Independent 10,978 by Methuselah (Saturday Puzzle 18 December 2021)

by

Methuselah seems to be a new Indy setter on the block – with a few Indy and IOS puzzles blogged on this site since about April this year…although with a name like that, you’d have thought they’d been around for ages!

<drum roll bu-dum, hi-hat tschhh> I’m here all week!…

Given that I only solve Saturday ones, and usually only the ones I am blogging, this means this is definitely my first Methuselah solve…and a very enjoyable one it was too.

After the Cyclops-ean eyebrow-raising surface read at 1A, 9A NASA was my first one in. I was helped here by the fact that I blogged a similar homophonic double definition, for the other side of the homophone, in the latest Cyclops puzzle. (I don’t think this is too much of a spoiler, as that puzzle is well past its deadline date.)

It took several passes to get a good foothold in the grid, and there were some enjoyable moments along the way.

My favourite clue was probably 10A AVA GARDNER, with some clever and recently-topical misdirection towards a more current ‘Rooney’, and the handbags-at-dawn WAG-spat between his wife and Jamie Vardy’s wife. Closely followed by 16D CO-HOSTS, with Hammond and May from Top Gear diverting us towards the politicians with the same names. Mentions in dispatches also go to 1A COITUS and 1D CHARMED LIFE.

(I’m sure other solvers will have had their own favourites – check in the comments below!)

LOI – last one in – was IRATE at 2D. Wonderfully simple with hindsight! And LOP – last one parsed – was 12A SILVERED, which had to be that from the crossers and definition, but it took me ages to ‘split’ aged into ‘Ag’ and ‘ed’.

 

 

All in all, a very enjoyable solve. I couldn’t see any particular theme or Nina, but happy to be corrected.

Many thanks to Methuselah, and I hope all is clear below…

Across
Clue No Solution Clue Definition (with occasional embellishments) /
Logic/parsing
1A COITUS Lovemaking superpower shown by one in bed (6) lovemaking /
CO_T (bed) around I (one) + US (political superpower?!)
4A BONOBO Bishop running rings round second-rate primate (6) primate (of the animal kind, rather than the church!) /
B (bishop, chess notation) + ON (running) + O_O (rings) around B (second-rate)
9A NASA Far-flung travel agency picked up old colonel from Egypt (4) homophonic double defn! /
homophone, i.e. picked up: NASA (a ‘far-flung travel’ agency!) can sound like NASSER (Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian military ruler from the 50s to the 70s – not sure if he was really a colonel?
10A AVA GARDNER Rooney’s wife resolved anger with a Vardy with no end of ingenuity (3,7) (Mickey, not Wayne!) Rooney’s wife /
anag, i.e. resolved, of ANGER + VARD(Y) – with no Y, the end letter of ingenuitY
11A AMOEBA Romeo leaves his love half naked in a cell (6) cell /
AMO(R)E (Italian, i.e. Romeo’s, for love, losing R – Romeo) + BA(RE) (half of bare, or naked)
12A SILVERED Aged following split and went grey (8) went grey /
if you split ‘aged’ in half, you get Ag (SILVER) + ED!
13A ADHERENCE Being faithful, new church gets behind Christian era on Earth (9) being faithful /
AD (Anno Domini, Christan era) + HERE (on earth) + N (new) + CE (Church of England)
15A APES Parrots pushing third of seeds to front (4) parrots (as in copies) /
PEAS (seeds) pushing the third letter – A – to the front = APES!
16A ACRE Some land a part in Layer Cake after being called back (4) some land /
reversed, hidden word, i.e. ‘a part in’ and ‘after being called back’, in layER CAke’
17A LUNCHEONS Heavy hitters from police taking Labour leader for oddly Tory meals (9) meals /
(TR)UNCHEONS (heavy hitters!) removing TR (odd letters of ToRy) and putting L (leading letter of Labour) in their place
21A SKI-PLANE Avoid road using this, maybe (3-5) ‘this’ (a mode of transport not using roads!) /
SKIP (avoid) + LANE (road)
22A HAMLET Terribly useless Methuselah cut a tragic figure (6) a tragic figure /
anag, i.e. terribly, of METH(USE)LA(H) – without the H (cut short) or USE (use-less!)
24A CANDIDATES Would-be politicians have blunt, sharing the last of it with girlfriends (10) would-be politicians /
CANDID (blunt, open) + DATES (girlfriends), merged together and sharing the D = CANDIDATES
25A LIFE See 1 Down (10) see 1D /
see 1D
26A DOSING A pair of Spaniards in German administration (6) administration (of medicine) /
DOS (two, a pair, in Spanish) + IN + G (German)
27A ASSAIL Malign American’s behind trouble (6) malign /
ASS (American’s behind) + AIL (trouble)
Down
Clue No Solution Clue Definition (with occasional embellishments) /
Logic/parsing
1D CHARMED & 25 Remake of ER filmed down under leaves a lot to be desired (7,4) a lot (as in fate) to be desired /
CHA (tea, or leaves) on top of RMED LIFE (anag, i.e. remake, of ER FILMED
2D IRATE Mad judge could give such a short sentence (5) mad (as in angry) /
a judge might say, briefly, ‘I RATE’!
3D UNAWARE In the dark and naked on the moon before delivery of some clothes (7) in the dark /
(L)UNA(R) (lunar, on the moon, naked – without its outer letters) + WARE (homophone, i.e. delivery of some: depending on regional accents, WARE can sound like WEAR – clothes)
5D ORALLY Love Actually expresses a point in speech (6) in speech /
O (zero, love, score in tennis) + R(E)ALLY (actually, losing, or expressing, E – a compass point)
6D OLD PEOPLE Are they wrinkly after another length in deep pool, perhaps? (3,6) are they wrinkly? /
OLD PEOP_E (anag, i.e. perhaps, of DEEP POOL) around L (length)
7D OPENERS They might take bungs off leading cricketers (7) double defn. /
bottle OPENERS might take bungs out; and the OPENERS in cricket come out to bat first, so could be leading
8D MASSACHUSETTS US state littered with chasms – not this one (13) ‘this one’ (US state) /
anag, i.e. littered, of US STATE CHASMS – I’m not familiar with the state, but presumably it doesn’t have any major chasms?!
14D EURIPIDES Old dramatist’s peculiar ire used to inspire one of his characters (9) old (Greek) dramatist /
EURI_DES (anag, i.e. peculiar, of IRE USED) around PI (a Greek letter, so a ‘character’ Euripides would have used in writing his plays!)
16D AWKWARD Troublesome warmonger abandons front before charge (7) troublesome /
(H)AWK (warmonger, abandoning first, or front, letter) + WARD (charge)
18D CO-HOSTS Expenses overwhelming department under Patel, Hammond and May? (2-5) Hammond and May (the TV presenters, not the politicians!) /
CO_STS (expenses) around (overwhelming) HO (the Home Office, department currently under Priti Patel)
19D NEEDFUL It’s imperative to get under end of quilt every so often (7) it’s imperative /
alternate letters, i.e. every so often, of ‘uNdEr EnD oF qUiLt’
20D PARDON What kind of academic follows standard from St Andrews’ course? (6) what? /
PAR (standard score from St Andrews golf course) + DON (academic)
23D MALTA Island’s in the grip of dismal tabloids (5) island /
hidden word in, i.e. in the grip of, ‘disMAL TAbloids’

