No complaints today – we have a Serpent to solve and blog.
One look at the grid and we thought NINA. We have been proved wrong before but Serpent often includes hidden messages. Thankfully, we guessed what it said towards the end which helped us to fill in the last few clues without understanding what it was all about. A search on-line revealed that “I CAN HEAR THE HEART BEATING AS ONE” is the title of a studio album by Yo La Tengo, an American indie rock band. It was recorded on April 22nd 1997 – almost 26 years ago. Presumably Serpent was a fan – maybe he still is!
EX (former partner) inside or ‘strangled by’ ANNE (woman)
An anagram (‘upset’) of MOST inside SCAN (image)
I (one) inside or ‘blocking’ RD (road) and DANCE (skip)
INTO (enthusiastic) around or ‘about’ OT (collection of books – Old Testament)
IS (lives) after ERROR (mistake) inside or ‘splitting’ a reversal (‘revolutionary’) of SET (group)
PA (per annum or each year) and the last letters of family business or ‘ultimately’
H (husband) Y (first letter of yearning or ‘primarily’) and BRIDe (new wife) missing last letter or ‘shortly’
Hidden and reversed or ‘backward’ in the clue AmericA IS SURprisingly
SEAT (saddle) with the letters ‘cycling’
PEN (writer) inside or ‘stopping’ SHARING (participating in)
An anagram (‘manoeuvres) around or ‘involving’ US
An anagram (‘misplaced’) of LAST RENT
E (English) N (nationalist) FOR (in favour of) CE (church) R (king)
A play on the fact that a DJ (club performer) IN NI could be described as an Ulster Club performer
ENTITY (existence) is about RE (relating to)
Double definition with ‘footer’ obviously relating to football
An anagram (‘remixed’) of N (number) and ONE
Double definition with Serpent alluding to the fact that a foolish woman could be called an ASS-ESS as in waitress and actress
COSMIC TRIP (journey into space) with S (sun) moving down
OP (work) in an anagram (‘different’) of SITES around O (oxygen)
EAR (listener) THY (an old word for you – the solver)
RESTRICT (limit) around ID (proof of identity) reversed or ‘raised’
Hidden in the clue Buenos AiRES IS TORtuous
NO (refusal) inside or ‘inspired by’ and anagram (‘poor’) of RATING – we don’t think we have come across ‘poor’ as an anagram indicator before. Chambers has ‘imperfect’, ‘defective’ and ‘faulty’ as synonyms though.
An anagram (‘order’) of MANUAL
AB’S (sailor’s) ORB (world)
NUT (head) and AIR (appearance) reversed or ’rounded. We had to check this – a nutria is also known as the coypu.
IDEA (thought) with A (about) moving up or ‘getting promoted’
Found this hard to get into but ultimately solved, parsed, enjoyed it. Djinni got a chuckle as well as HEADER because there has been kickback in the comments about the use of ‘footer’ for football. I think the clues that used cycling, COMIC STRIP and AIDE, were my favourites. Thanks.
On first read through I thought this was going to be quite difficult but I got a foothold in the SW and worked my way steadily around.
As ever with this setter some great misdirection (ANNEXE, RUSSIA) and lots of smiles.
Particularly liked the simple but well thought out NEON, AIDE, ASSESS and PAYS but my favourite was SHARPENING.
Good stuff indeed.
Many thanks to Serpent and B&J
Maybe I was just on the right wavelength thanks to Picaroon but this was my quickest ever Serpent. Still enjoyable.
Great puzzle as always from Serpent with some clever misdirection. The nina passed me by but qualifies as random, certainly.
As beery hiker, a regular Private Eye crossword blogger for Fifteensquared, will confirm, Cyclops (aka Brummie in Another Place) has been using ‘pisspoor’ as an anagrind for many a year.
Many thanks to B&J for the blog.
Beaten by the parsing/defs in ASSESS and NUTRIA, felt the ladies got a bit more of a beating in the surfaces than did the chaps and – sorry – do not like the inclusion of Buenos as part of a hidden. Yes Buenos Aires is a ‘thing’ but I’m not used to seeing a standalone word that plays no part in the clue construction.
COMIC STRIP my out and out favourite but also big ticks for SCOTSMAN, RIDDANCE, SHARPENING, ENFORCER, FOOTER (no problem at all with the old-fashioned term for footie) and ALUMNA which is a lovely spot.
Thanks Serpent and B&J
If I am right in thinking Yo La Tengo means “I get It”, they seem an appropriate group for a crossword. I held myself up by putting in SEAT for EATS. I liked SHARPENING, too. Thanks, all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_La_Tengo
“I’ve got it”. Named after a baseball incident in 1962. Punchline: “What the hell is a yellow tango?” đ
Difficult but well worth the time and effort to finish
Many thanks to Serpent and B&J
PM @5….I had exactly the same thought regarding the role of Buenos in the lurker, just doesn’t seem right even if technically it is.
Thanks Serpent and BnJ
KD @ 4 I fear you may be confusing beery hiker with beermagnet đ
Thanks both. Raced through this, only to fail on DJINNI a previous unknown, which at first I assumed is a drink, and was never likely to get from the very âcreativeâ wordplay. Spotted the Nina, which helped somewhat, though I didnât know its source, and it doesnât seem to make much sense
Footer for football reminds me of P G Wodehouse; Spode’s fascists were too late to get their own coloured shirts and had to be the Black Shorts, to which Bertie says, “What footer bags?”.
Also spent far too long thinking Prussia didn’t fit.
Thanks, Serpent. Delightful puzzle. The Nina actually helped with a few clues. But not being familiar with Yo La Tengo, it took me a while to realize that a well-known song by U2 was not being referenced!
Nice stuff, with an unobtrusive Nina. So unobtrusive, in fact, that I didn’t see it until I’d filled the grid, so I got no help from it. Good clues though, so no real need.
Thanks Serpent for a superb crossword that seemed to be the right level of difficulty for me. I missed DJINNI but all else fell into place nicely. The nina helped but I did not know its origin. My top clues were SCOTSMAN (great surface), COMIC STRIP (I hadn’t heard of Dan Dare before), and NUTRIA. I thought 19a could be SEAT or EATS but the crossers confirmed the correct answer. Thanks B & J for the blog.
Many thanks, as always, to Bertandjoyce for the excellent blog (I am still a fan of the band), and to everyone who has taken the time to comment.
Like our bloggers we spotted the nina without knowing what it was about but it helped us get our last few answers. A satisfying solve with lots to enjoy, such as SHARPENING and COMIC STRIP. We do, though, have a quibble about ISOTOPES â they are not identical atoms; although they have identical chemical properties they have different atomic weights.
Thanks, Serpent and B&J.
Superb puzzle, lots of wonderful PDMs – favourite was SHARPENING. Thanks, Serpent and B&J.