Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 8, 2022
This is our first puzzle by Gaff in our weekend slot for nearly three years and serves to mark the 74th anniversary of the birth of David Bowie. My first-in was 3 (OBOE) and I quickly filled most of the top-left quadrant with 2 (LETS DANCE) leading me to identify the anniversarian. One could easily complete the puzzle without knowing anything about David Bowie but spotting this early was a help for me. My favourites are 4 (CALLISTO), 15 (SUNLESS) and 17 (CHAIN GANG).
I had a bit of trouble completing my last four clues in the bottom-right: 18 (RELEASER), 25 (KNEE), 26 (CIAO) and 30 (LODGER), and I suspect others may have too. The answer to 18 is an obscure term and 30 strikes me as a difficult clue. I think 25 and 26 are decent clues but 26 took me a while, which it perhaps should not have. That is, first, because I speak a good bit of Italian and so am very familiar with the word ciao and, second, because we had an essentially identical clue in a Mudd puzzle back in 2020.
I am at a bit of a disadvantage in spotting Bowie-related answers in this puzzle because while I very much like some bits of his work, there is also a lot of it that I am barely familiar with. (“Absolute Beginners” is perhaps my all-time favourite movie musical and I also especially like “The Hunger”.) So I may be missing a few but here are the ones I am sure of:
YOUNG AMERICANS (27 and 28)
PRESSURE (29) for “Under Pressure”
LODGER (30)
STARDUST (1dn)
LET’S DANCE (2)
LIFE ON MARS (6)
SPACE ODDITY (7 and 8)
REBELS (9) referring to “Rebel Rebel”
HEROES (21)
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SALLOW |
Everything in plant is sickly (6)
|
| ALL (everything) in (in) SOW (plant) | ||
| 4 | CALLISTO |
Moon’s typical list of contents (8)
|
| Hidden word (contents) | ||
| 10 | AUTHORESS |
Spark, for example, was hot, as user ordered (9)
|
| Anagram (ordered) of HOT AS USER with the definition referring to Muriel Spark | ||
| 11 | FRAUD |
Con artist oddly found outside (5)
|
| RA (artist) in (outside) F[o]U[n]D | ||
| 12 | DADO |
Rail disasters affirm dishonesty of leaders (4)
|
| D[istaters] A[ffirm] D[ishonesty] O[f] | ||
| 13 | BENEVOLENT |
Kind of live appliance returned fast time (10)
|
| BE (live) + OVEN (appliance) backwards (returned) + LENT (fast time) | ||
| 15 | SUNLESS |
Loses heart if not dark (7)
|
| [lo]S[es] + UNLESS (if not) | ||
| 16 | SUMACH |
Philosopher from the east with hot spice (6)
|
| CAMUS (philosopher) backwards (from the east) + H (hot). I am more used to this being called SUMAC but Collins tells me that this is American usage and the usual British spelling is SUMACH. | ||
| 19 | VELCRO |
Held by novel crochet fastening (6)
|
| Hidden word (held by) | ||
| 21 | HERBAGE |
Leaves woman’s luggage at finishing line (7)
|
| HER (woman’s) + BAG (luggage) + [lin]E | ||
| 23 | TETRAHEDRA |
Ruins rather date pyramids (10)
|
| Anagram (ruins) of RATHER DATE. I originally made a comment here about tetrahedra not strictly being pyramids. I must now acknowledge that I was wrong in this matter and thank commenters for correcting me. | ||
| 25 | KNEE |
Part with cap taken in protest (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | YOUNG |
Inexperienced solver no good to start with (5)
|
| YOU (solver) + N[o] G[ood] | ||
| 28 | AMERICANS |
“Go away from Reaganomics” ordered citizens (9)
|
| Anagram (ordered) of REA[g]AN[o]MICS | ||
| 29 | PRESSURE |
Force squash to flower (8)
|
| PRESS (squash) + URE (flower, i.e. the river Ure) | ||
| 30 | LODGER |
She has room in vest at either end (6)
|
| LODGE (vest) + [eithe]R | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STARDUST |
Romantic-feeling song (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | LETS DANCE |
Invitation to trip that’s select and varied (4,5)
|
| Anagram (varied) of SELECT AND | ||
| 3 | OBOE |
Instrument geobotanist turned up (4)
|
| Reverse (turned up) hidden word | ||
| 5 | ABSCESS |
Growth of sailors’ tax (7)
|
| ABS (sailor) + CESS (tax). ‘Cess’ is a new word to me can refer to certain special taxes such as a Scottish land tax. | ||
| 6 | LIFE ON MARS |
Sailormen cavorting with female being other-worldy (4,2,4)
|
| Anagram (cavorting) of SAILORMEN F | ||
| 7 | SPACE |
Bar room (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | ODDITY |
Old German song missing the start creates curiosity (6)
|
| O (old) + D (German) + DIT[t]Y (song missing T[he]) | ||
| 9 | REBELS |
Resistance holds bridgehead in winds (6)
|
| B[ridgehead] in (in) REELS (winds) | ||
| 14 | SEA CHANGES |
All spirits left out after spiritual leader’s transformations (3,7)
|
| S[piritual] + EACH (all) + ANG[l]ES (spirits left out) | ||
| 17 | CHAIN GANG |
Well connected rock group? (5,4)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | RELEASER |
Letter about first animal stimulus (8)
|
| RE (about) + LEASER (letter). New to me, a ‘releaser’ is a stimulus serving as the initiator of complex reflex behavior. | ||
| 20 | OPEN AIR |
Frank gets strain outside (4-3)
|
| OPEN (frank) + AIR (strain) | ||
| 21 | HEROES |
Leads injured horse across finishing line (6)
|
| [lin]E in (across) anagram (injured) of HORSE | ||
| 22 | STAY UP |
Defer settling for a football team’s modest ambition (4,2)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | TRUCE |
Suspension structure with pieces of rust removed (5)
|
| [s]TRUC[tur]E | ||
| 26 | CIAO |
Heard dog’s greeting (4)
|
| Homophone of “chow” (dog) |
Thanks
For me a new setter (I was not even glancing at the crossword last time Gaff was in the weekend slot). So, it was a bit of a struggle for me to parse several clues.
