The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28517.
A top-notch puzzle with a theme announced in 10A: all the across answers cage a bird; the ROC in 15A is fabulous, and perhaps ERNE in 18A, and definitely the ANI in 23A are less well known. All in all, a tour de force, and most enjoyable.
| ACROSS | ||
| 4 | VIBIST |
Musician‘s time to follow sextet again (6)
|
| A charade of VI (Roman numeral, ‘sextet’) plus BIS (‘again’) plus T (‘time’). | ||
| 6 | UNROBING |
Stripping off, assistant crime-fighter breaks gun out (8)
|
| An envelope (‘breaks’) of ROBIN (‘assistant crime-fighter’ for Batman) in UNG, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘gun’. | ||
| 9 | PROWLS |
What stalker does for walks, oddly (6)
|
| A charade of PRO (‘for’) plus WLS (‘WaLkS oddly’). | ||
| 10 | BIRDCAGE |
Time (100 years) in enclosure like each other across answer? (8)
|
| A charade of BIRD (‘time’ in prison) plus C (‘100’) plus AGE (‘years’). | ||
| 11 | REGRETTABLE |
Lager better in a cocktail? It’s too bad (11)
|
| An anagram (‘in a cocktail’) of ‘lager better’. | ||
| 15 | SIROCCO |
Address to superior officer going back and forth in wind (7)
|
| A charade of SIR (‘address to superior’) plus OC CO (commanding ‘officer going back and forth’). | ||
| 17 | RETITLE |
Name again protected by secret? It leaks (7)
|
| A hidden answer (‘protected by’) in ‘secRET IT LEaks’. | ||
| 18 | SLENDERNESS |
Thin quality of cape put on head of Swiss bank? (11)
|
| A charade of S (‘head of Swiss’) plus LENDER (‘bank’) plus NESS (‘cape’). | ||
| 22 | MALEMUTE |
Alaskan often on the pull is quiet after sex (8)
|
| A charade of MALE (‘sex’) plus MUTE (‘quiet’). Chambers gives the spelling as an alternative to malamute; the crossword’s theme, as well as the wordplay, explains the choice of spelling. | ||
| 23 | MANILA |
Guy backing fighter where he had a thrilling fight? (6)
|
| A charade of MAN (‘guy’) plus ILA, a reversal (‘backing’) of ALI (Muhammad, ‘fighter’), for the “Thrilla in Manila” boxing match between Ali and Joe Frazier. | ||
| 24 | ASWAN DAM |
River feature, one parent of ugly ducklings? (5,3)
|
| A SWAN DAM; DAM usually refers to the mother of horses, but is here applied to the subject of the tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The river is the Nile. | ||
| 25 | CLARKE |
Sci-fi writer‘s bit of exaltation in religious group (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of LARK (the collective is an “exaltation of larks”; hence ‘bit of exaltation’) in CE (Church of England, ‘religious group’), for Arthur C Clarke. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ISOLDE |
Princess has aged no end (6)
|
| IS OLDE[r] (‘has aged’) minus the last letter (‘no end’). | ||
| 2 | UNTIMBERED |
Wanting wood mite burned, unfortunately (10)
|
| An anagram (‘unfortunately’) of ‘mite burned’. | ||
| 3 | COLD FEET |
Loss of guts from fish biting large parts of line (4,4)
|
| A charade of COLD, an envelope (‘biting’) of L (‘large’) in COD (‘fish’) plus FEET (‘parts of line’ of poetry). | ||
| 4 | VIPERISH |
Evil at heart, become bad and spiteful (8)
|
| A charade of VI (‘eVIl at heart’) plus PERISH (‘become bad’). | ||
| 5 | BLOGGERS |
British feller’s posters (8)
|
| A charade of B (‘British’) plus LOGGER’S (‘feller’s). Hey, that’s us! | ||
| 7 | IVAN |
Trump, scratching bottom, is a terrible fellow (4)
|
| IVAN[ka] (‘Trump’) minus the last two letters (‘scratching bottom’), for the Russian Tsar. | ||
| 8 | GOER |
Errand boy not following viable plan (4)
