Independent 10,798 by Alchemi (Saturday Puzzle 22 May 2021)

18 comments on “Independent 10,798 by Alchemi (Saturday Puzzle 22 May 2021)”

1. Oh, there is a theme alright. And it’s all over the crossword – though mightily obscure. The theme is Captain BeefHEART – avant garde US musician admired and supported by icons from the Beatles to Frank Zappa. I may have missed some but we have albums TROUT MASK REPLICA and CLEAR SPOT. We have songs BIG EYED BEANS (from) VENUS, MOONLIGHT (on) VERMONT, VAMPIRE Suite and ASHTRAY HEART. I think that’s it but would be delighted to have others added to the list. Quite an achievement for Alchemi to fit all this in without signalling too obviously that there’s a theme. Chapeau.

   Thanks to both Alchemi and mc_rapper

2. This was very challenging but I enjoyed it a lot.

   EIRENICON was a strange new word for me, and I am not too sure about 15a. The definition “free area” does indeed define the answer “CLEAR SPOT”, but ideally I would have thought that a phrasal answer like this needs to have a specific rather than a general meaning and I can’t find any reference to “clear spot” as an entity.

   I failed to parse 8d, having foolishly convinced myself that the wordplay must be DT around A TASE(R).

   I had a lot of ticks and MARE’S NEST was my favourite.

   Many thanks to Alchemi and to mc_rapper67.

3. PostMark @1 – amazing knowledge right there…

   Enjoyed this, had no idea what a MARES NEST was or EIRENICON

   Thanks mc_rapper67 for explaining how Famous Quintet=TROUT , after the Spice Girls and the initials of the Famous Five , I’d eventually settled on Take That with “rou” somehow in the middle, or that it was the last letter of QuinteT meeting ROUT and there was Famous Trout (maybe a Steam Train to rival the Flying Scotsman??) somewhere – looks like I was trying to hard

   In addition to mc’s choice of clues I liked the BIG EYED clue

   Thanks a lot to Alchemi, mc_rapper67 and PostMark!

4. Thanks all. I realise that the clue for CLEAR SPOT is a bit vague, but as PostMark notes, it’s actually an album title, so it doesn’t have an exact definition one can look up. I really didn’t want to have to make a reference to the theme, because it’s far too obscure for non-lunatics.

   Congratulations to PM for spotting all the references deliberately included. If there are others, they are unconscious.

5. Thanks to Alchemi and mc_rapper 67

   The theme leapt out about halfway through, and was the icing on a very enjoyable cake.

   There is almost a further, presumably unconscious, themer: Trout Mask Replica includes “When Big Joan SET(s) UP”.

6. Alchemi @4: thanks so much for dropping in. Always appreciated. And, again, for the puzzle. No idea how many crosswords you have time to attempt, given your setting duties, and I do appreciate you’ll rapidly gather why I commend this, but Qaos’s G puzzle of 27th January might amuse you.

7. It’s always a pleasure to solve an Alchemi puzzle. I especially enjoyed TOGAS! I saw TROUT MASK(s) REPLICA but that was about as far as I got, theme-wise. I’ve been living in Germany since 2005 and it never ceases to amaze me how often the radio station AntenneBayern used to play Zappa’s Bobby Brown Goes Down – the DJs must have found it highly amusing to get it past the station chief, I guess.
   Many thanks to S&B

8. PostMark @ 4: I spend an hour or so doing the Graun, Indy, FT and i every day, and I like Qaos’s puzzles. I have a feeling that I didn’t spot his theme at the time, which is of course the whole point. As Simon S implies, ghost themes should be icing on cake rather than a way of asserting intellectual snobbery over those who don’t spot it. I was pleased with this gridfill because I didn’t scatter the connected entries all over the place, but managed to put them close enough together to leap out.

9. As is often the way, I can just put ditto to all RD’s comments and it probably won’t surprise our setter to learn that I didn’t have a clue about either the US musician or his recordings.
   Not to worry, I enjoyed the challenge which did take me quite some time!

   Thanks to Alchemi and to MCR for the review.

10. Oh my, oh my. Thanks to PM for pointing me in this direction, to Alchemi for the puzzle, mc_rapper for the blog and the Captain for the listening pleasure.

11. Well done to PostMark for spotting the theme which I would have had no hope of picking up. Good of Alchemi to pop in as well. I felt reassured that even the setter admitted that CLEAR SPOT was a bit vague, as it was the only one that I had a question mark against.

    I had come across EIRENICON before but of course had forgotten it so was happy to see the clear wordplay. The unexpected SEROTONIN for ‘Mood regulator’ and TOPOL were my favourites in a v. enjoyable, not too easy / not too hard Saturday puzzle.

    Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Alchemi

12. EIRENICON was a Jorum for me. I was another who dallied in Enid Blyton territory, before Schubert came to mind. A very pleasant puzzle with nothing to beef about. Thanks to all.

13. Thanks for all the comments/feedback – especially to Alchemi for popping by…
    Seems like a well-received puzzle – although the ‘ghost’ theme was pretty specialised – for aficionados only!

14. Not too taxing, but no write-ins either. We liked SEROTONIN (incidentally it’s also an anagram of ‘ironstone’) and PEPPERONI, but our CoD was EIRENICON.
    Thanks, Alchemi and mc_rapper67.

15. Thanks both. Ironic that the theme, which my utter ignorance of the artist allowed me to miss, is acknowledged by the setter to be obscure, however TROUT quintet (equal ignorance) is labelled as famous

16. Saturday puzzles are a bit pot luck, Some weeks I spend ages and get almost nothing. Other weeks it goes straight in. This was the latter category for me.

    No chance of spotting the theme, but I have an urge to listen to the Trout quintet again.

17. Top drawer puzzle, with EIRENICON, TOGAS, Y-FRONTS and many others cunningly and amusingly clued.

    Didn’t know any of the music except Moonlight In (not On) Vermont, but even failed to spot that one despite them being side by side.

    Thanks to Alchemi and mc_rapper67.

18. gwep @17. The last track on side 1 of Trout Mask Replica has always been “Moonlight On Vermont”. I have never heard of the song you’re talking about.

Comments are closed.