Atrica is a new name for me, although it isn’t: only five months ago I blogged one. I wrote then This is the first I’ve heard of Atrica, who doesn’t seem to have appeared before in the Indy. The debut was successful: several gentle clues soundly and pleasantly executed. When I saw that a new setter was appearing on a Tuesday I feared the worst and expected problems in the solving, but there were none really that I was aware of and could have said the same today.
Definitions underlined in seagreen. Anagram indicators in italics.
There are lots of dental references. In fact nearly half the answers seem to be thematic, quite an achievement.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PREMOLAR | Note last fragment of amalgam in type of bear’s tooth (8) |
| p(re [note] {amalga}m)olar | ||
| 5 | BRACES | Suppliers of uplift, assuming church provides support (6) |
| bra(CE)s — bras are suppliers of uplift | ||
| 9 | SPACE BAR | Key amenity Virgin Galactic might offer (5,3) |
| 10 | CAVITY | Hollow biblical translation entertained by Canterbury? (6) |
| c(AV)ity | ||
| 12 | EXE | Catch one of former pair in river (3) |
| “ex”, the homophone indicated by ‘Catch’ | ||
| 13 | COSMETICIAN | Bedraggled Stoic came in to see beauty consultant in New York (11) |
| *(Stoic came in) — I don’t understand the significance of New York since cosmetician doesn’t seem to be an especially American word; indeed the definitions in Collins in British English and American English are almost identical | ||
| 14 | KASHMIR | Disputed region in mid-Balkans with a quiet border to the west (7) |
| {Bal}k{ans} a sh (rim)rev. — Kashmir is a disputed region | ||
| 15 | JAWS | Film talks (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 18 | PULP | Trashy literature is sensitive matter (4) |
| 2 defs — I wondered just why pulp was sensitive matter, but in the dental sense it is: the rotten part the dentist takes out before filling | ||
| 19 | STUD FEE | Donor’s compensation as boss takes charge (4,3) |
| stud [boss] fee [charge] | ||
| 23 | SWEET AS A NUT | Very nice dessert: for instance a fruitcake (5,2,1,3) |
| sweet [dessert] as [for instance] a nut [fruitcake] | ||
| 24 | UZI | Shooter‘s identity questioned in the East End, reportedly (3) |
| “who’s he” as said in the East End — an Uzi is this type of gun | ||
| 25 | DRILLS | Caregiver has problems finding tools (6) |
| Dr [caregiver] ills | ||
| 26 | FILLINGS | Pretty much out of sorts between affairs, getting restorative treatments (8) |
| f(il{l})lings | ||
| 27 | CANINE | Hound men in action partly retreating (6) |
| Hidden reversed in mEN IN ACtion | ||
| 28 | IT IS SAID | Sex is mentioned, apparently (2,2,4) |
| it [sex] is said [mentioned] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PASTEL | Faint praise the old regularly ignored (6) |
| p{r}a{i}s{e} t{h}e {o}l{d} | ||
| 2 | ENAMEL | Hard layer found in even a melon (6) |
| Hidden in evEN A MELon | ||
| 3 | OVERCOAT | Surplus cake in Ulster? (8) |
| over [surplus] coat [cake] | ||
| 4 | ANAESTHETIST | Doctor‘s horrible combination of a statin and ether’s not right (12) |
| *(a statin ethe{r}’s) — I don’t see the reason for ‘horrible’: the clue would be perfectly sound without it and would read rather more naturally, so what am I missing? [slight amendment — thanks gwep@5] | ||
| 6 | ROADIE | On tour, assistant of Iron Lady died inwardly (6) |
| {I}ro{n} {L}ad{y} {d}ie{d} | ||
| 7 | CLINICAL | Catholic in the Italian uprising, supported by state, reaches objective (8) |
| C (in il)rev. Cal — problems at first because I was sure the state was going to be Iran, nor did I think objective was going to be an adjective | ||
| 8 | SAYINGS | For example, home with gardens front and back more than one saw (7) |
| say [for example] in [home] g{arden}s — saw = saying | ||
| 11 | PERIODONTIST | After conversion, Preston idiot becomes a healer (12) |
| *(Preston idiot) | ||
| 16 | ALGERIAN | Metal weave in gear from part of Africa (8) |