|
| A subtraction: GO[f]ER (‘errand boy’) minus the F (‘not following’). | ||
| 12 | T-BONE STEAK |
Shades including black on woodcut (1-4,5)
|
| A charade of TBONES, an envelope (‘including’) of B (‘black’) in TONES (‘shades’); plus TEAK (‘wood’-). | ||
| 13 | STEELIER |
Harder pork pie consumed by pilot (8)
|
| An envelope (‘consumed by’) of LIE (‘pork pie’, rhyming slang) in STEER (‘pilot’, verb). | ||
| 14 | PERSUADE |
Each French writer holding universal sway (8)
|
| An envelope (‘holding’) of U (‘universal’) in PER (‘each’) plus SADE (‘French writer’). | ||
| 16 | CASEMENT |
Setter gasping a small feature of Windows (8)
|
| An envelope (‘gasping’ – I’m sorry,I’ll read that again “grasping”) of ‘a’ plus S (‘small’) in CEMENT (‘setter’). | ||
| 19 | REALLY |
Swallowing tablet, recover in truth (6)
|
| An envelope (‘swallowing’) of E (‘tablet’) in RALLY (‘recover’). | ||
| 20 | EMMA |
Desperate disheartened Madame Bovary? (4)
|
| An anagram (‘desperate’) of ‘ma[da]me’ minus the inner letters (‘disheartened’), for the second Mme. Bovary. | ||
| 21 | BLOW |
After opening of bottle, down coke in New York (4)
|
| A charade of B (‘opening of Bottle’) plus LOW (‘down’). I am assured that BLOW is colloquial for cocaine, particularly when snorted (although I would have thought blow was just not what you would do). |
Uncanny similarity between my experience last night. Grid entry by anagrams, worked the sectors in exactly same order (SE, SW, NW, NE), with the clues getting better along the way, and NE being a final show-stopper. Was proud to get IVAN pre- any crossers (lovely mis-directions here).
In general, again had a very enjoyable solve. Thanks very much, Picaroon.
PS: Didn’t notice the theme, by then, I never do..
What PeterO said!
What he didn’t say explicitly was that 16d has a typo. Didn’t spoil the fun in any way, though.
Great crossword, a tour de force like PeterO said. VIBIST was unknown to me but all else was within my range — favourites included UNROBING, SLENDERNESS, MANILA, T-BONE STEAK, and EMMA. Erne and ani are very common birds in American crosswords so there was no problem spotting those. Thanks to both.
Didn’t even notice the typo in 16d (we see what we want to see not what’s there 🙂 — anyway, needed the theme to back myself into VIBIST which I assume Chambers will confirm is someone who plays… the vibraphone?
Very doable, and as smooth as dammit. Thanks, Picaroon! Not that I didn’t have to google ANI!
Never met the ANI before, but you didn’t have to know it to get MANILA: nice clue, and Picaroon was probably desperate for suitable birds by then. Pleased that he avoided the chestnutty “member of parliament” for the prOWLs clue – the exaltation of larks isn’t so hackneyed.
Failed to parse ISOLDE and GOER.
Very enjoyable. I liked BLOGGERS, T-BONE STEAK, UNROBING, IVAN, PERSUADE, CASEMENT (despite the typo in the clue // gasping should be grasping), COLD FEET (loi).
I did not understand the “like each other across answer” bit of 10ac – thanks for explaining. I totally missed the theme!
Thanks, both.
Universal praise so far, which I’ll happily join in.
If we take the Trump as Ivana not Ivanka, then it’s only the bottom that gets scratched, rather than the bottom-and-a-bit.
Thanks PeterO, especially for the exaltation of larks. I could only think it was a typo for exUltation, which might be the feeling you get from having a lark.
And thanks to Picaroon, who I hope is not really gasping (or grasping for that matter).
