Independent 11,165 by Atrica

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One of Atrica’s rare appearances today.

Tuesday is usually ‘theme day’ in the Indy, so as we started to tackle the puzzle we were on the lookout for potential thematic entries. It wasn’t long before we realised that there were a number of entries that represent the signs of the zodiac. It is quite an achievement to fit all twelve signs into the grid, but our one minor quibble is that twin makes an appearance rather than twins.

The signs are:

1d: Pisces

2d: Capricorn

4d: Libra

12ac: Cancer

13ac: Sagittarius

14d: Aries

16ac: Scorpio

22ac: Taurus

26ac: Virgo

30d: Gemini

31d: Aquarius

32ac: Leo

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8. Police officer’s personal cut (6)
DISOWN

DI’S (Detective Inspector’s – ‘police officer’s’) OWN (personal)

9. More than one body in hearse? Lawsuits follow (8)
CARCASES

CAR (hearse?) CASES (lawsuits)

10. These can detect shots outside a locked room (10)
PHOTOCELLS

PHOTOS (shots) round or ‘outside’ CELL (locked room)

12. Bar code’s heading scanned backwards to find fiddler? (4)
CRAB

A reversal (‘scanned backwards’) of BAR C (first letter or ‘heading’ of code)

13. Act out of character, curiously more mischievous (6)
ARCHER

An anagram (‘curiously’) of CHARactER without ‘act’

16. Commanding officer in corrupt prison’s a dangerous individual (8)
SCORPION

CO (commanding officer) in an anagram (‘corrupt’) of PRISON

18. For example, open door by mechanism comprising key (5,2,6)
MEANS OF ESCAPE

MEANS (mechanism) OF (comprising) ESCAPE (key – on a keyboard)

22. Start of play in which cow gets away (5,3)
BULLY OFF

We’re not too happy with this – we think it must be BULLY (cow) + OFF (away), but a cow is female and a bull is male….. what are we missing?

26. Infuriate First Daughter ousted by independent young woman (6)
MAIDEN

MAdDEN (infuriate) with the first ‘d’ (daughter) replaced or ‘ousted’ by I (independent)

28. We don’t approve of this new benefit (4)
BOON

BOO (‘we don’t approve of this’) N (new)

29. Check publisher of online talks, without humour and dull (4-6)
SLOW-WITTED

SLOW (check) TED (publisher of online talks) round or ‘without’ WIT (humour)

32. Adulates with unseemly oiliness (8)
LIONISES

An anagram (‘unseemly’) of OILINESS

33. Remarks directed to audience for the better songs (6)
ASIDES

A-SIDES (‘better songs’ – on vinyl discs)

DOWN
1. Angle of ray? (4)
FISH

Double definition

2. Butter – try a taste to begin with (4)
GOAT

GO (try) A T (first letter or ‘beginning’ of taste)

3. Lunatic in US embracing one extreme of confabulation: animals that don’t exist (8)
UNICORNS

An anagram (‘lunatic’) of IN US round or ’embracing’ C OR N (first or last letter, or ‘extreme’ of confabulation)

4. These could be major or minor climbs (6)
SCALES

Double definition

5. Recalled old college servant painting on wall (6)
FRESCO

A reversal (‘recalled’) of O (old) C (college) SERF (servant)

6. Stone containers capsizing a cargo ship (10)
SARCOPHAGI

An anagram (‘capsizing’) of A CARGO SHIP

7. Spill e.g. a toilet’s contents in a smooth flow (6)
LEGATO

Hidden (‘contents’) in spilL EG A TOilet

11. Monster of Rowling’s creation originally (3)
ORC

First or ‘original’ letters of Of Rowling’s Creation

14. Animal‘s orgasms regularly ignored (3)
RAM

Alternate (‘regular’) letters of oRgAsMs

15. Stout overlayer on inside of coat being the main attraction (10)
HEADLINING

HEAD (the froth or ‘overlayer’ on a glass of stout) LINING (inside of coat)

17. What triggers prompter’s hint when line’s forgotten (3)
CUE

A clue-as-definition: ClUE (hint) without or ‘forgetting’ ‘l’ (line)

19. Idiot senior citizen at last turning up the volume (3)
OAF

OAp (senior citizen) with the ‘p’ (piano – soft) changed to F (loud) – ie ‘turning up the volume’

