Independent 11,445 by Serpent

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hi all.  It’s always a treat to have a Serpent to solve and our fifteensquared paths cross surprisingly infrequently, so a rare chance to extend the fun with a blog too.

Melting in the heat as I was I found it pretty hard, but doubtless would have found it tricky enough even had I been a cool kitty.  It took me ages to see a few, like the two 21’s until I finally twigged the tree which unlocked its companion.  You could almost have seen the lightbulb flash above my head (but it’s not an energy saving one, and it’s far too hot, so I promptly switched off again).  Others which took some time include 22a, OEUVRE, and the brilliant hidden INAMORATO in 8a.  I loved 3d, IODINE – I’m wise to that device but still like it, and the surface is perfect.

This may be a Serpent puzzle: there may be a nina or two … see the grid below.

I may have enjoyed this.  Thanks Serpent!

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

 

Across

8a    Maintain a moratorium protecting a wanted man? (9)
INAMORATO
MaintaIN A MORATOrium is around (protecting) the answer

9a    Who ultimately wants to be associated with aristocratic character? (4)
SNOB
The last letter of (ultimately) wantS + NOB (aristocratic character)

10a   Near riot developed at the front (8)
ANTERIOR
NEAR RIOT anagrammed (developed)

11a   Restart seemingly relieved of constant worry (6)
UNEASE
UN[c]EASE (restart seemingly – seemingly, because it’s a whimsical construction) without (relieved of) C (constant)

12a   Deny fresh scandal doesn’t involve wife (6)
NEGATE
NE[w] (fresh) and GATE (scandal) doesn’t involve W (wife)

13a   Climbing plant‘s perfumed fruit cut back (5,3)
SWEET PEA
SWEET (perfumed) + PEAr (fruit) without the last letter (cut back)

15a   House cleaner clearing out yard (4)
DAIL
DAIL[y] (cleaner) removing (taking out) Y (yard)

17a   Healthy measures stop containing endless hysteria (10)
SANITATION
STATION (stop) containing pANIc (hysteria) without the letters at either end (endless …)

19a   The way imbalance crossing lake capsized vessel (8)
SAILBOAT
TAO (the way) and BIAS (imbalance) around (crossing) L (lake), all reversed (capsized)

21a   Pet dog’s name is right one for wolfhound (6)
BORZOI
BO[n]ZO (pet dog) in which N (name) is R (right) + I (one)

22a   Scheme taking away staff’s work (6)
OEUVRE
[man]OEUVRE (scheme) taking away MAN (staff)

23a   Servant abruptly defying high-ranking official (8)
MANDARIN
MAN (servant) + DARINg (defying) finishing before the last letter (abruptly …)

24a   Reported loss bound to be suspicious (8)
MISTRUST
Sound like (reportedly) MISS (loss) TRUSSED (bound)

25a   Religious works partly responsible for slave states (6)
AVESTA
The Zoroastrian religious tests are embedded in (partly responsible for) slAVE STAtes

 

Down

1d    Australian can restrict hotel charges (6)
TINNIE
TIE (restrict); INN (hotel) goes inside (charges)

2d    Hostile communications team struggling to stop praise (4,4)
HATE MAIL
An anagram of (… struggling) TEAM is to go inside (to stop) HAIL (praise)

3d    I love to eat after one (6)
IODINE
O (love) and DINE (to eat) after I (one)

4d    Untouchable criminal can cross boundaries of agreement (10)
SACROSANCT
An anagram of (criminal) CAN CROSS with the outer letters of (boundaries of) AgreemenT

5d    Importance surrounding new university’s historic record (8)
MONUMENT
MOMENT (importance) surrounding N (new) and U (university)

6d    American South determined to admit Republican state (6)
ASSERT
A (American) + S (South) + SET (determined) taking in (to admit) R (Republican)

7d    Aggressive men upset small child (4)
YOBS
The reversal of (upset) S (small) and BOY (child)

14d   Environmental expert in English company first to defend record (9)
ECOLOGIST
E (English) + CO (company) and IST (first) surrounding (to defend) LOG (record)

16d   Scholarly environment trained adult about uprising (8)
ACADEMIA
Written upwards (… uprising), AIMED (trained), A (adult) and CA (about)