24 comments on “Independent 10,978 by Methuselah (Saturday Puzzle 18 December 2021)”

  1. What a joy solving this. Managed to complete this one without cheats so probably a bit easier than the last one.

    Liked the AG ED split and thought the construction for OLD PEOPLE made this my pick of the bunch. The sneaky definition in 20d also gets a thumbs up from me.

    Can’t see MASSACHUSETTS without thinking of the old BeeGees hit and the “mass o’ chew sets” gag referring to their prominent teeth.

  2. Unlike the Rapper, 1 across was my first solution and I wondered if that would set the tone for the remainder of the puzzle. Some relief when it turned out not to be so!

    I enjoyed Methuselah’s constructions pretty much throughout and there were some sneaky but delightful definitions. The ‘lot to be desired’ was super (I was sure the leaves were CHARD (having initially thought COS) but couldn’t make the anagram work for the rest). PARDON for ‘what’ tickled me and CO-HOSTS was brilliant misdirection. The surfaces for UNAWARE and ORALLY are both splendid. DOSING is deceptively simple, LUNCHEONS employed a neat device and ADHERENCE was cleverly assembled beneath a cogent surface. Having mentioned half the clues (I’m indulging myself as, not being a fan of Special Instructions, I feel I’ve been denied the G Prize this morning!), I have two contenders for COTD: HAMLET for the nice self reference, brilliant creation and neat surface along with our blogger’s favourite, AVA GARDNER for the topical misdirection.

    Thanks Methuselah and MC

  3. Lots of fine clues here; so much so that it’s hard to single out any particular one. We were led up the Gardner path by the Rooneys, and by Hammond and May. Methuselah definitely our favourite Indy setter, what a treat!
    Thanks Methusalah and Mc_rapper

  4. Just to add to my previous comment, like PostMark I did enjoy UNAWARE & HAMLET, which were runners-up for my COTD. The fact that 4a didn’t make any reference to a U2 singer’s aroma should perhaps be applauded. I did notice Basil hiding in row 5 – those hotel rats get everywhere.

