Anto is this morning's Guardian contributor.
I confidently wrote in the first four across answers without thinking, then suddenly hit a wall. This was not going to be the typical Monday puzzle, I suspected, and so it turned out. My LOI was COSMO, because I had no idea that there was a plant called a COSMOS. So, I managed to complete the puzzle, a harder one than I have become used to on a Monday.
I have a few quibbles, though. First of all, ARAN spelt with one R is not an island, it's a group of islands off the Irish coast, not to be confused with ARRAN which is an island off the coast of Ayrshire. Unless I'm missing something, the ellipsis between 16 and 17 serves no purpose (had it been two dots, the symbol for "ditto" on a list, now that would have been better!). The clue for OVERLOAD is the wrong way round, as R (Republican) becomes A (America). Maybe being a bit grumpy on a Monday morning, but there you go.
On the other hand, some of the clues were very good, especially those for TOUPEE (my favourite), the topical TICKET, and HIT AND MISS
Thanks, Anto.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPLODGE |
Stay after passport centre makes a bit of a mess (7)
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LODGE ("stay") after (pas)SP(ort) [centre] |
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| 5 | OBLONGS |
Former pupils gather pine to make shapes (7)
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OBs (old boys, so "former pupils") gather LONG ("pine") |
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| 10 | DALI |
Artist starts to date all Lowry’s images (4)
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[starts to] D(ate) A(ll) L(owry's) I(mages) |
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| 11 | ARCHIMEDES |
Crime heads manipulated old scientist (10)
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*(crime heads) [anag:manipulated] |
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| 12 | REPEAT |
Talk again about environmentally damaging contributor to agricultural growth (6)
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RE ("about") + PEAT ("environmentally damaging contributor to agricultural growth") |
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| 13 | OVERDRAW |
Add too much to sketch and get a negative balance (8)
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If you "add too much to a sketch" you may be drawing too much, or OVERDRAWing. |
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| 14 | BUCHAREST |
Posh daily in top class city (9)
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U (posh) + CHAR ("daily") in BEST ("top class") |
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| 16 | LIBEL |
Scandal I believe is somewhat defamatory … (5)
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Hidden in [somewhat] "scandaL I BELieve" |
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| 17 | DITTO |
… when copied thus? (5)
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Cryptic(ish) definition |
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| 19 | ANALGESIA |
A gel NASA developed includes iodine for pain relief (9)
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*(a gel nasa) [anag:developed] includes I (chemical symbol for "iodine") |
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| 23 | OVERLOAD |
Ask too much of tyrant, when America becomes Republican (8)
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OVERLO(r>A)D ("tyrant, when A (America) becomes R (Republican)) |
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| 24 | TICKET |
Check alien showing a means to gain entry (6)
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TICK ("check") + ET (extra terrestrial, so "alien") |
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| 26 | BRAIN POWER |
Second rate shower might collectively display intelligence (5,5)
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B ("second rate" as in B-movie) + RAIN ("shower") + POWER ("might") |
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| 27 | SITE |
Swiftlet regularly seen on this place (4)
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S(w)I(f)T(l)E(t) [regularly seen] |
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| 28 | PERSPEX |
Clear material picked up in accordance with plans (7)
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Homophone [picked up] of PER SPECS ("in accordance with plans") |
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| 29 | ALSO RAN |
Capital ensemble established in island has not been successful (4,3)
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LSO (London Symphony Orchestra, so "capital ensemble") in ARAN ("island") Aran is not an island, it's a group of islands. |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | PLATEAU |
Water-based dish from France is high level (7)
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EAU ("water" from France) base for PLAT ("dish" from France} |
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| 3 | OXIDE |
Chemical that removes hard bit from leather (5)
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Removes H(ard) bit from OX(h)IDE |
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| 4 | GRAFTER |
Trojan worker provides good support (7)
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G (good) + RAFTER ("support") |
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| 6 | BOILED |
Cooked up plot to acquire fossil fuel (6)
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BED ("plot") to acquire OIL ("fossil fuel") |
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| 7 | OVERDRIVE |
Great activity that led to finished Verdi composition (9)
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OVER ("finished") + *(Verdi) [anag:composition] |
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| 8 | GRENADE |
Upstanding Scandinavian infiltrates work unit producing small bomb (7)
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[upstanding] <=(DANE ("Scandinavian) infiltrates ERG ("work unit")) |
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| 9 | ACROSS AND DOWN |
Basic directions for what you are doing! (6,3,4)
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Cryptic(ish) definition |
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| 15 | HITORMISS |
Uneven treatment of most Irish (3,2,4)
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*(most irish) [anag:treatment of] |
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| 18 | INVERSE |
Hot lines? Quite the opposite (7)
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IN ("hot") + VERSE ("lines") |
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| 20 | LATERAL |
Dead centre of Gibraltar approached from the side (7)
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LATE ("dead") = [centre of] (gib)RAL(tar) |
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| 21 | ICED TEA |
Drink that did for group when Mike left (4,3)
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ICED ("did for", as in murdered) + TEA(m) ("group" that M (Mike, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) left) |
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| 22 | TOUPEE |
Go, after throwing out rug (6)
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PEE ("go") after *(out) [anag:throwing] |
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| 25 | COSMO |
Name for flowering plant with no root (5)
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COSMO(s) ("flowering plant") with no root (bottom (letter)) Cosmos is apparently a Mexican herb with colourful flowers. |
Forgive me for not understanding, but how does Trojan worker = grafter?
