Any hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobes should look away now…Monk presents a puzzle with no fewer than six 15-letter entries…
…although none of them are actually 15-letter words…! Anyway, as a blogger, I should be grateful, as this means fewer clues to parse.
The second noticeable feature was those perimetral unches (un-checked cells) – which quite often get used for hidden messages (Ninas). After a few entries went in, with a V and an X from 8A and 9A, and B, H, S, along the top, it didn’t look like there would be a message, but I did wonder briefly if there might be a ‘perimetral pangram’, with all letters of the alphabet around the edge…as it turns out, there were 28 of them and, after a few Es went in along the bottom, plus the one from 13A, that possibility also faded away.
Some enjoyable solving ensued, with a reasonably swift grid fill, until I ground to a bit of a halt in the top right corner. 6D IN JOKE and 11A TROWEL were my last two in, and IN JOKE was definitely my last one parsed!
Somewhere along the way, several double letters – PP in APPENDIX, ZZ in GUZZLE and GG in SUGGESTION BOXES had me wondering if this might be a double pangram. I left this thought until I was setting up the grid in Paul Drury’s excellent ‘blogging utilities’ site. Paul recently enhanced this to include a ‘pangram checker’, which informed me that we were just a Q short of being a double (see below):
I enjoyed 4D HALL OF RESIDENCE – which resonated with me, as we have just been setting my daughter ‘up’ at university recently. Also 16A, with SUGGESTION BOXES being containers for ‘kites’, as in flying a kite/proposing an idea. The surface reading of 8A is maybe a little Cyclops-ean? And the anagram for RAP MUSIC to ‘bring’ UP RACISM was very clever.
Many thanks to Monk for an enjoyable puzzle – hopefully I haven’t missed anything obvious/thematic, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 8A | VOYAGE | Put a little nosegay over back passage (6) | passage / reversed hidden word, i.e. ‘a little’ and ‘back’, in ‘nosEGAY OVer’ |
|
| 9A | APPENDIX | Associated Press write papers about Times supplement (8) | supplement / AP (Associated Press) + PEN (write) + DI (id, or papers, about) + X (times) |
|
| 10A | CORNWALL | County Hall’s opening cancelled on order of Crown (8) | county / CORNW (anag, i.e. order, of CROWN) + ( |
|
| 11A | TROWEL | Open drier with right tool (6) | tool / T_OWEL (drier) around (opened by) R (right) |
|
| 12A | STATUE OF LIBERTY | National icon trusty, albeit worried about backing adversary (6,2,7) | national icon / STATU_LIBERTY (anag, i.e. worried, of TRUSTY ALBEIT) around EOF (foe, adversary, backing) |
|
| 13A | LEICESTER SQUARE | Station requires select ground to provide coverage for area (9,6) | (London Underground) station / LEICESTER SQU_RE (anag, i.e. ground, of REQUIRES SELECT) around (covering) A (area) |
|
| 16A | SUGGESTION BOXES | Fights following proposal to make containers for kites? (10,5) | containers for kites? (exploratory suggestions) / SUGGESTION (proposal) + BOXES (fights) |
|
| 19A | GUZZLE | German quietly avoiding problem wolf (6) | wolf / G (German) + ( |
|
| 20A | EYE-LEVEL | Regard flat just over the bridge (3-5) | just over the bridge (of the nose) / EYE (regard) + LEVEL (flat) |
|
| 21A | RAP MUSIC | What might notedly bring up racism? (3,5) | &lit? / RAP MUSIC is an anagram of UP RACISM |
|
| 22A | LEEWAY | Latitude of unknown Scottish well towards the west (6) | latitude / Y (unknown quantity/value) + AWEEL (Scottish for ‘well’, or well then), all reversed, or ‘to the West’ |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | GO FOR THE JUGULAR | Savage to be issued with a rule when moving around prison (2,3,3,7) | savage / GO FOR TH (be issued) with E_ULAR (anag, i.e. when moving, of A RULE) around JUG (prison) |
|
| 2D | MAGNETIC | Attractive lace with marvellous wrapping (8) | attractive / MAG_IC (marvellous) around (wrapping) NET (lace) |
|
| 3D | BEWARE | Conflict in social worker’s mind (6) | mind / BE_E (social worker) around WAR (conflict) |
|
| 4D | HALL OF RESIDENCE | One’s up for living here (4,2,9) | CD? / Someone who ‘goes up’ to university might live in a HALL OF RESIDENCE |
|
| 5D | SPUTNIKS | Satellites set in pods sent up (8) | (Russian) ‘satellites / S_NIKS (skins, or pods, sent up) around PUT (set) |
|
| 6D | IN-JOKE | Half of wrong jabs uncovered — targeted group may get this (2-4) | targeted group might get this / IN J( |
|
| 7D | DIRECTOR-GENERAL | Policeman and clergyman stand above common CEO (8-7) | CEO / DI (Detective Inspector, policeman) + RECTOR (clergyman) + GENERAL (common) |
|
| 14D | SUSPENSE | Apprehension to prosecute former poet after repeated cuts (8) | apprehension / SU( |
|
| 15D | UDOMETER | Rain gauge outside old cathedral is computerised centrally (8) | rain gauge / U_TER (central letters of ‘compUTERised’ around DOME (cathedral, obsolete, i.e. old) |
|
| 17D | GAZUMP | Almost look upon arbitrator to break agreement? (6) | break agreement / GAZ( |
|
| 18D | NEEDLE | Sons keeping clear of unnecessary rivalry (6) | rivalry / NEDLE( |
|
Unlike our blogger I found the bottom half tougher than the top in another great puzzle from Monk
Thanks to him and mc_rapper67
I guess you can also parse 6D with INJURE in place of INJURY, if you take “wrong” as a verb. I went with INJURY though. Didn’t know “dome” as an obsolete term for a cathedral and took ages to see the reverse inclusion for 8a. Spotted the double pangram, apart from that pesky Q.
