Phi’s puzzle brings this latest set of mid-week puzzles to an end.
I thought that this was towards the difficult end of the spectrum for Phi in the Indy, and in the end, I had to cheat at 26 to finish the puzzle and to consult Chambers to understand the definition at 1. I haven’t spotted any particular theme, other than the strategically placed “NORTHERN” and “SOUTHERN” on the top and bottom rows of the grid.
I think that I am fairly satisfied with my parsing, but fellow solvers will no doubt let me know if I have erred.
My favourite clues today were 10, for originality; 11, for smoothness of surface; and 17, for the misdirection around “hull v Hull”. Incidentally, I was surprised to find that a gender-neutral form of the term at 7 actually exists!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | MOSAIC | Religious leader’s way of working, faithfully recorded when covering area
MO (=way of working, i.e. modus operandi) + [A (=area) in SIC (=faithfully recorded, i.e. as printed)]; “Mosaic” means pertaining to Moses (=religious leader) |
| 05 | NORTHERN | No river attended by the navy in the Arctic?
NO + R (=river) + THE + RN (=navy, i.e. Royal Navy) |
| 09 | EDGE | Irritability, say, of Parisian taken aback
E.G. (=say, for example) + DE (=of Parisian, i.e. the French word for of); “taken aback” indicates reversal |
| 10 | ALBUMINOUS | Recording, I sense, is not White as the Beatles intended!
ALBUM (=recording) + I + NOUS (=(common) sense); the Beatles were doubtless not thinking of egg white when choosing this title for their ninth studio album! |
| 11 | BRIE | Short cut to make cheese?
BRIE<f> (=short); “cut” means last letter is dropped |
| 13 | SALON | Special and unique cut offered by beauty parlour
S (=special) + ALON<e> (=unique; “cut” means last letter is dropped) |
| 14 | HIDE | Hurry to wrap daughter in coat
D (=daughter) in HIE (=hurry, urge) |
| 15 | IN THE AIR | Under discussion, like many factory emissions?
Cryptic definition: factory emissions have been released through chimneys into the air |
| 17 | SHELL | Hull market will contain fish ultimately
<fis>H (“ultimately” means last letter only) in SELL (=market); a hull is the shell of a boat |
| 19 | HENNA | Henry’s English Queen rejected skin decoration
H (=Henry) + ENNA (ANNE=English Queen; ”rejected” indicates reversal) |
| 20 | UNEASILY | Line USA neglected ahead of year without much confidence?
*(LINE USA) + Y (=year); “neglected” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | NOSE | Flair for detecting uproar after current’s cut
NO<i>SE (=uproar); “after current (=I, in physics)’s cut” means letter “i” is dropped; cf. to have a nose for a bargain |
| 23 | OPPOS | Cross-party reps’ work adding nothing in further statement
OP. (=work, i.e. opus) + [O (=nothing) in PS (=further statement, i.e. postscript)]; oppos are one’s opposite numbers |
| 25 | NEWT | Angling accessory catching weak amphibian
W (=weak, as in a W particle) in NET (=angling accessory) |
| 26 | MALEFICENT | Man ready to suppress central evil
MALE (=man) + [CEN (=central) in FIT (=ready (for)] |
| 27 | A lot of shops together stocking one form of protective gear
I (=one) in MAL<l> (=shops together; “a lot of” means last letter is dropped); e.g. chain mail is a form of protective clothing |
|
| 28 | SOUTHERN | Small amount subsequently securing run to the Antarctic
SOU (=small amount, of money) + [R (=run, on cricket scorecard) in THEN (=subsequently, later)] |
| 29 | DONKEY | Dapple, say, is essential when set beside Rosinante’s rider
DON (=Rosinante’s rider, i.e. Don Quixote) + KEY (=essential) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | OLD FRENCH | Ancient language in folder edited on network computer with bit of help
*(FOLDER) + NC (=network computer) + H<elp> (“bit of” means first letter only); “edited” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | AXE | Guitar article by Eric (just the first)
A (=article, in grammar) + X (=by, times) + E<ric> (“just the first” means first letter only) |
| 04 | CLAWS | Scratches carbon regulations
C (=carbon, i.e. chemical formula) + LAWS (=regulations); to scratch is to scrape, claw |
| 05 | NEBULAR | Like some heavenly objects in Taurus, mostly coming in close
BUL<l> (=Taurus; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) in NEAR (=close) |
| 06 | REMINISCE | Recall promoters finally brought in rock group in reserve
<promoter>S (“finally” means last letter only) in [REM (=rock group) + IN + ICE (=reserve, aloofness)] |
| 07 | HENCHPERSON | Note redesign of Porsche penned by female associate
[N (=note) + *(PORSCHE)] in HEN (=female); “redesign of” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | ROUND | Sandwich // and drinks
Double definition: a round of sandwiches AND a round of drinks |
| 12 | ENHANCEMENT | Improvement in decoration of 19 getting stick
*(HENNA (=entry at 19)) + CEMENT (=stick (fast), glue); “decoration of” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | ANATOMISE | Dissect articles on book about island
AN (=article) + A (=article) + [IS (=island) in TOME (=book)] |
| 18 | LILY-WHITE | Faultless lady gutted with being misrepresented in false story
[L<ad>Y (“gutted” means middle letters are dropped) + *(WITH)] in LIE (=false story); “misrepresented” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | UMPTEEN | Legislator with support in UN? Quite a lot
[MP (=legislator, i.e. Member of Parliament) + TEE (=support, in golf)] in UN |
| 22 | OTAGO | Some spot a good area of New Zealand
Hidden (“some”) in “spOTA GOod” |
| 24 | SATED | Had a meal in South Dakota, becoming full
ATE (=had a meal) in SD (=South Dakota) |
| 27 | MAN | I will not appear in most significant piece
MA<i>N (=most significant); “I will not appear” means letter “i” is dropped; a man is a pie in e.g. chess |
Apparently, ROUND can mean a sandwich made with two complete slices of bread. I guess ‘round’ and ‘sandwich’ can just about equate as verbs but the above is a much better fit.
