A little literary knowledge needed for this one, but otherwise reasonably straightforward, and with the usual great style that we know from this setter. Thanks to Picaroon.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | LAY GREAT STORE BY | Value from Top Shop in roadside area (3,5,5,2) GREAT (top) STORE (shop) in LAY-BY. The retail chain, which is now in administration, started life as in the clue, but soon became branded as Topshop |
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| 9 | COLD WAR | Global struggle: virus from the east not treated (4,3) COLD (virus) + RAW (not treated) reversed, i.e. “from the east” |
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| 10 | POLYGON | Figure almost left behind old college (7) POLY (polytechnic) + GON[e] |
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| 11 | SOL | Classical star‘s note to introduce Mahler’s Fourth (3) SO (musical note, the fifth of the scale) + the fourth letter of mahLer. “Classical” because SOL is the Latin name of the Sun |
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| 12 | YELLOW PAGES | Directory of wannabe knights scared to fight? (6,5) Pages in Ye Olden Dayes might have been “wannabe knights”, and yellow = cowardly |
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| 13 | INGESTIBLE | Falafel bits, eg nice round sandwiches fit to eat (10) Hidden in reverse of falafEL BITS EG NIce |
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| 15 | IDEA | Thought Picaroon gives people a hand, briefly (4) I (Picaroon referring to himself) + DEA[L] (to give a hand of cards) |
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| 18 | HOSE | Losing heart, one’s ridden the tube (4) HORSE (one that’s ridden) less its middle letter |
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| 20 | CRUSTACEAN | Cracking nut, a scarce thing with a shell? (10) (NUT A SCARCE)* |
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| 23 | ARRIVEDERCI | Made it with rice cooked for so long (11) ARRIVED (made it) + RICE* |
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| 25 | BOT | Hum opening of television program (3) BO (Body Odour; hum = bad smell) + T[elevision]; short for “robot”, a type of computer program |
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| 26 | ANTENNA | Old Indian copper seizing figure’s sensitive appendage (7) TEN (figure) in ANNA (Indian coin) |
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| 27 | SHEARER | One wool-gathering artist reversed gauzy clothes (7) Reverse of RA (artist) “clothed by” SHEER (gauzy) |
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| 28 | I AM FORTUNE’S FOOL | I favour sweet, absorbing songs making lover’s lament (1,2,8,4) TUNES in I AM FOR (I favour) FOOL (type of pudding, sweet). This is a line said by Romeo when he has just killed Tybalt |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | LOCKSMITH | Bit of a shock, economist’s solution to key problem (9) LOCK (hair – part of a shock) + [Adam] SMITH |
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| 2 | YULE LOG | Winter food that’s supposed to be burnt? (4,3) Double definition – a yule log is either an actual log to put on a fire, or a type of cake |
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| 3 | ROWDYISM | My word! One’s performing wild antics (8) Anagram of MY WORD + I S |
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| 4 | AURAL | For listeners, Francesco the poet’s beloved, moving line (5) LAURA (subject of poems by Francesco Petrarch), with the L (line) moved down – I needed some online help to confirm this |
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| 5 | SOPHOCLES | Having shot hoops, see the French playmaker (9) HOOPS* + C (see) + LES (French “the”) |
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| 6 | OXLIPS | Love kiss with these? They may be in bed (6) O (love) + X (kiss) + LIPS (which are used to kiss); oxlips may be in a flowerbed |
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| 7 | ENGAGED | Desperate need to consume crack, heading for altar (7) GAG (joke, crack) in NEED* |
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| 8 | YONKS | Americans releasing article about old age (5) O in YANKS less A; YONKS = a long time, an age – “I haven’t seen you for yonks” |
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| 14 | IRRADIANT | Brilliant raid with train that’s in motion (9) (RAID TRAIN)* |
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| 16 | AU NATUREL | Naked relative admitting a rule’s broken (2,7) A in AUNT* + RULE* |
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| 17 | WARINESS | Tablet’s taken out of fatigue, showing caution (8) WEARINESS less E (Ecstasy tablet) |
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| 19 | STRATUM | Problem eating pastry up in a layer (7) Reverse of TART in SUM (problem) |
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| 21 | EMBARGO | Ban poetic entreaty to hold me back (7) Reverse of O GRAB ME (maybe a poet’s way of saying “hold me”) |
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| 22 | EVEN SO | Maybe two, four, six and zero still (4,2) EVENS (2, 4 and 6 are even numbers) + O (zero – which also happens to be even) |
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| 23 | AMATI | Rug with top-class exterior is an expensive fiddle (5) MAT in A1 |
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| 24 | RISEN | Increased amount of liquor is enjoyed (5) Hidden in liquoR IS ENjoyed |
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Didn’t know the chain of shops, just went with the synonyms, whereas poly the tech is familiar. Yellow Pages themselves are receding into Ye Olden Days now. I thought arrivederci with very first glance at ‘so long’, and yet it was loi…just how it went. Oxlips have been popping up all over lately. Never come across the ir in front of radiant before.. irradiate, yes. An old friend, great cellist, had an Amati [getting an Op 69 earworm… Rostropovich and Richter..should dig out the vinyl]. So, a very pleasant hour’s cogitative potter, thanks Picaroon and Andrew.
