As far as we can tell, Mog is a new setter for the Indy – this should be interesting!
Tuesday is usually theme-day in the Indy, and it was quickly apparent that there is a ‘brothers’ theme today, with ‘bro’ appearing in several clues. It soon became clear after we solved 11ac that the theme relates to the Nintendo 11ac Brothers video game franchise, about which we knew very little! We had a vague recollection of 11ac’s brother 28ac, but we needed electronic help to check the other characters and their fictional location, the 7d/21ac.
Lack of knowledge of the theme didn’t spoil the enjoyment. We did think that Mog was pushing the boundaries somewhat in a couple of clues – 1ac for example which had ‘cooper’ for ‘man looking down a barrel’. However, it’s what we’ve come to expect from new setters! Hopefully it keeps the grey matter working.
COOPER (person ‘looking down a barrel’ – if that’s what is in involved in making one) ATE (had)
fLUTe (instrument) without the first and last letters or ‘unboxed’ in PO (Post Office)
MA (mum) RIO (port) – one of the thematic brothers
Double definition
A homophone (‘when called for’) of NEEDED (required)
TAD (little) POLE (stick)
YOS (‘macho shouts’) HI (greeting) – we had to check this one out!
A reversal (‘put back’) of YAM (starchy veg)
cAD (scoundrel) missing the first letter or ‘heading off’ MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology – ‘US campus’)
BRA (‘cups’) round HANG (chill)
GO (game) + an anagram (‘poorly’) of WAS DONE
P (last letter or ‘end’ of camp) EACH (every) – a thematic character unknown to us
First letters or ‘starts’ of Look Uncomfortable In + GI (karate outfit) – the other thematic brother
O (old) PEN (draft) mENDED (repaired) missing the first letter or ‘leaving intro’
S (small) + a reversal (‘over’) of MAC (computer)
CO (company) W (with) bRIEf (lawyer) missing the first and last letters or ‘dismissing case’
Hidden (‘reserved’) in LoSEC ON DWINDling
PA (dad) USED (exercised)
SLY (tricky) round or ‘capturing’ E (English) CRETe (island) missing the last letter or ‘cut off’
SP (Spanish) IT (Stephen King novel)
An anagram (‘sloppy’) of DRUMMING SHOOK + hOMe (middle or ‘interior’ letters only) – unknown to us
TOo (excessively) missing the last letter or ‘almost’) AD (notice) – another character unknown to us
ArK (missing the middle letter or ‘vacated’) after a reversal (‘capsized’) of YAK (big ruminant)
An anagram (‘doctor’) of ENDS PLASMA
EX (lover of old) + a reversal (‘picked up’) of ART (paintings)
SIN (wrong) F (first letter or ‘top’ of football) ON (worn) IA (Iowa)
An anagram (‘terribly’) of NOT in MEMES (‘trending content’)
An anagram (‘roughed up’) of WE and BROS – apparently this is another thematic character, 11ac’s nemesis
LAND (state) in G S (Gewandhaus missing the middle letters or ‘gutted’) – we wondered why Mog had used Gewandhaus.
G (golf in the phonetic alphabet) A LA (after, as in a la mode)
plACID (still) missing or ‘lacking’ ‘pl’ (place)
A homophone (‘in broadcast’) of HYDE (‘literary alter ego, as in Jekyll and Hyde)
Hands down the best crossword since I’ve been doing them in the Indy for the last 18 months not least because I watched the 1993 movie at the same time. Solved and parsed too. There is no favourite clue becasue they were all superb. I did like ACID, DNA SAMPLES, PLUTO, SECRETLY, and Loi SINFONIA. A great theme for theme day. There should be more Mog to come. Thanks Bro and B&J too.
Unlike Sofamore @1, just the title Super MARIO Bros. is the beginning and end of my knowledge of the Nintendo game, meaning I had to get all the theme-related clues from wordplay. With some difficulty and not much confidence I managed to get them all, but then fell at the last on the never heard of BHANGRA.
