Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 22, 2021
I found this a little challenging as Mudds go. My favourite clues are 4ac (SMART BOMB), 9 (CORNICE) and 2 (SCREWDRIVER).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BASIS |
Foundation: that which splits again (5)
|
| AS (that which) in (splits) BIS (again)
After trying many paths to make sense of the wordplay of this clue, I originally concluded that it tells us to find a word that comfortably fits in “a _____ gain”. And I decided that this could work in that “a basis gain” is a term used in financial and taxation matters. It is however far from a common expression. Then, when this blog was published, commenters set me straight. Thank you Bruce, Mystogre and Roz. I actually know the word ‘bis’ very well, but only as the French for ‘encore’. I did not know it was used in English. |
||
| 4 | SMART BOMB |
Guided missile hurt a great deal (5,4)
|
| SMART (hurt) + BOMB (a great deal) | ||
| 9 | CORNICE |
Decorative border: ooh, lovely! (7)
|
| COR (ooh) + NICE (lovely) | ||
| 10 | HOSTESS |
Entertainer delivered tango in stockings and smalls (7)
|
| T (tango) in (in) HOSE (stockings) + S S (smalls) | ||
| 11 | WINDOW SHOPPER |
Person not buying story about suspect is down (6-7)
|
| Anagram (suspect) of IS DOWN in (about) WHOPPER (story) | ||
| 14 | RARE |
Red snapper a restaurateur catches (4)
|
| Hidden word | ||
| 15 | BLOCKHEAD |
Awful tackling rugby player, that man Charlie (9)
|
| LOCK (rugby player) + HE (that man) together in (tackling) BAD (awful)
For the benefit of Americans and possibly others, I note that ‘a Charlie’ is British slang for a foolish person. |
||
| 18 | DIVERGENT |
Aquanaut: bloke tending to be different (9)
|
| DIVER (aquanaut) + GENT (bloke) | ||
| 19 | ANON |
Every second counting, pain found soon (4)
|
| [p]A[i]N [f]O[u]N[d] In my experience the more common meaning of ‘anon’ is at some indeterminate future time but it can also mean soon. | ||
| 21 | STRAIGHT FLUSH |
Hand upright, empty pan (8,5)
|
| STRAIGHT (upright) + FLUSH (empty pan) | ||
| 24 | ABSOLVE |
So able, after a tidy up, to keep very clear (7)
|
| V (very) in (to keep) anagram (after a tidy up) of SO ABLE | ||
| 26 | UTENSIL |
Implement unties tangled line (7)
|
| Anagram (tangled) of UNTIES + L (line) | ||
| 27 | DOWNSTAGE |
Old magistrate coming round wasn’t turning towards the camera (9)
|
| Anagram (turning) of WASNT in (coming round) DOGE (old magistrate) | ||
| 28 | THYME |
Aromatic plant in porridge, reportedly? (5)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of TIME (porridge, as in doing…) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BACK |
Champion in the past (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | SCREWDRIVER |
Turner’s drink (11)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | SKIING |
Pelt across surface in Innsbruck, heading for gate – doing this? (6)
|
| I[nnsbruck] in (across) SKIN (pelt) + G[ate] | ||
| 4 | SEE DOUBLE |
Get large drink – and experience its effect? (3,6)
|
| SEE (get) + DOUBLE (large drink) | ||
| 5 | ATHOS |
Order has to count in book (5)
|
| Anagram (order) of HAS TO. Athos, one of The Three Musketeers was Count de la Fère. | ||
| 6 | TUSSOCKS |
Dense bits of greenery: lettuce caught up in teeth (8)
|
| COS (lettuce) backwards in (caught up in) TUSKS (teeth) | ||
| 7 | ODE |
Poem in the dormitory not written down (3)
|
| Reverse (not written down) hidden word (in) | ||
| 8 | BESTRIDING |
Top equestrian skill sitting on horse, say? (10)
|
| BEST (top) + RIDING (equestrian skill) | ||
| 12 | PIE IN THE SKY |
Fantastic food that’s flying? (3,2,3,3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | BRIDESMAID |
Going after leader on bend, dash is admired in perennial silver medallist?: (10)
|
| B[end] + anagram (dash) of IS ADMIRED
I take the colon at the end to be a typo. |
||
| 16 | OUT OF TUNE |
Away from home regularly, month without roof in flat, perhaps? (3,2,4)
|
| OUT (away from home) + OFT (regularly) + [j]UNE (month without roof) | ||
| 17 | ARTICLES |
Scarlet, I gathered – are those red, did you say? (8)
|
| Anagram (gathered) of SCARLET I with an unusual homophonic definition | ||
| 20 | CUTEST |
Copper on trial, most adorable (6)
|
| CU (copper) + TEST (trial) | ||
| 22 | HYENA |
Scavenger with bloody tongue on camera, taking every last piece (5)
|
| [wit]H [blood]Y [tongu]E [o]N [camer]A | ||
| 23 | BLUE |
Low sky (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | SAW |
Motto that has teeth (3)
|
| Double definition |
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Actually was on his wavelength after going to the SE corner to get a start with SAW and HYENA. Clues fell steadily after that until ending in the NW corner with CORNICE and BACK (taking a while to see ‘champion’ as a verb).