is ACROSS AND DOWN a recognised phrase? How is COSMO a name?
Some of this was ok, but I got bored towards the end and revealed COSMO and PERSPEX, which turned out to be a fine clue.
Thanks Anto and loonapick
Arossignol @ 1
To graft = to work hard = to work like a Trojan
Good point about across and down, Dave @ 2.
Arossignol@1 I think it is just from the phrase to work like a Trojan.
Well I managed this with input from my better half for the last two, PERSPEX and ALSO RAN which he miraculously just came out with! Agree the former is an excellent clue. Lots of fun but a bit tougher than usual for Monday. Thanks Anto and loonapick
I thought that LSO for ‘capital ensemble’ in 29 was a bit of a reach, even putting aside the ARAN/ARRAN confusion. Crossed with the obscure COSMO(S) made the SE corner very definitely my last ones in.
Arrosignol @1: worked like a Trojan = heard work.
Agree with our blogger’s slightly grumpy preamble and probably for the same reason; it’s a Monday morning. And, whilst we’re at it, both ‘provides’ in GRAFTER and, particularly, ‘led to’ in OVERDRIVE feel a bit WP from def to me. And, yes, COSMO just defined as ‘name’ seems a bit tough. And PEAT isn’t environmentally damaging, surely? The extraction of it is.
BUCHAREST, HIT OR MISS and TOUPEE, my favourites.
Thanks Anto and loonapick
Hard work! Though others have already addressed the query.
As a former teacher, I’ve come into contact with 24,209 people in my life, and not one of them was called Cosmo. I don’t expect I’ll ever meet one, but I’ll report it if it happens. But we did have a garden full of colourful cosmos in my childhood — they’re quite attractive and a favourite of aphids.
I concur with your quibbles, Loonapick. Along with ICED/”did for”. I didn’t get DITTO and thought the clue was not one of Anto’s best. And parsing ALSO RAN was a challenge from this side of the world. The clue for REPEAT was rather long-winded.
My sister-in-law has a dog called Cosmo
Something shaken not stirred in The World is not Enough (5)
PostMark@8 – removal of peat to be used in garden potting compost, etc, is environmentally damaging, but left alone in bogs is environmentally beneficial. But I understood where Anto was coming from. And although with the crossers I recognised, as a gardener, the plant had to be cosmos, which I’ll be sowing shortly, I agree that COSMO isn’t a name that immediately springs to mind and a bit more support for solvers would have been useful. Otherwise, I agree with Loonapick’s intro. Tougher than usual in places for a Monday puzzle. Likewise I didn’t understand the construction of 17 (my LOI), though with the crossers the answer was obvious. However, plenty of clues to like. Thanks to Anto and Loonapick.
Unusual to be confronted by several unfair clues (as noted by loonapick) -particularly on a Monday! A shame really as otherwise enjoyable
Many thanks to S and B
Funnily enough I have heard of COSMO as a name but not COSMOS as a plant, so I got that one once I had the crossers. I agree with loonapick and PostMark on the wrong direction of the wordplay in OVERLOAD, OVERDRIVE and GRAFTER). Never spotted the ARAN/ARRAN thing but geography is far from my strong point.