Thanks as always to Pete for helping me come to grips with them. In particular, I failed to see a few of the double definitions (for example, STARDUST, KNEE and STAY UP). For KNEE, I do not quite understand how “taken in protest” means KNEE and I tentatively offer an anagram (taken = keen) as an alternative. Not sure I like either solution that much, and am happy to defer to the wisdom of Pete.
Pete has already made most of the comments I had lined up. I too took a long time to complete the SE corner. RELEASER was new to me too (and I have not ever seen LEASOR to mean letter). I too baulked at TETRAHEDRA to mean five sides. And so on.
Thanks to Pete for the great blog, and thanks to Gaff for the puzzle.
I think my attention was so focused on the setter’s name (my first Gaff) that I missed the special instructions!
No matter, with SPACE and ODDITY among my first, I quickly caught on and thoroughly appreciated the tribute.
The theme helped snag STARDUST. And SEA CHANGES had me humming ‘ch-ch-ch-changes’!
On the strength of this showing, I look forward to more from Gaff.
I failed on RELEASER and CIAO and needed Pete’s help for a couple more in the parsing but there were lots of good clues here.
A treat! Thanks to the setter and to Pete.
As a long time fan of David Bowie I very much appreciated this tribute. I got LIFE ON MARS quite early so I knew what was in store. It still didn’t make this crossword a write-in for me and it took several sessions to solve it; I never did get KNEE or RELEASER nor could I make sense of LODGER (the clue, not the record!) Favourites included SUNLESS, SUMACH, HERBAGE, OPEN-AIR, and CIAO. I hope Gaff makes more frequent appearances. Thanks Pete for the blig.
Martyn @1: “Taking a knee” is a protest started by the American quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016. It involved refusing to stand for the national anthem which is played before football games; instead some players would kneel on one knee to protest what they felt was unfair treatment of black people especially by the police. As with many things in America this protest pretty much died out in a few years.
Tony@4,
Thanks for the reminder. Mr Kaepernick’s protest is well established in the UK too now, as seen before each Premiership match. I confess, I only saw the ‘cap’ part when solving and had the crossers to clinch it.
Tony@4 Thanks – Colin Kaepernick explains it nicely. I now unequivocally go with the double definition parsing. Diane @5 – “cap” is an interesting twist to the clue!
Being theme blind didn’t help (though even I know SPACE ODDITY) but even so I found this tough, one of the hardest ones I’ve done in the last few months. Like Pete, I had real problems in the SE corner and threw in the towel with nothing entered for KNEE or RELEASER, neither of which I could have solved. LODGER went in half-guessed, not knowing the ‘vest’ sense of to LODGE.
Elsewhere, not hard to get the correct answer, but I’d forgotten DADO for ‘Rail’.
Thanks to Gaff – good to see you back after an absence of over 18 months – and to Pete.
Thanks Gaff and Pete. Why is “vest” = LODGE? I got the other clues (with a fair bit of struggle) but that one went in unparsed.
Thanks for the blog, great puzzle and theme, Diane has beaten me to CHANGES.
TETRAHEDRA definitely are (regular) pyramids it is just that the Egyptians, and others , used a square base.
AMERICANS was my favourite clue, very clever.
Verbose @8 VEST is rather old usage , similar to invest. Chambers gives to settle or secure .
Thanks Gaff and Pete
23ac: Chambers 2014 gives pyramid as “a solid figure on a triangular, square, or polygonal base, with triangular sides meeting in a point”.
Thank you Roz and others for correcting me about tetrahedra and pyramids.
One other Bowie nod: In Sallow at 1A is the album titled “Low”
Thanks Gaff and Pete. Not a Bowie fan but LET’S DANCE and LIFE ON MARS made the theme evident. CESS was a new term for me too, and I didn’t get RELEASER. Agree 28a was a great clue.
Thanks Gaff and Pete
This hung around for way too long with about 5 clues still not done – a flight back from Noosa started the resumption when I finally saw LODGER, SUMACH and CHAIN GANG. Was able to finish it off this morning when able to confirm that RELEASER was an ‘animal stimulus’ after piecing together the word play and remembered the ‘bending of the KNEE’ protest to bring it to a close.
Lots of impressive clues, including AMERICANS and the cryptic CHAIN GANG.
Nice theme and was able to find most of the songs in the grid and very satisfied to get it completed at last.