Both classy and classic from Picaroon this morning. Another great example of the ‘it doesn’t have to be fiendish to be fun’ adage.
A few cracking anagrams – CRUSTACEAN, ROWDYISM, IRRADIANT, I liked the half anagram/half assemblies in ARRIVEDERCI and SOPHOCLES, both YELLOW PAGES and AU NATUREL raised smiles with their surfaces. We’ve now had about as many appearances of OXSLIPs as there are actual flowers! And isn’t INGESTIBLE cunningly hidden!
I did need a bit of help from Andrew in parsing EMBARGO – I simply didn’t see the reverse there – and I did mislead myself for a while with GULF WAR instead of COLD WAR with the first word containing FLU backwards. Finally, the construction of ANTENNA prompts one of my occasional shout outs to Anna to rejoin us – she popped out of purdah briefly in GD so we know she still follows the blog to some extent.
Thanks Picaroon and Andrew
I enjoyed this one, though I had a few problems…
9a ‘from the east’ baffled me – I’ve seen this trick used before, but I’m out of practice
4d didn’t get this at all, thanks for the explanation!
24d totally failed to see how this one worked, now kicking myself
21d made me smile, as did 12a
10a missed the opportunity for a dead parrot gag
As PostMark @2 says, classy stuff. I had unparsed YANKS rather than YONKS, and couldn’t parse EMBARGO (thanks Andrew). Much to enjoy as ever from Picaroon.
Smugly thought I’d completed until I read the blog. I thought Yanks was a bit obvious but didn’t take the thought any further. A good challenge this morning. Thank you Picaroon and Andrew.
Thank you Picaroon and Andrew.
Definite question mark against EMBARGO. Think of something a poet might say and reverse it? If it came from a line that can be referenced ( like I AM FORTUNE’S FOOL in Romeo and Juliet), it would surely be more acceptable.
Picaroon just continues to delight. I enjoy the wit as much as the challenge.
Hither, PAGE, and stand by me,
If thou know’st it, telling –
Yonder tradesman, who is he?
And what on earth’s he selling?
Favourite today: O GRAB ME from behind.
False friend of the day: AU NATUREL (you can keep your clothes on for a photo au naturel in France).
Earworm for the day (in addition to ginf’s): Everybody’s somebody’s fool.
Excellent stuff as always, thanks P & A
dantheman @6: I get the impression that almost any phrase that begins with ‘O’ might get attributed to poets! Perhaps apart from “O Levels were replaced by GCSE’s in 1988”.
@PostMark Ha! Very good.
Thanks Picaroon and Andrew
Of all clues, I failed to parse HOSE! I didn’t recognise the quote along the bottom, but was able to put it together from the wordplay. Favourite was the well-hidden INGESTIBLE.