20. A little problem reported with stove pipe? (8)
SOMEWHAT

A homophone (‘reported’) of SUM (problem) + W (with) + HAT (a stove-pipe is a type of hat)

21. Study, as I said (3)
EYE

A homophone (‘said’) of I

23. Ideal location of youth centre, excellent viewed both ways (6)
UTOPIA

U (middle letter or ‘centre’ of youth) TOP (excellent) + A1 (also excellent) reversed or ‘viewed the other way’

24. Think incessantly, turning over actresses’ bombshell revelation (6)
OBSESS

Hidden (‘revelation’) and reversed (‘turning over’) in actreSSES BOmbshell

25. Fluffy, vacuously frilly with internal deficit (6)
FLOSSY

F Y (frilly without the middle letters or ‘vacuous’) with LOSS (deficit) inside or ‘internal’

27. Don’t set aside one point to make another (3)
DOT

DOn‘T without the ‘n’ (north – ‘one point’)

30. Double time and finish in front (4)
TWIN

T (time) WIN (finish in front)

31. Drain with no cover that carries water (4)
EWER

sEWER (drain) without the first letter or ‘cover’ (in a down clue)

 

14 comments on “Independent 11,165 by Atrica”

  1. Yes, very nicely done and I’m inclined to cut Atrica some slack over TWIN/TWINS given the overall achievement. And nice to have the ‘Anglicised’ versions, given how often we see Scorpio, Leo, Cancer, Aries and, occasionally, Taurus, Virgo … It’s almost a shame we don’t have a 13th house – Unicornis.

    I didn’t parse Stout overlayer = HEAD so thanks to B&J for that. Not sure which bit of BULLY OFF is throwing you? Bullying off is how a game of hockey starts and, yes, to bully is to cow and off is away.

    Thanks both

  2. Thanks Postmark – so obvious really. We were reading COW as a noun not a verb which is what the setter wanted us to do.

  3. PostMark @1 I like your idea of a new 13th sign of Unicornis. Maybe it should only last a single day for those born in a leap year.

    Thanks to Atrica fir entertaining puzzle and B&J for blog.

  4. Good to see the theme materialise as the answers steadily went in. I couldn’t parse HEAD for ‘Stout overlayer’ either and would have spelt CARCASES (nice surface) with an extra S but the wordplay left no doubt.

    I also liked the surface for FLOSSY and the pithy piece of advice for DOT.

    Thanks to Atrica and B&J

  6. Found this online:
    “One of the numerous primal zodiac signs is the unicorn. It is rare to have the unicorn as a primal zodiac animal. You have to be Aquarius in Western astrology and born during the year of the horse in Chinese astrology.”
    So there you are, as if it mattered!
    Excellent stuff, so thanks Atrica and B&J.

  8. Goat Butter is good for your health. Liked 29a today because it took me a long time to complete the puzzle. .

  9. If the theme were constellations, rather than star signs, then Unicorn would fit. It’s strange how cow means bully, though cower doesn’t mean bullier. A very good puzzle, I thought.

  10. Thank you Atrica and Bertandjoyce. Everybody seems to be enjoying themselves so I thought I would join in the fun and quibble with a quibble.

    Our dear bloggers should have complained about FISH/FISHES as the Zodiac symbol for pisces is of two fishes swimming in opposite directions. The misdirection comes from that the singular and plural in Latin of pisces are spelt the same way.

  11. Most unusually we spotted the theme almost before we started. A quick glance over the clues suggested CRAB for 11ac and when we saw the next clue could lead to ARCHER we knew we were on to something so there was extra pleasure in solving today. Just a minor quibble about 25dn with both definition and answer, as well as an important word in the wordplay, beginning and ending in F and Y. We did like LEGATO, though, once we realised that ‘Spill’ wasn’t an anagram indicator (deliberate misdirection there?).
    Thanks, Atrica and B&J.

  12. My goodness, is that a 21st Century reference to TED talks there? What’s wrong with Mr Heath? Next thing, we’ll be seeing references to actors and sports people who’ve performed in the last 30 years! 🙂

    Thanks to Bertrandjoyce and Atrica.

  14. Hello all, and thank you very much for the comments and of course to Bertandjoyce for the blog. Re. Salad @3 I love the idea of a special Zodiac sign for those born on the 29th of February. It seems to me proper that it should be a unicorn and not a pair of fish. Incidentally the pedant in me agrees that I should have defined those “fish” as “rays”, and I’m surprised that nobody objected to “ewer”!

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