Phi has provided a challenging puzzle for our Good Friday entertainment.
Phi definitely had the last (and second to last) laugh on me today, since I almost drew a blank in the NE quadrant. I had 5, 6, 9 and 11 missing and needed to cheat to get 5, 6 and 9, whereupon I could salvage a modicum of self-respect by solving 11. I didn’t know the words at 9 or 28, and the director at 5 was not familiar to me. I am not sure about the reference to “plot problems” in the clue at 6 – are we talking about books or about gardens here? Please advise.
My favourite clues today were 16, for its smooth and clever surface reading; and 27, for overall construction.
I was looking for a Nina and/or a theme, perhaps related to Easter, but I have found neither. Again, please advise. Meanwhile, let me take this opportunity to wish fellow bloggers and readers a happy, albeit rather unusual, Easter. Let us hope that any special crosswords this weekend will take our minds off things for a while.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | MOTOWN | Word from Paris to acknowledge musical genre
MOT (=word from Paris, i.e. the French word for word) + OWN (=acknowledge, i.e. as one’s own) |
| 09 | CERULEAN | Church canon, one of heavenly appearance?
CE (=Church, i.e. Church of England) + RULE (=canon, in ecclesiastical matters) + AN (=one); cerulean is sky-blue in colour, hence “of heavenly appearance” |
| 10 | SCORCHER | Good summer term, perhaps – school taking care of my expression of hesitation
[COR (=my, as exclamation) in SCH (=school)] + ER (=expression of hesitation); cryptically, a scorcher, i.e. a period of hot weather, could be described as a “good summer term, perhaps” |
| 11 | FINCHES | Birds avoiding new data storage system
FI<n>CHES (=birds; “avoiding new” means letter “n” is dropped) |
| 12 | JACK | Judge to support dismissing British sailor
J (=judge) + <b>ACK (=to support; “dismissing British (=B)” means letter “b” is dropped) |
| 14 | RUBBISHING | Being critical is hard, generating friction around it
[IS + H (=hard, as in HB pencils)] in RUBBING (=generating friction) |
| 16 | DRY ROT | Subtly comic nonsense? It could bring down the house
DRY (=subtly comic) + ROT (=nonsense) |
| 18 | WHOLES | Openings on the radio for complete items
Homophone (“on the radio”) of “holes (=openings)” |
| 19 | COTTONTAIL | Potter character that could be total tonic
*(TOTAL TONIC); “that could be” is anagram indicator; Cottontail is one of the rabbits in books by Beatrix Potter |
| 22 | SPUR | Encourage sudden activity, being out of time
SPUR<t> (=sudden activity; “out of time (=T)” means letter “t” is dropped) |
| 23 | ANGORA | Cat’s energy captured by an artist
GO (=energy, as in get-up-and-go) in [AN + RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician)] |
| 25 | SEVERITY | Some gutted by the truth’s serious nature
S<om>E (“gutted” means all middle letters are dropped) + VERITY (=the truth) |
| 27 | FORESEEN | Warnings formerly called back, as predicted
FORES (=warnings, in golf) + EEN (N?E=formerly called, of married woman; “back” indicates reversal) |
| 28 | RUCKUS | Uproar in crowd in front of the Queen?
RUCK (=crow, mass of ordinary people) + US (=the Queen?, i.e. the royal we) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | TOUCH-AND-GO | Almost failing to evoke sentiment with energy
TOUCH (=to evoke sentiment, as in His story touched me) + AND (=with) + GO (=energy, as in get-up-and-go) |
| 02 | DOUR | Gloomy passion out of Arabia
<ar>DOUR (=passion; “out of Arabia (=AR)” means letters “ar” are dropped) |
| 03 | ANTHER | Cat taking head off part of flower
<p>ANTHER (=cat); “taking head off” means first letter is dropped |
| 04 | SCARAB | Egyptian jewel, namely, reflecting Egypt in general?
SC. (=scilicet, namely, in Latin) + ARAB (=reflecting Egypt in general); a scarab was a gem carved in the form of a beetle, used by the ancient Egyptians as an amulet |
| 05 | GRIFFITH | American director, awkward type, restricting improvisation, heading for Hollywood
[RIFF (=improvisation, in music) in GIT (=awkward type)] + H<ollywood> (“heading for” means first letter only); the reference is to American director and pioneering film-maker D.W. Griffith (1875-1948) |
| 06 | BLACK HOLES | Attractive features in book to be without plot problems?
