An enjoyable solve from Dalibor today…but is there more than meets the eye?…
I missed the Nina the last time I blogged a Dalibor – 10,350 back in December – so I was a bit wary of doing so again.
But as I solved this, I couldn’t see anything particularly connected or thematic, although it was a pleasant and challenging solve. My solving notes have an exclamation mark against 4D, with M1 masquerading as MI in Roman numerals… 9D gave an unpleasant read as spilled chemicals caused dermatitis, and the first three clues were ellipses-d together, weaving a convoluted story! EUPHRASY was a new word to me, as was ‘eye-bright’.
Having completed the puzzle and written up the parsing, my mind turned to possible Ninas. The theme in 10,350 was ‘British bands with hits in the late ’60s’ – fairly specialised! I could see ‘ONE-STEP’ so maybe we have a bit of late 70s/early 80s Madness? Several names/places/products – GATSBY, NEWTON, MOWGLI, RITALIN, PICASSO, YARMOUTH, ASUNCION – but again no obvious links?…
And then, luckily, a little possible PDM – working up from the GREAT Gatsby, I could see Great + Expectations, Yarmouth, Pretender, Grand-Mothers, Divide…(and Great – or Gran – Asuncion – see comment #3 below.)
So, ‘Thanks’ to Dalibor for a pleasant morning diversion… My starter for 10 is that we have a lot of GREAT-ness in the answers…I’m sure I may have missed something even more clever though?
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | YARMOUTH | Young person carrying weapon in town … (8) | town / Y_OUTH (young person) around (carrying) ARM (weapon) |
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| 5A | DIVIDE | … unfortunately died after accepting sex part … (6) | part / DI_DE (anag, i.e. unfortunately, of DIED) around (accepting) VI (Roman numeral for six, or sex, in Latin) |
|
| 10A | PICASSO | … in film [therefore, like an artist] (7) | artist / PIC (picture, film) + AS (conjunction – therefore) + SO (likewise) |
|
| 11A | ONE-STEP | Dance record by Rolling Stones not special (3-4) | dance / ONE-ST (anag, i.e. Rolling!, of STONE( |
|
| 12A | ELITE | Cream tea essentially low in calories (5) | cream / E (middle letter, or essence, of tEa) + LITE (simplification of light, low in calories) |
|
| 13A | SPILLOVER | Unexpected consequence of backing those kissing boyfriend? (9) | unexpected consequence / SPIL (lips, i.e. those kissing, backing) + LOVER (boyfriend) |
|
| 14A | GRANDMOTHERS | King George et al protecting male family members (12) | family members / GR (George Rex) + AND _OTHERS (et al), around (protecting) M (male) |
|
| 18A | EXPECTATIONS | Copland’s first piano sextet: amazing, something to look forward to (12) | something to look forward to / anag, i.e. amazing, of C (Copland’s first letter) + PIANO SEXTET |
|
| 21A | PRETENDER | Peter Andre’s not a false claimant (9) | false claimant / anag, i.e. false, of PETER ( |
|
| 23A | DRONE | Richard Wagner ultimately a person creating a buzz (5) | person (or insect?) creating a buzz / DR (ultimate letters of richarD wagneR) + ONE (a) |
|
| 24A | RITALIN | Right to join one perhaps from Rome rejecting a drug (7) | drug / R (right) + ITALI( |
|
| 25A | THOUGHT | In difficult time husband will be believed (7) | believed / T_OUGH (difficult) around H (husband), plus T (time) |
|
| 26A | GATSBY | Fictional millionaire just about manages with small change (6) | fictional millionaire (The Great…) / G( |
|
| 27A | ASUNCION | Fashion icon pursuing a star’s capital (8) | capital / A + SUN (star) + CION (anag, i.e. fashion, of ICON) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | YAPPED | Unknown actor Johnny, acting up, kept on talking (6) | kept on talking / Y (unknown) + APPED (DEPP, actor Johnny, plus A – acting – all up) |
|
| 2D | RECOIL | Shy away from greasy stuff found under playground (6) | shy away from / REC (recreation ground, playground) + OIL (greasy stuff) |
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| 3D | OBSTETRIC | Bert and I struggling with cost of child birth (9) | of child birth / anag, i.e. struggling, of BERT + I + COST |
|
| 4D | THOUSAND AND ONE | Datsun? No, Honda crashed at southern end of the M1 (8,3,3) | M1 (MI in Roman numerals!) / THOUSAND AND ON (anag, i.e. crashed, of DATSUN NO HONDA) + E (last letter, or southern end of a down entry, of thE) |
|
| 6D | IDEAL | Perfect outcome of 25+50 (5) | perfect / IDEA (25A – thought) + L (Roman numeral, 50) |