Out of curiosity how many OXLIPS have we had in last month or so? Seems to be at least 3 maybe 4 recently. I think it is just too amenable to nice puzzling for setters to avoid
Wow – a very quick solve for me today and only needed on-line help with one clue. Very much on Picaroon’s wavelength today which I attribute the the flock of pigeons wearing hob-nailed boots at 4am having breakfast and singing about it…
An awful lot of this was a write-in for me today helped by immediatetly spotting the top and bottom long ones. Loved 23a…
[Whilst 26a is obviously the insect feeler type, I’ve often mused as to why in British English general usage is of ‘aerial’ rather than ‘antenna’ in the technical sense – as a radio amateur, I never use the word ‘aerial’ because it just isn’t understood outside the UK. I can’t really find anything definite about this – there is some talk of ‘aerial’ being the parts of an antenna but those I know as ‘elements’ – so whilst slightly OT, if anyone does know how BritEng came to use ‘aerial’ I would be very interested.]
Thank you to Picaroon and Andrew!
[essexboy @8: ‘I’m so content to review you because actually we are very retarded!’ (Charles Douglas Billet)]
[MB @14: Mercy! 😉 ]
Thanks for the blog. Needed it for HOSE – couldn’t see the parsing for that, doh. Enjoyed the puzzle.
In my vernacular I would use “SET great store by”, not “LAY”, but went with the parsing anyway.
[Maiden@13 – it’s always been a TV “aerial” here in the vernacular – just means something up in the air, on the roof, I guess. Antenna is a bit more technical]
[A dialect story. A friend had moved to Bristol, and was unhappy with his TV reception. He went into a TV shop to ask for help. He was told “it’s your aerial”. “Yes”, he said”, that’s why I want you to do something about it”. “No”, said the man “not the aerial on your roof; it’s the areal you live in.”]
PostMark’s comments @2, sums this up nicely for me. Needed Andrew’s parsing of AURAL although the answer was obvious with crossers. Definitely got easier after I twigged 1a. I think we had POLYGON recently as well
Ta Picaroon & Andrew
Must be getting better (or Picaroon getting more accessible)- managed to complete this.
Not sure about SOL which suggests insertion of an L rather than sticking it at the end.
‘Oh grab me’ hardly poetic – or even ‘hold me’ IMO.
I’m with George Clements @7.
Many thanks, Picaroon and Andrew.
Agree with most of the above. I found it easier than most from this setter. I parsed the poetic entreaty in EMBARGO as simply “O”, plus GRAB ME as a prosaic synonym for “hold me”. Some might argue that “to” then becomes redundant, but I don’t mind it as a link word. I was vaguely aware of Petrarch, but didn’t know his first name so had no hope of parsing AURAL, though that was clearly the answer.
Thanks Picaroon and Andrew
Good high-quality fun from Picaroon as standard. INGESTIBLE was a brave bit of work, but ARRIVEDERCI and EMBARGO were my favourites today.
Thanks Andrew.
I’m another who was on Picaroon’s wavelength today. The well hidden INGESTIBLE has been mentioned – and I’m intrigued to know what goes through the setter’s mind to see INGESTIBLE in the grid fill and think “I can make a reversed hidden word out of that!”
The wannabe knights were my favourite clue along with the amusing old chestnut POLYGON and the so long definition. I needed Andrew’s blog to understand the parsing for AURAL and EMBARGO – thanks to him and Picaroon.
Did you read my mind, Drofle@4? I had exactly the same issues with 8d YANKS/YONKS (and I see JerryG@5 also didn’t go that further step either), and 21d EMBARGO (and I tend to agree re the latter being not very poetic, but no matter – and I did like the visual image you painted regarding this wordplay, essexboy@8, which made me smile).
Overall, I thought this puzzle was great fun despite the DNF with YONKS. Echoing PostMark@2, I really enjoyed 12a YELLOW PAGES. Also had ticks for 27a SHEARER and 28a I AM FORTUNE’S FOOL. I am just making a big wok full of fried rice with ginger and green peas – a short cook, in this case, in between typing this – so ARRIVEDERCI (23a)! Thanks very much to Picaroon and Andrew.
Crossed with a comments 20-23 as I was watching the wok!
A couple of moan, I’m afraid.
8d – surely ‘yonks’ won’t do for ‘age’, however pretty a clue it gives. ‘I’ve not seen her for yonks’ would nicely accommodate ‘ages’ or ‘an age’, but I can’t think of any use of ‘yonks’ for which simply ‘age’ could be substituted. It looks as though ‘age’ needs one of several sorts of addition (article or qualifier, for instance) before it can mean ‘a long time’, which is all that ‘yonks’ ever seems to mean.