Quite hard throughout. Was 8a supposed to be an easy starter? It was last one in, fab clue. RAP MUSIC also very good.
Thanks Monk & mc_rapper67
8a was also my last. It’s relatively straightforward once you see it, but the number of cryptic possibilities in the clue and the all-vowel crossing letters make it tough if you don’t spot it quickly.
Thanks to Monk & mc_rapper67 for the excellent puzzle and blog.
Despite being a DNF, I really enjoyed this. Another one to take a long time to see VOYAGE, fooled by the wordplay into thinking about a particular part of the anatomy. I couldn’t get UDOMETER, not thinking of DOME for ‘old cathedral’ (as in Il Duomo in Milan I suppose) and had no hope parsing IN-JOKE which I just guessed. Spotted the pangram but didn’t realise how close it was to a double pangram.
Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Monk
Monk at his best-and that is a high bar
Loved the RAPMUSIC clue
And the rain gauge sent me back to Ripping Yarns
Thanks all for helping me through the day(with honourable mention to Appletons of Jamaica and whoever grew the oranges whose juice blended muchly with the rum.Tempting to have another but bedtime calls
Sporadic blog reader here, even with bloggers in the family! I don’t usually have much to add, but with only a few clues left I saw the potential double pangram and it was only after checking that there was only one J, K and Q in that I got IN JOKE… managed to parse it ok then, but doubt I would have ever had anything down without trying to squeeze those letters in! RAP MUSIC was my favourite, closely followed by VOYAGE. Thanks Monk and mc_rapper67
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 — to whom an unexpected and serendipitous dedication at 21A 🙂 — for the great blog, and to all for your overwhelmingly very positive comments.
The dipangram was never the target, but the {low entries/high AWL} of {22/9.18} was. This ‘score’ was trumped by the {20/9.80} of my FT14493 on 11/12/2013, but that puzzle was 4 letters shy of even a single pangram.
The challenge here was to keep entries as solver-friendly as possible, so I slightly resented using the no-alternative UDOMETER, but included it as its definition is a household concept. But I would not have used a more obscure no-alternative entry with an arcane and baised-to-the-setter definition; then I would have backed out and restarted with easier entries.
It is of course possible to achieve di-, tri-, tetra- and even penta-pangrams by fragmenting the grid into minimally interlinked mini-puzzles and/or introducing more obscure vocabulary, and I guess that there are good programmers in our community could easily automate the creation of {low-entry/high-AWL} multi-pangrams using restricted lists of simpler words.
Thanks again all 😉
Thanks for all the comments and feedback – especially Monk for the detailed and statistical background on the puzzle’s gestation…looks like most enjoyed the challenge, with RAP MUSIC getting favourable mentions, and a close run thing between the reversed/hidden VOYAGE and the targeted IN JOKE for causing the most consternation…
(Monk – I have to admit I didn’t even register the ‘RAP’ connection at 21A – my monicker having more to do with an ancient Latin teacher’s unwillingness (back in the late 70s) to pronounce my surname (move the underscore back one), when he duly anointed me as ‘mc_rapper’ long before I had heard of ‘rap’ music!)
Thanks to Monk for the challenge, and mc_rapper67 for the entertaining blog.
Like Hallow Brink@7, we only got IN JOKE when we realised that we “needed” an extra J and K.
Interestingly, given Monk’s description of UDOMETER as “no-alternative”, we got that answer wrong! We entered UROMETER, on the basis that Rome has an ancient cathedral, and rain may well be a euphemism for urine. Oh well!