Exaltation has long been my favourite compound noun and is such an apt word when you hear that song rising into the sky. So it was lovely to see it in use here and what a clever device. A bit like the Nutmeg that contained imperial measurements in every across clue – only signalled this time. Between them, Tony S and michelle have compiled a good roll of honour. Thanks eb @8 for reminding me of Ivana as I had raised a slight eyebrow at scratching two characters. I didn’t think of her immediately – I guess she’s one of the very few Trumps not to have been embroiled in the sorry history of the past five or so years.
UNTIMBERED gets my tick for ugliest word of the day whilst BLOGGERS and CASEMENT vie for favourite with the former just nudging it, mainly due to the typo in the second – even though that’s not the setter’s fault!
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Very good. Didn’t spot the theme till I’d solved my last in, BIRDCAGE, but then enjoyed playing “What Bird Is That?”. I couldn’t remember ANI either, though I now see that I have come across it before. Incidentally PM @9, my favourite bird-related collective noun is a “charm” of goldfinches, which we had here not long ago.
Pity about the typo, but these things happen and fortunately it wasn’t too hard to work out what was going on.
Some good words here, my favourite being VIPERISH. One more to add to the list of VI- words for ‘spiteful’ and one I don’t think I’ve seen before.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
My life has been improved now that I know that a vibraphone player is a VIBIST. Thank you Picaroon. Somehow MALEMUTE and ANI, also new to me, weren’t quite as thrilling. Thanks also PeterO for the parsing.
I agree with essexboy@8
I was also thinking of Ivana not Ivanka for that clue
Like Michelle@7 I missed 10a and so the theme. Very clever though and some lovely clues to boot. 7a had me – something good from that family! Thanks PeterO & Picaroon.
Gasp can mean to breathe in sharply so I suppose CEMENT could breathe in AS? No, probably not 🙂
BIRDCAGE was LOI for me too and felt like discovering a delightful gift within a gift.
Cheers P&P – bit of a shame Pierre didn’t get to blog this tho
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
I had PROWLS and RETITLE quickly, so saw the theme, but was then thrown by MANILA – I even asked my wife “can you see a bird in that?”
Apart from that, very smooth. Favourite was “Alaskan often on the pull”. I also wrote in BLOW with a shrug about unknown American slang.
FOI was EMMA (I look at ones that give first letters first), but isn’t “Madame” doing double-duty?
I too tried to justify gasping as bodycheetah @15 and also had the pdm with BIRDCAGE as LOI. Funnily enough, I only thought of Ivana. A tour de force indeed PeterO and thanks to both
Bloody marvellous. Despite constantly looking for the across theme, it eluded me until the very end, and 10a was my LOI.
Looks like I wasn’t alone. What a marvellous reveal.
Sorry bc @14. I took gasping as taking in as in air, so didn’t look twice for typo
I too went for IVANA.
I had a bit of a disaster with 4a: I had VIO— after putting in VIOLIN and using the check button. This gave O-O-GERS for 5d, which the check button confirmed was correct. I did think of VIBIS- but didn’t think such a word would exist. Does anyone else find the check button misbehaves from time to time?
Thanks P and P.
My point on Madame doing double duty is that “Bovary” by itself would traditionally be referring to Charles rather than Emma.
Thanks for the blog, I do like a bird theme, actually got it very early for me. At 10AC I looked back and saw ibis, robin and owl. Not seen ani before so MANILA was tricky. A few down answers a bit clumsy and contrived but only to be expected when every across has a theme word.
BLOW was very different drugs slang when I was younger.
Did not notice gasping at all, sometimes we see what we expect to see.
muffin @15&20, given that Emma is the chief protagonist of the novel, I’m not sure that I would agree. However, I guess you could make a case that the whole clue is doing double duty … I think it works as an &lit
muffin @20 isn’t that what the question mark is there for?
pedrox @22
I’ve looked at it again and agree that it’s an &lit clue.
