As the weather starts to turn for the worse, has Rodriguez a puzzle to provide a pick-me-up as winter approaches.
Very much so and a lovely theme to boot – though not legal pick-me-ups or knock-me-downs.
For the innocent out there weed, herb, tea, upper, speed, acid, mushrooms, kat, crack, snow, pot, coke and grass may appear pretty innocent but for those who dabble in illicit drugs they will be familiar expressions for their weekly shopping list. All are part of across answers and signposted by 8dn – the drugs being smuggled into the across answers.
18ac was my favourite but plenty other candidates.
Nice one Rodriguez – Methinks Walter White would enjoy this one.
Key * anagram; underline definition; DD double definition; Rev. reversed
Across
7 Prod weakling, one out in white bloomers (8)
poke(prod) + weed (weakling) = POKEWEED
9 Disney figure liking men and women in this spot (6)
Here (in this spot) around bi (liking men and women) = HERBIE
10 Sign of being low-rent (4)
DD TEAR
11 Ruining meal that’s eaten cold with mixed gin (10)
supper (meal) around (eaten) c (cold) + (gin)* = SCUPPERING
12 A lot of depressed jockeys, those who are racing (8)
(depressed – d)* = SPEEDERS
13 Cutting papers seized by a military chief (6)
a + CIC (miliray chief) around id (papers) = ACIDIC
15 This is healthy food, yet weight increases wildly (6,9)
but (yet) + ton (weight) + mushrooms (increase wildly) = BUTTON MUSHROOMS
18 Royal hosted by Senior Dean, perhaps (6)
Kate (Royal) in Sr (senior) = SKATER (Christopher)
19 Gee! Crossword setter’s attempt at humour is tacky (8)
G + I’m crack (attempt at humour) = GIMCRACK
22 Currently in south, one may call for a ride in winter (10)
now (currently) in s (south) + mobile(one may call from) = SNOWMOBILE
24 Not initially rash, has success in pool? (4)
spots (rash) – s = POTS
25 Remove carbon from extremely dire fizzy drink (6)
de (extremely dire) + coke (fizzy drink) = DECOKE
26 What gardener may use to sing hit (5,3)
grass (to sing) + box (hit) = GRASS BOX
Down
1 In putsch, this person is to emerge (4,2)
coup (putcsh) arouns me (this person) = COME UP
2 Singer, one in debt, rated poorly (7,3)
(i debt rated)* = BEARDED TIT
3 Take away ease, we hear, for occupier (6)
less (take away) + ee (ease) = LESSEE
4 Injury with two body parts (8)
w (with) + hip + lash (2 body parts) = WHIPLASH
5 British school curriculum? It’s very bitter! (4)
B (British) + RRR (school curriculum) = BRRR
6 9 and I squirming in seat for 730 days (8)
bum (seat) Around (nine+ i)* = BIENNIUM
8 Running that may involve horse or mule or any across answer here? (4,9)
Cryptic double definition of the theme = DRUG SMUGGLING
14 Prism is too peculiar, having uniform properties (10)
(prism is too)* = ISOTROPISM
16 Abroad, a kind of egg is not so nice (8)
un (abroad a) + kinder (kind of egg) = UNKINDER
17 Stood up before person in boat with less space (8)
Rev. Ran (stood) + rower (person in boat) = NARROWER
20 Frenzied woman, European, American rebuffed (6)
Rev. dane (European) + am (American) = MAENAD
21 Politician penning extravagant material (6)
Con (politician) around ott (extravagant) = COTTON
23 Promoters of health spa finally stop (4)
Who (promoters of health) + a (spa finally) = WHOA
My goodness that was tough, tough, tough, but I did enjoy the challenge.
I have long thought that familiarity with drugs terminology is an indispensable part of a setter’s armoury and Rodriguez certainly proves that point today. In fact my knowledge of this topic has been gleaned almost entirely from crosswords. A measure of my education is that KAT is the only one I hadn’t come across before.
Many thanks to Rodriguez and to twencelas.
Thank you to Rodriguez for a nice brain workout with a theme even I could spot without any difficulty.
My favourites were 18a and 16d
Thanks also to twencelas for the blog
Was there a theme?????
Gosh, positively ‘smack’ing us in the face with it, today. And, for once, spotted soon enough for it to be helpful in some of the across clues that were proving tricky. SCUPPERING, HERBIE, BUTTON MUSHROOMS and the delightful SKATER were my faves from a fine list of possibles.
I’m not normally bothered by this but it would have been nice if Rodriguez had clued UNKINDER with a ‘type’ or ‘sort’ of egg rather than a ‘kind’. Ever so slightly smoother to avoid the reoccurrence of kind perhaps?
Thanks Rodriguez and twencelas
he’s good is this lad but I’ve never come across KAT although I knew Torville and Dean
Scag or smack missed out but another belter from JB
I solved this on TEA but it wasnt what was meant in On the Road
Learned a few new things from this one but only one of them – KAT – was drug-related, I’ve obviously been solving too many puzzles from Hoskins!
Top of the pile were SKATER & UNKINDER.
Thanks to Rodriguez and to twencelas for the review.
Phew! And phew again.
Made it, but was very grateful for the theme to help me along in (several) places. Learned a few new drug references – they’ll always come in useful. Enjoyed the misleading hyphen in 10a. Love the word gimcrack. Thanks to Rodriguez and twencelas
I found this surprisingly tough, but very rewarding (cruciverbally speaking of course).
Thanks to Rodriguez and twencelas
There was some discussion on yesterday’s Phi about the low number of comments on the Indy blog. I know it can’t be a full explanation (given the vastly greater numbers for the Guardian), but there must be others like me who usually do the weekday crosswords too late in the day to usefuly comment (in fact I only got round to yesterday’s puzzle this morning). The blogs are still much appreciated.
I made a bit of a hash of this at first but whizzed through it in the end.
This took a while but we got there in the end, and we only saw the theme right at the end when we got 8dn enabling us to get GIMCRACK as our LOI. Thanks, Rodriguez and twencelas.
PS. If you like this setter’s puzzles his alter ego, Buccaneer, is in the FT today.
Can someone enlighten me please on 17d about how Rev. ran (tood) fits with the clue? Thanks.
Bill @10 should say stood as in for parliament
I’ve been out all day, so I’ll just say, ‘What Rabbit Dave and crypticsue et al said’.
(allan_c @9 – You can’t have more than one ‘alter ego’ but we also had Rodriguez as Picaroon in the Guardian yesterday, so those of us who like his puzzles are well and truly spoilt.)
The top left of this totally defeated me. Never heard of POKEWEED and neither Kate nor Torvill and Dean came to mind in 18ac.
Never heard of a grass box. Google suggests it’s a kind of doggy toilet (down under at least), so not very specific to gardening. I’d think if you went to the trouble of making a planter box, grass (lawn, not drugs) is the last thing you’d plant in it.
GreginSyd, if you’re still here: a grass box is the thing that goes on the back of a mower to collect the cuttings.
Now, when I were a lad in the early seventies and was working part time on the parks, the grass box was clipped to the front of the mower and had cuttings flung into it by the cylinder.
Defeat 🙁 just couldn’t get on JBs wavelength today and had to reveal a couple, still very impressive to get all the drug refs in and not resort to single clueing for ‘E’.
Thanks both
Thanks Simon at 15. We call that the grass catcher.