It hardly seems like yesterday (Oct 2018 actually) that the Indy was tipping over the 10,000 mark, and here are at just under 10,500…tempus fugit. A quick start, slow middle and chewy end from Monk today, at least from your blogger’s perspective…
I made fairly quick progress around the middle third (working down), but then took a while on ZERMATT, CAKE HOLE and QUEEN BEE, and eventually got stuck at the end with FAJITA/PATINA.
Some lovely clues – the PS AND QS to ‘mind’ at 21D, CAKE HOLE at 8A, and ZER(O)+MATT at 4D all have little nods of appreciation in my solving notes – and the topless twirlers in their underwear at 23D raised an eyebrow!
In the end I was stuck with ?A?I?A at 1D – the definition of ‘dish’ could have been PATINA (an actual dish) or FAJITA (a food ‘dish’), but I couldn’t parse either satisfactorily for ages. LOI by a mile!
In the end it was nearly a pangram – just a V and an X short? – and I couldn’t see any obvious theme-ette or Nina in clues, answers or diagonals/unches…but it doesn’t take much subtlety for me to miss a Nina!
Thanks to Monk for a pleasant solve, and I hope all is clear below.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 8A | CAKE HOLE | Mouth about type of surgery that’s not unknown (4,4) | mouth / CA (circa, about) + KE( |
|
| 9A | RADIO | Perhaps set back by rheumatoid arthritis to an extent (5) | perhaps set / hidden word, i.e. ‘to an extent’ and ‘back’, in ‘rheumatOID ARthritis’ |
|
| 10A | WIRE | Cable in Wiltshire, stripped of core (4) | cable / WI( |
|
| 11A | DIMENSION | Size of papers backing remark in report (9) | size / DI (I.D., or papers, backing) + MENSION (homophone, i.e. in report – sounds like MENTION, or remark) |
|
| 12A | PARDON | Excuse signal — charge to be overturned (6) | excuse / NOD (signal) + RAP (charge sheet), all overturned = PARDON! |
|
| 13A | TELEGRAM | Closure of mainline journey section in public transport message (8) | message / T_RAM (public transport), around E (last letter, or closure, of mainlinE) + LEG (journey section) |
|
| 15A | SPIDERY | Straggling agent hiding international article in Berlin (7) | straggling / SP_Y (agent) around (holding) I (international) + DER (‘the’ in German, i.e. in Berlin) |
|
| 18A | PUDDING | Dullard in squat almost stifling noise (7) | dullard / PUD_G( |
|
| 22A | WIRELESS | Lacking connection, wife apparently in a good mood (8) | lacking connection / W (wife) + IRELESS (if your wife has no anger, or ire, she might be ire-less, or in a good mood!) |
|
| 25A | BOWLER | Sportsman left in enclosure (6) | sportsman / BOW_ER (enclosure) around L (left) |
|
| 27A | RED PLANET | Mars case for enrolment on left-wing scheme (3,6) | Mars / RED (left-wing) + PLAN (scheme) + ET (outer letters, or case, of EnrolmenT) |
|
| 28A | WHAT | How, perhaps, 25 put on weight (4) | how / W (weight) + HAT (perhaps 25A, ‘bowler’ can be a type of hat) |
|
| 29A | SWEET | Gentle 9 or 22 hosting you patronisingly (5) | gentle / S_ET (9A radio or 22A wireless are both examples of set) around WE (you, patronisingly, especially when used in talking to children) |
|
| 30A | QUEEN BEE | Company woman who governs, inter alia, social workers (5,3) | &lit-ish? / BEE (company or gathering of people for a particular purpose) + QUEEN (woman who governs), inter alia = swapped around, to give ‘QUEEN BEE’ – who could be described as a ‘company’, or swarm, woman who governs worker bees, among others… |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | FAJITA | Dish made in France — half of it put in container, but not all (6) | dish / FA_IT (made, in French) intermangled with J_A( |
|
| 2D | BEHEADED | Polled live, as many a footballer will have done? (8) | polled / BE (live) + HEADED (as many a footballer will have done) |
|
| 3D | LONDONER | Capital chap, a fellow in solitary? (8) | Capital chap / LON_ER (a solitary type) around DON (academic, fellow) |
|
| 4D | ZERMATT | Almost nothing dull in this resort (7) | (Swiss ski) resort / ZER( |
|
| 5D | BRUNEL | Character once left after British engineer (6) | engineer / B (British) + RUNE (character) + L (left) |
|
| 6D | EDGING | Moving towards border (6) | double defn. / to EDGE can be to move towards something; and EDGING can be a border |
|
| 7D | FOUNTAIN | Fan out when dancing in spring (8) | spring / FOUNTA (anag, i.e. dancing, of FAN OUT) + IN |
|
| 14D | END | Death of Venus and Adonis, originally when 2? (3) | death / the second letters of ‘vEnus aNd aDonis’ (or original/first letters after they have been 2D – beheaded!) |
|
| 16D | PRIMROSE | A girl having the edge in writing? (8) | a girl / P_ROSE (writing) around RIM (edge) |
|
| 17D | EEL | The Elusive Pimpernel, ultimately a slippery sort (3) | slippery sort / ultimate letters of ‘thE elusivE pimperneL’ |
|
| 19D | UNBATHED | Tanned 2 in need of a wash (8) | in need of a wash / ( |
|
| 20D | DOWNWIND | After switching components, stop working where gas flows? (8) | where gas flows / WIND DOWN (stop working) switching components round = DOWNWIND |
|
| 21D | PS AND QS | Appendix with questions bring something to mind? (2,3,2) | something to mind? / PS (post script, appendix) + AND (with) + QS (q – question, plural) |
|
| 23D | EDDIES | They twirl in topless underwear (6) | they twirl / ( |
|
| 24D | EOLITH | Old stone hotel, one needing renovation (6) | old stone / anag, i.e. needing renovation, of HOTEL + I (one) |
|
| 26D | ENAMEL | Call into East London, primarily for some hard stuff (6) | some hard stuff / E (east) + L (London, primarily) around NAME (call) |
|
I struggled to parse quite a few and needed McRapper’s explanations. I got Fajita fairly quickly, though my dictionary only has it in the plural. At 3D, the indefinite article seems superfluous and misleads into thinking there must be an ‘a’ in there somewhere. Ps and Qs was my favourite, when it eventually clicked. Excellent puzzle, so thanks Monk and McRapper.
