A Phi on a Phiday – just what we like.
Last week we couldn’t spot the theme and needed a more of a nudge from Phi. If there is a theme in today’s puzzle we will need someone else to spot it or for Phi to give us another hint.
We found a few of these quite tricky to parse – in particular 8d. We think it must be FALL = DEFEAT but it wasn’t the first synonym we thought of.
We are currently walking the South Downs Way so if there are any errors, it may take us longer than usual to respond. All being well, we should be somewhere between Cocking and Amberley.
Pierre – if you read this blog you will see that there is no need to contact our solicitors this time as we haven’t included any bird images.
S (South) US (America) around or ‘importing’ N (new) + POT (drug)
coRRUPT (unprincipled) without or ‘abolishing’ CO (company) after I
IS ON (working) I inside or ‘surrounded by’ PONG (miasma)
A reversal (‘back’) of ALL (the full) IV (Roman numeral for 4 or ‘quartet’)
H (first or ‘initial’ letter of heard) inside or ‘aboard’ RY (railway) and T H M (first letters or ‘sources’ of The Heavy Metal)
S (son) OUR PUSS (cat)
A clue as definition – HEAT (passion) about R (right). The heart would be a good or ‘right’ place to feel passion.
tEXT (writing) missing first letter (‘opening omitted’) RE (about) MIST (obscure)
An anagram (‘redefined’) of MACHO MISS
TAN (beat) GO (energy)
TA (cheers) and an anagram (‘depraved’) of SULTAN. Tantalus was a Greek mythological figure who was made to stand in a pool of water that he was never able to drink from, underneath a fruit tree whose fruit was always out of his reach.
NO (never) inside or ‘blocking’ RUFF (wading bird)
WI (Women’s Institute – ‘Women’s group’) CC ( Cricket Club – ‘associated with bats’) A
A-LIST (celebrities) inside or ‘breaking into’ REICh (‘German rule’) missing last letter or ‘not entirely’
I’M (setter is) ‘found in’ C (cold) LAX (US airport – Los Angeles)
PIGS (greedy eaters) around or ‘keeping’ an anagram (‘cooking’) of ONE
UP (more prominent) inside SER (series)
NOSY (making investigation) about I (one)
PROP (forward as in a rugby team) + an anagram (‘cracking’) of THE + ICe missing last letter or ‘mostly’
A homophone (‘on the radio’) of TALE (story)
all IN GOOD TIME (‘statement of deferral’) without or ‘ignoring’ ALL
R (last or ‘final’ letter of tour) OVER (finished)
U (unionist) in POLL (vote) and an anagram (‘dispersing’) of INTO
FALl (‘defeat’) without the last letter or ‘cut short’ + SET TO (fight)
An anagram (‘broadcast’) of EXPOSURE about a reversal or ‘rise’ of ID (primitive instincts)
HOW (question) around ME TOo (Women’s Movement) missing last letter or ‘curtailed’ + N (note)
I (one) C (caught) inside ARSENAL (weapons)
ENG (English) around or ‘staying’ THUS (so) IN (popular)
A LA (the way) RM (Royal Marines)
OUT (banned) DO (party)
FUSs (activity) missing last letter or ‘a lot of’ around OC (officer commanding -‘military leader’)
LAP (drink) around M (first letter or ‘start’ of meal)
Tom Lehrer is the theme. POISONING PIGEONS in the Park, MASOCHISM TANGO, my HOME TOWN, POLLUTION, OEDIPUS REX.
Thanks Hovis – we enjoy his songs so will look forward to listening to these later in the day. We are just about to set off on our way to Amberley.
Thanks, Phi and B&J!
Enjoyed solving the puzzle and reading the blog.
SUNSPOT, IN GOOD TIME and ENTHUSING are my picks.
FALSETTO: I parsed it the same way…
It took me a while to crack the linked three longish ones which came mid-solve and gave enough additional crossers to wrap up what was outstanding. I had a big tick for PROPHETIC, mainly for the nice use of ‘forward’; other highlights were the panicking Marines and the – totally unconnected – MASOCHISM and CLIMAX. Witty and apropos surface for the first of those.
I do enjoy Tom Lehrer but am insufficiently aware of his wider oeuvre so missed the theme.
Thanks Phi and B&J. Happy hiking.
Damn. Missed Tom Lehrer-I love ALMA.
And I have become addicted to Phidays but it was solved a very long way from Amberley
Far North Queensland on an island.
Thanks PHi, B&J and Tom
Thx B&J. This passer-by would like to award Phi both ears and the TAIL.
I have my legal people on a tight leash these days, B&J. Might have eschewed the OPBL for PIGEONS anyway. The feral ones are pretty ugly and often a nuisance. Tom L had the right idea, I would aver.
But it’s not against any religion
To want to dispose of a pigeon
Good blog and puzzle. Happy hiking.
(I don’t really believe that about pigeons, obviously.)
Very good, with one of the rare Phi themes I was able to spot, mainly thanks to seeing MASOCHISM – great surface – TANGO, then POISONING PIGEONS. A few other mentions of relevance such as ‘Marines’ at 21d.
Thanks to Phi and B&J
In Old Mexico
My brother’s dog ROVER
Got run over.
Phi’s theme for once couldn’t be plainer – MASOCHISM then TANGO in successive clues and we were on to it at once. At any rate we got the song titles, although we didn’t delve for references within the songs. Apart, that is, from thinking ARSENICAL might crop up in POISONING the PIGEONS; it doesn’t, but of course Arsenic does in The Elements.
A fairly quick solve although it took a while to see ENTHUSING, our LOI. We liked SOURPUSS, TANTALUS and PROPHETIC among others.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
Thanks Bertandjoyce for explaining Me Too, the corrupt company and the German rule, ashamed to say I couldn’t see past Regel! Hope you enjoy good conditions for your walk. Thanks all above for the theme, good excuse to explore his work further. And thanks Phi for a nicely varied challenge.
Writing this while waiting for the BBC Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican. Solved this very quickly on the train in spotted the theme early on. Lehrer has long been a favourite of mine.
Lehrer recently put all his songs into the public domain – I think it was to mark his 90th birthday – and the Queen’s Six (think King’s Singers but at Windsor Chapel) promptly brought out a CD which happens to include all the ones in these answers.
Incidentally, it was October 2020 when he released his songs into the public domain, when he was 92. (He was born about two weeks before my mother.)
I do like his Aristotelean version of The Elements.