Independent 11,409 by Wiglaf

by

Thank goodness there is one small spot this Saturday morning that doesn’t mention a man in a hat sitting in a chair.
((c)Private Eye)

What we have is what we expect from Wiglaf.  A pretty tough puzzle with a hell of a lot of clues!
33 Clues.  I don’t I’ve ever blogged a puzzle with this many.

I think I did OK solving this one.  1 Across was cold solved quickly – I realised there are no Greek letters of length 8, and spotted the wordplay might be a full reversal of a word meaning fevered frenzy, so MU fitted and the rest followed.  It didn’t do much good – I didn’t get  anything from the 4 first letters it delivered.  But then I got 11A (and wondered if “roe” was supposed to be part of the hommophone) and the crossing down clues became more tractable.

Then I made a boo boo and wrote in HACKING for 12A, which seemed to me to fit at the time, but of course jinxed a couple of crossing clues in that top-right corner.

I was pleased to get 27A Broughams when I did – a sign of a youth spent reading Sherlock Holmes stories no doubt – although I still don’t see where the S comes from in the wordplay.

One answer I had to look up to check, 20d Lewisia, but I am hopeless with plant names, espec. their Latin names.

After fixing my 12A mistake and finishing the top-right I still had one clue outstanding, 30A.  For this I had to call on one of my children who is (whisper it softly) a film buff.  I just had to show the crossing letters and ask “is this a film director?” for the name Jim Jarmusch to ring out.  I excuse myself not needing to know this earlier, looking at his filmography I see I have seen none of his films.

Some doubts on wordplay in a couple of clues: 27A as mentioned above, and 6d Initial – I have no idea how that clue works.  And of course I may easily be wrong in some others.

There are a few favourite clues amongst all this, but I will pick out 5d Therefrom for the story encapsulated in the clue – and from which I learn the picture is properly named “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1”  <Wiki Link>