Whatever happened to the vibraphone, or are they still around somewhere in the musosphere?
Nice puzzle, too dim to spot all the caged birds, ta both.
We Picaroon fans are being spoiled this week, with a Buccaneer in the FT yesterday.
As for several others above, BIRDCAGE was my last one in – tantalising because it was signalled as the key to the across answers – but all the more satisfying when it came (courtesy of my penultimate entry, the super COLD FEET at 3d) – as bodycheetah said @14, ‘like discovering a delightful gift within a gift’. My biggest PDM ever, I think.
My ticks were for 1ac VIBIST, which I enjoyed working out from the wordplay, the neat anagram REGRETTABLE, SLENDERNESS, MANILA, CLARKE, and GOER.
Many thanks to Picaroon for the fun and to PeterO for the blog.
Having thought straight away of Robin for the assistant crime fighter, and then seeing it actually could be fitted, I saw the theme early. I was going to say that it wasn’t a lot of help, but going back over the answers, I see it did help with the lark, the spelling of the dog, the unknown VIBIST (the ibis, aka bin chicken, in Sydney is my son’s favorite bird). Not to mention BIRDCAGE. Since my favorites have been mentioned above, I’ll just thank Picaroon and PeterO.
Superb – very well put together and very enjoyable to solve. I was perplexed at how some of the words I’d already filled in could be thematically linked until I had enough crossing letters for BIRDCAGE to become the only possible answer for 10ac… and then it clicked, and I groaned loudly enough for my wife to ask if there was something wrong. Bravo, Picaroon!
Also impressed with the number of clues that demonstrated both exemplary wordplay and smooth, witty surfaces – some favourites: 7d IVAN, 13d STEELIER, 16a CASEMENT (the typo was obvious enough to not matter), 22a MALEMUTE, 23a MANILA, 18a SLENDERNESS, 6a UNROBING, 8d GOER…
And thanks PeterO for blog – couple of bits of parsing eluded me, so thanks for filling those in. I’m sure I’ve heard of an exaltation of larks before but failed to dredge it up from the memory, so that one had me scratching my head for a while, although by then I’d got the theme so worked out the hidden bird must be LARK. (Re 21dn – I can think of another phrase involving that word where the opposite would be more appropriate, but let’s not go there.)
Eerily, my experience was just the same as Eileen’s (@26), though we do usually agree. I saw the ‘robin’ in ‘unrobing’ straight away, but it was only at the end that the full conceit of the puzzle became apparent to me. I did not know the ‘ani’, but ‘manila’ as the solution was obviously correct from the wordplay. I was another who did not even notice the typo in 16d.
Many thanks once again to Picaroon for an enjoyable start to my day.
(Off topic, I hope that Eileen had a splendid holiday in Wensleydale: hopefully took in some special cheese Gromit.)
ThiS IS KINd of wonderful. I thought EMMA was both lit and &lit.
[Thank you, George @29 – yes, I did, as always. (It’s my spiritual home: we had a mobile home there for several years.)
I posted yesterday, in answer to another kind enquiry, that we had a super tasting-tray lunch at the Wensleydale Creamery restaurant – highly recommended. 😉 ]
4 across: vibraphone also known as vibes. Perhaps the most famous vibist is Adolf Hitler – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMqdwtd8TrQ
[Grim and Dim @32
Thanks – hadn’t heard that for ages!
Milt Jackson of the Modern Jazz Quartet was probably the most famous actual vibes player, but I always preferred them when he played piano minstead.]
Great puzzle. I mucked this up because I interpreted “every other” in the 10a clue as meaning “every second”, and could not see what was going on. Thanks Peter, and Picaroon.
Funny that BLOW featured in his Buccaneer clue yesterday which featured another drug in UPPERCUT
One thing you dont do with cocaine is BLOW unless you are Woody in Annie Hall.(or did he sneeze?)
