Kairos is most often seen in the Independent on Sunday crossword slot, and I always enjoy his puzzles here. This one took a bit of finishing off, and there were one or two parsings that eluded me for a while. But I think I have it all nailed down below, and am interested to see what others made of it.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
3 Neutron, it’s briefly understood, has nuclear element
NITROGEN
A charade of N for ‘neutron’, IT, ROGE[R] and N for ‘nuclear’. Both the N abbreviations are in my Chambers. ROGER is communication speak for ‘message understood’.
7 Dog with stick going around part of Ulster
CANINE
An insertion of NI for Northern Ireland in CANE. Setters sometimes use ‘Ulster’ to clue NI, which often provokes ire on threads in Another Place, because Kairos is geographically correct here: Northern Ireland is only a part of the ancient Province of Ulster – the two are not strictly synonymous. Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan remain in the Republic of Ireland.
9 Chill gloom returns after trade union contest
TUG-OF-WAR
A charade of TU, then RAW and FOG reversed.
10 Red Hot Chili Peppers reviews I copy in duplicate
PIRI-PIRI
If you take RIP and ‘copy’ as synonyms (think audio copying) then I RIP ‘in duplicate’ would be IRIP IRIP. Reverse that and you’ve got your answer. The OED renders it as PERI-PERI and defines it as a ‘very hot sauce made with red chilli peppers’. The surface makes perfect sense when you know that The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983.
11 Composition of Sartre’s most exquisite
RAREST
(SARTRE)*
12 Want soldiers to come back with leading seaman to port
ABERDEEN
A charade of AB for ‘seaman’ (of the able-bodied variety) and NEED plus RE for Royal Engineers reversed.
13 A doctor nearly forced Mark to leave American diving exhibition
AQUACADE
A charade of A, QUAC[K] and [M]ADE. The term is very much AmEng, hence the ‘American’ marker.
16 Continue with office call
LAST POST
A charade of LAST and POST.
19 NY cops put in cooler
HEAT SINK
A charade of HEAT (more AmEng slang) and SINK. ‘She’s going to sink $10,000 into that hedge fund.’
21 Greek secretary knocked over Pascal’s drink
GRAPPA
A charade of GR, PA reversed and PA for the SI unit of pressure.
23 Accommodating article about Maine’s expert
AMENABLE
An insertion of ME for ‘Maine’ in the indefinite ‘article’ AN, followed by ABLE.
24 Touching US promotion for bargain basement tuxedos!
ADJACENT
There are so many Americanisms in this puzzle that I swear on my life Kairos has emigrated to the United States of America since I last blogged one of his offerings. If ‘tuxedos’, or dinner jackets (DJs) were offered very cheaply across the pond then it might be a case of A DJ A CENT. Which would be very cheap, to be honest.
25 Join offensive to oust King Henry
ATTACH
The setter is inviting you to remove the K for ‘king’ from ATTACK and replace it with H for ‘Henry’, another SI unit (this time of inductance). It is named after Joseph Henry. Who was American. I rest my case.
26 Criticise musicians housed by Wally
DENOUNCE
An insertion of ENO for the English National Opera in DUNCE. The insertion indicator is ‘housed by’.
Down
1 Antipodean’s able to eat trout regularly and this for dessert?
KIWI FRUIT
A charade of KIWI, a term for a New Zealander, and RU for the even letters of ‘trout’ inserted into FIT. The insertion indicator is ‘to eat’.
2 Plan change when Democrat ousts Republican
DEVISE
Kairos is asking you to replace the R in REVISE with D. I had DEFINE, which just about works, before I came to write up the blog.
3 Ontarian athlete running around South Bank complex
NATIONAL THEATRE
(ONTARIAN ATHLETE)* The NT is part of the South Bank development on the River Thames.
4 Vocal rebuke after country’s exchanging leaders for health food
TIGER NUT
This took me the longest time to see. A ‘vocal rebuke after country’ would be NIGER TUT. Exchange the initial letters to get the health food. Which I’d never heard of.
