The puzzle is available here.
Hi all. Tees is reliably entertaining, and so it was no surprise to me that I was entertained today. I particularly liked 16a (TABOO) for its surface and the 14a EMPRESS. Other highlights are available. Thanks Tees!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. Link words are generally omitted for clarity.
Across
9a Who, ditching wife, dated girl — one’s ashamed to hear it (4,5)
HOME TRUTH
[w]HO with the removal of (ditching) W (wife) + MET (dated) + RUTH (girl)
10a Mineral with yellow colour taken after sickness (5)
FLUOR
OR (yellow colour, heraldry) following (taken after) FLU (sickness)
11a Not totally great beginning to Olympic movement (5)
LARGO
Most of (not totally) LARGe (great) + the first letter of (beginning to) Olympic
12a See 25 Down
13a Brave man to vex six-footer (7)
GALLANT
GALL (to vex) + ANT (six-footer)
14a Siren never has time for leading lady (7)
EMPRESS
[t]EMP[t]RESS (siren) has both its Ts removed (never has time)
16a Not on bill: two rounds (5)
TABOO
TAB (bill) + O & O (two rounds)
18a Keep working steadily in place with yard (3)
PLY
PL (place) + Y (yard)
19a The Spanish sovereign defeated contender (5)
LOSER
LOS (the, Spanish) + ER (sovereign)
21a Tactless remark about Irish beast (7)
GIRAFFE
GAFFE (tactless remark) around (about) IR (Irish)
22a Ring for captain to supply troop with weapons? (7)
ARMBAND
To ARM BAND could mean to supply troop with weapons
24a Beat back workers in sober performance (9)
ENACTMENT
CANE (beat) reversed (back) + MEN (workers) in TT (teetotal: sober)
26a Axe discovered in extremely spiritual wood (5)
SLASH
Outer letters of (extremely) SpirituaL + ASH (wood)
27a Genre making comeback in some terrific stories (3-2)
SCI-FI
The answer is reversed (making comeback) in part of (in some) terrIFIC Stories
28a Confession being task of Christian era? (9)
ADMISSION
An AD MISSION might be a quest or task of the Christian era
Down
1d See 25
2d Old woman upset over exam lacking principles (6)
AMORAL
MA (old woman) reversed (upset) goes before (over, in a down entry) ORAL (exam)
3d Way horse eats good with bad meat in this dish (10)
STROGANOFF
ST (way) + ROAN (horse) contains (eats) G (good) + OFF (bad)
4d Pound fare for travellers here? (6)
BUFFET
Two definitions, two different pronunciations of the answer
5d Court risk associated with railway (8)
CHANCERY
CHANCE (risk) next to (associated with) RY (railway)
6d Mercian king to hold out for hearing (4)
OFFA
A homophone of (… for hearing) OFFER (to hold out)
7d Simply lock for solid support (8)
BUTTRESS
BUT (simply) + TRESS (lock)
8d Flower pot almost useless (6)
CROCUS
CROCk (pot) without the last letter (almost) + US (u/s: unserviceable, useless)
15d Edited parchment, most faded: wicked things therein (10)
PALIMPSEST
PALEST (most faded) with IMPS (wicked things) inside (therein)
17d Repeatedly counter one cold and brutal (8)
BARBARIC
BAR + BAR (… repeatedly counter) + I (one) + C (cold)
18d Design surrounding emblem is oddly vulgar (8)
PLEBEIAN
PLAN (design) surrounding EmBlEm Is, odd letters (oddly)
20d Complex read to include feature in Mao’s domain (3,5)
RED CHINA
An anagram of (complex) READ around (to include) CHIN (feature)
21d Rock enjoyable on the radio (6)
GNEISS
Homophone of (… on the radio) NICE (enjoyable)
22d Gold cask for beer contains malt initially for season (6)
AUTUMN
AU (gold), then TUN (cask for beer) contains the first letter of (… initially) Malt
23d Fuss about an American soldier showing slow movement (6)
ADAGIO
ADO (fuss) around (about) A GI (an American soldier)
25d & 1/12 Dance tour great that draws in underweight people? (4,3,5,9)
TRIP THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
TRIP (tour) and FANTASTIC (great) containing (that draws in) THE LIGHT (underweight people?)
Yesterday, I wondered if I needed to know one of the Furies. Today, it was the Sirens (14a). In the past, I reckon I have met the names of the Furies, Fates & Muses but don’t remember ever seeing names for the Sirens. Fortunately, as yesterday, it wasn’t necessary.
New words today were: FLUOR & PALIMPSEST but both were clued in a way making them gettable from wordplay, so no cheats needed this time.
Favourite today was PLEBEIAN.
TRIP THE LIGHT FANTASTIC shouted out to me from the rhythm. (What a strange phrase: apparently it comes from John Milton’s poem ‘L’Allegro’, which includes the lines ‘Come and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe’. ) After that, the left half fell into place quickly but I came to a grinding but temporary halt in the right half. FLUOR didn’t appear in any of my dictionaries or even online, but it had to be that. Thanks Tees and, as ever, Kitty for the entertaining blog.
When the dance solved quite early on, I wondered if we might be in for a Terry Pratchett theme but it wasn’t to be. Just a nice collection of good clues which is just what I wanted. Hovis is right – PLEBEIAN is very clever. And I had further ticks for GNEISS (which prompted this recollection from The Fast Show), PALIMPSEST, OFFA (which might have been tricky for some non-UK solvers), ADMISSION and HOME TRUTH.
Kitty – I assume the illustration for 14a is a nod to PG Wodehouse? You didn’t provide similar for SLASH: I wondered if Tees was referring to the guitarist from Guns N’Roses or is ‘axe’ being used as a verb?
Thanks Tees and Kitty
Hi PostMark. Yes, the leading lady I wanted to show at 14a was the Empress of Blandings. I searched for ages for a good illustration of that particular sow, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. I spent longer hunting for the perfect pig pic than I did on solving the puzzle!
For 26a, I just took axe/slash as a verb.
Tatrasman@2 – fluor is in Collins as another name for fluorspar and in Chambers as fluorite, both of which are defined in turn as the mineral calcium fluoride. However, I only just discovered this because, as you say, it had to be that. So I uncharacteristically hadn’t actually looked it up when writing the blog.
I did need to turn to the reference books for confirmation of FLUOR and PALIMPSEST, think I’d have ditched the second ‘s’ in the latter if left to my own devices.
Plenty to enjoy here with ‘TRIP THE LIGHT FANTASTIC’ coming out on top for me.
Thanks to Tees and to our favourite feline for the review.
No one else fall into the Procol Harum trap? Skip the light fandango?
I first came across the solution to 15d when I saw the film version of The Name of the Rose, which introduces itself as “a palimpsest of the novel”.
Thanks as ever to Kitty and Tees.
Palimpsest is one of my favourite words ( along with Petrichor) so was chuffed to see it as an answer. PG was my immediate thought on solving Empress. The word is now synonymous in my head with a rather adorable pig. A lovely Sunday solve
Thanks to Kitty and Tees.
I echo ScottieJan’s comment in every respect. I admired the precision of ‘never has time’ in the clue for 14ac. I’ve always loved PALIMPSEST but had to look up petrichor, which I didn’t know, but always wished that there was a word for it, so thanks for that.
“Qu’est ce que le cerveau humain sinon un palimpseste immense et naturel?” Baudelaire. Particularly true of crossword solvers, I feel. Great puzzle, blog and comments,