It also reminds me of Ben Elton talking about BLOW JOBS-he said-you dont blow-how about “suffocate job?”
muffin @11 I only ever heard the MJQ with John Lewis on piano-he wrote most of the stuff.
Great puzzle-not really room for Charlie Parker in there (called Bird)
Thanks all. Sorry to lower the tone once again.
[copmus @35
Milt Jackson didn’t play piano very often, but he was a respected exponent of “stride piano” style. Here is an example.]
[muffin @33 – well, ‘probably’, but from the mid-1960s, Milt was rather eclipsed as a practitioner by Bobby Hutcherson and Gary (4 mallets) Burton. Milt’s best work, in any case, was ‘probably’ outside the comfort zone of the MJQ, as in this Miles Davis session from 1965, where he takes the opening and closing solos on a driving 12-bar composition, ‘Dr Jackle’. Jackie McLean on alto; Ray Bryant on piano. Hope the link works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0gwvyXj56k ]
me @ 37 1955, of course, – the curse of stubby fingers again, and, as Roz points out in another context, seeing what you expect to see.
Profuse apologies for the missing ‘r’ in 16 down – this was a late change to the proof (‘fixing’ amended to ‘grasping’) and I failed to spot the typo on the final version.
Many thanks to PeterO for the impeccable blog, and to one and all for the kind comments in spite of this slip.
“Assistant crime fighter” immediately brought Robin to mind so UNROBING was my way in – a great surface!
GregfromOz @34, I initially toyed with the idea of it being alternate across answers, but on reflection decided that Picaroon had carefully said “each other” (rather than “every other”).
Having got 11a I was stupidly wondering what possible phrase at 12d could begin with a word that was simply T. I even obtusely thought about T-Bone Walker, and his more recent namesake T-Bone Burnett, before the penny dropped.
Thanks for dropping in Picaroon @39. This was a lovely BIRDCAGE walk. I think it was fairly obvious what the typo should have been and it was no real problem as far as I was concerned.
No need to apologise, Picaroon, and thank you from dropping by. I, believe it or not, work part-time as a freelance proofreader and editor but am completely inept at proofreading anything I myself have written, as exemplified @37
Chapeau Picaroon. That was a supreme puzzle in my not so humble opinion.
I noticed the gasping, but with a shrug I just thought it must be grasping, so no problem really.
A lovely crossword – a neat idea, which I didn’t spot until I saw BIRDCAGE towards the end. I hadn’t come across the MALEMUTE or VIBIST, but both were well clued.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
I knew MALEMUTE from some short stories of Jack London’s, and An Exaltation of Larks is a book of such collective nouns by James Lipton, published in 1968 – no cruciverbalist should be without it. [Thanks to Grim+and+Dim @32 for the link to Intro and Outro and the famous VIBIST.]
Unlike quite a few, BIRDCAGE was my penultimate solution, and actually helped me to get UNROBING (I was never really into Batman), having been led up a side alley looking at FBI and CID.
Thanks to Picaroon for a splendidly well-executed theme, and to PeterO for the usual excellent blog.
Lots of fun and so clever. As with many others, ROBIN sprang immediately to mind for assistant crime fighter and BIRDCAGE came late in the piece, a lovely pdm moment. Thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO for the blog.
PS I’ve just noticed that as well as the birds, we also have BEES
Very clever stuff, lovely puzzle. Was extremely grateful for REGRETTABLE providing the T that had to mean that 12d couldn’t be anything other than T BONE STEAK…
Picaroon @39 / SC @41 – I’m a full-time sub-editor by profession and I have to confess I still miss these things occasionally. It happens. We move on. And yes, it is much harder to proofread accurately when it’s your own work.
(People are quick to point out these errors when they slip through but they never thank you for the many thousands more errors that you prevent from making it into print. This is the lot of the sub-editor, I’m used to it. Ho hum!)
What Eileen said @26. I won’t admit how long it took me to spot the theme.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
This is why PeterO is a blogger and I’m not. I’d never have spotted that theme! Thanks, Peter, I’m impressed.