My picks: ALBUMINOUS, NEBULAR and LILY-WHITE.
Nice smooth Phi to finish off the week. All the clues were little gems today. Nothing evil or dastardly; just pleasure after pleasure to parse. Like RR, I was surprised to encounter 7d – and suspect the gender neutral clue/solution will provide both opportunities and problems for the world of cruciverbalism as it develops. I’ve encountered the odd clue where the gender neutral ‘they’ or ‘their’ is used to define a singular solution. Perfectly correct but, in this pastime, where a single ‘s’ can make all the difference, I can foresee plenty of potential for confusion.
MOSAIC caught me out as a definition – it went in as bung ‘n’ shrug. ALBUMINOUS was stand out clue for me, as for KVa above. I also enjoyed assembling the above-mentioned HENCHPERSON, ANATOMISE and the NORTHERN/SOUTHERN combo.
Thanks Phi and RR
Thanks both. I saw the Moses part of MOSAIC but still can’t quite equate to ‘religious leader’ as the definition. I read the clue for ALBUMINOUS meaning the so-called White album is actually simply named The Beatles
Top stuff. Thanks Phi and RR
TFO@4. Definition is “religious leader’s”.
Hmmm! I put 3 down as ABE, the first letters of article by Eric.
ABE Guitars are classical guitars
Thanks for explaining MOSAIC which I just entered from the def, even if it didn’t seem to make sense. Everything else parsed, though the unfamiliar ALBUMINOUS, HENCHPERSON and ANATOMISE took some working out. I liked the extended def for DONKEY.
Thanks to Phi and RR
I had CRUSH as drinks and sandwich, which held me up until I got NORTHERN
Very neat nicbach @10. I always enjoy a near miss…though a small voice (one I often ignore with my own dodgy answers) must have been whispering, why ‘drinks’ and not ‘drink’?
Re the puzzle there must be something more to it given NORTHERN, SOUTHERN and OPPOS. Any ideas anyone?
We had a problem parsing MALEFICENT. Thinking there might be an alternative spelling as ‘maleVicent’ we took ‘man’ as ‘MALE’ and ‘ready’ (slang for money) as CENT with ‘to suppress’ as an insertion indicator for VI, the middle (central) letters of ‘evil’. That sort of works if ‘evil’ is doing double duty which the addition of a question mark could indicate. But the alternative spelling, sadly, isn’t in the dictionary, so we needed the blog for the correct parsing.
We thought NEBULAR had a touch of &lit-ishness about it, and like others were mildly surprised to find the gender-neutral HENCHPERSON in Chambers (which, btw, also has a feminine ‘henchwoman’). Our favourite, though, was MOSAIC, with a possible hint in the surface to the word’s other meaning – mosaic tiles might be ‘covering (an) area’.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku.
The anagram fodder at 20 is LINE USA. not LIKE 🙂
Thanks RR and Phi – I also found this reasonably challenging, but satisfyingly so, with much to enjoy.
For26, I originally entered MALEVOLENT without being able to parse the VOLENT part, until UMPTEEN disabused me. Guessed it had to be MALEFICENT but wasn’t sure why – CEN as an abbreviation for central is not familiar to me.
MOSAIC took a while to come to me but I have seen that definition in crosswords before. Very nice clue.
BRIE was my favourite for its beautifully near simplicity.
This being the start of the month there’s a zodiacal theme. However I didn’t think that having CANCER across the middle of the grid would be a good look, so I used the name used when naming stars – e.g. you have Alpha Cancri and so on. The stars in the constellation do have some unexpected names: CLAWS and SHELL aren’t so bad, EDGE and NOSE a little less obvious, but NORTHERN and SOUTHERN DONKEY take some sort of biscuit.
So probably on the obscure side, but it’s my star sign, and here in NZ it’s already my birthday.
Happy Birthday, Phi.
Thanks to Stella Heath @12 for pointing out the double typo, now corrected.
And a belated happy birthday to Phi – the theme was a tad too subtle for most of us this time, it seems 😉