Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 11, 2021
I found this Mudd more challenging than most but also very rewarding with a bunch of very artful clues, my favourites being 4 (STARKERS), 8 (SWEATY), 22 (MORSEL), 28 (MOSQUITO) and 31 (WAY-OUT).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BABOON |
Hiss in interdiction for primate (6)
|
| BOO (hiss) in (in) BAN (interdiction) | ||
| 4 | STARKERS |
Naked energy released by wild streakers (8)
|
| Anagram (wild) of STR[e]AKERS | ||
| 9 | ORWELL |
Author sick — —-: is that the choice? (6)
|
| OR WELL (sick — —-, is that the choice) | ||
| 10 | NOISETTE |
Sweet message written about one group (8)
|
| I (one) + SET (group) together in (about) NOTE (message). A noisette is a chocolate made with hazelnuts. | ||
| 12 | POLE |
European first in racing (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | SHEAR |
By the sound of it, sharp cut (5)
|
| Homophone (by the sound of it) of “sheer” (sharp) | ||
| 14 | TEST |
River inspection (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | PRETTY-PRETTY |
Chocolate-box, quite alluring (6-6)
|
| PRETTY (quite) + PRETTY (alluring) | ||
| 20 | DRESSING DOWN |
Carpeting not using fine threads? (8,4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | ROOK |
Bird man (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | NIXON |
Nothing working for US president (5)
|
| NIX (nothing) + ON (working) | ||
| 25 | SKIP |
Leave out jump (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | MOSQUITO |
Approaching South American capital, the majority of the majority fly (8)
|
| MOS[t] (the majority of the majority) + QUITO (South American capital) | ||
| 29 | STITCH |
Tack that’s slightly painful (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 30 | SOLITARY |
One in capital of Spain or Italy, lost! (8)
|
| Anagram (lost) of S[pain] OR ITALY | ||
| 31 | WAYOUT |
Outlandish solver in temple (3-3)
|
| YOU (solver) in (in) WAT (temple, as in Angkor Wat) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BLOWPIPE |
Disaster to decorate cake as poisoner? (8)
|
| BLOW (disaster) + PIPE (decorate cake). ‘Pipe’ here is used in the sense of to force cream/icing/etc through a shaped nozzle to decorate food. | ||
| 2 | BEWILDER |
Appear more reckless in daze (8)
|
| BE (appear) + WILDER (more reckless) | ||
| 3 | OSLO |
European city in Liverpool soaked up (4)
|
| Reverse (up) hidden word (in) | ||
| 5 | THOMAS EDISON |
Patently prolific chap astonished, failing to maintain order (6,6)
|
| OM (order, of merit that is) in (to maintain) anagram (failing) of ASTONISHED
According to Wikipedia, Edison held 1,093 patents in the USA alone and more in other countries. |
||
| 6 | RUSH |
Grass in wild vegetation, topped (4)
|
| [b]RUSH (wild vegetation, topped) | ||
| 7 | ESTHER |
The rest almost entirely rewritten for book (6)
|
| Anagram (rewritten) of THE RES[t]. Esther is a book of the bible. | ||
| 8 | SWEATY |
Horribly wet, say? (6)
|
| Anagram (horribly) of WET SAY and &Lit. | ||
| 11 | SHAPE SHIFTER |
Changeling having ruffled his feathers, parent initially crushed (5-7)
|
| P[arent] in (crushed) anagram (ruffled) of HIS FEATHERS | ||
| 15 | STERN |
Tough back on warship, for example (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | STAGE |
Captured by artist, a gentleman’s leg (5)
|
| Hidden word (captured by) | ||
| 18 | COCKATOO |
Male also protecting a bird (8)
|
| A (a) in (protecting) COCK (male) + TOO (also) | ||
| 19 | SNAPSHOT |
A picture – or two? (8)
|
| SNAP (one picture) + SHOT (a second picture) | ||
| 21 | PRIMUS |
Proper American cooker (6)
|
| PRIM (proper) + US (American)
A Primus or a Primus stove is a small cooker or stove that burns paraffin and is typically used when camping. The term is a British trademark. |
||
| 22 | MORSEL |
Literary solver ending in phenomenal scrap (6)
|
| MORSE (literary solver) + [phenomena]L. The literary solver is of course Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse. | ||
| 26 | BUST |
Artwork in pieces (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | ETNA |
Italian hothead lent an ear, though odd parts ignored (4)
|
| [l]E[n]T [a]N [e]A[r] with a cryptic definition |
I felt a bit differently to Pete – I found this one on the easier side for Mudd. I always think these sorts of differences are interesting. But I do agree with Pete’s statement that there was a bunch of rewarding clues.