Now that I know the theme I understand the point of the surface of BIRDCAGE, my LOI, but I still think it’s clunky.
In 24a DAM doesn’t have to refer to mothers who are horses; in earlier times, such as Shakespeare’s, it extended to other species, including our own.
Did anybody else try to shoehorn “flintier” into 13d?
Wordplodder @10 — what else have you got on your list of words for “spiteful” beginning with VI? Vicous? vindictive? vituperative? what have I missed?
I have to leave now so I’ll post this response without being able to read more than half of the posts, but I’ll be back, and whatever you wrote, I’ll read it!
Thanks and obeisance to Picaroon for a stroke of genius, and thanks also to PeterO for rescuing me.
Well spotted, ngaiolaurenson @46. Whether intended by Picaroon or not, by various twists and turns, there are BEES all over the grid . . . and lots of Bs besides! The ages-old mystery of the birds and the bees. Lovely stuff.
BIRDCAGE was LOI for me too–unless you count MALEMUTE, as I had MALAMUTE with M for sex and figuring that ALA must be some thing for “on the pull” (like BIRD for time, which I thought was porridge, though I can see where BIRD comes from–“bird lime,” I guess?) Then when I was looking at the theme I realized it needed to be EMU. Before that I spent a long time thinking “What do these have in common?”
Can confirm (not firsthand) that BLOW is American slang for cocaine.
12d is a bit thematic too as it has a NEST in it.
Thanks Picaroon for a delightful puzzle and PeterO for the blog!
For me, it’s always Lionel Hampton that comes to mind, when I think of the vibraphone.
[Surprised that nobody so far has admitted to knowing MALEMUTE from this one:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45082/the-shooting-of-dan-mcgrew ]
Valentine @50 and wordplodder @10. One could add “vinegary” and “vitriolic”.
We’ve now had “Trump” (variously) three days in a row. Will Paul make it four?
Well blow me, I actually spotted a theme before reading about it in the blog. Lovely challenge today which I really enjoyed. Like many I didn’t spot the typo so it had no negative impact for me. Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
VIXENISH would keep the animal theme and is 8 letters but is not quite spiteful.
Very enjoyable, got about half way which is about 12 answers more than usual for a Picaroon puzzle.
Much of the parsing of the ones I didn’t get needs careful scrutiny.
I am lost in admiration for anyone who could spot the theme.
Thanks both.
Roz @58: Chambers online gives fierce or spiteful for VIXENISH so it would qualify for the list
HIYD
I very rarely spot hidden themes, but I’m sorry, I thought this one was obvious. 10a tells us that all the other across solutions have something in common, and (as I said earlier) my second and third in were prOWLs and reTITle, so what else could it be? Next one was 10a itself, as, in this context, “time” immediately suggested the slang “bird”.
Thank you MrPostMark, my Chambers 93 gives bad-tempered, snarling. Even that is I think as close as the other offers.
Groan! As usual I missed the (absolutely brilliant, if I might add…) theme. Despite getting 10 ac. and being unable to parse it….
And now for a dumb question: why is “BIS” parsed as “again?” I did get VIBIST but I still don’t get this. 🙁
Thanks again to Picaroon and PeterO.
Jay @63
It actually means “twice”, but it is used in musical notation to mean “play this section again”.
BIS is a musical direction to repeat, an old chestnut. This got me started along with ROBIN and when 10AC referred to all other across clues it gave me the theme.
Whenever you see AGAIN Fiona Anne , think BIS .
Jay in Pittsburgh @63. I’m sure this was discussed recently, so you must have missed it. BIS is what French speakers say when English speakers would say “Encore!” This might help.
The “bis” in biscuit is of the same origin (biscuit is French for “cooked twice”).
And an IBIS has two eyes…
….and two “i”s!
10a was another LOI here, & I had no inkling of the theme, which finally dawned on me in a chorus of passerine glee.