|
| 7D | INTO VIEW | I won’t panic about contest that’s imminent (4,4) | imminent / INTO _W (anag, i.e. panic, of I WONT) around VIE (contest) |
|
| 8D | EUPHRASY | Those in Brussels using a lot of words to describe ‘eyebright’ (8) | eyebright / EU (those in Brussels!) + PHRASY (using a lot of words) |
|
| 9D | SODIUM NITRATES | Chemicals spread on us: dermatitis (6,8) | chemicals / anag, i.e. spread, of ON US DERMATITIS |
|
| 15D | TONED DOWN | Initially tricky clue, the 15th here, without definition originally, gets moderated (5,4) | moderated / T (initial letter of Tricky) + ONE_ DOWN (1D – the fifteenth clue of this puzzle!) around D (original letter of Definition) |
|
| 16D | LEAPFROG | Parking on meadow with rear of car covered in mist is child’s play (8) | child’s play / LEA (meadow) + P (parking) + F_OG (mist) around (covering) R (rear letter of caR) |
|
| 17D | APPESTAT | Part of brain disease rarely concealed by a stroke (8) | part of brain / A + P_AT (stroke) around (concealing) PEST (obsolete for plague, or disease) |
|
| 19D | MOWGLI | Second wife left in private for Kipling’s protagonist (6) | Kipling’s protagonist (from The Jungle Book) / MO (moment, a second) + W (wife) + G_I (GI, American soldier, or private) around L (left) |
|
| 20D | NEWTON | Possibly not a brilliant scientist? (6) | (definitely!) a brilliant scientist / ‘not’ could possibly be indicated, cryptically, as ‘NEW’ TON (&lit-ish?) |
|
| 22D | EX-LIB | Book review discarding book containing unknown bookplate (2,3) | bookplate / E_ L( |
|
Great stuff as usual from Dalibor. Well done in spotting the theme – I missed it.
Mostly easy for a Dalibor apart from EUPHRASY, SPILLOVER & APPESTAT. I admit I used a word fit on the latter. I looked up “eyebright” to get the former.
According to Chambers (and the blog), 22d should be hyphenated for the “bookplate” meaning.
Thanks to Dalibor and mc_rapper67.
I missed on APPESTAT and EUPHRASY, but picked up the Great theme, so some compensation. As you say though, there may be more to it. I liked NEWTON, no matter how strongly I may disagree with the surface and the idea of ‘Richard Wagner’ as a DRONE.
Thanks to Dalibor and mc_rapper67.
Thanks Mc-rapper67 and Dalibor.
Apparently the metropolitan area of the Paraguayan capital is Gran/Great Asuncion (it has its own Wikipedia page). I also had to look up eyebright and use a word search for the brain part.
i also had to check APPESTAT and EUPHRASY, but I did get there from the wordplay.
I enjoyed all the numerical clues, very refreshing, and the Peter Andre clue, very nice. And many others!
Didn’t see the theme though EXPECTATIONS kept nagging.
Many thanks Dalibor and mc_rapper
Superb puzzle. I did it with others on Zoom, might well have given up on my own, but thought it was beautifully crafted. Thanks to Dalibor and mc_rapper.
Many thanks to those who commented and, in particular, to mc_rapper67 for the spot on blog.
Yes, Hovis, EX LIB (as a noun) should have been hyphenated .
Unfortunately, I ignored eimi’s advice but as the SOED does not use a hyphen, well, let’s call it a draw.
On another matter, did anyone notice the striking, almost spooky resemblance between 30ac in my previous crossword and 15ac in last Friday’s Chifonie (The Guardian)?
We too had to use a wordfinder for APPESTAT (which then gave us GATSBY) and google ‘eyebright’ for EUPHRASY, but otherwise it was quite straightforward. We thought SODIUM NITRATES (plural) was a bit odd as sodium is strictly monovalent – the chemist in one of us speaking – so there can be only one sodium nitrate. However, there is a hydrated form as well as anhydrous, so we’ll let it pass.
Favourite, though, was SPILLOVER.
Thanks, Dalibor and mc_rapper67.
Dalibor @6. I must admit I didn’t spot those nigh identical clues for ENHANCE. Let’s give Chifonie the benefit of doubt and say it was indeed a spooky coincidence.
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – especially Dalibor for popping in.
Looks like a pretty well-received puzzle – and educational for most, with EUPHRASY and APPESTAT!
DuncT at #3 – thanks for the geography lesson – good research, and another one to add to the theme-ette…
Eccles at #5 – I haven’t heard of ‘Zoom-solving’ before! I guess it is a natural Covid-19 adaptation of the more traditional Saturday-afternoon-pub-solving that many solvers enjoy. (Personally, I prefer to solve alone, but maybe I am just anti-social!)