Today’s Tuesday crossword by Filbert leaves us in no doubt as to the theme.
Climate change – its cause (at 14), its (partial) remedy (at 3) and attitudes towards it (at 7, 15 and 20), etc – runs through the clues and solutions – a real tour de force in terms of accommodating thematic content in a standard 15 x 15 grid.
I actually found this to be a challenging puzzle, which in part explains the late posting of the blog, with even solutions involving well-known words proving elusive, e.g. at 23. I also needed to do quite a lot of digging around online to confirm some solutions, such as 22, although I am not convinced that my parsing of 10 does justice to the chemistry involved. I may also have missed a trick at 6.
My favourite clues today are 5A, 21 and 24, all for surface; and 15, for making me laugh out loud.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | WIND-UP | Possible evidence of climate change hoax
Cryptically, the wind being up, i.e. faster, could be symptomatic of climate change! |
| 05 | NIMBLEST | Fastest part of UK motorway, optimum to go around 50
NI (=part of UK, i.e. Northern Ireland) + M (=motorway, as in M1) + [L (=50, in Roman numerals) in BEST (=optimum)] |
| 09 | SPACESHIPS | Small steps in emissions ultimately for Musk’s costliest vehicles
S (=small, in sizes) + PACES (=steps) + HIP (=in, trendy) + <emission>S (“ultimately” means last letter only); the reference is to the civilian spaceflights organised by SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk |
| 10 | OH-OH | We’re in trouble over water treated chemically
O (=over, on cricket scorecard) + HOH (=water treated chemically, as opposed to H2O) |
| 11 | CRUISE | Maverick actor // to fly fuel-efficiently
Double definition; the reference is to US actor Tom Cruise (1961-), star of the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick |
| 12 | SATEEN | Material glut went unrestricted
SATE (=glut, as verb) + <w>EN<t> (“unrestricted” means first and last letters are dropped); sateen is a glossy cotton or woollen fabric resembling satin |
| 14 | HOMO | Creature who mostly consumes
Hidden (“consumes”) in “wHO MOstly”; & lit. (alas) |
| 15 | IN EXTREMIS | At one minute to midnight drunken minister grabs kiss behind wife’s back
[<wif>E (“back” means last letter only) + X (=kiss, e.g. on greetings card)] in *(MINISTER); “drunken” is anagram indicator; in extremis means at the point of death, at the very last minute, hence “at one minute to midnight” |
| 17 | DEVIL TO PAY | Unpleasant consequences could be dead nasty, summit agreed
D (=dead) + EVIL (=nasty) + TOP (=summit, of e.g. hill) + AY (=agreed); e.g. If he catches you going through his drawers, there’ll be the devil to pay! |
| 19 | TEEM | With little support millions fall in floods
TEE (=little support, in golf) + M (=millions) |
| 20 | MAÑANA | Coming from oilman, a natural request to procrastinate
Hidden (“coming from”) in “oilMAN A NAtural”; manana conveys the idea that even urgent problems, such as climate change, can be dealt with at some point in the future |
| 22 | CORTEZ | Stout old Spaniard backing zero carbon – about time
T (=time) in COREZ (ZERO + C (=carbon); “backing” indicates reversal); the reference is to Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, referred to as “stout Cortez” in Keats’ poem On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer |
| 24 | ÉTUI | Case that’s quite desperate, no question
*(<q>UITE); “no question (=Q)” means letter “q” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “desperate”; an étui is a small sewing case |
| 25 | BOIL DOWN TO | Mean heat up, Dutch admit
BOIL (=heat up) + D (=Dutch) + OWN TO (=admit, as in She owned to a feeling of profound jealousy) |
| 26 | DRY NURSE | Two Republicans in US deny melting; one getting issue off her chest?