B (=book) + LACK (=to be without) + HOLES (=plot problems, supposedly gaps in story-telling); in astronomy, black holes have an irresistible force of attraction, hence “attractive features” |
| 07 | SAGE | Judicious decisions ultimately will take time
<decision>S (“ultimately” means last letter only) + AGE (=time) |
| 13 | KEYSTROKES | A few entries onscreen and financier finally invested in essential fuels
<financie>R (“finally” means last letter only) in [KEY (=essential) + STOKES (=fuels, as verb, as in to stoke debate)] |
| 15 | NASTURTIUM | Flower that may create autumn riots, nothing less
*(AUTUMN RI<o>TS); “nothing (=0) less” means letter “o” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “that may create” |
| 17 | OWN LABEL | Over with new ball possibly not from one of the big names?
O (=over, on cricket scorecard) + *(NEW BALL); “possibly” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | ASSENT | Agree when in an ecstatic state?
AS (=when, as conjunction) + SENT (=in an ecstatic state, as in the song title You Send Me) |
| 21 | LIVERY | Garments // easily disturbed
Double definition: livery is garments worn by servants, as a noun AND easily disturbed, irritable, as an adjective |
| 24 | NOON | 12 – number subsequently seen in mirror
NO (=number, as abbreviation) + ON (NO; “seen in mirror”, i.e. reflected, indicates reversal) |
| 26 | ROCK | Queen broadly happy about origin of cool musical genre
R (=queen, i.e. regina) + [C<ool> (“origin of” means first letter only) in OK (=broadly happy, as in I’m ok with that)] |
I had to google “American directors” to get GRIFFITH which enabled me to get FICHES, CERULEAN and BLACK HOLES and thus finish. I certainly had the plot in 6d as in “story” not “garden”.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Held up in the NE for ages. After an “avian trawl”, I eventually entered an unconfident FICHES which then opened up the rest. Some pretty tough clues there, eg the def for BLACK HOLES, and the ‘American director’ wasn’t exactly the first to come to mind.
Word and clue of the day to CERULEAN.
Thanks to Phi and RR
Same here, the NE almost blank (5, 6, 9 and 11 – not helped by missing 18, too).
I only do solving on paper, not allowing myself to cheat.
Can’t remember having been beaten by any setter by such a margin (and certainly not recently).
Well, apart from our friend Nimrod perhaps.
But I enjoyed what I could find today.
A bit surprised to see Phi using ‘go’ = ‘energy’ twice – just surprised.
Many thanks to RR & Phi.
NE held me up as well, but I did complete it successfully after some googling. Didn’t know GRIFFITH or CERULEAN, or the 2nd def for LIVERY.
NE was last in but no help needed, so hurray for me.
It’s certainly a funny grid: cottontail, jack and angora could all be easter bunnies, not sure what else is lurking.
Thanks Phi, RR
Much the same experience as others, we found the NE corner the most tricky but were eventually left with only 5dn and 9ac, and like Hovis had to google for American directors. Then 9ac was obviously CERULEAN, although on checking in Chambers we found ‘sky-blue; dark-blue; sea-green’ so preumably that’s the reason for the ? at the end of the clue.
Plenty to like, though, including KEYSTROKES and NASTURTIUM.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku.
NE corner held me up, too, but I did complete it without aids. I had heard of GRIFFITH, even tried watching one of his films once on Channel 4. Intolerance, as it happens, and not Birth of A Nation, which is all about the Klu Klux Klan.
So am I the only one who confidently entered URGE (SURGE minus S for second) in 22A?
Looked a good answer until NASTURTIUM came along.
Enjoyed this and like most others finished up in the NE corner – never heard of Griffith
.
Thanks to Phi and RR
reddevil. That was my first thought but I felt Phi wouldn’t use s (second) for “time” so didn’t enter it and waited until I had a crosser.
On a side note, I saw Phi’s comment on yesterday’s Serpent. Interesting how 2 setters can come up with such similar ninas. I wasn’t solving Independent cryptics back in 2012 and I don’t know if Serpent was a setter back then.
Of all the GRIFFITHs I could have chosen I thought DW the most significant as it’s clear Hollywood (and perhaps American exceptionalism) would be entirely different had he never been.
The rabbits are Easter bunnies and there’s a staircase-shaped message starting with the D of DOUR.