An enjoyable exercise in lateral thinking from Quince today.
I loved the misleading definitions in 6a, 11a (though I think I’ve seen something similar before), 26a, 1d, 24d. They all make sense if you can ignore the surface, or when you know the answer . . . I thought 5d and 7d were very neat, though the latter refers to a leader whose advice I’m not inclined to take. My laugh-out-loud favourite might be the delightfully vulgar pun of 20a, with an honourable mention to the &lit 28a. Thanks Quince for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HARMONICAS |
Tips off Richard Osman about music producers (10)
|
| Anagram (about = scattered) of [r]ICHAR[d] (tips off = end letters removed) + OSMAN. | ||
| 6 | WIND |
West elected Democrat behind emissions (4)
|
| W (abbreviation for West) + IN (elected) + D (abbreviation for Democrat).
Wind = farts = emissions from the behind. |
||
| 10 | PARASOL |
Restless polar bears like protection from the sun (7)
|
| Anagram (restless) of POLAR, containing (. . . bears = holds) AS (like). | ||
| 11 | OCTOPUS |
Army being caught by leading American, after start of operation (7)
|
| C (abbreviation for caught, in cricket scoring) + TOP (leading) + US (American), after the starting letter of O[peration].
A creature with many arms. |
||
| 12 | TREACHERY |
Tutor admits beginning to read Journey’s End in bad faith (9)
|
| TEACHER (tutor) containing (. . . admits) the beginning letter of R[ead], then the end letter of [journe]Y. | ||
| 13 | GATOR |
Florida resident aghast court suffers regular losses (5)
|
| Alternate letters dropped (. . . suffers regular losses) from [a]G[h]A[s]T [c]O[u]R[t].
Informal abbreviation for alligator, often found in the wetlands of Florida. |
||
| 14 | CARVE |
Slice roast with vegetarian in mind (5)
|
| V (abbreviation for vegetarian, in food labelling) in CARE (as a verb = mind = be concerned about). | ||
| 15 | SEX ROBOTS |
Rude mechanicals take boots off, after Pyramus and Thisbe finally kiss (3,6)
|
| R (abbreviation for Latin recipe, in old-fashioned prescriptions = take), then an anagram (off) of BOOTS; all that comes after the last letters (finally) of [pyramu]S and [thisb]E, then X (symbol indicating a kiss at the end of a message).
The surface suggests Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but our compiler (who shares a name with one of its characters) has quite a different sort of “rude mechanicals” in mind . . . |
||
| 18 | REHEARSAL |
Drill gets through concrete (9)
|
| HEARS (gets = recognises someone else’s point of view) inserted into (through) REAL (concrete, as an adjective).
As in “fire drill” = practice. |
||
| 20 | EXPAT |
Coprolite, perhaps one found overseas (5)
|
| Coprolite = fossilised dung = something that might once have been a pat (cowpat) = an EX-PAT perhaps? | ||
| 22 | TASER |
Took another exam on return – it’s a shocker (5)
|
| RESAT (took an exam again) reversed (on return). | ||
| 24 | APPLE TART |
Pudding is allowed to interrupt a piano piece (5,4)
|
| LET (allowed), inserted into (interrupting) A + P (abbreviation for Italian piano in musical terminology = soft) + PART (piece). | ||
| 25 | TOASTED |
Tried eating bagel like this (7)
|
| TASTED (tried), containing (eating) O (zero: bagel = slang for a score of zero, especially a tennis set lost 6-0).
Extended definition: a bagel (ring-shaped bread roll) may be served toasted. |
||
| 26 | ORIGAMI |
Ring Macron’s ally about apparatus for folding business (7)
|
| O (ring) + AMI (French for “friend”, so French President Macron’s word for an ally), around RIG (apparatus).
The Japanese art of paper-folding. |
||
| 27 | TERM |
Label Monster Munch packs (4)
|
| Hidden answer (. . . packs = holds) in [mons]TER M[unch]. | ||
| 28 | STRETCHERS |
Ways to carry someone who’s sick (10)
|
| STS (plural of St = abbreviation for street = way), containing RETCHER (someone who vomits = is sick).
Clue-as-definition (&lit): stretchers = devices used to carry sick or injured people. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HEPATIC |
Emperor’s beginning to have stroke in this Roman livery (7)
|
| Beginning letter of E[mperor] + PAT (stroke = touch gently), in HIC (“this” in Latin = Roman).
Hepatic = relating to the liver = livery? |
||
| 2 | RARE EARTH |
Rather scruffy trousers are something on the table (4,5)
|
| Anagram (scruffy) of RATHER, containing (. . . trousers, as a verb = takes) ARE.
Rare earth metals = a group on the periodic table of elements. |
||
| 3 | OSSICLE |
Counter is so heartlessly cruel, close to the bone (7)
|
| IS SO reversed (counter), then C[rue]L (heartlessly = inner letters removed), then the closing letter of [th]E.
Latin for “little bone”, specifically the three small bones in the middle ear. |
||
| 4 | ILLNESSES |
Bad heads might be a symptom of these? (9)
|
| ILL (bad) + NESSES (ness = head = promontory).
