Atrica, as usual, has produced a tricky but enjoyable challenge.
I particularly liked the cleverly misleading 23a, the wry political comment of 5d, and the typically English understatement of the definition in 6d.
It’s Tuesday so we need to look for a theme: it seems to be collective nouns for animals, or generally words for a quantity / collection of something. This is a debatable area because many “collective nouns” don’t seem to be used at all except in discussions of collective nouns – or in crosswords, of course. Have you ever heard anyone talk seriously about a charm of finches, for example? But looking through a well-known online reference site to get collective nouns for animals, I found the following:
- a CLAN of hyenas
- a PARLIAMENT of owls (regularly seen in crosswords)
- a CHARM of finches
- a BAND of hares, or of various types of primates
- a LEAP of leopards or jaguars
- an EXALTATION of larks
- a SWARM of insects
- a MURDER of crows (another crossword favourite)
- a TRIBE of antelopes, chimpanzees or goats
- a POD of whales, dolphins or porpoises
We also have HAND (a bunch of bananas), COMPANY (soldiers or actors), PEAL (bells), OODLES and A LOAD OF (pretty much anything). There may be others, but that’s enough for now. Thanks to Atrica for the entertainment.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | CHARM | Church member, for a spell (5) |
| CH (abbreviation for church) + ARM (member = limb). Charm = magic spell. |
||
| 9 | LINEAGE | Riotous glee in a family (7) |
| Anagram (riotous) of GLEE IN A. | ||
| 10 | BAND | Party‘s broadcast censored (4) |
| Homophone (broadcast) of BANNED (censored). Party = band = small group of people, especially soldiers, as in “advance party”. |
||
| 11 | MONTH | May perhaps squirm on the inside (5) |
| Hidden answer (inside) in [squir]M ON TH[e]. | ||
| 12 | LEAP | Occasionally overlooked illegal parking in spring (4) |
| Alternate letters (occasionally overlooked) in [i]L[l]E[g]A[l], then P (symbol for parking area). Spring = leap = jump. |
||
| 13 | DELETE | Key of D sounding top-class (6) |
| D + homophone (sounding) of ELITE (top-class). As always, homophones may not work for everyone but this one is close enough for me. Key on a computer keyboard. |
||
| 15 | COMPANY | Cast‘s concern (7) |
| Double definition: cast = actors in a play = company, or concern = business organisation = company. | ||
| 16 | ASIA | Part of Georgia is actually to the west of here (4) |
| Hidden answer (part of), reversed (to the west = reading right to left) in [georgi]A IS A[ctually]. Georgia (the country, not the US state) is on the western edge of Asia. |
||
| 18 | SWARM | Group is finally close to a discovery (5) |
| Last letter (finally) of [i]S, then WARM (close to a discovery: “you’re getting warm” may be said as encouragement in a guessing game). Swarm = insects or other animals acting as a group rather than as individuals. |
||
| 20 | EWER | Vessel I’m not sure we included (4) |
| ER (expression of hesitation = I’m not sure), with WE included. A large jug for water. |
||
| 21 | NATIONS | India dividing NATO partners Greece and Turkey? (7) |
| I (abbreviation for India) inserted into (dividing) NATO, then N + S (partners in a game of bridge). Definition by examples, indicated by the question mark. |
||
| 23 | RATIOS | Recall evening in Paris, eating at ten to seven, or 8:30? (6) |
| SOIR (French for evening, so “evening in Paris”), reversed (recall), containing (eating) AT. Another definition by examples: you need to read the first one as 10:7, which like 8:30 is the ratio of two numbers. (The latter would usually be expressed as 4:15, but that doesn’t work so well for the surface.) |
||
| 25 | SUIT | Case of diamonds, say (4) |
| Double definition: suit = case in a law court, or one of the four suits in a pack of cards. | ||
| 26 | TRIBE | After hearing shot, beat the first two in race (5) |
| Homophone (hearing) of TRY (shot = an attempt), then the first two letters of BE[at]. Race = tribe = ethnic group. |
||
| 28 | PODS | Urges Republican to be refused cases (4) |
| P[r]ODS (urges, as a verb = prompts / encourages), without the R (Republican). Pods, in a plant = seed cases. |
||
| 29 | A LOAD OF | A stupid old oaf delivers this much codswallop (1,4,2) |
| A + an anagram (stupid) of OLD OAF. The phrase doesn’t really make sense by itself, but I suppose Atrica is suggesting that “codswallop” (rubbish) is often referred to in the phrase “a load of codswallop” (rather than, say, a ton of, a bucket of, or any other specific quantity). And it seems to fit this puzzle’s theme of names for quantities of various things. Incidentally, the word “codswallop” seems to be fairly recent (post-WW2) and there’s no convincing explanation for its origin. |