Any and all quibbles forgiven for the magnificent TOUPEE.
Thanks both.
Cosmo Kramer
William Hay @16: forgive me for smiling but you have helpfully provided an example of the rarely encountered name – referencing someone I have never heard of!
I do recall Les Dawson’s Cosmo Smallpiece from my growing up and fondly recall Cosmo Saltana in JB Priestly’s The Image Men (which I would happily recommend to anyone. Still quite relevant, even though published in ’68 – when I was probably watching Les Dawson)
I just had 4 question marks (REPEAT, DITTO, ICED TEA and COSMO) and no plusses unfortunately, although I did like TOUPEE and the marvellously onomatopoeic SPLODGE.
Hi @loonapick…in what way is TICKET topical (per your blog?). Also, in you blog you refer to HIT AND MISS (which would have indeed been a nicd clue but sadly the answer is HIT OR MISS which is not the same thing at all, is it?). Never heard of ACROSS AND DOWN either. Doesn’t defamatory define libellous and defamation libel (16A)? There are three words beginning with OVER, two of them interlocking.
COSMO(S)…interesting. Pick a radom name, pick a random plant. GLWT.
I failed to solve the clue, but there was a Cosmo Lang who was Archbishop of Canterbury 1928-1942 whose name comes up especially with reference to the abdication crisis.
I’m principally a Times solver so I’m not fully conversant with the conventions around here but I expect expressions used as answers to be something one might find in a good dictionary. I’m not sure that applies to ACROSS AND DOWN. It’s not really an expression that comes to my mind at all although the clue wasn’t hard to solve.
New: ARAN islands; cosmos plant (for 25d) but I have heard the name Cosmo; work like a Trojan = hard worker/grafter – maybe I knew this in the past but had forgotten it!
I could not parse 17ac.
Favourite: INVERSE.
Thanks, both.
Thanks, Anto and Loonapick. I enjoyed this one – a few rough edges but lots of fun clues.
Cosmo is an anglicised form of the Italian name Cosimo. The most famous one I know of is the journalist Cosmo Landesman. And yes, as a big Seinfeld fan, Cosmo Kramer.
Re OVERLOAD, I think it’s meant to be read as a kind of conditional instruction – Ask too much would be tyrant were the A to be replaced by R. Grammatically, that’s not quite what the clue actually says, but it’s close enough.
The Archbishop of Canterbury 1928-1942 was COSMO Lang, but apart from that I can’t recall encountering the name.
Pity about Aran – I was thinking that 29a was rather clever.
Why wouldn’t DIRTY work for 17a? The clue just seems weak.
Not greatly impressed with having OVERDRAW, OVERLOAD and the badly defined OVERDRIVE bumping up against one another, and surely 16a is the wrong way round. LIBEL is some of scandal I believe, not the other way about, so why wasn’t this “Some scandal I believe is defamatory”?
All of which being said, there were some neat pieces of cluing in here – BUCHAREST is beautifully concise; OVERLOAD, PERSPEX and TOUPEE are good ones, too.
Thanks, both
jackkt @20 – if you keep doing the Guardian, you’ll soon find it differs from the Times in many ways… good luck!
As usual with Anto, very much a curate’s egg puzzle.
I think that 23a is just wrong.
Baerchen @9 – sorry about the typo re HIT OR MISS. The “topical” bit was more to do with the clue than the answer as checks on aliens are going to be critical if Cruella Braverman gets her way. I noticed the LIBEL issue, but it didn’t bother me as much as my other gripes so let it pass, although I have to admit I didn’t notice the three OVERs.
Did not finish. Possibly because I saw who the setter was, and got off on the wrong foot. Agree with all of loonapick’s quibbles.
Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury during the Abdication crisis in 1936… but “name” is much too vague when it’s an unusual one and the other half of the clue is a Plant that non-gardeners probably won’t know.
OVERLOAD works for me as it is (it’s “ask too much of”, which would be “tyrant”, when A becomes R) but it does work the other way too.
I got stuck and revealed PERSPEX and DITTO. I thought there would be something more to DITTO and ACROSS AND DOWN, but there wasn’t.
