A tough challenge from GAFF today.
I have 1 clue unparsed and 1 clue unsolved but in the interest of time am putting the blog up. Am in no doubt that the crosswords brethren will help out in the comments section.
FF: 9 DD: 10
| 1 | RHUBARB |
Often forced to simulate conversation (7)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 5 | OUNCES |
Weighty parts in Cats (6)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 9 | TAILORED |
Fitted behind metal desk top (8)
|
| TAIL ( behind ) ORE ( metal ) D ( Desk, top i.e. first letter ) | ||
| 10 | JOURNO |
Writer’s drink warmer in most of Holland (6)
|
| Am unable to parse this / See Hovis@1. |
||
| 12 | FLORA |
Plants left in markets (5)
|
| L ( left ) in FORA ( markets, plural of forum ) | ||
| 13 | DOGGIE BAG |
Remove trousers today in Italy inside left-over food container (6,3)
|
| OGGI ( italian for today ) in DEBAG ( remove trousers ); needed internet help to confirm the parse | ||
| 14 | SMUTCH |
Start to sow at last in a lot of soil (6)
|
| S ( Sow, starting letter ) [ T ( aT, last letter ) in MUCH ( a lot of ) ] | ||
| 16 | GOING ON |
Happening to enter with left foot missing (5,2)
|
| GO IN ( enter ) GONe ( left, without foot i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 19 | SODS LAW |
She ignored strange shadowless rule about going wrong (4,3)
|
| [ shADOWLeSS ( without the letters of SHE ) ]*; another name for murphy’s law as i found out | ||
| 21 |
Urgent sound of the blues (6)
|
|
| 23 | CHEESIEST |
Comfort break ends leaving both with strongest smell (9)
|
| CHEEr ( comfort ) SIESTa ( break ), without their ends | ||
| 25 | MY EYE |
Gaff’s study? I doubt it! (2,3)
|
| MY ( gaff’s ) EYE ( study ) | ||
| 26 | INROAD |
Where children are told not to play in advance (6)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 27 | SLEIGHED |
How Santa went and got utterly killed (8)
|
| sounds liked SLAYED ( killed ) | ||
| 28 | SHYEST |
Most retiring seniors have youthful enthusiasm suffusing their heads (6)
|
| starting letters ( heads ) of “..Seniors Have Youthful Enthusiasm Suffusing Their..” | ||
| 29 | TWEETED |
Sounded like clutch announced on platform (7)
|
| cryptic def; clutch referring to a brood of chicken | ||
| 1 | RATIFY |
Approve of topless delight (6)
|
| gRATIFY ( delight, without first letter ) | ||
| 2 | UNIFORMED |
Wearing the same shapeless coat for semi-final (9)
|
| UNFORMED ( shapeless ) covering I ( semI-final i.e. last letter of semI ) | ||
| 3 | AROMA |
Raised amoral hand-out of bouquet (5)
|
| reverse of AMORAl ( without hand, denoted by L – left ) | ||
| 4 | BREADTH |
The Bard’s rewritten “Measure…” (7)
|
| [ THE BARD ]* | ||
| 6 | UXORICIDE |
Ridding the world of trouble and strife (9)
|
| cryptic def; trouble and strife is cockney slang for wife | ||
| 7 | CARIB |
West Indian openers to collect all runs in boundaries (5)
|
| starting letters of :..Collect All Runs In Boundaries” | ||
| 8 | SNOGGING |
Spooning drink into tops of shot glasses (8)
|
| NOGGIN ( drink ) in SG ( tops of ..Shot Glasses” ) | ||
| 11 | AGOG |
Eager to turn into silver (4)
|
| GO ( turn ) in AG ( silver, chemical symbol ) | ||
| 15 | TALISMANS |
Charms useless as sentimental teen is dumped (9)
|
| [ AS SentIMeNTAL ( without the letters of TEEN ) ]* | ||
| 17 | GRAPESHOT |
Charges at the Spar go mad (9)
|
| [ THE SPAR GO ]* ; new word for me but easily getable | ||
| 18 | PSYCHICS |
Fortune tellers report assistants without slightest debate (8)
|
| sounds like SIDEKICKS ( assistants ) without D ( Debate, slightest i.e. first letter ) | ||
| 20 | WHEY |
Involved in how he yielded serum (4)
|
| hidden in “..hoW HE Yielded..” | ||
| 21 | NOTELET |
Brief message that Telethon came up short by an hour (7)
|
| reverse of TELEThON ( without H – hour ) | ||
| 22 | HERDED |
Drove with care across the road (6)
|
| HEED ( care ) around RD ( road ) | ||
| 24 | EARLY |
Punctual but almost miss the start (5)
|
| nEARLY ( almost, without starting letter ) | ||
| 25 | MAINE |
Expedition leader follows sea state (5)
|
| MAIN ( sea ) E ( Expedition, first letter ) |
JOURNO is URN in JOO(LS).
Thanks Hovis@1. Any help with 21a?
