Methuselah fills the mid-week slot this week – we’re in for a treat!
…and we weren’t disappointed. As expected, excellent clues and some ingenious and crafty devices and definitions, especially the uses of the ellipses at 16 & 18ac.
P (president) OT (Old Testament – ‘books’) AS (the middle two letters or ‘quarters within’ vast) H (hotel)
A (American) F (following) R (Republican) + a reversal (‘doing spin’) of AC (account) I (one)
OTTO (German fellow) OMAN (Middle Eastern state) sharing the ‘o’ (first or last letter or ‘bank’)
Hidden in (‘captivated by’) catS EVEN THe
An anagram (‘stirred up’) of HAIL ASGARD
Quadruple definition
Cryptic definition – referring to the BATON (‘tube’) in a relay race
An anagram (‘could be’) of ON STAGE and R (first letter or ‘bit’ of rehearsal) – a reference to one of the characters in Waiting for Godot
A reversal (‘returning’) of IS PI (private investigator – ‘sleuth’) in ELLS (certain letters) – we searched for a definition until we realised that an ELLIPSIS is …
SEC (second) ODE (set of lines) after MO (second) R (reading? – one of the ‘3 Rs’) – another crafty use of the … (MORSE CODE for the letter S)
P (pressure) RISING (mounting) after or ‘on’ CO (company – ‘firm’) M (millions)
I (Italian) in or ‘visiting’ ENG (England) + MAS (masters)
Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘in revolution’) in humanitariAN AID NIcked
A reversal (‘back’) ESSAy (attempt) without the last letter or ‘short’ + N T (first and last letters or ‘sides’ of narcissist)
An anagram (‘after Reformation’) of HIDE PRIESTS – very crafty definition!
THOUGH (however) T (tense)
A homophone (‘say’) of SEE (get a view) PLAINS (grasslands)
U (uniform) in FRED (a man), not the other way round as worded on the clue (‘on the contrary’)
An anagram (‘off’) of BAKE in or ‘plugging’ IN (trendy) A (amateur). Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging.
ART (‘drama for one’ – an example of one of the Arts) ‘held up by’ (in a down clue) I (middle or ‘essential’ letter of extinct) CHOKE (gag)
A clue-as-definition – An anagram (‘kinky’) of HETEROS + ME (one?)
BALOO (‘bear who took in Mowgli’ in The Jungle Book) round or ‘taking in’ L (learner – ‘student’) + a reversal (‘around’) of DEN (lair)
An anagram (‘refreshing’) of INSTAgRAM with the ‘g’ (first or ‘initial’ letter of girl) replaced or ‘put out’ by D (date)
A homophone (‘discussed’) of EYE SAGES (‘experts in viewing’)
I’VE (Methuselah has) following REST (others)
2nd letters (‘only seconds left’) of aCcount dEletion tApping eScape kEy
N (new) + TONE (sound) with the ‘t’ (tenor) moving to the bottom or ‘going low’)
Another fantastic crossword from Methuselah. Loved the quadruple definition for ARCH; the cryptic definition for BATON; the use of ellipses in 16/18 (cleverly following each other); the “short back and sides” in 26a; the definition for 1d/25; and the use of second letters in 21d (a device that appears to be becoming a standard device of late).
This was a huge amount of fun and I am really warming to Methuselah. I have a vague feeling I struggled to get onto this setter’s wavelength at first but I certainly recall enjoying the last few and this was no exception. I’ve gone back over the clues to see which ones I’d like to cite as favourites … (see what I did there 😉 ) and, I’m sorry Methuselah, I’m going to duck out of an impossible task and just say every one could be mentioned in dispatches!
[As a, hopefully interesting, observation at a very personal level, some here know that I have been trying my hand at setting. Bizarrely, today, there are three words in the Indy (ARTICHOKE, GALAHAD and ELLIPSIS (well, ELLIPTIC to be precise) and two in the Guardian which I won’t cite in case of spoiling, all of which I have clued as solutions in the last few weeks. I used the three dots in my ELLIPTIC and one of the Guardian clues has the identical structure to mine. That is, in no way, meant to be an egotistical observation; given how many words there are in the dictionary and the relatively brief period of time in question, it’s just another intriguing example of the coincidences that we occasionally note on these pages.]
I sort of wish he would appear more often so I could get a it more used to his style.
I got somewhat snagged on 4 and 5 which are both rather good.
Very good.Thanks
My favs: ARCH, ELLIPSIS, MORSE CODE, ICE AGES and CEASE.
Thanks, M and B&J!
Oops. Discourteous. Slap on wrist.
Thanks to Methuselah and B&J
Very good and quite tough as expected from Methuselah. Everything parsed except for ARCH which I had as “only” a triple def. Loved the linked three dots as all / part of the def for ELLIPSIS and MORSE CODE, and THREESOME.
Thanks to Methuselah and B&J
Methuselah in fine, ingenious and crafty form. Lots to enjoy but like others I’ll select 16a/18/20, and the four def ARCH for favouritism
Many thanks to Methuselah and B&J
Thanks both. Rare that I pick a favourite when there are so many cleverly constructed clues but THREESOME is a work of art. Agree with the comments about getting on the wavelength of a setter, but there were so many devices here I won’t push myself to achieve that – AFRICA being ‘about’ 50 states (I read it comprises 54) serves as a reason why
Super puzzle as we have come to expect from Methuselah. Needlessly used the check button twice instead of taking the time to figure out the parsing.
A devious and challenging pleasure. Presumably MORSE CODE was included as today is Samuel Morse’s birthday; I’ve looked for a possible Morse-related nina or theme, but can’t spot anything.
I struggled with this – took me about 75 minutes, with much of the last fifteen spent hitting the reveal button, but seeing the final result, and getting clarification on the parsings I hadn’t figured out, it really was a tour de force. Kudos to Methuselah and thanks to B&J.
Even after a lot of 2 down, I needed a bit of help from a wordfinder, but it was well worth the effort. It was only a week ago when we discussed the use of punctuation in clues. Thanks to Methuselah and BandJ.
My first time trying an indy xword on my phone so couldn’t see who the setter was and the self-referential RESTIVE might have proven an intractable barrier – but no. Apart from ASSENT (guess a synonym and manipulate) I found this very succulent. But I really enjoyed the ‘sites of culture most of all.
Thanks to all three.
PM@2: If this keeps up you’ll be solving crosswords thinking “but I set this….”. ?
Try that emoji again 😉
Quite hard but very good indeed. Particularly liked THREESOME.
That was really clever. Not sure I’ve met a Methusale befor – looking foward to the next one. Laughed out loud at THREESOME, groaned at PETRI DISHES, expostulated at ELLIPSIS and MORSE CODE. Great stuff.
Thanks for the blog, Bertandjoyce. I’m glad people enjoyed it. @10 Quizzy_Bob I had no idea it was Morse’s birthday, actually. Just a happy coincidence.
Late to attempt this, having returned to the Independent for the firt time since it went online. What a tremendous puzzle. Bravo.