Some good stuff here too: liked OVERDRAW, BUCHAREST, TOUPEE.
Widdersbel@24. Thanks. Yes, I’ve been doing The Guardian every day for nearly three years now so I thought I had met all the differences by now, but this one (if it’s not just an aberration by the setter) is new to me.
Sorry jackt@20: we crossed. Great minds think alike?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditto_mark
{The mark is made using ‘a pair of apostrophes’;[1] ‘a pair of marks ” used underneath a word’;[3] the symbol ” (quotation mark);[2][4] or the symbol ” (right double quotation mark).[5]}
FrankieG @31 – yes, you’re right of course – I was struggling to come up with a valid explanation for DITTO and in my head dits worked as well as apostrophes, but maybe I was stretching…
*dots
Cosmos.
Pretty and easy to grow, but unfortunately slugs love it.
Even Wikipedia’s confused:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_Island?wprov=sfti1
I agree that OVERLOAD can be read both ways but I was happy enough with it. Shame about ARAN (Inishmore, Inishmaan & Inisheer) but I liked PLATEAU, BUCHAREST, PERSPEX and TOUPEE. Like PM @ 17, I thought of COSMO Smallpiece.
Thanks Anto & loonapick.
I thought this was much more challenging than the Guardian’s typical Monday fare, with some very nice clues. I particularly liked INVERSE and PERSPEX. However, I absolutely agree that OVERLOAD is incorrectly clued, it should be “republic becomes American” rather than the other way around.
Hi Admin@35
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_Islands
“They constitute the historic barony of Aran in County Galway.”
(I liked ALSO RAN and I’m trying to justify it. )
SinCam@6 your “better half” must be a fan ot the gee-gees. 🙂
I thought DITTO was very weak but maybe the point is that the ellipsis (…) is repeated across the two clues so the ditto refers to that? Not sure, but it’s still not great. I’m happy with OVERLORD or OVERLOAD. If this were a quiz competition either should be accepted. Thank you Anto and loonapick.
Yep, I read overload like Widders, as a “would become if” clue. Seen it before … Tramp maybe, or Boatman …?
It took me ages to get PERSPEX. I should have seen through it earlier.
I thought this was going to be fairly straightforward, with the right half of the puzzle in quite swiftly. But a DNF in the end, with many of the quibbles that Loonapick voices. Question marks about several – DITTO, OVERLOAD, PERSPEX, COSMO and ALSO RAN. Didn’t much like that three solutions started with OVER. And for a while with just a P in place wondered whether the rug at 22d might be Carpet. But TOUPEE became my clue of the day as the wind shifted and passers by gave me funny glances…
Petert@41 🙂
@2 Cosmo & Dibs was a children’s tv programme about 35 years ago! 3 answers all beginning OVER was a bit weak, I felt. TOUPEE was very clever.
But COSMO – my (and everybody’s?) Last One In has to have been deliberately chosen by the setter to be difficult.
He could have had CISCO or CASIO there. And for a definition of COSMOS he had a whole universe of possibilities.
Many of the same comments as loonapick. I failed in the SE corner, missing ALSO RAN and COSMO, which I probably never would have seen, despite being a Seinfeld fan. I’m still in the “OVERLOAD doesn’t work” camp.
I liked SPLODGE (v. descriptive) and PERSPEX. As a bonus, I’ve learnt the name of a new plant which will be filed away and promptly forgotten.
Thanks to Anto and loonapick
Does Nigella Lawson not have a son called Cosmo? Agree with most of the quibbles but a nice stretch of the muscles for a Monday. There was a 1970s LP by Credence Clearwater Revival called Cosmo’s Factory.
Thought this was slightly harder than the usual Monday puzzle. Guess, in 29a, we have to accept “Aran” as an adjective qualifying one such island off Ireland.
Like PostMark@17, I remember Les Dawson’s Cosmo Smallpiece. A “pervert type” who would not be screened these days by judgement of non political correctness.
I was going to post an earworm of Cosmo but am too woke to do so. Instead here’s my considered earworm, a tune by Bachman Turner OVERDRIVE
https://youtu.be/4cia_v4vxfE
I don’t think I’ve ever seen three identical starting prepositions in the one crossword. We had OVERDRAW, OVERDRIVE and OVERLOAD. I wonder if we’re being told that Monday Mar 20 is the official day when Winter’s OVER ( in the Northern hemisphere ).
