The puzzle is available here.
Hello everyone. A puzzle from one of my very favourite setters was just what I needed after a long, hard week at work. My impression of this one what that the lower half was slightly harder than the upper, but perhaps I just got tired during the journey from top to bottom. It wasn’t the longest of journeys for me (more of a Sunday than a Saturday length), but even if it had lasted longer, I would not have started to whine “are we nearly there yet?” as the entertainment was, as always with Morph, top-notch.
I overslept a bit so will post now, but will add a picture or two shortly (edit: added). I’ll also leave it to you to mention your highlights, because if I start to list mine it may take a while! Many thanks Morph.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
Across
1a It’s fated, all the time children will ask ‘are we nearly there yet?’ (14)
PREDESTINATION
The time during which children repeatedly ask that question is before the journey’s end, or PRE–DESTINATION
9a Multi-volume work about a king kept in wood (5)
OAKED
OED (multi-volume work) around (about) A and K (king)
10a Connoisseur of beastly habits squeezed zits outside flipping work toilet! (9)
ZOOLOGIST
An anagram of (squeezed) ZITS surrounding (outside) the reversal of (flipping) GO (work) plus LOO (toilet)
11a Regular payment some native Americans, lacking capital, received (7)
ANNUITY
ANY (some), with [i]NUIT (native Americans) without the first letter (lacking capital) inside (received). Some Inuit are native to Canada and Alaska, as well as Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland
12a Dramatic incident following live programme that’s indecent (7)
OBSCENE
SCENE (dramatic incident) after (following) OB (outside broadcast, live programme)
13a Singing praises of bloc’s singular handling of operations (10)
EULOGISTIC
EU (bloc) + LOGISTIC (singular handling of operations)
15a Fancy that man pursuing women (4)
WHIM
HIM (that man) following (pursuing) W (women)
17a Football bosses note Portuguese performance (4)
FADO
FA (football bosses) + DO (note). A type of melancholy Portuguese folk song or dance
18a Allowing leeway in how courier might be paid? (10)
PERMISSIVE
A courier might possibly be paid PER MISSIVE
22a Regret engaging a left-leaning barrister, taking time to find what’s needed for court battle (7)
RACQUET
RUE (regret) containing (engaging) A and the reversal of (left-leaning) QC (barrister), all followed by T (time)
24a British walk (one way or another) to pick fruit (7)
BRAMBLE
B (British) + RAMBLE (walk) or BR (British) AMBLE (walk) – one way or another!
25a Poet, republican, reinterpreted myths about eastern queen (9)
RHYMESTER
R (republican) + an anagram of (reinterpreted) MYTHS around (about) E (eastern) + ER (queen)
26a Take the mickey out of tense relative (5)
TAUNT
T (tense) + AUNT (relative)
27a Say opium eater is a calculating type (6,8)
NUMBER CRUNCHER
NUMBER (say opium) + CRUNCHER (eater)
Down
1d For neuralgia, I dropped ecstasy – it’s a gas (7)
PROPANE
PRO (for) + PA[i]N (neuralgia) with I removed (dropped) + E (ecstasy)
2d E-reader in US state supporting English lit (9)
ENKINDLED
KINDLE (E-reader; other brands are available!) in ND (US state, North Dakota) following (supporting, in a down entry) E (English)
3d Media boss longing to get spinning (7)
EDDYING
ED (media boss) + DYING (longing)
4d Sleep after sex, getting up before end of day in confused state (5)
TIZZY
ZZ (sleep) after the reversal of (… getting up) IT (sex) before the last letter (end) of daY
5d Endless money and gold is melted down for coinage (9)
NEOLOGISM
All but the last letter of (endless) MONEy and GOLd plus IS anagrammed (melted down)
6d Revolutionary trading extremes for religion (6)
TAOISM
MAOIST (revolutionary) with first land last letters swapped (trading extremes)
7d Skin of cattle in East End compound (5)
OXIDE
OX ‘IDE could be the hide, or skin, of an ox, with the leading H dropped, as traditionally done in the East End (of London)
8d Rest, stirring before morning run (6)
STREAM
REST anagrammed (stirring) comes before AM (morning)
14d Magazine laid out in Pret and Costa (9)
SPECTATOR
This magazine is found in an anagram of (laid out in) PRET and COSTA
16d Edit out first husband – it’s helpful to groom (9)
HAIRBRUSH
AIRBRUSH (edit out); at the beginning (first) is H (husband)
17d Look out for the ball! Are you caught up in excitement? (6)
FURORE
FORE (look out for the ball!) with R U (“are you” caught) reversed inside (up in)
19d Boom and bust leaving business with an austerity champion (7)
SPARTAN
SPAR (boom, on a boat) + [bus]T without BUS (leaving business) + AN. My last to parse by some distance
20d I’ll dismiss judge in case of ecocide – court in uproar after union’s barred (7)
EJECTOR
J (judge) in the outer letters (case) of EcocidE + CO[u]RT anagrammed (in uproar) once U is removed (after union’s barred)
21d Ahead, having broken Djokovic? Fantastic! (6)
SUPERB
UP (ahead) inside (having broken) SERB (Djokovic?)
