An enjoyable puzzle from Wiglaf today…
…with a wide range of references/solutions from the classical (TISIPHONE) and literary (PROUSTIAN, ODETTE, Silas Marner, Arthur RANSOME, Alfred NOYES) to modern football (Kylian MBAPPÉ) via the Middle East (BRUNEI) and American politics (HUNTER Biden).
My solving notes have: an underlined ‘LOL!’ against 9A – great anagram!; a ‘Nice!’ next to the wonderfully succinct 2D – APPLY/APPLE-Y; a new (to me) phrase of WORD SALAD at 14D (although Chambers associates this with schizophrenia, rather than dementia?).
I thought 17A was a bit flippant about the issue of homophobic stoning in Brunei – maybe something you’d expect to see in Cyclops/Private Eye rather than the Indy?
Clue(s) of the day must be the clever intertwining of 6D and 27A – with the solution to 6D providing the anagrind (DOCTOR) and part of the anagram fodder (WHO) for 27A.
All in all a very enjoyable solve, if not too time-consuming/taxing. Many thanks to Wiglaf. I can’t see any obvious theme or Nina, but please check below for comments if I have missed something!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | MBAPPE | French striker’s doctor appeared half-cut (6) | French (footballing) striker, (Kylian) / MB (medicinae baccalaureus, Bachelor of Medicine, i.e. doctor) + APPE( |
|
| 4A | MEANDER | Poor Edna embarrassed about having wind (7) | wind / Reversed (i.e. about) hidden (i.e. having) word in ‘pooR EDNA EMbarrassed’ |
|
| 9A | REPRODUCE | Screwing procedure to make babies (9) | make babies! / anag, i.e. screwing, of PROCEDURE (!) |
|
| 10A | ON CUE | One short line that’s delivered at the right moment (2,3) | at the right moment! / ON( |
|
| 11A | NOYES | Poet provides contradictory answers (5) | poet (Alfred) / NO and YES are contradictory answers, ‘Yeah, but No, but…’! |
|
| 12A | TISIPHONE | I sit around and call one of Megaera’s sisters (9) | one of Megaera’s sisters (i.e. a Fury) / TISI (anag, i.e. around, of I SIT) + PHONE (call) |
|
| 13A | ROWDIER | More noisy rot, endless weird crap (7) | more noisy / RO( |
|
| 15A | PAPAWS | Follower of Oscar was vacantly offering fruit (6) | fruit / PAPA (phonetic alphabet, P – Papa comes after O – Oscar) + WS (W |
|
| 17A | BRUNEI | Old character into AC/DC? You might get stoned for that here (6) | you might get stoned for that (being sexually AC/DC) here / B_I (bisexual, or AC/DC) around RUNE (old character) |
|
| 19A | RANSOME | Children’s author stood by certain people (7) | children’s author (Arthur) / RAN (stood, e.g. for election) + SOME (certain people) |
|
| 22A | DES MOINES | Harry demonises US city (3,6) | US city / anag, i.e. harry, of DEMONISES |
|
| 24A | CANOE | Old king having no truck with old English vessel (5) | vessel / CAN( |
|
| 26A | TALON | Stock that’s a pound in weight (5) | stock (of remaining cards, after dealing) / T_ON (weight) around AL (A + L – pound, £) |
|
| 27A | WAG THE DOG | 6 gadget to divert the attention (3,3,3) | to divert the attention / anag, i.e. doctor (from 6D), of WHO (also from 6D) + GADGET |
|
| 28A | ELDERLY | Old lady hollowed out tree at the front (7) | old / ELDER (tree) in front of L( |
|
| 29A | HOARSE | Rough area around bay? On the contrary (6) | rough / HO_RSE (bay) around A (area), not the other way round. |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | MARINER | Jack shows Silas around island (7) | Jack (Tar, sailor) / MAR_NER (Silas Marner, from the George Eliot novel) around I (island) |
|
| 2D | APPLY | Use, like scrumpy? (5) | double defn.? / use / scrumpy (cider) is usually made from apples, so could be described as APPLY (apple-y) |
|
| 3D | PROUSTIAN | French writer’s work in our past (9) | French writer’s (Marcel’s) / anag, i.e. work, of IN OUR PAST |
|