5 Volunteer dyke builder’s quoted by some
OFFER
A homophone of OFFA. To placate all those who moan that ‘that’s not how I pronounce it’, Kairos has ‘quoted by some’ as the homophone indicator.
6 Went past fell after leaving source of river
ELAPSED
[R]ELAPSED
8 Short nap in pulpit with arms splayed out
AKIMBO
An insertion of KI[P] in AMBO. Chambers has:
ambo n an early Christian reading-desk or pulpit
14 Order book for hotshots
CLASS ACTS
A charade of CLASS and ACTS, the ‘book’ that is the fifth such in the New Testament.
15 A bone, say, is processed for a source of oil
SOYA BEAN
(A BONE SAY)*
17 A marriage partner’s accepting last part of wedding contract
ABRIDGE
An insertion of G for the last letter of ‘wedding’ in A BRIDE.
18 Together stop sanctions ending increasingly early
EN BLOC
EN[D] BLOC[K]
Edit: it’s slightly more subtle than this. WordPlodder kindly explains it at comment #5.
20 A cross celebrity stands up guitar player
AXEMAN
A charade of A, X and NAME reversed. Since it’s a down clue, the reversal indicator is ‘stands up’. Again, more an AmEng than BrEng usage.
22 Philosopher embraced by reflection of total peace
PLATO
Hidden reversed in tOTAL Peace.
Many thanks to Kairos for the Sunday entertainment, and y’all have a nice Easter day.
Crikey. I made hard work of this today. TIGER NUT, AQUACADE (yuk), AMBO all unknowns to me so I struggled a bit. As well as REFINE/DEFINE, Pierre, I also played briefly with RESIGN/DESIGN at one point, making my life particularly difficult. What a remarkable anagram for NATIONAL THEATRE! There may have been plenty of US references today but ADJACENT takes my prize for COTD: very witty.
Thanks Kairos and Pierre
English National Opera is a bit below the belt IMO. Obvious what the answer is but shurely “unconventional musician”
And I suppose Spooner was unavailable for 4d .Taken suddenly drunk?
Copmus, I know of the unconventional musician only through his appearance in crosswords, whereas everyone surely knows what the ENO is.
To be honest, this was more of a slog than an enjoyment for me, demanding some inspired guesswork and e-help in the latter stages.
Sorry, Kairos, but thank you anyway for the challenge. Much gratitude to Pierre for his comprehensive review.
PS Copmus @2 – your comment made me laugh, I’d have sunk with trace faced with your ‘unconventional musician’!
Is today Sunday? Very hard work. No hope for PIRI-PIRI, and TIGER NUT went in with wordplay unparsed and def never heard of, ie it was a guess. I agree with PM @1 re AQUACADE which was another challenge to solve.
I may have it wrong, but I think the ‘ending increasingly early’ wordplay in 18d means that only the last letter of ‘stop’ is removed (=EN[D]), but then the last two letters of ‘sanctions’ (=BLOC[KS]) are removed.
Thanks to Kairos and Pierre
Thanks both. Similar difficulties for me to other commenters – also I believe we are a Z short of a panagram picnic….which is why I rarely bother to look for one
Thank you, WordPlodder. I’m sure that’s the right parsing.
I got through about two thirds of this at a pretty quick pace, but then had to put it aside and return refreshed for the ones I was struggling with, which then took a while, incuding 7A (I knew full well Ulster isn’t all in NI, but didn’t make the connection) 26A (kept looking for a instrument + ist ), and 8D (vaguely aware of AMBO but it didn’t come to mind till I did a synonym search)
Overall I did enjoy it – thanks to Kairos and Pierre
Regarding Pierre’s comments on Americanisms in ADJACENT, the problem with that one is that DJ is not common usage in the US: I’ve never heard it called anything other than a tuxedo here. So “DJ a cent” would not be possible!
Same unknowns as Postmark@1 with aquacade ungettable without several false attempts. Hard work for us!