||
| 30 | SLATE | Rubbish head of state and others from the Right (5) |
| First letter of S[late], then ET AL (Latin-derived abbreviation for “and others”) reversed (from the right = reading right to left). Rubbish, as a verb = slate = disparage or criticise harshly. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | OCTAVE | Overact manically: spectator finally bailing in interval (6) |
| Anagram (manically) of OVE[r]ACT, dropping the R which is the final letter of [spectato]R. “Bail” for “bail out” (make one’s escape) will probably annoy language purists, but it seems to be common usage now. Interval as in music: the difference in pitch between two notes. |
||
| 2 | HAND | Give applause (4) |
| Double definition: hand, as a verb = give, as in “hand over”, or applause as in “let’s give a big hand to . . . “. | ||
| 3 | CLAN | Family in Copenhagen on vacation touring city (4) |
| C[openhage]N (on vacation = emptied = middle letters removed), around (touring) LA (the city of Los Angeles). | ||
| 4 | ANTHEM | And cut those people rendering “God Save the Queen”, perhaps (6) |
| AN[d] (cut = last letter removed) + THEM (those people). | ||
| 5 | PARLIAMENT | A plan with merit? Not usually in this chamber (10) |
| Anagram (not usually = unusually) of A PLAN + MERIT. Chamber = one of the two houses (Lords and Commons) within Parliament. |
||
| 6 | TERABYTE | Quite a few bits and pieces of battery storing energy (8) |
| Anagram (pieces of) BATTERY, containing (storing) E (energy). Quantity of data in computer systems: a terabyte is 1012 bytes, or 8 x 1012 bits. That is indeed quite a lot of bits. |
||
| 8 | MEMBERS | Representatives in places about to be eliminated (7) |
| [re]MEMBERS (place, as a verb = remember, as in “I can’t quite place it”), eliminating RE (about = on the subject of). Short for Members of Parliament = representatives of their local constituencies. |
||
| 14 | EXALTATION | Joy at Texan oil production (10) |
| Anagram (production) of AT TEXAN OIL. Exaltation = “being lifted up” by success or by joy. |
||
| 15 | CLASS | Form of halogen as source of salt (5) |
| CL (Cl = chemical symbol for chlorine, which is a halogen) + AS + first letter (source) of S[alt]. Halogen does indeed mean “source of salt”, more or less, but you don’t need to know that to solve the clue. Form = class = group of schoolchildren taught together. |
||
| 17 | SINGULAR | Odd fish perhaps not sharks (8) |
| FISH is perhaps singular (it can be either singular or plural), but SHARKS isn’t (it can only be plural). The other (rarer) meaning of “singular” is “odd” in the sense of strange: “a singular lack of ambition” means that someone is surprisingly unambitious. |
||
| 19 | MURDERS | A missing eardrum, curiously, signified the first crimes (7) |
| Anagram (curiously) of E[a]RDRUM with the A missing, then the first letter of S[ignified]. | ||
| 22 | OCTADS | Wild coast hiding first sign of danger for boat crews? (6) |
| Anagram (wild) of COAST, containing (hiding) the first letter of D[anger]. Octad = a set of eight items, for example eight rowers in a racing boat. |
||
| 24 | OODLES | Lots of dogs pee in the auditorium unobserved (6) |
| [p]OODLES (a breed of dogs), without the letter P (pronounced, or “in the auditorium”, pee). Oodles = slang for an unspecified large number or quantity: “they’ve got oodles of money”. |
||
| 27 | IFFY | Provided Force with unknown suspect (4) |
| IF (provided = on the condition that) + F (symbol for force) + Y (mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity). Iffy (adjective) = suspect = dubious or not quite right. Coincidentally, “suspect” was used with much the same meaning in yesterday’s puzzle, but for a different word; it’s a nice change to see it as something other than an anagram indicator. |
||
| 28 | PEAL | Ring friend about Emilia’s debut (4) |
| PAL (friend) around the initial letter (debut) of E[milia]. Peal = ring = the sound of bells. |
||
I will confess to writing up this post in Word as the Indy blog isn’t up yet and I have to begin my day and won’t have time to type all this in later in the day. I might risk some repetition of our blogger’s contribution as a result but I hope fellow posters understand.
What a collection of solutions! A masterful incorporation of a theme. I wouldn’t normally list them all but, it’s such a clever achievement, it seemed justifiable. I’ve only listed one MEMBER per instance; some can be applied to multiple objects.
CHARM – finches
BAND – musicians amongst others
MONTH – Sundays!