23d Carp droppings picked up by SA rodent (5)
COYPU
A homophone of (… picked up) KOI (carp) + POO (droppings)
24d Georgia’s brother picking up a streaker? (5)
BARER
BRER (Georgia’s brother, Southern US dialect word for brother) containing (picking up) A
Lovely to see Morph again even though I didn’t find this as challenging as he usually is. That said, I didn’t parse the last bit of EJECTOR thinking CT was court. It’s a pangram by the way.
Minor alteration to blog. In 23d, the carp is “koi” so is also part of the homophone.
Thanks Hovis. Of course it is. I must still be half asleep. Now corrected.
Although I found this pangram very challenging, I thought it was absolutely top-notch with far too many good clues even to think about picking a favourite or podium selection. I will just mention COYPU as a brilliant homophone which made me laugh.
Many thanks to Morph and to Kitty.
PS. Kitty, it sounds to me as if you are very much in need of a catnap (or two!)
Yes, RD – there are not enough hours in the day to fit in all the catnaps I need. And unlike a real cat, humons expect me to work to earn my living!
A good Saturday tussle. The aspect I most enjoyed was working out the parsing of some of the difficult ones like ANNUITY and EJECTOR. In the end, the “koi” for ‘carp’ defeated me, even though I knew the ‘rodent’.
Happy to have remembered FADO from somewhere else. I particularly enjoyed the cd’ish PREDESTINATION.
Thanks to Morph and Kitty
One of my favourite setters as well, Kitty.
Took me a while to settle on the necessary ending for 1a and to sort out the ‘boom & bust’ but I very much enjoyed the journey.
Top marks went to PREDESTINATION and PERMISSIVE.
Thanks to Morph and to our favourite feline for the review.
We didn’t find this too challenging, but not a doddle either – something like a Goldilocks puzzle. Spotting that it could be a pangram helped establish PERMISSIVE rather than ‘permission’ which didn’t seem quite right anyway. Quite a few penny-drop moments, as with PREDESTINATION.
Thanks, Morph and Kitty.
Super puzzle, well-written, and with some excellent ideas that came across clearly.
My only comment is for the two ‘pickings-up’ next to each other in 24 and 25 down, but the ‘koi poo’ was a masterly touch.
Thanks Morph and Kitty.
I echo the praise for this. My only question is what is “all” doing in 1ac?
Petert I think it’s needed to describe the idea that pre-destination is ALL of the time prior to reaching somewhere, rather than some particular point prior. That’s my stab at it anyway! It works for me.
Late to the party today – I’ve been to Stratford to see the RSC’s quite stupendous production of ‘Much Ado’ – but had to add to the praise for this super puzzle.
It was a laugh-out-loud start for me @1ac, with happy memories of family holidays, and I smiled again as we bypassed Coventry this morning: that’s about where the question usually started, from one or all of the four children, not very far into the 12-hour (pre M69) journey to Cornwall. I’m totally behind lady gewgaw @11 re ALL. 😉
I’m with Rabbit Dave, too, re favourites: I had fourteen ticks, for various reasons, so I won’t detail them all!
the last plantagenet@9 – I don’t think I noticed the ‘two pickings-up’: if I did, I probably thought it was a neat bit of misdirection, since they were used in different ways.
Huge thanks to Morph – I loved it! – and to Kitty for the blog.