3d – I suppose my instinct is that an anagram should mix up only letters that you can see. I’ve always been a bit unhappy about ‘1’ or ‘one’ being construed as ‘i’, and then used as ‘i’ in an anagram. This technique has a logic comparable to giving word A in the anagram bit of a clue, and constructing the anagram using a word B which has the same meaning as the word A – this would make crosswords quite a lot harder.
(Quite separately and irrelevantly, and using cumbersome language in order to be font-neutral, I find it odd that:
(a) ‘one’ is used to indicate the the ninth letter of the alphabet, because in many fonts the corresponding numeral is identical, or nearly so, to upper-case version of the letter, but
(b) I’ve never seen it used to indicate the twelfth letter of the alphabet, even though it bears a similar relation to the lower-case version of this letter.
Ho-hum – I guess I’m lucky to have such things to worry about.)
This will be quick as my wok is going too. Really chuffed to finish a Picaroon. But failed to parse HOSE but feel in very good company there. Thanks P and A.
Enjoyable puzzle with a good variety of clues and some excellent surfaces – special mention for LOCKSMITH and ARRIVEDERCI (as an Italophile I was delighted to find this, together with Petrarch’s innamorata and the Cremonese liutaio). On first reading of 5dn I started a frantic mental search for French playwrights, until I re-read the clue…
One quibble: for me, COLD isn’t a synonym for ‘virus’, despite the obvious connection (you wouldn’t clue ‘bubonic plague’ as ‘bacterium’, would you?).
As many have already commented, we have seen a lot of OXLIPS recently – but it is the season when Primula elatior is in flower.
Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.
[There are a lot of (wo)men at wok down under.]
Great fun though a near disaster when I took flu as the virus to give gulf war 🙁
Nothing constructive or pithy to add, just thought I’d record that I thoroughly enjoyed this. Many thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.
This slipped in satisfyingly, though had rather rushed in the incorrect Digestible and Gulf War and therefore needed the LOCKSMITH to sort things out for me to let me into the NW corner. Another thoroughly enjoyable Picaroon puzzle. Gave a totally wooden performance as Orestes in SOPHOCLES’ Electra when at College. Realising early on that treading the boards was never going to be my thing…
Another unparsed Yanks here, did not go the necessary step further, so a DNF. EMBARGO’s parsing also seems to have eluded a few of us. And I too would Set rather than LAY GREAT STORE. A lotof fun though and an increase in my GK re Petrarch and where that quotation came from. Thanks to P and A.
I was another who lazily wrote YANKS in so the right answer makes the puzzle even better and I had already rated it AAA-in my defence I was maybe too dazzled by the brilliance of all the clues.
Thanks Pic and Andrew
Most delightful. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.
At first I thought tulips were more likely inhabitants of a bed than the wild OXLIPS, but alas, they don’t parse. We’ve had enough oxlips lately to make quite a sizeable bed.
Several times the parsing arrived at a word that looked plausible and then turned out to exist (ROWDYISM, IRRADIANT, INGESTIBLE). Very clever hiding of the last one, in a crossword full of good things and fun.
Didn’t know Petrarch’s first name but solved 4d anyway, thinking I would find enlightenment here. Thanks to Andrew for that, and thanks to Picaroon for using ‘for listeners’ in a non-homophonic sense.
Pedro@19. In 11a ‘introduce’ works for me, with SO acting as an overture for L, rather than an insertion indicator.
I would also “SET great store by”, like Andy Smith @16 and ngaiolaurenson @33, which held me up a long time for 1a (even though I had the lay-by). Most of the rest went in reasonably well. I almost fell for the YANKS, but thought a little longer. Lots to enjoy, as others have said, so I won’t repeat. Thanks, Picaroon and Andrew.
Lots of false starts for me today. YANKS, like many others, GULF WAR, a careless DIGESTIBLE, which led me to consider LANDSLIDE for 1d. I think Petrarch might have been fairer than Francesco, but perhaps that’s just because I spent too long thinking of painters and trying to make Angel work as some kind of very poor homophone of angle, a very poor definition of a moving line.
Thanks to Andrew to explaining it all for me and to Picaroon for a (finally) very entertaining puzzle.
