Phi is a rather prolific setter here, about 4 puzzles a year of late – many more in other outlets.
Preamble: The two unclued entries are to be unjumbled to form thematic entries, while retaining real words in the grid. Nine clues each contain a misprint of one letter in the definition part; correct letters give a further thematic word. 6 down has three clues to words (presented in alphabetical order) forming the grid entry’s components but solvers must add a bar reducing this to two. The amendments to the grid entries and the word given by misprints will make it clear which option is required.
Made a suspiciously good start with this, about half the clues solved on the first run-through, more in the upper half than in the lower, and including one of the ones for 6d (THY – see later). Does this mean that things will get tricky later, maybe with a lengthy endgame?
Many of the answers that had eluded me first time around became apparent now that I had some intersecting letters to go on, and so fairly soon it was quite clear that the two unclued entries weren’t words. But the one on the right looked like it could be unscrambled to DOCTOR and this coupled with sorting out the remaining answers for 6d (HEAL and SELF) gave the theme away.
Corrections to misprints were thus far consistent with PHYSICIAN, and this proved to be the case. Most of the remaining rather stubborn clues yielded, especially when I’d corrected those with misprints. However, I couldn’t find the misprinted A for quite a while: at last I figured out the wordplay for 29d BURR, which had a misprinted N … and I’d located that in 24d OINKED by correcting “shout” to snout when it should have been corrected to shoat.
Unscrambled the unclued entry on the left to give MEDICO and the grid is complete. I still had the wordplay for 16d ALTO to resolve, and before wasting huge amounts of time I decided to ‘phone a friend’: “house” refers to bingo which leads to LOTTO or the rare form LOTO.
THY at 6d is a possessive adjective which doesn’t feel as if it matches the case in the clue, “you” being a subject or object pronoun. And 11a is 2 words.
Thanks Phi – moderately entertaining, and certainly not as difficult as your usual offering here.
| No. | Clue ✓[✗] | ✓ | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Daggers distress when carried by detective (5) | DIRKS | IRK (distress) in DS (detective) | |
| 5 | Swindler concealing silver bullion initially in tree (8) | SHAGBARK | SHARK (swindler) aroung AG (silver) B(ullion) | |
| 11 | Rocks do for American eights? (8, 2 words) | ICE CUBES | ICE (do for, kill, US) CUBES (eights?) | |
| 12 | Essentially missing power in language (4) | ERSE | PER SE (essentially) ¬ P(ower) | |
| 13 | Element of sp[o]ur dispute with American railroad (5) | P | ROWEL | ROW (dispute) EL (railroad, US) |
| 14 | Place with advantage for hostage, formerly (6) | PLEDGE | PL(ace) EDGE (advantage) | |
| 15 | Yes, no European will be morose (5) | SURLY | SURELY (yes) ¬ E(uropean) | |
| 17 | Former leader satisfied about image team? (5) | MPRET | MET (satisfied) around PR (image team?) | |
| 19 | Most of rig in picture is ready for h[w]earing (7) | H | TRIABLE | RI(g) in TABLE (picture) |
| 25 | Great activity surrounding line found between rings in study of mountain (7) | OROLOGY | ORGY (great activity) around L(ine) between OO (rings) | |
| 27 | Charged particle not identified with introduction of electric current (5) | ANION | ANON (not identified) around I (electric current) | |
| 30 | By[e] assisted mostly, after son comes in (5) | Y | ASIDE | AIDE(d) (assisted) around S(on) |
| 33 | Threat to fish’s annual return I handle after setback (6) | ARGULI | AR (annual return) I LUG (handle) both< | |
| 34 | Chipmunk dismissing hard exotic tree (5) | ACKEE | HACKEE (chipmunk) ¬ H(ard) | |
| 35 | Unionist restrained by my scowl (4) | LOUR | U(nionist) in LOR (my) | |
| 36 | Those once checking material in North America, probing suspected spy after his escapes (8) | ALNAGERS | NA (North America) in ALGER HISS (suspected spy) ¬ HIS | |
| 37 | Women holding key Islamic leadership roles (8) | SHEREEFS | SHES (women) around REEF (key) | |
| 38 | Boy and girl love ultimately to spoon (5) | LADLE | LAD (boy) (gir)L (lov)E | |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Jinn turned up, being ready for Asian country (5) | DIRAM | MARID< (jinn) | |
| 2 | Military leader puncturing popular hero (4) | ICON | CO (military leader) in IN (popular) | |
| 3 | Measure of radiation formerly capturing conflict’s heat again (6) | REWARM | REM (measure of radiation formerly) around WAR (conflict) | |
| 4 | Africans leaving zone sent up by these South-East Asians (4) | SULU | ZULUS (Africans) ¬ Z(one) rev. | |
| 5 | Cops[t] in Rome is upset, punched with force of an American? (6) | S | SBIRRI | IS< around BIRR (force, US) |
| 6 | Local cover, mostly partial around middle of field | HEAL | HAL(f) (partial) around (fi)E(ld) | |
| 6 | Uniform? Pipes up, dismissing uniform | SELF | FLUES< (pipes) ¬ U(niform) | |
| 6 | Section of repentant hymn for you in church (11 in total) | THY | (repentan)T HY(mn) | |
| 7 | French presumption having English abandoning reserve (6) | GALLIC | GALL (presumption) ICE (reserve ) ¬ E(nglish) | |