Regards,
TL
No. Sorry. Hoped the mangled festival lyric would help but not so far.
I think 21a is NEENAH – the sound of an emergency vehicle. It fits with the mondegreen thingy too.
Loved this puzzle.
Agreeing with muffyword@4 – the blues are the police so a siren .
Thanks for the blog , really enjoyed this , thanks for OGGI , had no idea about that but the definition was very friendly .
I think RHUBARB is a double definition , it is often “forced” to grow. You can buy rhubarb forcers. Similarly INROAD , to make inroads is to advance.
I will pick TALISMANS as a favourite out of many fine clues.
Another vote for NEENAW
As 20d was easy and the festive carol fairly obvious, I thought I would just follow the words around the grid – simples! Not! Even knowing roughly what the answer should sound like was very little help. Impressed with Gaff that when I finally wrote it out it did actually read like the carol.
Failed to parse JOURNO also. So thanks for that.
At the risk of getting into a discussion about sexual activity: in 8D: doesn’t “snogging” require a face-to-face position so that lips can meet? And isn’t “spooning” one person’s back tucked into another’s front?
I forgot about the Carol , it is very funny and a very clever piece of compiling.
Peter@8 I would tend to agree that spooning is different and far more intimate, but there is a meaning of spooning in the sense of sentimental courtship which may involve kissing.
Although snogging, according to Chambers, can mean ‘cuddling’, I tend to agree with Peter on this. Mind you, I never thought ‘punctual’ could mean ‘early’ rather than ‘on time’, so I live and learn.
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs
1ac: I agree with Roz@6 on this one
21ac: I had NEENAW, but NEENAH seems equally plausible. Is anyone using the App able to give us the “official” answer before it is printed?
26ac: Clarifying rather than challenging earlier comments, I agree this is a two part clue. The first part gives children told not to play IN ROAD, so only the second part (advance) is properly a definition of the grid entry.
PB@11
Couldn’t solve it, but got the solution ‘revealed’. NEENAH.
Thanks KVa@12. I managed to get the point of the clue as explained in comments 4 and 5, but the problem with one part clues is that it is at least sometimes impossible to choose between similar possibilities for the answer.
I think 1Ac and 8Ac are double definitions, not cryptic defs
Agree with Goujeers@14. Thanks to Gaff for an ingenious and very entertaining puzzle, which raised many a smile on a dull grey day.
Thanks, Gaff & Turbolegs. Enjoyed the general silliness of this one – working out the song helped with a few.
PB @11 – definitely NEENAH as the official answer on the app but could be anything really.
14 and 15: Note that in 6dn, which is a one part cryptic definition clue, Turbolegs has underlined the whole clue. In 1ac and 8ac, he has underlined only part of the clue, indicating the main definition, so (as I read it) the expression “cryptic definition” is the explanation of the secondary indication.
In comment 17, I should have referred to 5ac and/or 26ac, not 8ac, which of course does not exist.
Ugh, this revived my inner Grinch. I had no idea about NEENAH–is that a coinage for this puzzle? I get it, but could find only one online attribution for “nee-naw” [sic]. Not in my Chambers.
The wordplay for the lyric is called Anguish Languish, a notable example being the story of Ladle Rat Rotten Hut–fun to read aloud.
I think we can forgive NEENAH considering the rendition of the carol .
Children imitating a siren will say – neenah neenah neenah ……
Thanks Gaff for the challenge. I agree with Turbolegs on the difficulty level of this crossword and I ended up revealing UXORICIDE, JOURNO, and NEENAH. I liked a lot of the clues including TAILORED, SHYEST (great surface), RATIFY, BREADTH, and EARLY. [Speaking of EARLY, I’ve heard that people who arrive EARLY are anxious, those who come on time are obsessive-compulsive, and those who show up late are passive-aggressive.] In any event I could not make sense of the “festive lyric.” Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs. Clever though strained lyric (Tony@21, it’s “Away in a Manger” mangled), but had to use blog to parse RHUBARB and for unfamiliar UXORICIDE, SMUTCH, SODS LAW and NEENAH which is also a city in Wisconsin. Favorite was SLEIGHED.
Unquestionably an ingenious puzzle so congratulations to Gaff. I missed Neenah and Journo but pleased with myself with having got that far. The carol was obvious fairly early on but this didn’t help me in the slightest with the solution.
Thanks to everyone.
Failed on ‘psychics’, ‘cheesiest’ and ‘neenah’. Found this tougher than a cheap steak.
SMUTCH was new to me. Also failed on PSYCHICS and got CHEESIEST for the rhyme but it was unparsed. I stand by NEENAW – it may depend on where you grew up.
We loved this crossword! Made us laugh during a rather wobbly Christmas day.We spent a lot of time saying nee nah as children so recognised it ( nearly) straight away. Ben Aaronovitch books refer frequently to ‘blues and twos’, where twos refers to the two tone siren
Respect to GAFF and thanks to the blogger