT | Difficult to understand nice throne being remodelled (10) |
| *(nice throne) [anag:being remodelled] | ||
| 7 | IRATE | Angry one on speed (5) |
| I (one) on RATE (“speed”) | ||
| 8 | ALMOST | Nearly nothing in charity chest in the end (6) |
| O (“nothing”) in ALMS (“charity”) + (ches)T [in the end] | ||
| 9 | YARROW | Herb’s chromosome indicator (6) |
| Y(-chromosome) + ARROW (“indicator”) | ||
| 14 | PRESS AGENT | Display herb for European publicist (5,5) |
| PRES(e>SAGE)NT (“display” (PRESENT) with SAGE (“herb”) for (i.e. instead of) E (European)) | ||
| 17 | NONE AT ALL | Alan let on about the number of apples in an empty barrel (4,2,3) |
| *(alan let on) [anag: about] | ||
| 18 | WETHERBY | Yorkshire town soak like Rosemary? (8) |
| WET (“soak”) + HERBY (“like rosemary”) | ||
| 20 | CHORTLE | Boring work interrupted by extremely tuneful laugh (7) |
| CHORE (“boring work”) interrupted by [extremely] T(unefu)L | ||
| 21 | PANDAS | Asians with empty accounts under pressure (6) |
| AND (“with”) [empty] A(ccount)S under P (pressure) | ||
| 22 | ALPERT | Herb trumpeting prelate not fully organised (6) |
| *(prelat) [anag:organised] i.e. [not fully] PRELAT(e)
Herb Alpert is an American trumpeter and frontman fro Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. |
||
| 24 | ROUTE | Army unit adopts unfashionable course (5) |
| RE (Royal Engineers, so “army unit”) adopts OUT (“unfashionable”) | ||
| 26 | BETA | Female head of state demoted (4) |
| No idea if this is right – have stuck in BETA 9as second grade, so “demoted”, but it’s a pure guess and I can’t see the wordplay. | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick, I think 26d may be VERA (state = AVER with A “demoted” to the end)
To Chrism @1:
I’m sure VERA is right but I guessed DENA, which – I checked – is a real girl’s name, here formed from the erstwhile state of Aden, again with the A ‘demoted’.
I agree about PANDA – far too loose – but excused INK-SAC because it was fun.
Finished with Herb ALPERT, a pleasing misdirection. If you don’t count him and the fictional MOLY, then for all the herbal wordplay, only YARROW is a herb as solution. Very impressive.
1 Across was my favourite.
Enjoyed this very much.
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick
Hal Blaine told a great story about his friend, another famous drummer, Shelly Manne who had a club called Shelly’s Manne-hole and Hal told him that Herb Alpert was opening a club in opposition. What’s it called? said Shelly-brief drum roll…..”The Tijuana Brasshole”
Before Gaufrid comes and chides us all for going off-topic, I was a fan of Alpert: lovely, fat tone and great melodies & arrangements, don’t knock ‘em. And while we’re on, I’d recommend everyone to re-read ‘Lorna Doone’, perhaps my favourite Victorian novel.
(Sorry, Gaufrid)
a nice potpourri! thanks loonapick… I fell down at 21a (wildly guessed PUNJAB) but was balanced by immediately seeing VERA at 26d — having seen aver=state before more than once.
Thanks all.
I’ll take PANDAS on the chin, but I’m not the first and won’t be the last setter to define an animal by a vague reference to its native habitat.
INK-SAC, though, is different. It’s extremely difficult to define without basically giving the game away. In such cases, I prefer to use very precise word play and a definition which is sufficient for the solver to confirm that the string of letters I have shown them how to construct is actually the solution. I struggle to think how I could, in a simple way, tell a solver how to construct OPPOSABLETHUMBS, which I would have to be able to do if I were to use “something human” as the definition.
To Chalmie @6:
Always great when the setter joins in. Welcome.
I liked INK-SAC v much but I’d (presumptuously) suggest that ‘bit of cuttlefish’ instead of ‘some cuttlefish’ would have assuaged loonapick’s reservations at little cost to the surface as well as introducing a spurious ‘C’ into our deliberations.
Thanks again for an ingenious puzzle.
Grant @ 7
Yes, “bit of cuttlefish” was a possibility, but I rejected it because I didn’t think it made enough sense in the context of drinks. If you want to go down the lit crit road, we can, but I’d suggest it’s really a matter of taste. My overall point was that what might be seen as deficiencies in the definition OR (not and) wordplay of a clue do not make the clue unfair if the other component is very precise. For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t consider anagrams as precise indications of strings of letters (at least not of whole words – “Doctor was lost near Herts town” for DRAWSTRING anagrams WAS, but it’s not like there are thousands of combinations of three letters), so I don’t use them for words I consider obscure but which I can’t avoid putting in the grid.
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick. Great fun. I’m no expert on herbs but I think I spotted them all (YARROW was new to me). I did get VERA but took forever to parse WETHERBY. I thought back to Simon and Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair” with parsley, sage, rosemary – but no thyme.
Thanks to Chalmie & Loonapick.
Nothing here to make me grumpy! I just failed on 22dn and was cross with myself not to have worked it out – but I didn’t know that Mr Alpert’s instrument was the trumpet.
I particularly liked 21ac, 19, & 23.
Thanks Chalmie an loonapick
Entertaining herbal puzzle making clever use of them in wordplay, definitions and solutions. Didn’t have issues with the ‘loose definitions’ as they are commonly used and as the setter states, the crystal clear wordplay brings the answer to the table easily enough.
No real holdups and particularly enjoyed constructing the unknown town of WETHERBY from the clue.
Finished with the two short clues – the tricky VERA down the bottom and the new to me MOLY (with its new to me actor component) as the last couple in.
Herb Alpert was also co-founder of the legendary A&M record company (note the trumpet in the logo), which discovered and signed many artists who became famous. I’ll leave it to the reader to look up some of the names; they’ll bring back memories.