| 8 | Gri[a]pe pollinator beginning to fly (4) | I | BEEF | BEE (pollinator) F(ly) |
| 9 | Stock market operator accepting of French grain measure (5) | ARDEB | ARB (stock market operator) around DE (of, Fr) | |
| 10 | C[T]ried to retain cut and edited end (6) | C | KEENED | KEE(p) (retain) [END]* |
| 15 | Bli[a]nd sediment rising (4) | I | SEEL | LEES< (sediment) |
| 16 | A rare house to ignore a debut of opera singer (4) | ALTO | A LOTO (house, rare) ¬ O(pera) | |
| 18 | Left bearing a tune for the pipes (4) | PORT | triple definition | |
| 20 | League abandoned by sole remarkable person (4, 2 words) | A ONE | ALONE (sole) ¬ L(eague) | |
| 21 | Necks hosting artist’s necklace (6) | CORALS | COLS (necks) around RA (artist) | |
| 22 | Endless ruin given situation producing litter (6) | DOOLIE | DOO(m) (ruin) LIE (situation) | |
| 23 | Government brought in controls or rules (6) | REIGNS | G(overnment) in REINS (controls) | |
| 24 | Nothing put in writing perhaps sounded like a shoa[u]t (6) | A | OINKED | O (nothing) INKED (put in writing) |
| 26 | Falling stakes once seeing off leader in place of death (5) | ORGUE | (m)ORGUE (place of death) | |
| 28 | Observed rising temperature, ultimately a sign of cold? (5) | NEESE | SEEN< (observed) (temperatur)E | |
| 29 | Removed blan[c]k bishop? Sound content with removal of pawn (4) | N | BURR | B(ishop) PURR (sound content) ¬ P(awn) |
| 31 | Pulse that’s raised when dashing fellow embraces one (4) | DAAL | LAD (dashing fellow) around A (one) all rev. | |
| 32 | Fly woman’s attached to line (4) | HERL | HER (woman’s) L(ine) | |
Yes, lots of fun, and nothing too difficult. I couldn’t find the last A in PHYSICIAN, and also failed to parse ALTO, but the rest went in with little ado, surprisingly so for Phi.
Yet another interesting design, using some ideas we have seen before but in a new way for a new theme. After failing to solve any of the first few clues I decided to target the triplet of clues at 6 down. I solved the second and third of these, giving me SELF and THY, suggesting ‘thyself’, for which the only context that came to mind was ‘physician, heal thyself’. And when I got the P, S and (second) I of PHYSICIAN from the special clues, I was certain I was on the right path.
COME?I was enough to suggest MEDICO, and R?O??? was then enough, in the circumstances, to suggest DOCTOR, which helped with some crossing words.
The ‘A’ of PHYSICIAN was hard to find. Like you, HG, I thought ‘shout’ had to become ‘snout’, yielding an incorrect letter, but a friend kindly pointed out to me that ‘shoat’ is a word (meaning a pig). And ALTO was also my last one to parse, using the unfamiliar ‘loto’.
I collected the misprinted letters (OWETATAUC), thinking they were going to be significant, but it was clear that it was again PHYSICIAN that would count in the last instruction. I duly made the central column read HEAL THYSELF and not HEALTHY SELF.
Not for the first time in recent puzzles, I have to express admiration for the way that so many new words (12) could be formed by thematic changes in such a compact grid.
Thanks to Phi and HolyGhost.
I found this quite difficult, and didn’t get to grips with it until after finishing 1689 on Saturday morning. I then spent quite a few hours over two days puzzling over the obscure clues. I was totally unaware of Alger Hiss (in 36A), but was able eventually to reverse engineer the misprints after finding HEAL THYSELF. An excellent test. Thanks for puzzle and blog.
Different folks, different routes. I was beginning to see ‘physician’, and had ‘thy’ but not the other two; the required phrase just popped into my head one night when trying to get to sleep. Next day things fell into place. I share Alan B’s admiration for the creation of six new words. I’d also never noticed that Heal Thyself could easily be Healthy Self.
Many thanks to Phi and HolyGhost.
Reasonably straightforward grid fill for an IQ-and I guess there was a sort of Luke vibe (wasnt he a physician?) so who better to blog than HG
And thanks Phi
HG
I share your doubt about 6a (part 3). ‘you’ would lead to ‘thou’ or ‘thee’, whereas ‘for you’ would lead (possibly) to ‘thine’. THY would seem to require ‘your’.
Most of the above pretty well matches my experience. The theme became apparent after a fairly skeletal solving – something I knew without having to look anything up, which was a pleasant change. (Well, almost – I did have to search to find Algers Hiss).
Thanks to Phi for a gentler solve than his usual IQ and, of course, to HG.
There’s a setter’s blog here: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/inquisitor-1688-targeted-treatment/
“Here is thy breakfast” or “Here is breakfast for you”?
But it’s breakfast time here just now…
Phi
Thanks for the link, and for the other point you made, responding in effect to a point made @6.
If word order doesn’t matter, then, since ‘This is my book’ and ‘This book is mine’ mean the same, we can say that MY = MINE.
HG @ 10: I’m not sure that “MY=MINE” is a good counter-example. Chambers has under mine: “(adjectivally, esp before a vowel or h, or after its noun) my (archaic and poetic).” I agree with your argument, though.