Crosophile fills the mid-week slot this week.
It was immediately obvious that there was a theme to this puzzle, with 8 clues referring to 14ac – the gateway clue. Fortunately, as we are not totally au fait with astronomy and star-gazing, the themed entries were also given ‘normal’ definitions – we had never come across the 14s at 7ac, 6d or 15d. The others were more familiar as signs of the Zodiac.
An enjoyable solve, with neat clues and only one word which was not immediately familiar to us (14d) – although we felt we had heard of it at some point in time. We had to do some electronic searching for 11ac – much as we like James Taylor, we hadn’t come across this particular album before.
PEACe (quiet) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ + OK (in order) round or ‘keeping’ C (cold) – the first of many 14s
DEE (a letter) round VOTE (election)
fAST RALly without ‘fly’
A (rather obscure) clue-as-definition: an anagram (‘?’) of SLIM DUDE, referring to James Taylor’s album ‘Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon’
Hidden (‘some’) in iMAGInation
GEMS (stones) in STRATA (rock layers) could be described as STRATA GEMS
C (first or ‘foremost’ letter of celebrity) and an anagram (‘cavorting’) of LOT ON AN ISLET – the gateway to the theme
P (page) REV (revised) AILING (poorly)
Another clue-as-definition: C (caught) + BAR (sandbank) reversed or ‘flipped’ – a very neat clue
Double definition
MEN (Federer and Nadal, examples of male tennis players) ACE (serve well)
I (one) CL (hundred and fifty) with CUBE (die, the singular of dice) outside
INTER (bury) round EG (maybe) – nothing to do with 6d or 7ac!
An anagram (‘dodgy’) of HIS AGE
An anagram (‘in collapse’) of POOR SINCe without the ‘e’ (last letter of ‘fortune’) – neat misdirection with ‘stingy’ meaning ‘having a sting’ rather than tight-fisted
Double definition: the second a reference to minor SCALES in music
END (death) in or ‘parting’ VET (veteran – ‘old soldier’) + TA (army volunteers)
DG (Dei Gratia – ‘by the grace of God’) with OGLE (look) inside
HER (the lady’s) + an anagram (‘nuts’) of S, M (first letters or ‘samples’ of skimmed milk) and AND
SILLY (stupid) RAM (sheep) in or ‘trapped by’ SEA (tide) all reversed or ‘on the rise’
An anagram (‘sorry’) of CURMUDgeON with ‘GE’ (Georgia, the country) omitted or ‘leaving’
An anagram (‘faulty’) of ALTERING
Double definition
VIR (Queen Victoria – Victoria Imperatrix Regina) GIN (spirit)
GEM (jewel) IN (within) I (unit)
Someone who is ‘more of a rogue’ could be described as being ‘more arch’, or ARCHER
I was fortunate in that I’d just been reading about rubies, sapphires (and emeralds) on Wikipedia so CORUNDUM was one of my first in. My knowledge of CONSTELLATION(s) extends to the Southern Cross and not much further, but the wordplay for the thematic clues was helpful so I managed to get this out. No hope of parsing the ‘James Taylor’ clue, but the answer seemed likely with the crossers in place.
Lots to like – the surface for 1d, the surface and tricky parsing of AMARYLLISES (if I had come across the word before I’d forgotten), the ’14 might be stingy’ def. for 2d and the almost a double def ARCHER.
Thanks to Crosophile and B&J
I couldn’t parse 24A or 6D, so thanks for the explanations. Astronomy was my ‘topic’ at primary school, so I got to know these constellations well, which helped. I only got 11A by searching James Taylor online. Thanks Crosophile and B&J.
The theme provided a mix of helpful clues as well as some more obscure ones. CRAB, AMARYLLISES and DOGLEG were my favourites. HERDSMAN maybe a bit convoluted. MUD SLIDE was clever but over my head – I just couldn’t conceive of any other anagram for slim dude.
The noted novelist could be thought of as more of a rogue.
Good puzzle, and blog. Thanks to both.
Nearly didn’t attempt this, having got the solver- friendly gateway clue, and knowing very little of astronomy, but I’m glad I pushed on. Favourites were the sting-y item and the writer cum rogue. Thanks to Crosophile and Bertandjoyce
Thanks, Bertandjoyce and for the other comments.
I thought Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon was better known than seems to be the case. Maybe you need to have been a student in the early 70s when everyone had a copy in their little room! 🙂
I was very keen on astronomy as a teenager so I knew a lot of the constellations, but often by their scientific names.
Just couldn’t see 25ac.
Charybdis@6: I was a student in the seventies and had never even heard of James Taylor. My record collection was all Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Ives. 🙂
Charybdis (I assume Crosophile) @ 6
The only two James Taylor albums I know the titles of are Sweet Baby James & Mud Slide Slim. I was a student in the early/mid 70s but never owned them as I loathed that confessional singer-songwriter style. Loads of people I knew had them though.
Simon @9, I was one of those and I still have these two albums on CD.
But, yes, in hindsight, even I find them rather soft.
And I was a softie in those days!
Mud Slide Slim though contains James Taylor’s best-known hit You’ve Got A Friend, written by Carole King.
Anyway, for me, 11ac was actually a write-in (as was the key clue at 14ac).
Trying to properly parse it was unfortunately one step too far.
I can see the whole-clue-definition but wasn’t too happy with only a “?” at the end to indicate the anagram.
Adding a neutral indicator like ‘perhaps’ would have done the trick for me, I think.
As to the rest of this crossword, I found it a mixture of the easy & the difficult, of which I had trouble to properly explain 6dn (HERDSMAN).
The usual thanks to Bertandandjoyce and Crosophile.
Crosophile here. Don’t know who that Charybdis imposter is at #6! 😀 😀
James Taylor sounds like a nice guy but I confess I’m actually with Simon S at #9. Mud Slide was a bit bland for my liking [I was more into blues, Soft Machine, Neil Young and Gong] but it was hard to avoid him then – unless like Dormouse you were following the classical route.