  5. Hovis has already said exactly what I would have including the BeeGees reminder .

    I loved the puzzle and Ava Gardner was a stunner clue (as well as in life) 😀

    Thanks all.

  6. Not as tough as Methuselah’s previous five puzzles, but more than enough to keep us interested and entertained. I missed the contemporary cultural (using the word loosely) references for the AVA GARDNER clue and didn’t do the required lifting and separating for the excellent SILVERED.

    Favourite was the SKIP LANE. My last one in, and a few hours later parsed, was IRATE. I’d toyed with another answer for some time before finally having to admit that judges don’t “nane”!

    Thanks to Methuselah and mc_rapper67

  8. Thanks Methuselah and mc_rapper67

    According to wikipedia, Nasser was a lieutenant colonel at the time of the Egyptian coup.

  9. A great crossword, but I needed the blog to appreciate it all. I have always known the Egyptian leader as Colonel Nasser, so once I had abandoned the idea of trying Egyptian kernels (teff etc.), that was one of the few answers that came easily to mind. Thanks to both setter and blogger.

  11. I didn’t think this was easier than Methusaleh’s previous ones.
    Not in my perception, anyway.
    But it was a crossword that I enjoyed a lot more, showing more finesse.
    I actually thought this was very good.
    Despite still not getting why 8dn contains ‘not’.
    And despite of not liking ‘third of seed’ being [pe]A[s] – for me, it is more [se]E[d].
    Oh, and ‘have’ in 24ac.
    One’s FOI is another’s LO(not)I – 9ac.
    That’s mainly because someone originally from the other side of the North Sea – like me – would pronounce ‘Nasser’ and ‘NASA’ totally differently.
    Favourites: AVA GARDNER (10ac), SKI-PLANE (21ac) and CO-HOSTS (18dn) – but there was more!
    Thanks to mc_rapper & Methusaleh.

  13. Methuselah is definitely at the outer limits of my abilities, so thanks to her/him for the work-out. I finished this, but a fair amount went in un or partially parsed, so even more thanks to mc_rapper for the excellent blog.
    Mickey Rooney married so many times that you could half fill a grid just with the names of his wives.

  15. Thanks for all the comments and feedback – much appreciated, as usual. Looks like all commenters enjoyed this one – apart from Sil’s minor quibbles, maybe.

    Simon S and Petert at #8/9 – thanks for the confirmation on the rank of Nasser – I’m sure I knew that in the recesses of my mind, I just couldn’t confirm it when I was writing up the blog. You’d have thought he would have given himself a bit of a promotion once he was in charge…

    Hovis at #1 – as a borderline ‘old person’ (is 54 old?) who swims a lot, I took mock umbrage at the implications of 6D and couldn’t include it as a favourite!

    Sil at #11 – for 8D, my parsing included the suggestion that maybe Mass. is a bit boring geographically, so it does ‘not’ contain any chasms?; for the homophone at 9A I did say that NASA ‘could’ sound like Nasser – I’ve had my share of ‘differently accented’ people complaining about homophones before; in 24A I took the ‘have’ as just being a connecting word, to help with the surface read, although the surface read is maybe a bit clunky – what does ‘have blunt’ mean?!; at 15A, I wrote in APES from crossers/definition and then reverse parsed it, so PEAS seemed an obvious choice for ‘seeds’, but if you had no crossers it is a bit of a sideways jump.

  17. James at #16 – I live and learn! That explains the ‘having’ and the ‘sharing’ in the surface read at 24A…

  19. Thanks, Sil – I used ‘having’ as a generic term. The clue surface read gives ‘Would-be politicians have (cannabis-filled cigar), sharing the last of it with girlfriends‘, so the ‘have’ makes sense as there are multiple politicians having one cigar between them. And in the parsing, the ‘have’ is a connecting word between the definition and the wordplay.
    Anyway, let’s close this correspondence and move on to the smorgasbord of festive special puzzles heading our way this week…

  21. It’s okay that clue, but not for the reason MCR states, as for the purposes of cryptic grammar (i.e. the correct application of English grammar to clue construction) the definition should be regarded as singular. However, if ‘have’ is seen as the infinitive, we’re there: solvers should ‘have’ CANDID sharing its last D with DATES.

  23. Thanks, beermagnet at #20 – that’s not really something I have got into, but I might give it a watch.

    paul b and Sil at #21/22 – I’ll get my coat…

  24. Dear MCR, don’t get your coat!
    Most solvers look at ‘have’ the way you did.
    And will have no problems whatsoever with it.
    There are also quite a few setters who don’t see the problem either.
    So, is there a problem then?
    This is basically about mixing up the surface reading of a clue with the right cryptic grammar.
    I am one of a (nowadays) minority who really cares about that.
    Meanwhile, Paul made clear that the clue as such is okay – something that I missed.

Comments are closed.