A quick solve today, but an entertaining one. Thank you Julius.
I think Julius is trying to tell us that someone is being dragged kicking and screaming from the White House today…
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DRAGGED |
Was boring rough diamonds at the beginning (7)
|
| RAGGED (rough) follows (with…at the beginning) D (diamonds) – it was a boring event, it dragged | ||
| 5 | KICKING |
Giving up putting the boot in? (7)
|
| double definition – kicking a habit for example | ||
| 9 | FRAIL |
Weak, loud liar going into retirement (5)
|
| F (forte, loud) then LIAR reversed (going into retirement) | ||
| 10 | SCREAMING |
Singing very loud Southern Germanic composition (9)
|
| S (southern) then anagram (composition) of GERMANIC | ||
| 11 | MELODRAMA |
Mother screening terribly drole theatrical performance (9)
|
| MAMA (mother) contains (screening) anagram (terribly) of DROLE | ||
| 12 | OCTET |
G8 company turning offensive (5)
|
| CO (company) reversed (turning) then TET (the Tet offensive in Vietnam) – a group of eight | ||
| 13 | AS MAD AS A HATTER |
Part in operetta has Adam Sandler returning – completely crazy! (2,3,2,1,6)
|
| found inside (part in) opeRETTA HAS ADAM SAndler reversed (returning)- from Alice In Wonderland | ||
| 18 | SURFACE TENSION |
Working on US interfaces, a manifestation of liquid molecular attraction (7,7)
|
| anagram (working) of ON US INTERFACES | ||
| 20 | RADIO |
Back in Soho, I’d arrested part of the media (5)
|
| found reversed (back) inside sohO I’D ARrested | ||
| 22 | WEIGH BEAM |
Regularly Tweeting, the Beeb aims for a bit of scale (5,4)
|
| every other letter (regularly) of tWeEtInG tHe BeEb AiMs | ||
| 24 | IN THE WILD |
New Delhi twin roaming free (2,3,4)
|
| anagram (new) of DELHI TWIN | ||
| 25 | UTTER |
Speak – speak indistinctly – forgetting the introduction (5)
|
| mUTTER (speak indistinctly) missing first letter (the introduction) | ||
| 26 | GOODBYE |
Leaving fair purchase on the 20? (7)
|
| GOOD (fair) then BYE sounds like (on the radio) “buy” (purchase) – goodbye as an act of leaving | ||
| 27 | CHEERIO |
Toast hot Eire product, crust being firm (7)
|
| H (hot) with anagram (product) of EIRE inside (as in a pie, with the crust being…) CO (company, firm) – Good Health! when making a toast | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEFAME |
Run down, fed up, James undressed (6)
|
| FED reversed (up) then jAMEs (undressed, no outer letters) | ||
| 2 | A BAD LOSER |
Crybaby sold flipping drug in a pub (1,3,5)
|
| SOLD reversed (flipping) with E (ecstasy, drug) inside A BAR (pub) | ||
| 3 | GELID |
Frozen eel is served like this, I gather (5)
|
| sounds like (I gather) “jellied” (how eels are served) | ||
| 4 | DISPARAGE |
1 down detective’s fury arresting dad (9)
|
| DI (detective inspector) has RAGE containing (arresting) PA (dad) – definition is defame | ||
| 5 | KARMA |
VP leaving Los Angeles embracing the culmination of her destiny (5)
|
| KAMAla (Kamala Harris, will be VP of US sometime today) missing LA (Los Angeles) contains (embracing) heR (last letter, culmination) | ||
| 6 | CHAROLAIS |
Burn cooking oils coating Australian beef (9)
|
| CHAR (burn) then anagram (cooking) of OILS containing (coating) A (Australian) – a breed of cattle | ||
| 7 | IDIOT |
Starts to introduce Darjeeling infusion, overfilling tea mug (5)
|
| first letters (starts to) of Introduce Darjeeling Infusion Overfilling Tea | ||
| 8 | GAGSTERS |
Mob killing northern comedians (8)
|
| GAnGSTERS (mob) missing (killing) N (northern) | ||
| 14 | AT A LOW EBB |
Rocky Balboa – wet, miserable (2,1,3,3)
|
| anagram (rocky) of BALBOA WET | ||
| 15 | APERIODIC |
Copy Brazilian city detectives, turning up every once in a while (9)
|
| APE (copy) RIO (Brazilian city) then CID (detectives) reversed (turning up) | ||
| 16 | TWO SEATER |
Tow damaged Spanish car, sort of GT? (3,6)
|
| anagram (damaged) of TOW then SEAT (a Spanish car brand) and ER (sort of, a meaningless interjection, a hesitation) – a GT (gran turismo) perhaps | ||
| 17 | USURPING |
Seizing American uniform, infantryman discharged rocket propelled grenade outside (8)
|
| US (American) U (uniform, phonetic alphabet) InfantrymaN (dis-charged, emptied) inside (with…outside) RPG (rocket propelled grenade) | ||
| 19 | EMBRYO |
Upsetting Julius, brother covers up unknown future niece or nephew (6)
|
| ME (Julius) reversed (upsetting) BRO (brother) contains (covers up) Y (an unknown) | ||
| 21 | DITTO |
The same party diktat occasionally creeping in (5)
|
| DO (party) contains (with…creeping in) dIkTaT (every other letter, occasionally) | ||
| 22 | WHITE |
Wife punched European chess player (5)
|
| W (wife) HIT (punched) E (European) – the other player is Black | ||
| 23 | HOUSE |
Hotel on English river to provide accommodation (5)
|
| H (hotel) on OUSE (the River Ouse, in England) |
What an outrageous back inclusion at 13a. Simply superb! The regular letter clue at 22a was another stunner.
