A headscratcher from PHSSTHPOK this Friday. Not sure I have everything pat down.
FF: 8 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EMBERS |
Remains involved in membership (6)
|
| hidden in “..mEMBERShip” | ||
| 4 | EPIGRAPH |
Blow hard on pen before finally writing inscription (8)
|
| [ RAP ( blow ) H ( hard ) ] after [ EPI ( ~pen ) G ( writinG, finally ) ] | ||
| 9 | UMLAUT |
Mark for mutual destruction (6)
|
| [ MUTUAL ]* | ||
| 10 | NAPOLEON |
This Frenchman’s not capturing a location in the Arctic circle? (8)
|
| NON ( not ) containing [ A POLE ( location in the arctic circle ) ] | ||
| 12 | SCAN |
Dip into small bucket (4)
|
| S ( small ) CAN ( bucket ) | ||
| 13 | INQUISITOR |
Question is welcomed separately by Eskimo or Torquemada? (10)
|
| [ { Q ( question ) and IS } in INUIT ( eskimo ) ] OR | ||
| 15 | OUT OF THE BLUE |
Where fish come from unexpectedly (3,2,3,4)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 18 | DEFLATIONARY |
Raising interest rates might be no fairy tale ending for undercapitalised organisation (12)
|
| [ NO FAIRY TALE D ( undercapitalizeD, ending ) ] | ||
| 21 | HELLS ANGEL |
Gangmember, following torture, betrayed the Spanish (5,5)
|
| HELL ( torture ) SANG ( betrayed ) EL ( the, spanish ) | ||
| 22 | FALL |
Surrender flag (4)
|
| double def | ||
| 24 | MASSACRE |
Whipping in public area (8)
|
| MASS ( public ) ACRE ( area ) | ||
| 25 | APLOMB |
Balance tea cup until echo from bomb ends (6)
|
| end characters of “..teA cuP untiL echO froM bomB..” | ||
| 26 | SOY BEANS |
Season by blending in vegetables (3,5)
|
| [ SEASON BY ]* | ||
| 27 | BLOATS |
Swells in lake infiltrate ships (6)
|
| L ( lake ) in BOATS ( ships ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EMULSION |
Vandalise menus with oil paint (8)
|
| [ MENUS OIL ]* | ||
| 2 | BEL CANTO |
Operatic singing can buckle without love (3,5)
|
| [ CAN in BELT ( ~buckle? ) ] O ( love ) | ||
| 3 | ROUT |
Polish off headless fish (4)
|
| tROUT ( fish , without starting letter ) | ||
| 5 | PEANUT BUTTER |
Spread a brunette put out (6,6)
|
| [ A BRUNETTE PUT ]* | ||
| 6 | GROWS OUT OF |
Loses interest in missing mushrooms first (5,3,2)
|
| GROWS ( mushrooms ) OUT OF ( missing ) | ||
| 7 | AGENTS |
Spies man when arrested (6)
|
| GENT ( man ) in AS ( when ) | ||
| 8 | HUNGRY |
Longing for suspended trains (6)
|
| HUNG ( suspended ) RY ( trains ) | ||
| 11 | IN THE LONG RUN |
Finally entering a marathon? (2,3,4,3)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 14 | AFTERSHAVE |
Puddings contain fragrant lotion (10)
|
| AFTERS ( puddings ) HAVE ( contain ) | ||
| 16 | PARABOLA |
Trajectory to return a high shot with a smash (8)
|
| reverse of [ A LOB ( high shot ) A RAP ( smash ) ] | ||
| 17 | SYLLABUS |
Digest most of dessert with success (8)
|
| SYLLABUb ( dessert, most of ) S ( success ) – needed help to understand the dessert part after guessing the answer | ||
| 19 | CHAMPS |
Bites guardians (6)
|
| double def | ||
| 20 | GLOSSY |
Slick explanation why is reported (6)
|
| GLOSS ( explanation ) Y ( sounds like WHY ) | ||
| 23 | OPAL |
Friend is after round gemstone (4)
|
| O ( round ) PAL ( friend ) |
Several off, should be SCAN, FALL, and GLOSSY. I thought the clues for SCAN and FALL were both a little weird, as was CHAMPS (= guardians???).
I don’t think SCAN = “dip into,” either. Both could mean “investigate,” but I do not see them as synonyms for each other. Too bad, because many of the other clues were pretty inventive.