Thank you Anto and loonapick.
To add to the Cosmo examples – it’s also the name of Donald O’Connor’s character in Singin’ in the Rain. Still a pretty unusual name, but there are a few at least.
Why is everyone complaining about 3 OVER’s in the answers? I thought that was the theme.
Is everyone forgetting Cosmo Brown – as played so brilliantly by Donald O’Connor – in Singing In The Rain?
Sorry Tom @49, we crossed.
Odd puzzle for a Monday, with some unusually abstruse clues. I had the same quibbles as loonapick, plus some others – the definition for ‘peat’ (all 6 words of it – and REPEAT is ‘say again’ rather than ‘talk again’), and HIT AND MISS is the usual expression.
Although I knew COSMO (from the Archbishop) ‘name’ is gloriously vague for such an unusual one, and I also knew the asterid Cosmos – but ‘flowering plant’? There are somewhere in the region of 300,000 species of angiosperm. Not surprisingly, this was also my LOI!
I’m used to cricketing terms in crosswords but three overs in one puzzle is a bit much.
Nevertheless, thanks to Anto and commiserations to loonapick 🙂
Thanks Anto and loonapick
I’ll echo PostMark’s recommendation of The Image Men – I was going to instance that Cosmo too. Cosmos is a lovely garden plant, which smells vaguely of chocolate. It’s an annual, though.
As well as the points already raised, surely the definition for OVERDRIVE is wrong? It’s an extra gear that can be selected to increase fuel economy.
DNF. Clueing COSMO as ‘name’ is ludicrous (the only example I know is Kramer from Seinfield). Couldn’t parse ALSO RAN. I agree with all of loonapick’s objections. This was harder than last Saturday’s Prize and I just wasn’t on the setter’s wavelength.
Thanks both.
James COSMO has appeared in 215 productions according to IMDB, among them the recent series of His Dark Materials.
Perspex is not necessarily clear.
No point in piling on the many points above but I can’t say this has improved my relationship with Anto’s puzzles. OVERLOAD is the third time in the last seven days that the Guardian editor has seemingly checked out. Thanks loonapick.
Harrrrummmph! I can assure you that in my native accent the sound of “per specs” is completely different from the sound of the word “Perspex”. When will these crossword setters recognise that not everyone speaks the way they do?
Hi Jackkt@20! I swapped to The Grauniad about the same time as you (when I could no longer afford the annual sub for The Times) and I agree entirely with you about ACROSS AND DOWN.
28A Specs are specifications not plans.
19A Analgesia is the US spelling.
With other weaknesses pointed out above, this was not a satisfying exercise.
No Discworld fans here? COSMO Lavish in Terry Pratchett’s Making Money was the one that I knew: as fine a villain as you might [not] want to meet.
No problem with parsing OVERLOAD correctly. The OVERLORD reading makes a far more klunky clue. Mind you, it’s Anto…
Crossbencher@60: Really? What is the British English spelling, then?
I think 23a “Ask too much of tyrant, when America becomes Republican (8)” is fine as long as you read it as ‘ask to much of’ [becomes] tyrant when A becomes R’
OVERLOAD –>OVERLORD
blaise @61: While I entirely agree with you about the splendid villainy of Cosmo Lavish, I’d hesitate to cite Discworld’s rather eccentric range of first names as a confirmation of a name’s Roundworld validity.
Hi Loonapick@32 – I meant no criticism @31 – “two dots” is a perfectly valid “pair of marks”. Maybe Anto had “..” and some subeditor “corrected” it?
But if you squint very carefully at the quote from wikipedia – turn the Zoom up to 200% – you still can’t see any difference in what they’re differentiating. But that’s because the software here has “subedited” them to “99” double closing quotes, at the same time as “correcting” the apostrophes to “6” & “9” single quotes.
Now why do I suddenly feel like having an ice-cream?
Read Giles Coren’s letter to Times subs
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey
Thanks Anto&Loonapick
pserve_p2 @62: Presumably Crossbencher was thinking of anaesthesia/anesthesia. No such problem with ANALGESIA, as you indicate.