And then I saw: PUDDING/SWEET, PARDON/WHAT, RADIO/WIRELESS, WIRE/TELEGRAM. Any more? Or is this coincidence?
An excellently tricky crossword – and one where I spotted the connections just like Sil @2 Quite a strange grid pattern too
Thanks very much to Monk and to McRapper
All in and parsed, though hardly in super quick time and missed the ‘pairings’ theme. Lots to enjoy, including the misdirection of FAJITA, PUDDING for ‘Dullard’ and my last in, that good old-fashioned word CAKE HOLE.
Thanks to Monk and mc_rapper67
Not as impenetrable as some Monk puzzles can be, thanks to several easy clues such as 9ac (our first one in) and 5dn. We guessed FAJITA from crossing letters but only parsed it at the very end. TELEGRAM, though was a bit of a write-in as it occurred with a very similar clue on Thursday in the i reprint of an earlier Monk puzzle. QUEEN BEE was our guess for 30ac but had to wait till we got 21dn as we couldn’t think of a two-letter word beginning with Q. Some parsings, such as 1dn and 14dn seemed tricky at the time but look quite obvious now.
Thanks, Monk and mc_rapper67
Particularly liked ZERMATT, BRUNEL, PUDDING. On the other hand gave up on 8A/1D. Couldn’t agree with allan_c that FAJITA looks quite obvious afterwards. Although rarely seen in print, I would not consider CAKEHOLE to be two words.
Does anyone have a different parsing for 30A – inter alia certainly doesn’t mean “swapped around”.
Thanks to Monk and mc_rapper 67.
I think there must be a different parsing for 30 across too, gwep. The best I can do is that one of the Chambers definitions of QUEEN BEE is a woman in an important business position. I think the clue is a kind of &lit double definition which could refer to either people working in a business company or a company of bees. But reading this again I realise I’m probably quite wrong…
Found this a bit on the tough side and I needed to cheat at the end. A couple of word searches and I was left with just 29ac. I could see SWEET fitted, but I couldn’t see why. Used the check button to confirm and then came here to find out why. Thanks for that.
Thanks for the various comments/feedback – apologies for the lack of response from me, but I have been out jet-washing my father-in-law’s patio all day…
Well done to those who spotted a theme-ette in the various pairings…
And I agree my parsing of 30A isn’t wonderful – I hadn’t spotted the definition of QUEEN BEE in a business sense – which leans towards it being an &lit-ish double-definition as cruciverbophile suggests!
Tatrasman at #1 – you have a point re. the possibly superfluous ‘a’ in 3D. It doesn’t get involved with the wordplay, but I guess it helps with the surface read… By coincidence, my family I will be having a ‘dish’ of chicken fajitas tonight, but I guess I can only fit one FAJITA in my CAKE HOLE at a time!
gwep at #6 – Chambers has CAKE HOLE as two words, although I am sure they are often conflated into one in many usages… My favourite use is in the Monty Python ‘North Minehead By-Election‘ sketch, where former senior Nazis are holed up in a West Country B&B planning to invade Bideford. ‘Mr Hilter’ tells his fellow guest ‘Ron Vibbentrop’ to ‘Shut your cake-hole, you Nazi!’ (The transcript in the link above has it hyphenated!)
Pretty chuffed to get close to three-quarters in without cheats, and only miss three parsings – 18a, 7d and 1d. I too went with a businesswoman definition for 30a, so a bit surprised to see it wasn’t originally meant, but it works fine. Then having a two letter Word beginning with Q was the key to unlocking 21d for me.
Thanks to Monk & McRapper
And I spotted the synonym theme too, although with WIRE and WIRELESS I set off more down those lines early on.
Late to comment as ever but:
Shouldn’t 21D read BRINGS rather than BRING {otherwise the bring has grammatically to be read with the something to mind part and makes no sense}?
I parsed 1D as FA= made in France half of, + IT in JA (most of jar).
We missed the mini-theme. Another late commenter as we only finished the puzzle today after a late start yesterday.
We were a bit puzzled about QUEEN BEE and came up with both interpretations.
Good to see that El Gwero is still enjoying the daily challenge!
Thanks to Monk and mc_rapper67. We’ve often wondered about the 67!
redddevil at #12 – I struggled with the ‘half of it’ – does this indicate an I or a T, or is the ‘it’ referring back to something earlier…half of FAIT is IT anyway!…gaaaahhhhh…as long as we all got there in the end. As for PS AND QS, I saw the ‘bring’ as referring in plural to the two things, ‘Ps’ and ‘Qs’, which together ‘bring’ ‘something to mind’.
Bertandjoyce at #13 – better late than never… the 67 is very simple – think England’s only football World Cup win, then add about 9 months!…