Across
1 DELIRIUM Greek character I angered returned in fevered frenzy (8)
MU (Greek character) I RILED (I angered) all reversed (returned).
First one in.
5 TWINS They’re delivered in twos, unloved rarely (5)
(IN TW[o]S)* AInd: rarely, O removed because “unloved”.  Semi-&Lit
9 ACORN Article about fancy fruit (5)
A (Article) C (about) ORN (fancy). “Orn” is a synonym for “Adorn”, apparently
Edit:  As commentors point out, the better, intended wordplay is surely:
AN (Article) about COR (fancy, as an exclamation)
10 STATESIDE Express Bank in America (9)
STATE (express) SIDE (bank)
11 ROE DEER Source of venison, caviar and honey delivered (3,4)
ROE (caviar), then Homophone: “dear” (honey) HInd: delivered.
12 REEKING Half of hand-rolled cigarette starts monarch smoking (7)
REE[fer] (hand-rolled cigarette, half of) KING (monarch)
I had HACKING written-in based on the slightly incomplete: HA[nd] C[igarette] KING
13 MUSIC Mike drinks in American bars (5)
US (American) inside (drunk in by) MIC (Mike, microphone)
15 ESCAROLES American leaves job after cracking criminal cases (9)
(CASES)* AInd: criminal, to make ESCA…S around (cracked by) (ROLE)* AInd: cracking
Better expressed the other way around
(ROLE)* AInd: cracking, inside (cased by) (CASES)* AInd: criminal.
Edit:  Even better if I spell it right.  The Wordplay must then be the following which does not attempt double-use of any element:
(CASES)* AInd: criminal, to make ESCA…S around (cracked by) ROLE (job)
17 TESLA COIL It can transform current localites in need of transformation (5,4)
(LOCALITES)* AInd: in need of transform.
21 MOCHA A lot of talk after instant coffee (5)
MO (instant) CHA[t] (a lot of talk)
24 SUNSPOT Small group of students will return prize? That’s relatively cool (7)
(S[mall] NUS (group of students) )<  will return, POT (prize).
Sunspots are relatively cool (3000–4500 K) compared to the rest of the Sun’s surface (5780 K)
25 WETSUIT Non-Thatcherite businessman’s swimwear (7)
WET (Non-Thatcherite) SUIT (businessman)
More than 30 years since she was deposed and here we are defining ourselves in terms of her politics
27 BROUGHAMS Transport used by bachelor after taking ill in the morning (9)
B[achelor] ROUGH (ill) AM (morning) S (? not sure where this S comes from)
28 RHINO One could charge money (5)
Double Def.
Google tells me: No one knows for sure where this 400-year-old term for money comes from. Some people link it to the value of rhino horn or the idea of paying through the nose.
29 NIECE New church that’s welcomed girl (5)
IE (that’s) in N[ew] CE (church)
30 JARMUSCH Director‘s beer often plugged by son (8)
S[on] inside JAR MUCH (beer often).  Jim Jarmusch is a film director  <Wiki link>
Last one in.
Down
1 DIAGRAM Servant girl hung up clothing for a gross figure (7)
A GR[oss] inside MAID (servant girl) reversed (hung up)
2 LIONESS Cat from 10 wearing large cape (7)
IO (10) inside L[arge] NESS (cape)
3 RENEE Welsh government’s abandoned Frenchwoman (5)
RENEGE (Welsh, in the pejorative sense) – G[overnment]
4 UPSURGE Sudden rise in university witch hunts, ending with promotion (7)
U[niversity] PURGES (witch hunts) “promote” the S (ending) up higher
5 THEREFROM Taking Whistler’s Mother out out of that place (9)
(REF (Whistler) + MOTHER)* AInd: out.
Edit: Hovis’s point at comment #5 is right of course,
REF is inside (MOTHER)* and doesn’t need to get anagrammed itself.
The anagram of MOTHER is “Taking” REF
6 INITIAL The first capital of England, say (7)
WORDPLAY?  I haven’t a clue how this works
Edit: See Comment #1 for some sort of explanation but I’m still not happy
7 SLEIGHS Winter transport butchers picked up (7)
Homophone “SLAYS” HInd: picked up.
8 FABRIC Sykes needs to get cracking to replace low-grade material (6)
ERIC (Ref Eric Sykes, comedian) replace E (low grade) with FAB (cracking).
I guess I wasn’t the only one thinking of Dickens’ Sykes before Eric
14 CHAMPAGNE Victor Grey maybe skips second drink (9)
CHAMP (victor) AGNE[s] S removed because “maybe skips S[econd]”  Agnes from Agnes Grey the Anne Bronte novel <link>
16 SUI After revolution, America gains independence of itself (3)
US< (America, after revolution) I[ndependence]
17 TEST BAN Flying boat sent out of Ohio to establish agreement between nations (4,3)
(BOAT SENT – O[hio] )* AInd: Flying.
18 SAN JOSE Seaman wearing loose jeans somewhere in California (3,4)
OS (seaman, OS = Ordinary Seaman) in (JEANS)* AInd: loose.
19 OUTLAW Legislation in the wake of blooming Hereward the Wake? (6)
OUT (blooming) LAW (legislation).
Ref. The proper English rebel <Link>
Charles Kingsley’s interminable tome probably put the final nail in his coffin
20 LEWISIA Coming over from Calais I welcome Herb (7)
Hidden reversed in CalAIS I WELcome.
Thankfully relatively easy wordplay for an answer I had to look up <Wiki Link>
22 COUSINS Some of the family will need money to tour the States (7)
COINS (money) around (touring) US (states)
23 ANTIOCH Appeal mounted in an old church in an old city (7)
IT< (Appeal, mounted) in AN O[ld] CH[urch]
26 THRUM Monotonous hum from staff recruiters in corporation (5)
HR (staff recruiters, aka Human Resources) inside TUM (corporation)

 

29 comments on “Independent 11,409 by Wiglaf”

  1. BROUGHAMS
    Looks like BS (the science degree) is taken to stand for ‘bachelor’.
    BS taking ROUGH+AM.

    INITIAL
    The capital of (in) England is E and that is the initial letter.

  3. On first read through I had embarrassingly few in and thought this would be beyond me but with a little E-help in the SE in particular I managed to complete the grid and thoroughly enjoyed this tough but clever and cryptic puzzle.
    I was wondering what the role of “starts” is in REEKING?…I presume it means “go before?”
    Top clues for me were DELIRIUM, ROE DEER, MUSIC, MOCHA, SLEIGHS, COINS and SAN JOSE.
    Many thanks to Wiglaf and BM for a top puzzle and blog.

  4. For ACORN I parsed it as AN containing COR as in ‘fancy (that)’ but I accept your version. Tough crossword for me but I got there finally. I needed help from the blog with FABRIC, TWINS and ANTIOCH. Lots to enter in my little black Word file. THEREFROM is my toppie and STATESIDE. Thanks Wiglaf and BM.

  5. I also had AN containing COR. I took BS in 27 as Bachelor of Surgery. In 5d, I don’t think you should include REF in the anagram fodder – it is REF (Whistler) with (MOTHER)* (Mother out) around it (‘taking’).