LEAP – hares
COMPANY – players
SWARM – bees
NATION – people
SUIT – cards
TRIBE – monkeys
POD – dolphins
SLATE – candidates
OCTAVE – notes
HAND – bananas
CLAN – Scots
PARLIAMENT – owls
TERABYTE – data
EXALTATION – larks
CLASS – students amongst others
MURDER – crows
OCTAD – anything in an 8
OODLES – anything, just about
PEAL – bells
There’s also A LOAD OF, LINEAGE might be argued as a collection of ancestors (though that’s IFFY – perhaps I should DELETE) and, finally, to counteract all the above, there’s SINGULAR. Very clever. I think that I’ve referred to every answer bar ASIA, RATIOS, EWER and ANTHEM which really should be a collective noun for something but, sadly, isn’t.
Thanks Atrica and Quirister
I started off like a train but slowed to a crawl lower down. I couldn’t parse ‘Singular’ beyond meaning ‘odd’ but understand after coming here. I saw the theme and suggest that ‘Asia’ (a collection countries?) could be added to Postmark’s comprehensive list. Very enjoyable, so thanks Atrica and Quirister.
Thanks to Quirister and PostMark for the details on the theme. Have to shamefacedly admit I didn’t spot it.
On 29a, I have heard people say simply “A load of” with a word at the end implied (and ruder than codswallop, I would say).
I felt “in the auditorium” in 24a was a bit superfluous (since P is spelled “pee”) but adds to the surface so I’m not complaining.
Thanks also to Atrica for a well-written themed crossword.
Does anyone else complete the Indy crossword via the arkadium puzzle website? If so, can you make sense of the scoring? This puzzle got a score of 1350 which is as low as it gets for an Indy puzzle. I would say this was a medium difficulty puzzle which usually would score at least 1550. I don’t suppose it matters; just a bit of a mystery!
Hovis @3: I share your experience of the use of 29a and had the same query-ette about the P in 24a but agree the surface is amusing and justifies what some may see as padding!
I also wanted to thank you for your delightful riposte – or should that be ripiste – in the recent Nimrod thread which I saw too late to respond to! We should be careful that the pundemic that is rife on the Guardian page doesn’t mutate into an Indy strain!
Hovis @3, PostMark @5: I thought I remembered a similar use of “a load of” but wasn’t sure if I was making it up. Apparently not – thanks.
as Tatrasman@2.. meteoric start down to damp squib… nice theme.. i do love a good charrm of finches… but nothing beats an exaltation of larks
thanks Quirister n Atrica
Fantastic execution of the theme – thanks to Atrica for the entertainment, and thanks also to Quirister for blogging. We had entered TRIBE unparsed, so needed the blog to explain that.
Favourite clue here was the unthemed RATIOS – very clever!
undrell @7: I felt my first post was already a lengthy enough imposition without mentioning favourites but I just glanced in and saw your post. Have to agree with your liking for exaltation which I have always loved. You only have to hear a couple singing to understand the choice of word. I don’t know why but I have also had a longstanding fondness – and once was able to witness – a fall of woodcock.
Highly enjoyable with plenty of challenging clues and a good theme that revealed itself as the answers gradually went in. My pick for today was my last in SINGULAR which topped off a very satisfying and hard-earned solve.
Thanks to Atrica and Quirister
Johnnybgoode @4: yes i do it on the arkadium thingy and the scoring is indeed a mystery. All attempts to understand it have been eluded apart from you get highest points for doing it at midnight but for the most part it seems meaningless.
Johnnybgoode@4: daft though it seems, the scoring is simply 10 points given for each square with a letter in it, so the more blanks in the puzzle the lower the possible score.
So am i the only one who got led astray by the 1st letters of the 1st 6 down clues spellling ‘OH CAPT’?
I was fully expecting the Walt Whitman quotation to continue so was quite taken aback when LEAP destroyed it.
Really enjoyed this with 34 and 24 my personal favourites.
Thanks to S&B
redddevil @13: the phrase, “captain, my captain” – without the initial O – is a source of huge frustration to me! As an enjoyer of prog rock, I knew the phrase appeared in the lyrics of a song – and nothing at all to do with Walt Whitman. Not remembering the name of the band, I tried to search Google and everything, just everything led to the Whitman poem. If it’s of any interest at all, the band is Pendragon, the song If I Were The Wind and it sounds like this.
Many thanks to everyone who commented. Believe it or not, a group of boars can be called a “singular”. I wonder why?
Atrica, thanks for dropping in. A singular of boars? That’s got to be the oddest of a very odd lot. A weirdness of collective nouns, perhaps?
Binsie @ 12
Thank-you for that. Now I also understand the deduction from scores if you use some of the possible “cheats” – subtract 10 for every letter wrong or revealed. Simple really, but no relationship to difficulty of the puzzle, so the “play more to improve your score” line doesn’t really work?
Some of the nouns listed can be made more specific to a single species, rather than just general use.
So company is the collective noun for wigeon, clan for hyenas etc
All very fun by setter.
Johnnybgoode@4: even dafter, if you complete a higher scoring puzzle from another day you go to the top of the “league” table.