17d   Discover folklore’s regularly represented in obscene material (5,3)
SMOKE OUT
fOlKlOrE‘s alternate letters (regularly) anagrammed (represented) in SMUT (obscene material)

18d   Caterers started in Wembley area years ago? (8)
TERRACES
CATERERS anagrammed (started)

20d   Congress blocking contribution from members for lack of gravitas (6)
LEVITY
IT (congress) inside (blocking) LEVY (contribution from members)

21d   Plant whose expansion is limited by Japanese management (6)
BONSAI
A cryptic definition

23d   Author’s article abridged fabulous story (4)
MYTH
MY (author’s) + THe (article) without the last letter (abridged)

 

 

22 comments on “Independent 11,445 by Serpent”

  1. Thanks, Serpent and Kitty,
    Enjoyed the lovely puzzle and the excellent blog.

    MISTRUST (took it as a verb)
    The definition: ‘be suspicious’ (without including the ‘to’).

  3. No worries, KVa – I’m grateful that you take the care to read through the blog thoroughly, and kind adjectives gratefully received!

    Yes, when defining verbs, setters may leave out the leading “to” (in which case the answer will substitute for the definition in a sentence) or included, as here, which makes it more like a dictionary definition. In fact, I’ve just checked and Serpent’s definition matches that in Chambers exactly.

  4. Hi, Kitty – You’ve parsed everything perfectly.
    I was enjoying this immensely. Pdms everywhere, especially on the chewier parsings – SAILBOAT, BORZOI for two – until my loi UNEASE – the answer was obvious, but to have to invent a non-existent word UN[c]EASE to remove the C from? That one went in with a clunk, and without a pdm.
    The real words UNTEASE and UNERASE would have worked there. I know the setters like their whimsy, but I’m not a fan.
    Thanks S&K

  5. It’s not good to have to rely on the Nina to solve a puzzle, but I had to do this to get my last in MONUMENT, for which I originally had “document”. I never would have been able to parse BORZOI (I thought I was doing pretty well to remember the dog breed) but once I had the answer, BONSAI, which was my clue of the day, went in straight away. I agree that UN[c]EASE was a bit of a stretch.

    I’m embarrassed to admit that the ‘I’ def for IODINE was next to last in – fooled by the surface – even though I’ve seen it so many times before.

    Thanks to Serpent and Kitty

  6. Generally struggled with this, which I put down to tiredness at the end of a long week, but it was well worth persevering with. As is always the case with Serpent, it unravelled itself nicely in the end – except for a couple: had to guess at SAILBOAT and BORZOI (which I might have spotted sooner if I’d seen the Nina) and needed the blog for the parsing, for which many thanks, Kitty. And of course thanks, Serpent, for the workout.

  7. I thought this was great but couldn’t get BORZOI. Never heard of it. Plus Bonzo didn’t spring to mind as a name for a dog. Oh well.

  9. Although I could see something unfolding, the nina gave me precious little help … but I think one exception may well have been BORZOI because, although it rang a bell once I’d got it, I would never have come up with it in a million years if you had given me that amount of time to list as many dog breeds as I could!

  10. Thanks Serpent for the challenge as well as the enjoyable, and at times, helpful nina. I struggled somewhat with this and I used the check button to confirm/deny my guesses. I failed with TINNIE and could not parse BORZOI and UNEASE. I guessed TERRACES but did not understand its definition. I liked many of the clues including HATE MAIL, IODINE, and OEUVRE. Thanks Kitty for the blog.

  11. Tony S @10 – in case you’re still puzzled, terraces are the standing areas in sports stadiums in the UK. The current Wembley stadium is all-seated.

    Kitty – I’m guessing you’re more of a cat person? The borzoi is a very elegant breed. I eventually guessed it from the definition and crossing letters but I failed to recall Bonzo as a dog’s name, hence couldn’t see the parse.

  12. More of a cat person, Widdersbel? You could say that!

    With people I am comfortable around (and who are accustomed to my crazy), I have been known to mew in greeting. If I spot a cat (and I am so skilled at that I have been known to spot a black cat in the shadows on a dark night – it’s true!) I will cross the road to see if it’s friendly. I’m afraid I am more likely to cross the road to avoid a “notacat”, just in case it’s licky or pawey with an owner who doesn’t understand that not everyone wants to be licked / pawed at. I have made friends with individual dogs on occasion, so I think it really is more about not trusting the owners. Still, there is something innate about liking cats as a category, and there are few I don’t warm to at all. Funnily, one of the least nice I have known was my auntie’s old cat, who was called Kitty! She just hissed whenever you attempted to approach. Lived to a ripe old age though … not sure if there’s a lesson there.