Extended definition: a headache may be a symptom of an illness. |
||
| 5 | AGONY |
Try any nurses for pain (5)
|
| GO (as a verb = try, as in “have a go”), contained in (. . . nurses, as a verb) ANY. | ||
| 7 | INPUT |
Advice from Russian leader in uprising (5)
|
| PUTIN (Russian leader Vladimir Putin), with the IN moved to the start (up-rising, in a down clue). | ||
| 8 | DESERTS |
Son wiped, worried about dumps (7)
|
| STRES[s]ED (worried), with one S (abbreviation for son) deleted (wiped), reversed (about).
Dump = to abandon (especially a romantic partner) = desert. |
||
| 9 | STAG DO |
Bambi’s parents briefly meet before the big day (4,2)
|
| STAG + DO[e] (male and female deer = Bambi’s parents), with the last letter dropped (briefly).
A social event for a bridegroom-to-be and his male friends. |
||
| 16 | XYLOPHONE |
Axes cut perfect bars of metal (9)
|
| X + Y (the two axes on a graph) + LOP (cut) + HONE (perfect, as a verb = refine).
A slightly loose definition: strictly a xylophone is a musical instrument with resonating wooden bars, and the metal equivalent is a glockenspiel, but “xylophone” is sometimes used to refer to any instrument of this general type. |
||
| 17 | ORPHANAGE |
Oprah broadcast Harry and Meghan’s second home without parents (9)
|
| Anagram (broadcast = scattered) of OPRAH, then NAG (harry, as a verb) + second letter of [m]E[ghan]. | ||
| 18 | RAT-A-TAT |
Artist on farewell tour initially raps (3-1-3)
|
| RA (Royal Academician = artist) + TA-TA (informal version of “farewell”) + initial letter of T[our].
Raps = rat-a-tat = a drumming rhythm. |
||
| 19 | AERATE |
Poke holes in preposterous film plot (6)
|
| ET (Steven Spielberg film) + AREA (plot of land), all reversed (preposterous, which originally meant back-to-front). | ||
| 20 | ELEGIAC |
Independent essentially upset about Quince, setter of woeful work (7)
|
| Middle letter (essentially) of [indep]E[ndent]; then CA (abbreviation for Latin circa = about) + I (Quince) + GEL (setter = something that sets), all reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue).
Elegiac = relating to an elegy or lament. |
||
| 21 | TITBITS |
Tastes tablespoon carrying two servings of Vermouth (7)
|
| TBS (abbreviation for tablespoon, as a measure in recipes), containing (carrying) IT (abbreviation for Italian vermouth) twice (two servings).
Taste, as a noun = a small sample = titbit. |
||
| 23 | STAIR |
Part of a flight leads to sudden turbulence, alerting inbound runway (5)
|
| First letters (leads) of S[udden] T[urbulence] A[lerting] I[nbound] R[unway].
A single step on a flight of stairs. |
||
| 24 | AUDIT |
Acclaim has no place in book review (5)
|
| [pl]AUDIT (acclaim, though it’s usually “plaudits” in the plural) without the PL (abbreviation for place).
Audit = a review of an organisation’s books (accounts). |
Army being (Octopus): I have come across this before. Livery (HEPATIC): I haven’t seen this usage before. Both are lovable (even if they are whimsical!).
Liked SEX ROBOTS, EXPAT, STRETCHERS (beautiful &lit), STAG DO and TITIBITS.
Thanks, Quince and Quirister!
Beaten by the parsing of AERATE. Of course the original meaning of preposterous had to have been back-to-front. D’oh!
Thanks Q&Q.
Didn’t recall that meaning for ‘preposterous’ and so I also failed to parse AERATE. Annoying really since I now remember the ‘pre’ ‘post’ idea behind it. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this superb crossword. The humour of EXPAT and the delightful &lit STRETCHERS were favourites. I reckon I prefer KVa’s TITIBITS to the actual TITBITS 🙂
LOL
At 16D, Quirister has pointed out that a xylophone has wooden not metal bars, the latter being a glockenspiel. So it’s more than ‘slightly loose’ to the point of being plain wrong, whatever the usage, since ‘xylo-‘ is the combinator for wood from the Greek. Wouldn’t the clue have been fine with ‘bars of wood’? Tut tut, standards are slipping! That aside, I really enjoyed this and thought 20A was brilliant, so thanks Quince and Quirister
I agree – 16d is just plain wrong. Xylophones have wooden bars. End of story.
Close but no Camberwell Carrot
Wow I thought this was really something. So many great clues but I have to single out 28a and 11a which I had never seen before and the parsing of which I completely missed until coming here. I went so far as to discover that in Andhra Pradesh there exists an Organisation for Counter Terrorism Operations which is known by the approximate acronym of OCTOPUS.
Couldn’t have finished this without aids and very chuffed to have managed it at all.
Many thanks to Quince (I thought giving himself a name check right next to the word “setter” was really funny) and Quirister.
Thanks Quince for the satisfying challenge. I missed TERM and OSSICLE and I had a few parsing gaps in AERATE and EXPAT but overall I liked this very much. My top choices included REHEARSAL, TOASTED, STRETCHERS (superb clue), HEPATIC, INPUT, STAIR (nice surface), and AUDIT. Thanks Quirister for the blog.
Tricky but great fun. I also laughed out loud at 20a.
Thanks to Q & Q
Some very clever clues, some made me groan, expat and army especially. Xylophone did really hold us up, as we dismissed it as they are not metal bars..