Independent 10,990 by Alchemi

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This was mostly fairly easy but with a couple of stinkers.

17 defeated me. The first word was obvious enough but I couldn't work out what the second was supposed to be. 29 was one of those bizarre phrases that theoretically exists but doesn't seem to be used much in practice.

ACROSS
1 MOTHER TO BE
Could make both meteor and woman pregnant (6-2-2)

(Both meteor)*
6 SCAR
Frightening cut to cause permanent damage (4)

Scar[y]
9 NAIVETE
North American doctor that’s preserving innocence (7)

N(orth} A{merican} + vet in i.e.
10 FRAILER
Artist gets in line with resistance weaker (7)

RA in file + r{esistance}
12 PLAYED IT UP
Made a lot of something pie-lady put out (6,2,2)

(Pie lady put)*
13
See 23

15 TETCHY
Irritable gut, etc, hypodermically controlled (6)

Hidden in gut etc hypodermically
16 REVENANT
Ghost never returns a book (8)

Never< + a NT
18 CUB SCOUT
Member of pack cut without degree at Open University (3,5)

Cut around (BSc + O{pen} U{university})
20 BIGWIG
Musk, perhaps one worn by the Prince Regent (6)

DD. I think it refers to Elon Musk and the sort of oversized wigs worn during the Regency period.
23/13 SEASON
Salt spring? (6)

DD
24 WIZARD OF OZ
Character with antelope from Australia (6,2,2)

W{ith} + izard (a type of chamois) + of Oz(=from Australia)
26 TALLY HO
Fox over there at Holly roundabout (5-2)

(At holly)* – tally ho is a hunting call made after the prey is spotted.
27 MADE WAY
Mother went off course, reflected and stepped aside (4,3)

Ma + yawed<. Yaw is a term for a ship or other vehicle changing course.
28 TIDE
Note about unconscious trend (4)

Te(=note from doh,re, mi) around Id. Te is normally spelt ti but this seems to be allowed as a variant.
29 BETTER-TO-DO
Having more money a wiser course of action (6-2-2)

DD. This would be a comparative version of "well-to-do", although it's not a phrase I've ever heard anyone use.
DOWN
1 MINT
Brand new herb (4)

DD
2 TRIPLET
Musical figure featured by Mott the Hoople (7)

Triplet is a musical term referring to three notes played inside another note length, so I think that is the def. The other part refers to there being three Ts (triple-T) in Mott the Hoople.
3 EVERY WHICH WAY
Why I cry? We have corruption all over the place (5,5,3)

(Why I cry we have)*
4 TREADS
Walks poorly-rated by Sun (6)

Rated* + s{un}
5 BEFITTED
Was appropriate to be almost more athletic in bed (8)

Fitte[r] in bed
7 CELESTA
Instrument online in case accountant comes round (7)

(E(=general prefix for online things) + lest(=in case)) in C{hartered} A{ccountant}
8 RARING TO GO
Primed for action, gunners surround country (6,2,2)

RA(=Royal Artillery) + ring + Togo
11 APPLE-PIE ORDER
Pale pipe suggests neatness (5-3,5)

(Pale pie)* = re-order of apple-pie
14 STICKS AT IT
What I did with exam after bear persists (6,2,2)

Sat it(=what I did with exam) after stick(=bear, as in "I can't stick it much longer")
17 FUZZ TONE
Police track beginning with a guitar effect (4,4)

Not sure on this. Police is fuzz and maybe the "track beginning with a" refers to the tonic scale (starting with note A).
19 BRAWLED
Drained, sore internally having fought (7)

Bled around raw
21 WHO’S WHO
Show how to change reference book (4,3)

(Show how)*
22 PROMPT
Concert percussionist drawn on time (6)

Appears to be prom(=concert) + p[ercussionis]t, although I'm not quite sure why drawn means removing the middle – perhaps in the sense of drawing letters out of it.
25 GYRO
Greek dish of stodgy roulade (4)

Hidden in stodgy roulade. I'd never heard of gyro but it seems to be similar to a kebab.

24 comments on “Independent 10,990 by Alchemi”

  2. This was good fun on the whole with a small number of minor difficulties. I have never seen a puzzle with so many (6,2,2) or (6-2-2) answers. Is there a reason for this?

    I took the second word of 17d to be T (“Track beginning”) plus ONE (“a”). Strictly speaking “Hoople” in 2d is padding but I suppose it could be argued that “Mott the Hoople” is a single entity. Like Neal, I don’t understand the derivation of PT in 22d.

    Thanks to Alchemi and to Neal.

  4. I took ‘drawn’ in 22d to be as in “hung, drawn and quartered” as per Jayjay @3. Definitely not nice.

    BETTER-TO-DO and FUZZ TONE were both new, but not hard to make a stab at. I couldn’t parse BIGWIG for which your explanation now makes sense. I liked the “reverse” APPLE-PIE ORDER.

    Pleasant way to start the week apart from that reminder of the less than pleasant punishment at 22d!

    Thanks to Alchemi and NealH

  5. A quick note to endorse Andrew and RD for T+ONE and Jayjay for the eviscerated percussionist. The former was my last to drop. I wondered whether the various 2-2’s constituted a theme or a gimmick. We’re at the beginning of 20 2-2 but that doesn’t seem like the solution.