A most enjoyable solve, Thanks Picaroon & PeterO
[… and thanks widdersbel @67 – I’d never thought about the derivation of ‘biscuit’ until now!]
Picaroon at the top of his game; an absolute delight. What I like most about this setter is that the unfamiliar (and often highly unlikely) words are always gettable from the wordplay. Like others, 10ac was my LOI and brought a warm glow of appreciation. Many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Muffin @61 unfortunately I never solved 10a!! Time = Bird is a new one for me.
Absolutely brilliant but didn’t realise quite how brilliant until reading the blog, so many thanks to S & B
BUT can some kind person please explain to me what on earth PDM means? (comments @ 26 & 45)
Jovis @74 – It stands for ‘Penny Drop Moment’. This, along with other abbreviations characteristically used by contributors, is explained in the FAQ section of the site.
sc@37 Jackie MacLean lived here in Hartford CT, where he was on the faculty of the Hartt School of Music, and where his widow runs the Artists’ Collective, a music and dance school for at-risk youth which the two of them founded. It is a wonderful gift to the community.
widdersbel @67 Like biscotti in Italian and zweibach (twice-baked) in German.
[Valentine @76. Indeed so. I taught at UMass Amherst for a year, many years ago, and he did a gig at the university. He was having embouchure difficulties that night, but it was still an absolute thrill to see him. I am pleased to learn of his musical legacy to the area.]
HYD @73 , time = bird = stir = porridge etc . Did you never watch Porridge ?
Brilliant stuff! Took a while to start but luckily figured out VIBIST and got most of NW after that. Another stroke of luck and I got BIRD CAGE, which of course helped immensely.
But got stuck in the SW. The spelling of MALEMUTE threw me ( I had the usual malamute) and I even convinced myself a Lemu was a bird, but of course the parsing didn’t work. Then I saw what sex was in this context!
Favourite today was UNROBING for the assistant crime fighter.
LOI was IVAN, which was excellent misdirection.
Many thanks Picaroon and PeterO
‘Bird’ for ‘time’ (in prison) comes from Cockney rhyming slang: ‘time’ > ‘birdlime’ > ‘bird’.
@75 Thanks for the info, appreciated!
scfkap@77 check out Artists’ Collective on Wikipedia. I looked today and found that they were cited by Harvard University as one of six exemplary community arts centers in the nation and got the 2010 National Humanities Arts and Youth Program Award, presented by Michelle Obama. We are lucky to have it.
What did you teach, that year at UMass Amhers?
Great crossword.
Roz @78 yes, I was a big fan of Ronnie Barker et al.
Trouble is I don’t think laterally enough, I can see no further than TIME = T. That’s why I am so bad at cryptic crosswords!
Think I am the opposite , I do not think literally, I do not even read the clue as a sentence, some people rave about this. I just take the words apart individually, if the clue read as complete nonsense I would not even notice.
Didn’t parse CLARKE, and had to word search on the last three in: MALEMUTE, COLD FEET and BIRDCAGE as was getting a bit shell-shocked by this time.
As usual I expect no-one will read this. Finished the splendid puzzle late last evening and thoroughly enjoyed it, including the last-minute “penny drop” moment at 10 down.
Am sure it is Ivana, Donald’s first wife and Ivanka’s mother (else it would be “bottom two”) not Ivanka. Guardian setters too frequently go outside my Ximenes training but this was a treat. Many thanks. Now for tomorrow’s Azed..
Got held up after putting RUFF(ian) at 7D. Corrected it when I guessed 6A had to be a gerund ending -ing, and besides RUFF being a bird as well as a trump should be in an across clue. Wrote MALAMUTE before twigging the theme, but thought there must be some unknown bird there somewhere. Didn’t spot the ani in MANILA even though I photographed one in the Bahamas three years ago.
Thanks to Picaroon for clever puzzle and to PeterO.
This is one where those who go through the clues in order might have spotted the theme earlier than I did. I had birdcage as nearly last one in.