Gervase@66: Ah, yes, I see. OK.
Bracoman @56: James COSMO (né Copeland) uses this appellation as his stage surname. Most of us interpreted ‘name’ to be given name, which does narrow the field a bit, though ‘name’ could logically indicate surname – or country, or even flowering plant 🙂
EarWorm
HIT OR MISS? – was the question asked on Juke Box Jury
HIT & MISS was the Theme Tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoCWKVkKTYA
1960 when Jukebox was still two words..
Thanks both.
Fwiw there is an Aran Island off the coast of Donegal, accessible by ferry from Burtonport. But it was the ‘capital ensemble’ that threw me off – I couldn’t shake off ‘flat cap’ and trying to justify it; the LSO never entered my head (nor any thing similar). So I was an ALSO RAN and was left feeling A bit CROSS AND DOWN.
Quite enjoyable with a few rough edges, as mentioned by others.
I also got stuck in the SE corner, not knowing COSMO(s). I did, however, quite like ALSO RAN when I eventually got it (it wasn’t ‘flat cap’ after all). I also enjoyed ICED TEA (I thought ‘did for’ was fine) and TOUPEE, which I considered to be the best clue.
Yes, I don’t particularly like phrases that do not appear in dictionaries. A recent Paul crossword was ‘littered’ with them, however, including plastic bottle, crisp packet etc.
Thanks Anto and loonapick.
Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine is a major character in Scott’s Waverley and this may reflect, and in turn have promoted, the currency of the name in some parts of Scotland. Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury whom some earlier have recalled, and whose portrait adorns Balliol dining hall along with those of other Balliol luminaries, was himself Scottish and in fact came from the same north-eastern area of the country as the fictional Bradwardine, albeit rather further to the north and the east.
Alphalpha@70
Isn’t that Arranmore with two Rs?
The Glasgow Film Theatre, an independent art cinema, was originally called Cosmo. I always assumed it was an abbreviation of Cosmopolitan. Its name changed 40 odd years ago.
Well well… I enjoyed this although for me it was too Mondayish to be top class. Luckily I grow Cosmos “Purity” every year, and they don’t get attacked by slugs either.
Favourite was TOUPEE
Thanks Anto and loonapick
Not that I got COSMO, but once I saw the answer I could think of Cosmo Cosmolino (1992 novel by Australian Helen Garner), and Cosmo’s Factory (already noted above, 1970 album by Creedence Clearwater Revival). And no others.
Plenty of enjoyable clues. I agree, a few were unfair or even plain wrong, but I try not to take it personally … lest I end up A CROSS AND DOWN solver.
Loonapick@73: Well yes, but also known as Aran Island. Stretching like mad here.
Thank you, loonapick for raising these quibbles – I agree fully and in fact didn’t finish largely because of the ones you mention (especially the ridiculously obscure COSMO). I still can’t see how DITTO works, and have long given up seeing any meaning in ellipses as I don’t think I’ve ever found any. But three quarters if this was fun and I agree TOUPEE is outstanding.
The regular appearance of ‘erg’, assuming this refers to European Research Group, is enough to put me in a bad mood, no matter what day it is!
Ditto to the comments here. I am not familiar with most plant names, so cosmos was particularly unsatisfactory. COSMO I know of through Singin’ In The Rain and also a wonderful American children’s show calle The Fairly Oddparents, but still strongly agree it needs to be better clued.
Same gripes as others, plus one more: The grid has many (8) words with odd number of letters and fewer than half of them checked. Bad design. You might get away with it in a brilliantly clued puzzle, but this isn’t one of those.
gladys @64 Note spelling?
My wife informs me that Nigella Lawsons son is called Bruno. Her daughter is called Cosima, though. All very confusing. We grow the flower every year, so I lit on this answer fairly readily. Ditto was LOI and my wife was not impressed by the ellipsis.
Rr @78
The erg is a scientific unit: The CGS unit of work, equal to 10?7 joules (-7 should be superscript).
pserve_p2@59. Thanks for your support re ACROSS AND DOWN. I didn’t make a switch from The Times as I love their puzzles and am active on TfTT, but when the first lockdown began I found myself with time on my hands and added The Guardian puzzle to my daily routines.