| 4D | MEETS UP | Joins others in Maine, upset after rigging (5,2) | joins others / ME (Maine) + ETS UP (anag, i.e. after rigging, of UPSET) |
|
| 5D | APOOP | A North American dope at the back of the ship (5) | at the back of the ship / A + POOP (American slang for facts, information – or ‘the dope’) |
|
| 6D | DOCTOR WHO | How to cryptically represent ET? (6,3) | ET (an extra-terrestrial (?) / if you ‘DOCTOR’ WHO, cryptically, you could get ‘how’ |
|
| 7D | REEFER | Something for smoking jacket (6) | double defn. / a REEFER is a type of jacket; and also an illicit marijuana cigarette |
|
| 8D | HUNTER | Watch Biden … (6) | double defn. / a HUNTER is a type of watch; and US Presidential-candidate-in-waiting Joe Biden’s son is called HUNTER – maybe a bit obscure, but he got lots of mentions during the recent impeachment process… |
|
| 14D | WORD SALAD | … a sod with drawl developing signs of dementia? (4,5) | signs of dementia / anag, i.e. developing, of A SOD + DRAWL |
|
| 16D | PINOCCHIO | He served up pork pies, very good dumplings (without starter) and duck (9) | he served up pork pies (lies) / PI (pious, very good) + ( |
|
| 18D | IN NO WAY | Where fjords are found without river? It’s not true at all (2,2,3) | it’s not true at all / Fjords are often found IN NO( |
|
| 19D | RESIGN | Plan with right for Democrat to step aside (6) | step aside / ( |
|
| 20D | EPERGNE | Stand on the table using sword to protect nurse (7) | (ornamental) stand on the table / EPE_E (sword) around (protecting) RGN (Registered General Nurse) |
|
| 21D | ODETTE | Wife in 3 work, a short poem? (6) | wife in 3 (Proustian) work / a short poem, or ODE, might be an ODETTE! |
|
| 23D | OWNER | Proprietor with ace houses? Right (5) | proprietor / O_NE (ace) around (housing) W (with) + R (right) |
|
| 25D | NADIR | Revolutionary purge at an all-time low (5) | all-time low / RID (purge) + AN, all reversed, or revolutionary, gives NADIR (not sure what the ‘at’ is doing there?) |
|
hi Mike…you should probably reformat your intro to hide the several solutions it reveals
Oops – thanks, baerchen – updated!…
Good fun. I’ll not say anything about the legitimacy of 6d since I’ve gone on about it in the past. Pleased to guess ODETTE from the wordplay, knowing nothing about Proust other than the name.
Guessed MOAPPE for 1a so, technically, a DNF but that knowledge is outside my bailiwick.
That meaning for TALON was new to me. APOOP seems a weird word.
WORD SALAD is often used to describe the verbal meanderings of Donald Trump – e.g. this. You can even make your own.
V. enjoyable. Even if it was a bit gentler than some of Wiglaf’s puzzles, there were several I couldn’t fully parse. Like Hovis @3 I found APOOP to be an unlikely word (but it’s in you know where) and I didn’t know the card playing sense of TALON or the ‘French striker’, who I also guessed as ‘Moappe’. It helped that ODETTE, similarly clued, has appeared elsewhere in the last couple of weeks, so not much ‘A la recherche’ needed.
PINOCCHIO was my favourite, both for surface and parsing.
Thanks to Wiglaf and mc_rapper67
Thanks for the various comments/feedback – Andrew – I’ll give that link a go.
Re. MOAPPE – it parses as well as MBAPPE, so maybe a little unfair on those who don’t follow football, but then Proust, Noyes and Ransome may not be so familiar to some?…
The ‘poop deck’ is firmly fixed in my mind from an old Two Ronnies song on an album my father has (if he still has it!):
(Tune: “A Policeman’s lot is not a Happy one)
There’s a sailor lying drunk and feeling peaky
Feeling peaky!
In the gutter where the pavement kerb he grips
Kirby grips!
And he cries my boat the Pinafore is leaky
Fore is leaky!
What the navy needs is more efficient ships
Fish ‘n’ chips!