Liked the DRAGGED KICKING FRAIL SCREAMING MELODRAMA … UTTER GOODBYE CHEERIO with the AS MAD AS A HATTER references to Trump’s departure.
Hope 19d wasn’t based on a real event.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
Should probably have also mentioned the down solutions, such as A BAD LOSER, IDIOT, WHITE HOUSE etc.
CHAROLAIS was knew to me.
Julius in splendid form once again
Thanks to him and PeeDee
PS – I just noticed that this is my 800th crossword write-up on fifteensquared.net.
I attempt the clues in order and I had the nerve to think 5ac was rather a weak clue, until I entered it – next to 1ac – closely followed by 10ac and then the penny dropped that we were in for some fun.
Like Hovis, I could hardly believe the brilliance of 13 (I always love it when setters use authentic names – cf 5 and 14dn) and 22ac. Too many clever witty clues to highlight them all – but I was tickled by EMBRYO.
Sheer delight from start to finish, with the added enjoyment of going back through the entries to see just how many could be considered part of the theme.
Many thanks to Julius and to PeeDee (with congratulations).
Yes, a quickie but how satisfying! Loved the images evoked by this hilarious grid. The ‘stable genius’ is, of course, 13a and while KICKING may feature in his graceless departure, it could equally serve as powerful description of the new VP!
Favourite surface: 9a, with 2d a runner-up. Aptly enough, when pausing at the French spelling of ‘drole’ in 11a, Collins gives this definition: scoundrel.
All of which enhanced the customary pleasure of completing a Julius grid. I echo the admiration of Hovis and Eileen.
Also liked the wily 6d and the mum/dad intersection in 11a and 4d respectively.
Gleeful thanks to Julius and hats off to PeeDee (800!), who must have enjoyed this as much as the rest of us.
Very bigly tremendous, Julius is an extraordinarily tremendous guy.
But how can you be a bad loser when you are not even a loser.
I did like the long ‘reverse lurker’ in 13a, and ;crust being firm’ in 27a. I failed to spot the Donald references throughout though. Very clever.
Brilliant puzzle today, very topical and fun to unravel. Thank you, Julius and P-D
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. With this setter I expect a big tussle. I did need some help in parsing, but the WHITE HOUSE connections on Inauguration Day along with the various goodbyes were delicious, along with AT A LOW EBB and A BAD LOSER and maybe even SURFACE TENSION and MELODRAMA.. My only negative comment is that this puzzle will not be seen by a US audience. Kudos to Julius.
excellent and great fun, many thanks julius and peedee
Sheffield lad.
My first entry was DRILLED at 1a, but I soon realised it had to be wrong.
I wondered who Adam Sandler was, and was about to look him up when I spotted the outrageous hidden solution. Amazing!
Thanks as always to Julius for a entertaining solve, and congratulations to PeeDee on another impressive milestone.
just… wow!… share all the jawdropping revelation of 13ac… last one in was 12ac as i read it as GB on the small screen … doh!
thanks JULIUS n PeeDee
dear PeeDee…800 crosswords, crikey! Thank you for your blog and thanks to those who have commented. The FT crossword ed wondered if I might cobble something together for Inauguration Day. When I submitted the puzzle, it had an optional rubric which read: 26, 27 to 2, 1a 5a and 10 from the 22 23 but you get the gist.
I’ve set quite a few puzzles – mostly for the Indy – which have had a Trumpian vibe about them and it’s a great feeling to be able to bin the entire concept. Phew!
warmest regards to all, Rob/Julius
Very clever and enjoyable — CHAROLAIS, WEIGH BEAM, and APERIODIC were new to me but the wordplay made them obvious answers. Favourites included OCTET, CHEERIO, GAGSTERS, TWO SEATER, and EMBRYO. As always the surfaces made this a joy. Thanks Julius and congratulations PeeDee.
Well done, Rob. This was really good fun. As others have said, 13a is superb. Thanks to you and PeeDee.
Superb! Loved this, so thanks Julius.
But big congratulations to PeeDee for reaching 800 – marvellous as well. Thanks for all the explanations.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee (well done on the 800 blogs !)
Finished this quite quickly for a puzzle by this setter, but see that I missed some of the proper parsing with the homophonic ‘jellied’, the Spanish car and the I.N. bit of 17d. Finished with a couple of these – TWO-SEATER and WEIGH BEAM (which I didn’t know previously).
A great reversed hidden at 13a and equally good alternate lettered clue at 22a. Cottoned on to the ghost theme about half way through and it brought a wry grin for the rest of the solve.
A quick and enjoyable solve today. We spotted the topical reference in 5dn but didn’t twig the main theme until we came here and saw the completed grid – don’t know why we didn’t spot it at the time of solving. But it was all great stuff and as for the brilliance of 13ac, words fail us! We liked 18ac, too, one of us having been a chemist.
Thanks, Julius and PeeDee.
ACD, I am a US audience of one, and I loved this puzzle!
Really enjoyed this. Thanks for blog, but thanks especially to Julius for a great puzzle to mark the end of a remarkable era.
Thanks to both Julius and PeeDee for a very enjoyable puzzle. And congratulations to PeeDee on the 800th puzzle! Didn’t catch the hilarious and topical theme until reading the blog but nothing to add to everyone else’s comments except to say how much we enjoyed it. We’re in California, so add us to the list of Americans who had the pleasure of doing this puzzle. (I’m a transplanted Brit.)
Sorry I missed this one! With the theme, looking at the solution and comments almost as gratifying as solving would have been. Thanks from over here, Julius and PeeDee. 13a is amazingly clever – might not have gotten it!