  7. I binned this after 30-never heard Of him and neither had any word finder
    But I thoroughly enjoyed ELGAR’S TT

  9. 16d SUI – can we really have this without GENERIS or JURIS or HEREDES?
    Anyone know a Latin teacher? 🙂
    Ingenious parsing of ACORN.
    Liked FABRIC, THEREFROM and ANTIOCH
    Thanks W&b

  10. Jarmusch – WHO???
    Otherwise tricky in places but all gettable. Thanks, Wiglaf and beermagnet.

  11. Thanks both. I’ll assume JARMUSCH was the setter’s last act in this grid, and forgive it. BROUGHAMS was the only one requiring assistance, and I got lost knowing there was a phantom ‘s’ in the answer

  12. The Science degree is BSc never BS (except from Oxford where everything is BA)
    I prefer James solution at comment #2 B[achelor]’S from “used by bachelor”

    INITIAL: KVa’s wordplay at comment #1: I nearly wrote something like this in the blog, but I still don’t like it – any proper name is capitalised and using a “definition by example” in wordplay without even a “?” is over-misleading
    Surely there is some other way of explaining this

    The COR! inside AN construction for ACORN, as given by Sofamore & Hovis, is much neater and likely the intended wordplay, so I will put that in the blog. Wot I rote works but ORN is too obscure.

    Oh dear. I fluffed up ESCAROLES and its wordplay. I will correct Thanks for pointing it out FrankieG
    Silly really. It’s not just Americans that use this term for endive etc. My French partner Sophie often refers to them as Scaroles.

    As for SUI – I’m not worthy enough to make a judgement on that

  13. Jarmusch is the sort of solution that Wiglaf puzzles are sometimes full of (in a good way), but here it did stand out as odd. There is coffee and cigarette in the clues, but without more I’d put that down to coincidence. Slightly odd grid, though.

  14. It must be B’S as in ‘belonging to bachelor’. Otherwise I can’t see why the ‘used by’ is there.

    As you say a lot of clues. Mercifully Wiglaf didn’t give us URE and EDH along the same coordinates as SUI!

  15. Thanks, Wiglaf and beermagnet. Glad I’m not the only one who found this tricky in places – mainly thanks to some vague (but fair) definitions, eg “that’s relatively cool”.

    JARMUSCH was actually one of the easier ones for me – a fine director whose films are well worth seeking out.

    Agree that THEREFROM was the standout clue.

  16. Thanks to Beermagnet for the blog and to those who commented.

    Just to clarify:
    9 across: COR in AN is the correct parsing
    27 across: BS is Bachelor of Surgery and hence “Bachelor” with “used by” acting as a link.
    16 down: One of the definitions of SUI is “of itself” (Chambers)

    There is also a hidden theme. James @13 came close to spotting it.

  19. James@13
    Coffee and Cigarette-Quite interesting. Great spot.
    Wiglaf says there is more to be dug out. Hmm…

    Thanks to Wiglaf for dropping in with various clarifications.
    Some clarification on INITIAL from the setter would have been
    useful too.

  23. My mother used to say that if you can’t speak without causing offence it’s better to stay silent. The blogger, Beermagnet, seems surprised that the first Coronation in 70 years in the UK has generated so much publicity. I am offended by his comment ( even if it is a quote from Private Eye).
    Why can’t you just blog the crossword without extraneous comment?
    I think I know the answer. King Charles is known to be a caring, compassionate man with a 50 year history of his awareness of the environmental damage caused by humans. Today, we had a wonderful demonstration of his competence during a long ceremony watched by millions in which he made no false step.
    I cannot comment on Beermagnet’s compassion or concern for the environment; those possible qualities are well hidden. But today he cannot even blog a simple crossword without making several errors.
    You had one job, Beermagnet, and you could not do it. Was that why you tried to deflect attention on to King Charles with your mean-spirited opening remark.

  24. Fair comment by the Magnet, I rather thought. Wall-to-wall coverage of Royal affairs has been the subject of discussion before in the national media, so to reference it here on this day seems fine to me.

    For your fawning and cap-doffing you will possibly receive a warmer reception on the letters page of Hello! magazine, for example. Private Eye, whence our bloggers quote comes, will I suspect not be to your taste.

  25. Thank you paul b for your advice. You clearly know far more than I about the letters’ page of Hello magazine. I note that you do not address a single point that I made; attacking the person when you are unable to defend an argument is an intellectually bankrupt trick. In the spirit of giving advice might I suggest that you would be happier posting comment in some of the baser areas of twitter? I suggest that in, of course, a most fawning and cap- doffing manner.

  26. Found this a very tough solve throughout. I got stuck in the NE corner as I became fixed on the idea that “Swiftsure” was the solution for 10a (famous sandbank off the pacific coast nr Vancouver).

    Thanks to Wiglaf for the grid, and Beermagnet for the solve, and the quote.

  27. I hope we don’t see the very offensive Daleite too often. Surely it’s fair enough to be a bit bored with the Coronation when referring to the Independent off all crosswords! And I for one am grateful to the bloggers for doing their best and being the basis for a group to reach the final parsings.

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