I think that 1a is more AS (‘that’) in BIS (Latin, again – also a musical direction too).
Also liked SMART BOMB and SCREWDRIVER (a drink of choice once many many years ago).
A delightfully Mudd-y way to spend an afternoon.
Thanks for the untangling Pete
I also wondered if I was missing something with the colon at the end of 13d.
I agree with brucew above over BASIS.
My problem was BESTRIDING as I had BESTRADDLE for a long time thinking it a better fit for (just) sitting on a horse. Chambers eventually allowed me the right answer. Funny how you get an answer fixed in your mind and cannot ditch it sometimes.
It is funny how differently people see puzzles – I did not have too much difficultly with this Mudd. So saying, with Mudd again exploring the far reaches of the English language, I took a long time to realise ANON means now, and I still wonder whether a TUSK is really a tooth, and SAW (a saying) is really a motto. But, I am sure someone sometime in the past 500 years used these words in those ways. DOWNSTAGE was also a new expression for me
I also concur with the parsing of BASIS from Bruce@Aus and Mystogre – although I confess I needed a friend (much clever than I) to explain it.
I was rather partial to STRAIGHT FLUSH, BLOCKHEAD and THYME.
As always, thanks to Pete and Mudd
Thanks for the blog . Agree with above on BASIS, BIS is a word learnt only from crosswords.
Minor quibble, I think get=SEE and large drink=DOUBLE are two separate definitions to give the final word.
Could someone explain the homophone for ARTICLES a bit more please ? I just cant see (hear ) it.
Thanks Pete and Mudd.
Agree with brucew@aus re BASIS, with a slight modification – ie. “as” = “that which”, as in “I did that which I was told to do.”
Roz@ 4
I went with ‘red’ for ‘read’ (‘scarlet’/’articles’) respectively.
Thank you Diane @6 , of course , my brain was frozen.
The “are” at the front had me trying to make the phrase sound like articles.
Thank you Bruce, Mystogre and Roz for revealing the proper wordplay of 1 across for me.
I think BIS is very rarely used in English unless you are a musician, I did not know it was French for encore.
I only know it from crosswords, various words turn up, we had TED yesterday.
Roz@9 and Pete Maclean – I would have thought that the French for “encore” is “encore” (!)
But seriously, various dictionaries give bis as encore, in either French or English. I’m mainly familiar with bis because when I lived in France for a couple of years my address was 264bis (equivalent to 264A) Boulevard St Denis…
An enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Mudd and to Pete for the blog.
My Chambers 93 gives BIS as twice ; a direction indicating that a section is to be repeated.
No mention of encore. I presume it is used to annotate musical scores.
Azed uses it occasionally so I know it well for crossords.
Roz@11: the Shorter OED gives “bis” as “encore, again” and though the French is not necessarily relevant, my Harrap French- English dictionary defines “bis” firstly in respect of street numbers, as I mentioned above, and secondly as an interjection meaning “encore”, with the illustration ” ‘crier bis’, to encore (a song)”. So as a French speaker I can usually get it, though I agree that apart from musicians it is really only used in crosswords.
If I understand correctly, when a French audience wants more of something they will shout “bis” while a English audience would yell “encore”. But if francophones are talking about an encore then I think they would use a different word but I am unsure what that word would be. Maybe “encore”??
Perplexus@12 , you should try the Azed crossword, often a lot of French words, and we need a French speaker in the blog. Recently a lot of debate on A L’ABRI and others, is it two words or three ?
Pete @13 I am no help at all , French is my weakest area in crosswords, my only source of knowledge is Chambers.
I had a long discussion with my solving buddies about “bis” in the context of this puzzle, and to my surprise when I searched for it I found pretty much the same discussion from November 2018, again about a Mudd, this time no 16,081. To schloars of international conventions, bis is very familiar as the first additional number when a new article is inserted: after bis comes ter, then quater, quinquies, sexies, septies, and that should be enough for anyone – at that stage clearly a new consolidated text is called for. (See, for example, Article 6 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property).
Roz@14: I do the Azed almost every week, but haven’t yet commented on it, largely because by the time the blog comes round I’ve forgotten about it. French (and German, which I also have, though to a lesser extent) are often very helpful.
Pete@13, sorry for the delayed response. I think (though I could stand to be corrected by a native French speaker) that “encore” does not exist as a noun in French, so an encore would be “un bis”. Indeed my dictionary has the illustration “chanter un bis” for “sing an encore”. However, at a concert, for example, the audience would probably call out “encore” as an interjection, or a short form of “encore une fois” (once again).
Perplexus@16 I save the Azed page and circle anything I am not completely sure of. The blog and comments usually sorts things out but French and German would be an asset.
nice puzzle.. I find Mudd veers from hard to harder so .. as far as i can remember this was on the less harder end of things.. certainly easier than todays offering… in agreement with most that a smattering of languages outside English is helpful in life as well as crosswords.. n BIS crops up a lot in France so that was veryuseful.. Charlie Brown was of course a BLOCKHEAD … so hours of Snoopy not wasted after all… many joys.. perhaps DIVERGENT was an outright favourite for me, with ARTICLES a close second for the homophonic thing…
thanks Mudd n Pete Maclean