| Al [aluminium, metal] *(in gear) | ||
| 17 | PEP TALKS | Energy negotiations can be rallying cries (3,5) |
| pep [energy] talks [negotiations] | ||
| 18 | POSTDOC | At first, poor East German medic becomes an academic researcher (7) |
| p{oor} ost [east, in German] doc [medic] | ||
| 20 | STOLEN | Hot fruit bread one pupil spurned (6) |
| stollen {fruit bread] with one of its Ls missing | ||
| 21 | QUANTA | Small amounts of energy could be measured numerically, they say, if I’d short ammeter (6) |
| Sorry, I’m completely lost here, beyond seeing that quanta are small amounts of energy — the surface doesn’t seem to be up to much: what on earth is a short ammeter? [As Alan@1 says, it’s quant{ified}, and ified is “if I’d”; this is short [missing], then a [ammeter — not in Collins apparently but in Chambers]] | ||
| 22 | RINSED | Flushed and embarrassed, admitting wrongdoing after head of school’s demoted (6) |
| r(sin)ed with the s lower down | ||
Held up for some time by having entered NIGERIAN for 16d, which is (I submit) exactly as good an answer. And as usual missed the theme which could hardly have been more obvious.
21d – I think this is QUANTIFIED less IFIED (they say, if I’d short) plus A (for ammeter). Hmmmm.
I can attest that PULP is indeed ‘sensitive matter’ if the medication given by a 4d isn’t working too well when you’re having a root (not just an ordinary) filling. Think Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman in “Marathon Man’ – definitely not SWEET AS A NUT. Same parsing as Alun @1 for QUANTA and I too had ‘Nigerian’ as an alternative correct answer for 16d before I found it didn’t work for PULP.
I thought ‘horrible’ was in 4d so ‘Doctor’s’ wouldn’t be doing double duty as definition and anagram indicator; ‘combination’ would be an iffy anagram indicator by itself (although we’ve seen iffier ones!).
A pangram as well to make the visit to the dentist a bit more palatable.
Thanks to John and Artica
Excellent! Also parsed QUANTA as others. Given the obvious theme, I never even considered a pangram on top, so thanks to WordPlodder for spotting that. I also don’t understand the significance of New York in 13a.
Thanks to Atrica and John.
Dental technology has improved so much that apart from the expense, a visit is no longer such an unpleasant experience.
So I enjoyed the theme.Nice clues,wasnt looking for a PG put there it is
Thanks all
Idly googling, I see cosmetician is designated North American, one who applies and/or sells cosmetics; a beautician simply as someone who gives beauty treatments. Not something I had thought about before, but perhaps that explains the New York reference.
4D the “s” is needed in the anagram fodder – a statin + ethe[r}’s.
Perhaps Atrica practices in the field the theme of this Crossword. All enjoyable.
Thanks to Atrica and John.
A theme that was obvious even to us after only three entries, and helped settle the matter in one or two cases where we otherwise wouldn’t have been sure. We counted 15 themed answers although a few might be only loosely so – could a tooth-whitening practitioner be described as a cosmetician?
All we’ve got to do now is avoid biting on anything hard for a while – 🙂
Thanks, Atrica and John
Only caught the theme after i’d finished, but at least spotted the potential pangram in time to look for the K. Very enjoyable, and Uzi made me laugh. Thanks to S&B
Unusually for me, I spotted the theme in my first three answers: premolar, enamel and anaesthetist. This helped considerably with many of the others. And for me 16D had to be Algerian as I had already got Pulp at 18A. Not bragging, just the way the cookie crumbled! Excellent puzzle so thanks Atrica and John.
Thanks to all who commented. I had not noticed the Nigerian/Algerian ambiguity. The “short” in the surface reading of 21d is supposed to be the verb, in an electrical sense. Not the greatest clue, I admit. @qwep I’m not in the dental field, I’m actually a scientist!
Not having spotted the theme I had Rats for 15a.