    I did raise both eyebrows during this: I thought YAW was one of the three motions of a ship, along with pitch and roll as opposed to going off course and a REVENANT is surely more a zombie than a ghost – a reanimated corpse. Finally, BIGWIG seems quite a weak clue (Musk seems more of a bighead to me!) Though more than made up for by RARING TO GO – I’m not sure I’ve seen Togo used in that way before. I had no issue with the appearance of Hoople – containment clues often include something that is strictly superfluous but makes for a smoother surface and I did like the TRIPLE-T.

    Thanks Alchemi and Neal

  6. Thanks, Jayjay @3. I had always thought that the “drawn” part of hung, drawn and quartered referred to dragging the miscreant to his place of execution behind a horse, which is the interpretation given in Britannica online. However, I have just found some other sources which suggest that “drawn” can also mean “eviscerated” in this context. Not a pleasant death …

  7. PostMark@5. I don’t think YAW is involved in 3d. “All over the place” is the definition, and the answer is an anagram of the first five words as explained by Neal.

  8. Completed without much trouble, apart from 29a. Has anybody out there, apart from Alchemi, heard of BETTER-TO-DO? Not the compilers of any of my dictionaries it would seem.

  9. Sorry RD: I was referring to 27ac MADE WAY.

    I’m also surprised that Britannica suggests drawing by horse as part of ‘hung, drawn and quartered’. The drawing bit – the evisceration AND the burning of said parts in front of the dying victim – has always seemed the goriest method of execution and firmly comes in the middle.

  10. A further note on the punishment, having done a quick bit of research. Some of the earliest recordings of hanging, drawing and quartering DO include accounts that the victims were drawn to their place of execution by horse (attached to a horse’s tail in one case) but that isn’t the ‘drawing’ element of the punishment.

  11. The Nice’s drummer(werent they great) had a band called Every Which Way
    And there is Who’s Who- Humble Pie Order?
    Never heard of FUZZ TONE -FUZZ BOX yes I seem to remember a certain Hot Rod enthusiast and collector who also played a guitar
    A couple of sub par musicians were struggling with a riff on a sitar when Mr Beck picked up a Tele and put it through the fuzz box and nailed it in one.

  12. Mixed bag and DNF for us today. We cheated on FUZZ TONE even after Scottish Labradoodle was trying not to overthink various guitar effects; I agree with copmus @11. Also had to cheat on PROMPT as we were convinced ‘time’ = T and fell to googling concert percussionists.

    Favourite clues were WIZARD OF OZ (although the animal was new to us) and TRIPLET.

    Thanks Alchemi and NealH!

  14. No probs RD and, having thought hard about it, if pitching is the up and down of prow and stern and rolling is the side to side motion that would make a mast sway sideways then yawing is the ‘wiggling’ from side to side of prow and stern which, I guess, is taking the vessel ever so lightly off course with each ‘wig’. One eyebrow lowered.

  15. PM – your remaining eyebrows will have to be raised at the dictionaries, not the setter. According to both Collins online and Chambers YAW has more than one meaning. From the former:
    2. (intransitive)
    (of a ship, etc) to deviate temporarily from a straight course.

    (I also think it could be used to describe the action you have to take to read the Indy clues just now.)

    Don’t think I’ve come across a theme based on enumeration before. Thanks to Alchemi and NealH.

  16. In Morse code dah-dit-dit is the letter D, and the dah is supposed to be three times longer than the dit. There are 6 x 6-2-2 (dah-dit-dit) clues, and they form a regular pattern in the grid. Further than that I cannot go. Just a thought. Very enjoyable, so thanks Alchemi and NealH.

  17. Happy New Year all.

    This puzzle was Alchemi 622. I have difficulty starting grids, so putting a bunch of 6-2-2s in seemed like a decent way to start one off.

  18. 622 puzzles Blimey. Not bad for a third rate setter. Thanks Michael hopefully we’ll meet again soon.

  19. Thanks Alchemi, that was enjoyable. Really enjoyed MADE WAY, TIDE, FUZZ TONE, and the economy of SEASON. Couldn’t parse TRIPLET, CELESTA, or PROMPT so thanks to NealH and the blog for the help.

  20. And the comedy gold award for today goes to the Flash for making me spit out my beer with his friendly and purposefully inaccurate bants.

    As for the crossie, 3 & 5d tickled this reporter the most today. Lovely stuff. 🙂

  21. Just as a matter of information, the first recorded use of “better-to-do” to mean “more wealthy” was in 1860, according to Merriam-Webster.

  23. Left it far too late to comment on the right day but had to pop in to set my mind at rest over the second part of 17d which had defeated me. I’ll take the word of others that it a) works as a clue and b) actually exists!

    Well done, Alchemi, for getting so many puzzles under your belt and thanks to Neal et al for the FUZZ TONE.

  24. No-one’ll read this now I’m sure; fairly easy and fun, but…in forty years of recording music, many, many hours in studios and playing in bands, often as guitarist, I’ve never hard the phrase fuzz tone. 🙂

    Thanks Alchemi and Neal.

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