I agree with Widdersbel@22 regarding OVERLOAD/OVERLORD. I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to see it the way that makes the clue work. And I also justified COSMO via Kramer in Seinfeld.
I tried to justify DITTO on the grounds that it comes from the Italian for “said”, but spoken defamation is slander, while libel is written, or so I once learned, so that doesn’t work.
Thanks for the blog, a strange mixture of mainly very friendly clues, well set ,and a couple of shockers. Name for COSMO is very poor even with all the suggestions, I love COSMOS though, so easy to grow, they are happily sprouting on our kitchen windowsill now even though it has been cold.
I thought OVERLOAD was fine, just need to pause before tyrant, OXIDE is neat , LSO in ALSO RAN is very good, a shame the clue is spoilt. The six words for PEAT are a bit much but are actually correct.
Vernal Equinox today at 9.24 PM , be sure to celebrate in the traditional way.
I know the 25d name from Les Barker(RIP)’s “Cosmo, the fairly accurate knife thrower”
https://monologues.co.uk/Les_Barker/Cosmo_the_Knife.htm
lin@87 I just came here to make the same reference RIP Les
When I did the crossword I also thought the clue for 23a OVERLOAD was wrong way round, but the more I look at it the more it makes sense as in several explanations above.
I remembered Cosmo from the 1987 film Moonstruck!
I also don’t see how “across and down” is a set phrase.
I’ve come to be skeptical of ellipsis-ed clues since they regularly don’t actually connect, so that didn’t bother me. But I still don’t get the clue! It was my LOI – was it really just a vague cryptic definition?
As a knitter I always connected Aran sweaters with Scotland, so thanks to Anto (and requisite googling for 29a) I’ve learned something today! Thanks to both Anto and Loonapick!
Apologies if already covered above, but what has LIBEL got to do with DITTO? I’ve never really understood clues that appear linked, but am sure I’m missing something obvious….Managed to get within two of completing. I got COSMO (just) having heard of the plant and the Archbishop, but agree this really is a bit abstruse. An interesting mix. The south west was far from straightforward..For me at least…With thanks to both…
Roz @86: despite my contribution @72 to today’s collection on COSMOs, I thought it was a strikingly inadequate clue – a ‘shocker’ if you will – and my knowledge of Scott’s novel and of the Scottish-born Archbishop did not in any way help me with it. I was also completely ignorant of the plant, having little interest in horticulture, so was stuck, which very seldom happens.
Cosmo Sheldrake, musician, and brother of Merlin Sheldrake, who wrote Entangled Life. Brilliant book about fungi.
Spooner’s Catflap @ 91 , I think “name” as a definition is very poor generally, almost as bad as girl or boy. Here , despite some inspired examples , the name itself is pretty obscure. I was lucky having the letters and knowing COSMOS very well but this plant is not well known ,I suspect ,despite being a favourite of mine.
DITTO also very weak , could be a misprint with the dots ?? ALSO RAN a good clue nearly but a glitch. I thought the rest was very good for a Monday.
The most well known Cosmo is the one of Cosmo and Damian fame. Early Christian martyrs. And I’m an atheist
@Geoff down under. Item 10.
There was a delightful TV programme in the 1980s I used to watch with my children, about 2 bears called Cosmo and Dibbs – the only place I’ve met the name. But it didn’t help me solve 25dn !!
Widdersbel @22 & Ellie @63. That’s exactly how I saw it, having written OVERLORD in but then had a rethink. It’s still not a good clue (it would work better if the crosser was the A or R), but OVERLOAD must be correct.
Alphalpha @70 & Robi @71. I was also stuck with FLAT CAP for far too long – ALSO RAN came to me in a moment of inattention. (Thanks for the litter, Robi. 🙂 )
I didn’t get COSMO despite Cosmo’s Factory being one of my most-played LPs – give us a clue, Anto! (Archbishop Lang: “No end to the universe!”)
I wrote in CISCO with a shrug and a memory of Gene Wilder’s steady gun hand – but of course that was the Waco Kid, this was the Cisco Kid.
Thanks to Anto and loonapick.
This was easy until it wasn’t — I revealed COSMO, TOUPEE, SPLODGE, GRAFTER, and PERSPEX — I never heard of the last three words. I did like the surface of LIBEL, the misdirection in BOILED, and the wordplay in BRAIN POWER. Thanks to both.