Biffed in EMBARGO, could make no sense of the wordplay. Now I see why — thanks, Andrew for that and AURAL.
Enjoyed it all, what everybody said. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.
Chambers has: ‘set or lay (great) store by‘, and it’s in Collins, so no great issue there.
I liked the aforementioned, ARRIVEDERCI and INGESTIBLE (very well hidden). Presumably, the ‘kiss’ in 6D is doing double-duty, as otherwise it would seem to give OLIPS.
Good puzzle, although I did lack some of the literary knowledge.
Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.
Robert @26
The letter “I” is definitely 1 in Roman numerals though. Your mention of j though made me think of the square root of minus 1 as used by engineers. It could well be used in a crossword clue where ii (or jj) indicates “minus one”.
Jargon question. Is a “write-in” to you:
A. An answer you get right away on reading the clue standalone, or
B. An answer you get right away on reading the clue, helped by whatever crossers are already in the grid?
I’ve seen it used both ways, but they are rather different. Tx.
Dr. Whatson@44 I would imagine A, but write-ins are for me one of those many things I read about but I am not sure I have ever experienced. I have also seen it used with respect to an entire crossword.
DrW @44: As I see it, a write-in means the clue or puzzle was over all too quickly, without enough brain-stretching. But if I had to choose I’d go for A.
JinA @24: Unfortunately mind-reading isn’t a skill I possess! I bunged in YONKS without too much thought, but agree with Robert @26 that ‘age’ and ‘yonks’ don’t seem to be interchangeable in any sentence, so I think we have a bit of a let-out there.
Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew. Needed the blog to understand 18a HOSE, and a web search (DuckDuckGo) to get 4d LAURA.
As an aside, is it now standard practice to use text speech without qualification as in 5d SOPHOCLES (see = c)? Not a whinge, just a question for future reference, as for example I’ve never seen ‘aint’ used for ‘isn’t’ without qualification. So presumably BE = B, YOU = U, WHY = Y are all fair game? What about other abbreviations: ‘in my opinion’ = ‘imo’; ‘laugh’ = ‘lol’ etc?
Thanks both,
Dr. Whatson 44: I too have pondered what people mean by a write-in. Strictly, I would interpret it to mean that the solver completed each clue in order without benefit of crossers for the across clues but perhaps allowing help from crossers in down clues. In practice I think many people just mean they were able to write in the answers without pause.
Favourites: LOCKSMITH, AURAL, SOPHOCLES.
Did not parse HOSE.
Robi @42: I took ‘with these’ as the indicator for LIPS. One of those tricky ones where the two words in isolation don’t give LIPS but the x/kiss that preceded them gives them meaning. I am positive that will not satisfy purists but I was very willing to see the intention and cut Picaroon some slack. Maybe akin to the situation where a clue might refer to the answer of a previous clue, often using ellipses?
By coincidence I’ve just come back from a walk which included a wood that’s famous for its Oxlips.
Robert @ 26: Is i for 1 done for appearance, or is it done because i = one as in oneself?
Matematico @ 47: “See” is the dictionary spelling of the letter C.
Dr. WhatsOn @ 44: I’d go with A. However I did have one Rufus puzzle that I consider a write-in, where I went through the clues in order, and solved them all first time. I would definitely have used the crossers for the down clues I suspect.
Lovely crossword.
Dr. WhatsOn @44: For me, A – as an example, the second I looked at 1a this morning I knew what it was. But obviously if I have any crossers that helps…
Failed to parse 4D and couldn’t have told you the source for 24A, but once the crossers were in the solutions dropped into place easily enough. Very entertaining crossword in which, strangely, I raced through the bottom half having drawn a blank on the top half, then, coming back to it ten minutes later, wondered why the top had given me so much trouble on first reading. Thanks, as always, to setter and blogger.
Matematico @47: I don’t know if this is widely accepted practice, but I’ve come across it once or twice lately and it jars somewhat. I am, however, of an age at which I didn’t immediately identify it as “text-speak”. If that’s what it is, I imagine we’re stuck with it.
Thanks Andrew, I tied myself in knots over EMBARGO with the BAR from “ban” and then “poetic entreaty to hold” as some sort of envelope involving ME reversed, until I just banged it in on definition and crossers and came here for your clear explanation.