When Lord Nelson lay a-dying at Trafalgar
At Trafalgar!
What did the gallant captain Hardy do?
Howdy Do!
Oh he kissed his leader sadly on the poop deck
On the poop deck!
There has never been a fond caress so blue!
Esso Blue!
I must have last listened to that some time in the 80s, but it is still there, despite the ravages of the 90s, noughties and whatever the last decade was called! Sadly it doesn’t seem to be on YouTube or anywhere.. i found the lyrics here.
Badly beaten by this one (ran out of time), failing on Apoop, Doctor Who, Ransome and Pinocchio. Didn’t help myself by putting unparsed Pawpaw at 15A. So on the whole didn’t really enjoy it but thanks any way to Wiglaf and McRapper.
Well, we just about got it all. We had to nuse a word finder for EPERGNE – we thought it had to be an insertion of something into ‘epeé’ but could only think of EN (enrolled nurse) which didn’t give enough letters. And we didn’t know the ‘divert attention’ meaning of WAG THE DOG – we’ve only come across it in the sense of the tail wagging the dog, as in the DUP tail wagging the Tory dog in the last Parliament. Hadn’t come across that meaning of TALON either. But having guessed ‘Moappe’ for 1ac we googled to confirm it and were redirected to MBAPPE.
Favourites? We’ll go for TISIPHONE and PINOCCHIO.
Thanks, Wiglaf and mc_rapper67
This took me ages. But that’s good these days, right? I also managed my laundry and baked some bread which the family ate in no time. I’d bake some more but it’s hard to get flour
I was impressed with the 6d/27a pair. 3d, that pesky ‘s cost me some time. I had MOAPPE but then found MBAPPE when i googled to confirm – actually, he does ring a bell. Didn’t see HOARSE and bunged in COARSE, hoping there was a bay somewhere called CORSE BAY.
many thanks wiglaf and MCR
Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Wiglaf
I think “cue” in 10a probably comes from a homophone of “queue”- “line that’s delivered”.
I can’t quite make 6d work.
I parsed “cue” as in blog but I prefer your version, Dansar. Both work I think.
Late to this one today. Guardian Prize and Julius this morning, then the Inquisitor, and now Wiglaf.
Failed to parse WAG THE DOG, very cleverly done. I also parsed 10a as sounds like QUEUE. Hadn’t heard of HUNTER BIDEN or WORD SALAD before.
Word Salad was the debut album (1979) of Fischer-Z.
More popular in the Netherlands (where I lived in those days) than in the UK.
Pretty paracetamol, being the first track on that album.
Somewhat later, we heard: cruise missiles, they’re not five years away – how true!
John Watts, good man – saw him live a handful of times.
Good puzzle too, easier than the average Wiglaf, I think.
Many thanks to our setter and mc_rapper57.
Thanks for all the interesting contributions above…
dutch at #9 – homemade bread is the best…hope you find a flour supply! I also ‘bunged in’ COARSE, but realised the error of my ways when I came back to check it…
various – it seems even stevens between cue and queue for 10A – as Hovis said, they both seem to work.
sil at #13 – fascinating stuff on ‘word salad’…I have been re-visiting the 80s by whiling away the hours converting a load of old vinyl to digital…but you have put 10 years on me…mc_rapper57?!
My intended parsing for 10A was indeed using the homphone of “queue”.
Thanks for the excellent blog and thanks to those who commented, if anyone’s still reading this.
Oops! I meant “Wiglaf says”
Wiglaf at #15/16 – thanks for your kind words – and for the confirmation on 10A!
These blogs tend to have a short shelf life as people move on…can’t imagine many will have noticed your little reveal…I can edit it out if you want?…
There’s no real need to edit it out. There’s nothing secretive about setters’ real names these days.
I was a little disappointed that no-one picked up on the small theme which concerned the “alleged” rigging of the Democratic primaries against Bernie Sanders. Biden does indeed have problems stringing a sentence together these days as testified by the numerous videos that have gone viral. Trump will demolish him in any debates.
Far too subtle for me, Wiglaf!…although I do fear your analysis is correct, and we may be in for another 4 years of Ronald T Dump (;+<)