STARKERS, MOSQUITO, PRIMUS and SNAPSHOT were my favourites. And, I must admit I still do not understand why CHOCOLATE BOX is PRETTY PRETTY. Does that refer to chocolate box as an adjective (e.g. a chocolate box house)?
Thanks Pete and thanks Mudd
I guess this means I have to go back to my struggle with this weekend’s Buccaneer……
Thanks for the blog, agree on the favourites, STARKERS is a great (near) anagram.
For 5D I had OM ( Order Of Merit) or there is no M in THOMAS, this also has a great near anagram.
Chocolate box I took to refer to paintings that are a bit sentimental, boxes of chocolates used to have slushy pictures on the front.
DRESSING DOWN – I do not really see the second part ?
Nice puzzle, great blog, really enjoyed this.
About a mid-level difficulty Mudd for me. I failed on WAY OUT, for which I had an unparsed ‘far out’. My favourites have been covered by others with a special (dis)honourable mention for SWEATY.
Roz @2, ‘threads’ is a slang term for “clothes” (as a noun), so someone ‘not using finest threads?’ is not “dressing up”, but is DRESSING DOWN. That’s how I saw it anyway. I agree with you about the OM for ‘order’.
Thanks to Pete and Mudd
Yes, SWEATY was very good (or rather, very bad – yuk!) along with others already ear-marked as favourites.
Mudd really does have a way with double definitions and DRESSING DOWN was a peach. Like Wordplodder @3, I understood it as CARPETING = a ticking off and ‘not using finest threads’ = dressing down (casual Fridays when office work was a thing; working from home might mean dressing down in a dressing gown!)
And PRETTY PRETTY is disparaging, like ‘chocolate box’ to mean ‘twee’ or ‘sentimental’, as Roz says.
Always glad to see a reference to Morse.
Thanks to Mudd and Pete.
Thank you, Roz, for pointing out that mistake in the wordplay of 5d. Now corrected.
Many thanks WordPlodder and Diane, I see it now. Dress down Friday , do not wear your fine threads ( clothes ).
I thought it was somehow carpet threads but your posts rekindled vague memories of this usage , perhaps in old films ?
For me, ‘carpeting’ is a word, (like sledging) which I associate with sport, as in an irate coach tearing a strip of his team for a poor performance.
I’m sure it can be found in old films too, maybe mischievous schoolboys receiving the attentions of the headmaster!
I thought of carpeting as a school headteacher telling someone off but I did not click with threads = clothes, maybe this is more a male thing, fine suits etc.
The SW corner was my downfall as I never heard of PRIMUS and I had “coot” instead of ROOK for “bird man.” Despite the major DNF I still enjoyed much of this including SWEATY, STAGE, and SNAPSHOT. Thanks to both.
‘Coot’ was an equally good answer, Tony.
Thanks Diane. English is a wonderful language, isn’t it?
Yes, I’m grateful English is my mother tongue as I’d hate to miss out on these and other word games.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Found this very tough and after three sittings and still most of the long crossers through the middle section still not complete, resorted to heavy use of a word finder to help me get it finished.
Having got the answers, appreciated this setter’s skill of misdirection and clever clues which at times still proved a challenge to fully parse. The PRETTY-PRETTY / ‘chocolate box’ definitions were both new to me, so without help would never have got it. Liked the Mudd-typical clue structure of 9a. That was the third to last in, followed by BEWILDER and BABOON (where initial thinking of MARMOT and GIBBON took me nowhere).