Robert@26 while I enjoyed the clue I do agree with your reservation over “YONKS” not strictly replacing age in the absence of an article. Am I being fussy in minding that raid and train ARE in motion rather than the singular that seems to be implied by the clue for IRRADIANT?
[essexboy@29 very good and thanks for your supplementary research yesterday!]
DrWhatsOn@44: A: to count as a write-in for me, there should be no need to look at the grid to see what crossers may be there.
Another enjoyable one and my favourite and LOI BOT, took far too long to realise why program had been spelt that way! Thanks Picaroon.
WhiteKing @23 – I didn’t realise POLY + GON(E) was worthy of an old chestnut. Now, if jokes had been made about a dead parrot, then I would most certainly concur.
Dr WhatsOn @44: apologies, I didn’t reply to your query earlier. with regard to individual clues (I’ve only had the very occasional write-in of a full grid), I’m firmly in the A camp though, like MB, I welcome the subsequent encounter with expected crossers: plenty of my ‘write ins’ have turned out to be wrong-un’s!
I find I react with one of two emotions – at opposite ends of the scale. Sometimes delight: I’m on the setter’s wavelength, there’s a theme I’ve actually identified, the anagram fodder just swims into place before my eyes, the planets align. Other times, disappointment, a “Really?” or a “Surely not”, and those are the puzzles that elicit complaints of undue ease.
There’s a third situation that’s linked, I believe. When the crossers already apparent suggest a solution and then the first glance at the clue – sometimes even the initial word – lead to confirmation and the write in. If I see Q-E-N, I’m pretty confident it’s going to be QUEEN. (I’ve never seen QUERN clued). Sometimes longer solutions can be even more apparent from their crossers.
MarkN @52 – talking of dictionaries, you’ve reminded me of the brilliant Samuel Johnson episode of Blackadder, in which Baldrick defines C as ‘big blue wobbly thing’.
widdersbel@59 but C is orange, synaesthetically speaking.
[Dr. WhatsOn @60: just as a matter of interest, what is Wednesday or June?]
Thanks to MarkN @52 and BigNorm @55. I suppose puzzles would get predictable pretty quickly if no new idiom were ever introduced.
MB@61 grayish-green and a vitreous red-brown respectively, but YMMV.
Overall meaing gave me AURAL but had no idea of parsing.
Other way round with BOT as the overall meaning was totally lost on me. Had no idea Robot was shortened to Bot. Must be a generation thing.
Thanks so much to both – a real uplifter (after some shallows (but that just shows how spoiled I am.)). This was a treat.
I seem to be the only one who adduced Petrarch’s lover Carlo in support of “carol” (something for listeners)(I know but why not? – another day would have been fine).
Robert@26: I don’t think i=1 is the thin edge of quite the same elephant. I agree that clues involving A=fnB where fn is cryptically defined can be too tedious but (imho) anagram-ing is ok and accessible. I held forth (but finished down the field) with brevity (as much as wit) (so not much) about this on yestreen’s 15^2 blog (75 et seq).
Gervase@28: I’ve caught a cold/I’ve caught a virus?
Thanks Picaroon and Andrew. Greatly enjoyed especially embargo……I wish I were more often
[MaidenBartok @13. As another radio amateur, I try and use aerial when talking to other Brits. On CW I would use ANT – Phil GM3ZZA]
Good fun. Favourite = the historic directory.
I didn’t know the quote in 28a so I guessed DOLL for the last word (‘sweet’).
A comment for Andrew: in 16d, AUNT is not an anagram.
Thanks to Andrew and Picaroon.
The fifth note of the scale isn’t “so”, it’s “sol”. Do re mi fa sol la ti do. I do wish crossword setters would abandon this particular sol-ecism. 😉
[ ginf@1, there was a symmetry to this comments section with your cello sonata and the placing of Chris Baum’s final comment. I have spoiled that, so now you’ll have to add a ghostly piano trio to your earworm. ]
[PhilInLivi @67: G4ULF and AF6WW but not that active and very rusty CW…]
Chris Baum @69 – I think you can blame Oscar Hammerstein for that one (“a needle pulling thread”)