Radian sets the Independent puzzle today
Tuesday is usually theme day in the Independent and I think one of the challenge’s today is to determine how wide the theme goes. It could be restricted just to alcohol, but it could also be widened out to feasting, drinking, terms for habitual drinkers, terms for individual drinks (and supply of drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) and mixers.
With a themed crossword, there are often a few entries where the setter has little choice of available words, so he/she falls back on slightly obscure words or names. I think today that EMMER and ACCOUTRE crossing with CHOMSKY come into that category. However, EMMER was clear as the entry once the crossing letters were in place. ACCOUTRE came to mind fairly quickly. It was CHOKY for prison in the wordplay for CHOMSKY that held me up for the longest time.
This puzzle is not the first time I have come across a clue where the phrase ‘owing money is used to indicated that a word has to be contained in RED, but I always think it should refer to a word contained in ‘THE RED‘ rather than just in RED.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 9 |
Lush salmon fills everyone in charge (9) ALCOHOLIC (someone addicted to excessive drinking of alcohol; a lush is defined as a drinker or a drunkard) COHO (a Pacific salmon) contained in (fills) ALL (everyone) + I/C [in charge]) AL (COHO) L IC |
| 10 |
Westbound soldiers eating first of milled cereal (5) EMMER (species of wheat) REME (soldiers in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) reversed (westbound) containing (eating) M (initial letter of [first of] MILLED) EM (M) ER<- either M can be the one contained |
| 11 |
Linguist‘s writing in prison (7) CHOMSKY (reference Noam CHOMSKY [born 1928], American linguist and philosopher, known as the father of modern linguistics) MS (manuscript; writing) contained in (in) CHOKY (slang term for a prison) CHO (MS) KY |
| 12 |
Delight aunt, say, losing head (7) ELATION (delight) RELATION (an AUNT is an example of a RELATION) excluding the first letter (losing head) R ELATION |
| 13 |
Dessert’s briefly succeeding (5) AFTER (following; succeeding) AFTERS (colloquial term for dessert) excluding the final letter (briefly) S AFTER |
| 14 |
Shredded hot spuds retaining temperature (2,7) IN TATTERS (ragged; ruined; shredded) IN (trendy; hot) + (TATERS [informal term for potatoes] containing [retaining] T [temperature]) IN TAT (T) ERS – again either of the Ts in the middle could be the one retained |
| 16 |
Drunken row was therefore brewing (3,5,3,4) THE WORSE FOR WEAR (drunken) Anagram of (brewing) ROW WAS THEREFORE THE WORSE FOR WEAR* |
| 19 |
Town’s bowled over about pub, one that’s decadent (9) SYBARITIC (devoted to luxury; decadent) CITY’S (town) reversed (bowled over) containing (BAR [pub] + I [Roman numeral for one]) SY (BAR I) TIC< |
| 21 |
Tanks, an issue of pride in South Africa (5) SCUBA (breathing tube attached to a cylinder or cylinders of compressed air; tanks of air being the major components) CUB (reference a lion cub, being an issue of a pair of mating lions within a pride) contained in (in) SA (South Africa) S (CUB) A |
| 22 |
Cover over novel puzzle (7) DILEMMA (problem; puzzle) LID (cover) reversed (over) + EMMA (reference the novel EMMA by Jane Austen [1775-1817]) DIL< EMMA |
| 23 |
Fish swallows line and weight (7) BARBELL (bar weighted at the ends for weightlifting exercises) BARBEL (freshwater fish of the carp family) containing (swallows) L (line) BARBE (L) L |
| 24 |
Mug genius snubbing a German (5) STEIN (large beer mug) EINSTEIN (reference Albert EINSTEIN [1879-1955], German physicist considered to be one of the greatest scientists of all time; genius) excluding (snubbing) the first EIN (one of the German forms of the indefinite article, a) STEIN |
| 25 |
Personal drink delivery left reserves in case (9) LACTATION (secretion or yielding of milk for suckling; personal drink delivery) L (left) + (TA [Territorial Army [formerly the name for what is now known as the Army Reserve] contained in [in] ACTION [a court case]) L AC (TA) TION |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Revellers sing, interrupting book experts (10) BACCHANTES (drunken revellers) CHANT (sing) contained in (interrupting) (B [book] + ACES [experts]) B AC (CHANT) ES |
| 2 |
Bill about to dispose of new attire (8) ACCOUTRE (to dress or equip; to attire) (ACCOUNT (bill) + RE [with reference to [on]) excluding (to dispose of) N (new) ACCOUT RE |
| 3 |
One engraves daily touring Home Counties (6) CHASER (one who decorates metal by engraving) CHAR (cleaner) containing (touring) SE (South East; The Home Counties are in the South East of England) CHA (SE) R |
| 4 |
Nearly all key marginals sponge? (4) ALKY (someone addicted to drinking; SPONGE is a colloquial term for a habitual drinker) ALL excluding the final letter (nearly) L + KY (outer letters of [marginals] KEY) AL KY |