I suppose ‘Gewandhaus’ was used at 23d as it is a concert hall which probably has an ‘Organ(s)’ (musical instrument) and definitely has a Symphony Orchestra (SINFONIA).
Definitely out of my comfort zone but turned out to be not as impossible as it first looked. Favourite was the ‘Far-out rock’ for PLUTO.
Thanks and welcome to Mog – whether you’re a new setter or the alter ego of one of our regulars – and thanks to B&J
Thanks, Mog and B&J!
WordPlodder@2
Some Bhangra for you:
https://youtu.be/xT-Hwodb_ho
Sparkling debut, full of clever, inventive ideas – like WordPlodder, I particularly liked the far-out rock. Unlike WordPlodder, I’m very familiar with the theme, so that element posed no trouble for me.
The theme is also kind of topical because there’s a film-of-the-game in cinemas right now, plus the music from the original arcade game has recently been inducted into the US Library of Congress.
Thanks, Mog and B&J.
Thanks, KVa @3. Colourful, a real spectacle and the music gets the foot tapping too!
I am such an old codger that I even started wondering where the brothers came in in Wind and the Willows, once I had got TOAD, but I still got there in the end, held up more by thinking the large ruminant was an elk, than not knowing who PEACH is. PLUTO my favourite, too.
My knowledge of the theme is extremely limited so it took me a while to solve this crossword, even with the helpful clues
Thanks to Mog and to B&J
Fantastic debut, Mog, and a timely themer with the new film’s release – I also had no trouble with the thematic entries. PLUTO, KAYAK, DNA SAMPLES my toppers.
It seems quite well-made, though I had no inkling of our impending exposure to any ‘new film’, nor indeed of any old one.
Have to admit that I threw in the towel once I realised from 11a that the theme was going to be something I know nothing about – nor have any wish to………
Well done to B&J for battling through and apologies to Mog for my lack of interest on this occasion.
With zero knowledge of, or interest in, the theme we found this impossible to solve without Wikipedia. And we’d never heard of ‘gi’ as a karate outfit (but did find it in Chambers), or of ‘hang’ for ‘chill’. Also we thought 15dn was a bit odd; it looked to us like the only thing that would fit after the setter painted him/herself into a corner. So, sorry, Mog, this didn’t float our boat. Thanks, though, to B&J for unravelling everything.
I was completely in the dark re Bro so it was only toward the end of solving that a light bulb flashed (dim as a Toc H lamp)
So without the GK needed it was a tough solve-but mostly fairly clued.
So in a way I rather enjoyed unpicking it.
Amazing (maybe not) how video games have taken off (while BOFs like me are still reading Trollope and Balzac)
Did someone say that youth is wasted on the young?
Thanks both. Evidently crossword solvers in the main do not play video games…..myself included, though I view this being as near to general knowledge as possible; for me BOWSER could have included a reference to it meaning ‘pump’ though admittedly YOSHI was only going to centre around another character name
Mog has tweeted
“As an American lover of the British cryptic crossword, I’m thrilled to be making my UK debut in today’s @Independent . I hope it brightens your day!”
Personally when I’d managed to solve the long anagram at 7/21 I looked it up, and assumed from that my chances of solving the rest with my very slim knowledge of the theme were slim. However it turned out otherwise – did need some help but coped with a lot of the clues unaided.
Phew! Pretty hard for me, but worth it in the end. Not very familiar with the theme. Really liked PLUTO. Congratulations, Mog!
Too much of a struggle for me to complete this. I’d heard of the game, but never played it. Got about a quarter done.
Thanks to Mog for a fun puzzle, I grew up with the bros and enjoyed teasing this all apart. PLUTO was a lovely clue as has been commented, and I also particularly liked TADPOLE, BHANGRA and KAYAK. Thanks also to B&J!