SCAN:
An online dictionary (macmillandictionary.com) says ‘dip into’ is ‘to read, watch, or listen to small amounts of something such as a piece of writing or a programme.’
S+CAN.
However, after filling SCAN in the squares, there is a message indicating that the grid is still not 100% correctly filled.
Instead of FLASHY it could be GLOSSY
as GLOSS is a short explanation.
Sorry. Cineraria has said that already.
FALL: I have the same as Cineraria (not fail).
Looks like there is still one solution wrong. Which could be that?
Turbolegs – Not a specific comment on this puzzle. I’ve been wondering for some time what the references to FF and DD which frequently appear at the top of your blogs mean. I’d be grateful if you were to explain.
The parsing for INQUISITOR doesn’t work, with the repeated U. It should be Q + IS with INUIT entered ‘separately’ + OR. Can’t say I care for this, or indeed several of the other clues as mentioned above. Not one of my favourite setters.
Rudolf @7. I believe they are Fun Factor and Degree of Difficulty.
Thanks, Hovis. That makes sense. I did wonder if it might be some sort of starring indication.
Apart from SCAN, FALL and GLOSSY, there doesn’t seem to be any other error. I am not getting the ‘completed’ message (online). Dunno why.
Thanks for stopping by, folks. And apologies for the pedestrian blog. Have made all the edits within the blog.
On 20a, While I wasn’t entirely sure of original solve as FLASHY, Chambers did give a definition for FLASH as explanation ( related to insertion of a scene in a movie, as in flashback ) and that had me convinced even though it was a stretch.
TL
TL@12, not to worry. Give it your best shot and hit “publish.” I don’t think I would have arrived at the “correct” solutions without the online puzzle’s prompting me that my first pass was “almost” correct. (I have amassed a pile of partially completed old “practice” puzzles that I keep tinkering with that I would never have been able to complete successfully in time to crank out a blog.) I think “FAIL” works about as well as FALL. I meant to mention ROUT, too, before as a ??? clue. But I guess all of these come down to “close enough for Crosswordland.” I did appreciate DEFLATIONARY, NAPOLEON, PARABOLA, and AFTERSHAVE as good clues for tricky words.
Can Napoleon be a Frenchman?
Corsican!
I thought FALL was a better synonym for ‘surrender’ and FAIL was better for ‘flag’ so didn’t know which to enter. I chose FAIL. I enjoyed most of this, but had the same problems as others with SCAN, CHAMPS and GLOSSY.
Thanks all.
Very hard going for me; hardest one this week. Same difficult (possibly contentious) ones as mentioned by others. In the end I only failed with a “flashy” for GLOSSY at 20d, which I think can be sort of justified, as explained by Turbolegs @12.
Thanks to Phssthpok and Turbolegs.
I had the same doubts as others. I thought the double-(w)RAPping was a weakness too, but I liked PARABOLA.
Thanks, Phssthpok & Turbolegs. I mostly enjoyed this but had much the same difficulties as everyone else – some rather “stretchy” definitions that made it hard to spot the answer even where I could see how the clue worked. But I’m sure they all stand up to dictionary scrutiny.
To be honest, my biggest gripe is with the received wisdom that raising interest rates is deflationary, but that’s outside the scope of this blog.
Thanks Phssthpok, there was a lot to like including UMLAUT, HELLS ANGEL, APLOMB, SOY BEANS, and HUNGRY. I missed SCAN, had “fail” instead of FALL, guessed 18a from the crossings, and couldn’t parse EPIGRAPH so this wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this . INQUISITOR is very clever and has my favourite setter in the clue.
I struggled, but got there. I had the same issues as several have noted above. Double definitions that were obscure and I found annoying. Champ was the worst.
I too had fail in 22 across as it seemed to me slightly more likely than fall.
Thank you to all
We too thought the clues for SCAN and FALL were a bit weird, and woukd add that for ROUT as well, which leaves only OPAL of the 4-letter entries as straightforward. But we liked INQUISITOR.
Thanks to setter and Blogger.
I thought champs was the pick of the double defs. Champion/guardian of the faith?
Hovis @8 I think INQUISITOR is ok. The ‘separately’ means ‘Q’ and ‘IS’ are not next to each other. Liked this clue as Inuit is a language we used to pretend we could speak for fun in our family.