| 5 |
Like lab work if it’s nice and constant (10) SCIENTIFIC (descriptive of laboratory [work]) – the definition might also include ‘work’ if you want that word to do double duty. Anagram of (work) IF ITS NICE + C (constant) SCIENTIFI* C |
| 6 |
Hamper holding tin booze container (8) DECANTER (vessel for holding wine poured out of the original bottle) DETER (hinder; hamper) containing (holding) CAN (tin) DE (CAN) TER |
| 7 |
Take in this writer’s good book lecturer left out (6) IMBIBE (drink; take in a fluid) I’M (I am; this writer is; this writer’s) + BIBLE the ‘Good Book’ is a term often used to describe The Bible) excluding (left out) L (lecturer) IM BIBE |
| 8 |
Clever clogs ignoring one product of grinder (4) BRAN (coarsest part of ground husks) BRAIN (person of exceptional intelligence; clever clogs) excluding (ignoring) I (Roman numeral for one) BRAN |
| 14 |
Always wanting more banalities to be broadcast (10) INSATIABLE (not capable of being satisfied; always wanting more) Anagram of (to be broadcast) BANALITIES INSATIABLE* |
| 15 |
Smooth small people carrier conserves energy (10) STREAMLINE (to smooth an object to offer minimum resistance) S (small) + (TRAMLINE [a set of rails that can carry carriages and people; people carrier] containing [conserves] E [energy]) S TR (E) AMLINE) |
| 17 |
Working guy owing money, pending trial? (2,6) ON REMAND (in prison awaiting further evidence or a trial) ON (working) + (MAN [guy] contained in [in the] RED) – reference the phrase ‘in the RED‘ (owing money) ON RE (MAN) D |
| 18 |
Finally wipe gold tool without using cold spirit (3,2,3) EAU DE VIE (brandy; spirit) E (last letter of [finally] WIPE) + AU (chemical symbol for gold] + DEVICE (tool) excluding (without using) C (cold) E AU DE VIE |
| 20 |
British tree showing less growth on crown (6) BALDER (less growth of hair on the head; less growth on top) B (British) + ALDER (tree) B ALDER |
| 21 |
Stewed pears at duke’s banquet (6) SPREAD (feast; banquet) Anagram of (stewed) PEARS + D (duke) SPREA* D |
| 22 |
Ruin lawyer’s husband (4) DASH (rush; run) DA’S (District Attorney’s [DA’s]) + H (husband) DAS H |
| 23 |
Contents of 24? Bar’s missing litres (4) BOCK (strong German beer which will often be drunk from a STEIN [24 across]) BLOCK (bar) excluding (missing) L (litres) BOCK |
Possible typo (spellchecker?) in your preamble, Duncan. COME appears twice where you might have meant CHOMSKY?
Very tightly clued by Radian today. A couple of splendid anagrams – INSATIABLE banalities, I’m looking at you for one, some brilliant left-field definitions and smooth surfaces throughout. Stunningly good – I’d have liked it to go on all day!
Thanks Radian and duncanshiell
PostMark @ 1
Thanks – that’s something the spellchecker did when I pressed the wrong key. It changed all occurrences of CHOMSKY to COMES. I picked it up in the detailed table but forgot to go back to the preamble.
Corrected now.
Thanks to Radian and duncanshiell.
Much to admire. I wasn’t expecting a theme and can’t say I spotted it, but there was a background niggle throughout – I think it was CHASER that set it off. BOCK was news to me (in an area of specialised interest) and I enjoyed teasing out THE WORSE FOR WEAR.
(ALKY is a strange word: I don’t know when I’ve ever seen it written and it seems right that it should be spelt thusly but why not ‘alcy’?).
I agree with PostMark – I loved INSATIABLE (great surface) and SCIENTIFIC. I had ticks also for the amusing IN TATTERS, STEIN and ON REMAND (I always enjoy that kind of clue).
Alphalpha @3 -re ALKY: like you, I don’t remember ever seeing it written down. Thinking about it, the c in ‘alcy’ would be soft (cf ‘halcyon’). Both Collins and Chambers also give ‘alkie’, which doesn’t seem quite so odd, and is probably the spelling I’d have chosen.
Thanks to Radian for the puzzle and Duncan for the blog.
Eileen@4: ‘Halcyon’ – of course. I was struggling to offer ‘normalcy’ but couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a word I had just made up.
Not exactly all-pervasive, but plenty of theme related clues for our enjoyment. EMMER and BARBEL struck me as new, but I now see I had come across both before, so two more additions to the “Words I have forgotten from crosswords” file.
Same comments as others re the quality of INSATIABLE and the less common spelling for ALKY.
Thanks to Radian and Duncan
Hi Alphalpha @5 – my immediate thought was that we’ve heard a lot about (a return to) ‘normalcy’ in the last two years, then realised that it was surely ‘normality’. I was interested to find this: https://grammarist.com/usage/normalcy-normality/
Eileen@7: And there’s this, which supports your immediate thought….
How apt that the writing is embedded in CHOMSKY for whom language showed the way out of the Choky of behaviourism. Cheers, Radian and Duncan