This setter made his or her Indy debut in a Sunday puzzle a short while ago, where my colleague flashling pointed out that the pseudonym comes from a genus of death-watch and spider beetles (with thirteen individual species, I discovered today). This crossword was not too deadly, and was one which I enjoyed solving and blogging, in part because it had lots of different and interesting areas of reference.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Does this go round being nasty? It’s one of those things that never ends!
VICIOUS CIRCLE
A cd.
8 Pop group heard in eastern European and central Asian regions
STEPPES
A homophone (‘heard’) of STEPS, the pop group formed in 1997, re-formed in 2011, and whose latest release in August last year went straight to the top of the charts, making them the only British, mixed-gender group to achieve four Number 1 albums in four different decades. You learn some stuff from crosswords, don’t you?
9 What the “fastest gun” could do – make a superior picture?
OUTDRAW
A cd cum dd, referencing the phrase ‘quick on the draw’.
11 Famous Edward’s gone missing!
NOTED
If Edward’s missing, there would be NO TED.
12 Baltic citizen and public school pupil carrying son
ESTONIAN
An insertion of S in ETONIAN. This one’s been round the block a bit.
14 Intelligent émigrés finding undergarment in sewer?
BRAIN DRAIN
A charade of BRA IN DRAIN.
15 Requests barrels without lids
ASKS
[C]ASKS
17 Weapons that are comfortable when recoiling
GUNS
A reversal of SNUG.
19 Walker perhaps, to give support to former cricket sponsor?
BACKPACKER
A charade of BACK and PACKER. The second element is referencing Kerry PACKER, whose commercial sponsorship of cricket through the World Series in the late 1970s changed the nature of the international game.
21 Where a batter may stand to improve?
INCREASE
More cricket. A charade of IN and CREASE, and a clue that’s closely followed ESTONIAN round the block.
23 A well-known name in air travel: one of the superior ones, it used to be said
ARYAN
A charade of A and RYAN [Air], and referencing the ideology that claims the supremacy of the Aryan race, which, in the hands of Hitler and the Nazis, had such dreadful consequences.
25 Astronomy pioneer with girl – one introduced to constellation
GALILEO
A charade of GAL, I and LEO.
26 College head to take five in quiet resting-place
PROVOST
An insertion of the Roman numeral V in P and ROOST.
27 Doctor needs “med” brain for this!
BEDSIDE MANNER
(NEEDS MED BRAIN)* with ‘doctor’ as the anagrind, and a cad.
Down
2 With this, can one even be bothered to fill in the answer?
INERTIA
I suspect this is something cleverer, but I can only see a rather weak cd. Someone may have a better explanation.
3 Cheeky and rash, with no end of vigour
IMPUDENT
IMP[R]UDENT
4 Major perhaps, seen by 25?
URSA
Galileo Galilei at 25 would no doubt have studied, with his new-fangled telescope, the constellation of the Great Bear, also known as The Plough (UK), The Big Dipper (US) or URSA MAJOR.
5 Make kindling with eating utensils?
CHOPSTICKS
To make kindling, you would need to CHOP STICKS …
6 Allowance cut in proportion
RATIO
RATIO[N]
7 These trucks are the property of young Lawrence, I’d say
LORRIES
It seems to be crossword convention to use ‘young’ to suggest a diminutive first name, so here the solution is a homophone (‘I’d say’) of LAURIE’S, with the possessive apostrophe indicating ownership.
8 With spades – and getting one’s hands on – the process of building up flood defences?
SANDBAGGING
A charade of S, AND and BAGGING.
10 Drunk drinks to own way of tying a tie
WINDSOR KNOT
(DRINKS TO OWN)* with ‘drunk’ as the anagrind.
13 Norfolk area term for a weapon
BROADSWORD
A charade of BROADS and WORD.
16 Colour about half of cake or biscuit
MACAROON
An insertion of CA[KE] in MAROON. But isn’t a MACAROON a cake? Or is that a MACARON? Life is confusing sometimes.
18 Awfully clean, the French aircraft engine housing
NACELLE
A charade of (CLEAN)* and LE for one of the words for ‘the’ in French. This leapt out at me, a result of spending too much time as an eleven-year-old constructing Airfix models of fighter aircraft and getting high on the fumes from the polystyrene cement.
20 Sort of speech that’s in tune with the main theme?
KEYNOTE
A whimsical cd, I think, hinting at the musical implications of a KEY NOTE.