Tony @93 – that reminds me, I had BRAIN STORM, which seemed to work until I needed different crossers. 🙁
“Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas …”=> ‘collectively display intelligence’ ? OK, maybe RAIN STORM for ‘shower’ was a bit of a stretch. Ah well, back to the flip chart.
I had BRAIN STORM first too. I was quite surprised when STORM was wrong.
I also started quickly…but got stuck later in SE though I have heard of COSMO the name…it used to be a thing but didn’t know plant and failed on ALSO RAN.
Couldn’t see why DITTO was apparently connected to LIBEL or was it?
Thanks both
Sir Cosmo Haskard KCMG MBE
Governor of the Falkland Islands
In office 1964–1970
Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon somewhat famously at the time did not go down on the Titanic but got away in a lifeboat that wasn’t full, with his wife the designer Lucy Lady D-G, not to be confused with the earlier Lucie, Lady D-G, who wrote very good Letters from Egypt.
And on this side of the Atlantic, there were Cosmos in two situation comedies: Cosmo Topper in the 1950s (and in a series of movies in the thirties), and Cosmo Kramer in Seinfeld in the nineties.
Failed, defeated by last three clues in bottom left corner. Liked 3D and very amused by 28A though. Thanks Anto and loonapick
sheffield hatter and muffin @98,99, I too thought of BRAINSTORM at first, but rejected it because it is one word, not two. And of course, having participated in far too many of them, brainstorming does not always demonstrate a collective display of intelligence.
This was a rare Monday DNF for me, defeated by two Britishisms that, as far as I can tell, have not travelled across the pond: 1a SPLODGE, and especially 28a PERSPEX, which I hadn’t heard of, did not suggest jorums that I could then look up in a dictionary. No complaint on that score, however; Britishisms in a British crossword are to be expected, and are to be learned from.
First time I have failed to complete a monday crossword, I had to reveal COSMO, which gave me ALSO RAN. I spent a very pleasant few days in the ARAN islands with my mother and grandmother in 1965, I think. A few days previously, I had been wandering around Dublin in the early morning, when I came across a small crowd gathered round a pile of rubble. I was able to report to my mum and gran that Nelson’s Monument was no more. If I am honest, I was unaware of it’s existence pror to coming across it’s non-existence.
PERSPEX @https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_methacrylate)
‘Polymethyl methacrylate was discovered in the early 1930s by British chemists Rowland Hill and John Crawford at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the United Kingdom. ICI registered the product under the trademark Perspex. About the same time, chemist and industrialist Otto Röhm of Röhm and Haas AG in Germany attempted to produce safety glass by polymerizing methyl methacrylate between two layers of glass. The polymer separated from the glass as a clear plastic sheet, which Röhm gave the trademarked name Plexiglas in 1933. Both Perspex and Plexiglas were commercialized in the late 1930s. In the United States, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (now DuPont Company) subsequently introduced its own product under the trademark Lucite.’
FrankieG@106 I used to work for ICI. They were fighting (and losing) a constant battle trying to prevent “perspex” from becoming a generic term for clear plastic – similar to the “Hoover = vacuum cleaner” and “biro = ballpoint pen” ones.
Does nobody recall ‘Last of the summer wine’?
Extimesbloke @108
I think he was Compo, not Cosmo….
I’ve not done many Anto’s, and I see that he seems to get rather more than his share of ‘stick’ here. Relatively new to the cryptics, is he? (after setting quiptics) – and has he come on here anytime to address his critics?
I noticed most of the blemishes, but I will put ‘likes’ on OXIDE and BUCHAREST at least.
Thanks to Anto, and Loonapick for the hard GRAFT!
Ah Muffin you’re right, Foggy memory I’m afraid…
I knew that COSMO was a name and COSMOS was a flowering plant, but I still couldn’t get that clue, or a couple of others. For what it’s worth, my main association with the name Cosmo is the same as Kristi @89, namely the delightful film Moonstruck. Cosmo is the father of the character played by Cher.
I forgot, although I’m sure I’d known it at one time, that “graft” means to work hard. In my (US-centric) experience, it’s generally a somewhat old-timey word for corruption.