    The only reason I though of Bonzo as a dog’s name is The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. I didn’t bother investigating further at the time but now see that they took the name from the cartoon character Bonzo the Dog.

  13. Thanks both. Wow – if I didn’t have brain pain already, then I do now. Grateful to only need assistance on a handful eventually, but this was beyond an enjoyable level of difficulty for me. Never heard of BORZOI, and only know Bonzo from the B..Dog Doo Dah Band (or something like that) who were a one-hit-wonder with a garbage piece of music many years ago, but I now read there was a 1920s cartoon character of that name – I will stick to my preference for dogs with people’s names, such as Trevor

  14. Widdersbel @11: Thanks. I don’t think the standing room area in a U.S. stadium has a special name.

  15. We solved this without too much difficulty (we did know BORZOI) though there were some delayed PDMs, such as with DAIL. We spotted the top/rhs nina neasily enough but the lhs/bottom one took a little longer to emerge. TERRACES was our LOI; we did wonder, given typos elsewhere in the clues (words run together), if ‘Wembley area’ was meant to be ‘Wembley arena’.
    Thanks, Serpent and Kitty.

  18. I found this incredibly tough going, and didn’t spot the nina until coming here. Lots of tricky parses, and a fair few words I’d never heard of before.

    I was held up for a while in the south after having put in “SAGA” for 23d with the almost sensible parsing of SAGAN minus an N (i.e. the final article AN of his name is abridged). Only after I got 24a did I clear that up

  19. Here’s one more Bonzo you could have thought of – but he’s not a dog, he’s a chimp – and he’s not a he, he’s a she – marvellous misdirection.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedtime_for_Bonzo
    Bedtime for Bonzo ‘.is a 1951 American comedy film…starring Ronald Reagan…’ – what ever happened to him? – ‘…and a chimpanzee named Peggy as Bonzo’
    Cross a different POTUS with a chimpanzee and you get…
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Trumpanzee#English
    ‘Noun – Trumpanzee (plural Trumpanzees) – (derogatory) A fervent or chauvinistic follower of former US president Donald Trump.
    2021 July 27, David Sinclair, The War of the Mind: Understanding Inflation and Alienation,
    The whole Trumpanzee movement is operating without conscious control. Unconscious mania is constantly being manifested. That’s why Trumpism is so extraordinarily dangerous. Trump was elected exactly because he was an inflated “prophet”’

  20. Found this tough but worth the effort. Thanks to both.
    Surprisingly nobody mentioned that hysteria could be pANIc or mANIa and either way you get the answer! Serendipity rules in crosswordland

  21. The puzzle was as superb as ever from Serpent and the blog excellent from Kitty as many have already commented but I just want to add that Kitty @ 12 you have described my feelings for both cats and dog(s) / owners more elegantly but precisely as I feel.

  22. But TFO@13 The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band “a one-hit-wonder with a garbage piece of music many years ago”
    I couldn’t disagree more. Viv Stanshall(1943-1995) and Neil Innes(1944-2019) were comedy and musical genii.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonzo_Dog_Doo-Dah_Band
    I’m off down another rabbit hole, following all the links from the address above, such as that cited by Kitty@12 – here’s Bonzo the dog’s picture.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonzo_the_Dog#/media/File:Bonzo_Postcard.jpg
    I hadn’t heard of him, because the ’20s was “before my time” – as deliberately annoying contestants on Pointless are wont to say.
    In the meantime here’s a short – 41 seconds – musical interlude. Kama Sutra from the LP The Doughnut In Granny’s Greenhouse(1968)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ2yjccMpsg
    ‘Kama, Kama, Kama Sutra with me, yeah, yay
    We tried position 31 | Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah | It was terrific fun, uh, huh
    In position 72 | You were me | And I was you, uh’
    Yes TFO it was many years ago – I’ll give you that.
    Thanks again S&K

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