R R (=two Republicans, i.e. 2 x R) in *(US DENY); “melting” is anagram indicator; a dry nurse will not allow the “issue” of the definition to breastfeed! |
| 27 | EEYORE | Jeremy worries every so often, being a 4
<j>E<r>E<m>Y <w>O<r>R<i>E<s>; “every so often” means alternate letters only are used; Eeyore is a gloomy pessimist (=entry at 4) in the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A A Milne |
| Down | ||
| 02 | IMPS | Empty pledges added to Filbert’s bad spirits
I’M (=Filbert’s, i.e. the setter’s) + P<ledge>S (“empty” means all but first and last letters are dropped) |
| 03 | DECARBONISATION | Radio beacon isn’t working – it’s supposed to save us
*(RADIO BEACON ISN’T); “working” is anagram indicator |
| 04 | PESSIMIST | Cloud spotter spies swirling fog
*(SPIES) + MIST (=fog); “swirling” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | NAIVETE | Being green, I check energy after short nap
NA<p> (“short” means last letter is dropped) + I + VET (=check, inspect) + E (=energy) |
| 06 | MOSES | Man in control of sea-level, one supposes erroneously
The reference is to the parting of the Red Sea by Moses in the Book of Exodus |
| 07 | LOOK THE OTHER WAY | Let me explain Plan B: pretend everything’s OK
LOOK (=let me explain) + THE OTHER WAY (=Plan B) |
| 08 | SHORELINES | Maybe pumps around liner fouled beaches, etc
*(LINER) in SHOES (=maybe pumps); “fouled” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | FORECASTER | Meteorologist’s warning dismissed by head of state
FORE (=warning, in golf) + CAST (=dismissed, shed) + ER (=head of state, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) |
| 16 | TAY BRIDGE | Infrastructure down after a storm raged by it at sea
*(RAGED BY IT); “at sea” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the storm that destroyed the first Tay Bridge in 1879 |
| 18 | PACK ICE | Playing cards, diamonds is what North increasingly lacks
PACK (=playing cards, deck) + ICE (=diamonds, colloquially); the “North” of the definition refers to the Arctic |
| 21 | AMBER | Warning gong in Central Park
MBE (=gong, i.e. Member (of the Order) of the British Empire) in <p>AR<k> (“central” means middle letters only are used) |
| 23 | STAR | Bother over burning gas
RATS (=bother, drat, as exclamation); “over” indicates reversal; a star is a body of burning gas emitting heat and light |
6d also refers to the song Moses Supposes from Singin’ in the Rain.
“Moses supposes his toeses are Roses,
But Moses supposes Erroneously,”
Cannot improve upon your synopsis RatkojaRiku. A wonderful piece of setting today that was a joy from beginning to end.
I believe the reference in 6D to supposing erroneously refers to the song featured in Singing In The Rain where Moses suppose his toeses are roses but does so erroneously.
Thanks to Filbert and RatkojaRiku.
Found this very hard and needed parsing for a couple.
Great blog for a very good puzzle.
Thanks RR, and Filbert.
Thanks both. Found this difficult, but can’t complain, though the musical element of MOSES is well before my time, and not my style, as is I suspect the poetic element of stout CORTEZ, although I have now further learned this was not a reference to his waistline
Good Puzzle , thanks for the blog.
To dry nurse is to breast feed with no milk and this often stimulates milk flow and/or comforts the baby, so it’s really the opposite to getting the issue off her chest. A pity, it’ such an elegant clue.
10a: I think is simply a refererence that water is 2xH and 1xO
I also noticed Moses supposing……..but I did not know it was from “Singing in the Rain”. I knew it from primary school playground.
Thanks Filbert and RR
In 10, I saw ‘chemically’ as referring to using HHO, as you would normally expect ‘water treated’ to indicate and anagram of ‘water’.
Great stuff. Thx RR & Filbert. Tay Bridge was brilliant.
OH-OH
In an H2O molecule, bonding is in the form of H-O-H.
Nice sentiments here, but one could almost feel the requirements of the theme pushing the writer into ever more painful contortions, hence the added difficulty, I suppose.
I liked Tay Bridge.
Left battered and bruised but enlightened by this puzzle. Thematically obvious but cryptically challenging. Couldn’t get a foothold for a long while. Then I found MANANA and thought maybe I should leave it at that. But I didn’t. Favourites were IN EXTREMIS, AMBER and STAR. Thanks.
Left battered and bruised but enlightened by this setting not so much thematically which was obvious from Clue 1a
I wondered where that went …
Thought-provoking in more ways than one. Great. Thanks both.
Several I couldn’t get at the end. Kept on thinking of James Garner in the fifties TV series Maverick. I’d already forgotten about the recent film.
A tour de force of setting, I thought. Congratulations to Filbert and to RR for what must have been a tricky blog. I failed to solve STAR but I excuse myself on the grounds that a star (at least the type that shines in the sky) might not (pedantically) be a ball of “burning gas”, if you assume “burning” = “getting oxidized”. But perhaps you don’t? Anyway, hugely enjoyable.
10 across may also be a reference to the song “Trouble” by Shampoo (later covered, I believe, by Girls Aloud).