22 Sell issue featuring island where many immigrants landed
ELLIS
Hidden in sELL ISsue. The poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, on Ellis Island, has the lines from Emma Lazarus’ poem:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
24 Junk upcoming plans
SPAM
A reversal (‘upcoming, since it’s a down clue) of MAPS.
Many thanks to Xestobium for today’s puzzle.
INERTIA
inert one(I) to A (answer)
Can’t think better.
Thanks, Xestobium and Pierre.
I mean ‘one inert (can not even be bothered) to fill in the answer’
inert i a
OUTDRAW
to draw (a gun) faster than (collinsdictionary.com)
This reinforces Pierre’s ‘quick on the draw’.
Generally speaking, macaroons are biscuits made with egg-white and sugar and coconut. Maybe they have a cherry on top. Macarons are similar but made with ground almond and they’re usually brightly coloured discs sandwiched with cream. A light exercise for the antipodean Anzac Day holiday. I think MACAROON was indeed my favourite clue having made and eaten them in the past. Thanks Pierre (I think you’re right about 2d) and Xestobium.
Actually Anzac Day is tomorrow (25th) but today was also holiday at least for students meaning I was on dad duty.
I found this a quick straightforward solve, parsing INERTIA as KVa.
I’ve made macaroons as almond and egg white biscuits more often than coconut and would distinguish those as coconut macaroons. I used to buy almond macaroons from bakeries – reasonably sized chewy biscuits with a decorative almond or slice of glacé cherry – apparently now called English macaroons. The macaron with filling is now ubiquitous and coconut macaroons are available as useful gluten free bisuits.
Thank you Pierre and Xestobium.
I found this a bit of a mixed bag. There were a couple of odd surfaces; I don’t much like 2d; the “young” in 7d seems incongruous; and 24d is ambiguous without the checking letters. Those apart, this was good fun with BRAIN DRAIN my favourite.
Thanks to Xestobium and to Pierre.
Good puzzle to start the week, though I had zero idea about the ‘Pop group’ at 8a and couldn’t really parse INERTIA. Thanks to posters above for the educational discussion about MACAROON(s) and macarons. I have exactly the same thoughts and memories about NACELLE as our blogger. I must be able to blame those polystyrene cement fumes for something, like being so slow at crosswords.
Thanks to Xestobium for number two and to Pierre
Unusually, I didn’t have any quarrels or doubts with any of these clues. Everything fell into place nicely, with just a slight hold-up at the linked 5D, 19A and 20d. Thanks Xestobium and Pierre.
Very enjoyable indeed. Ok a couple of the mildly cryptic definitions were a tad weak but the puzzle as a whole was fun to fill in.
I liked BACKPACKER, ARYAN, PROVOST, BEDSIDE MANNER (very smart) and MACAROON
Many thanks setter and blogger.
All really good fun despite the possibility of a couple of weak points.
Tops for me were VICIOUS CIRCLE, NOTED, ARYAN & CHOPSTICKS.
Thanks to the beetle and to Pierre for the review – no bird opportunities AGAIN!
Thanks both. Agree about the strength of BEDSIDE MANNER and the apparent weakness of INERTIA unless something is still being missed (something I specialise in)
Nice, light, enjoyable Monday fare. Thanks, Xestobium and Pierre.
Pierre
Having visited both, can I point out that the Statue of Liberty is not on Ellis Island.
Thank you, Rullytully. I always assumed it was, but my bad. It’s on Liberty Island.
Actually completed this one – so gentle hill I think, compared to some daily peaks.
Stuck on the se corner till last – overthought windsor knot ( not helped by marking the grid 8/3 rather than 7/4 ). Was dubious about Keynote. Aryan had me floored thinking too much of AMY j – didn’t see Ryan and wondered about ‘ Aryan Vohra’ story …?
Saw Aryan ( race ) in the end – still didn’t see Ryan at all !
Steppes as a group I presumed ( my music favs are the sixties – 1660 ! )
Quick on the draw I fired my guns backwards at first !
This was overall a good puzzle except for 23A which is an atom bomb that ruins the whole thing. I’m an American, I understand this puzzle is made for a British audience and maybe they have a different relationship to a word like Aryan than we do. But this is such a bummer. The bummer of all bummers. I solved this last and it ruined to whole puzzle for me. Why are the end of the grid are we left thinking about Hitler and the Nazis and their racist ideology that killed millions of people!
Why oh why was that left in the grid. There is such an easy fix pointed out by a friend of mine. KEYNOTE could become KARAOKE and ARYAN could become APRON. boom. easy. I don’t understand how you 1. put that in a grid, and 2. as an editor, let that through to the published grid.