Independent No.11,457 by Filbert

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Better late than never (apparently)! Now the site is back from the dead I can finally post this.

Today’s Saturday’s puzzle is was set by Filbert.

There are a couple of setters whose name above the door usually puts me on red alert for a struggle. Paul and Picaroon in the Guardian, and Filbert and Phi here are my current betes noires.

Imagine my surprise, then, to find this was generally quite accessible without too many burst blood vessels or outbreaks of bruxism.

There were some beauties in the clues: 12a, 2d and 22d I liked a lot. However, the stand out for me was 21a. Multi-layered and with a couple of features to test even the most lateral of thinkers. Chapeau!

Thanks to Filbert for the grid.

 ACROSS

1. Kitty’s boyfriend almost had zero fruit or veg (6)

TOMATO

Kitty’s boyfriend [TOM = cat] almost had [ATE -E] zero [O]

2. After mass, mad genius composed music for it (5,3)

AGNUS DEI

Anag MAD GENIUS with M removed [after]

Agnes Dei (“Lamb of God”) is a common prayer in Christian masses. Most famously it has been set to music by major classical composers in Catholic requiem masses.

3. 13 remaining socialists. (4,4)

HARD LEFT

13 [across = HARD] socialists [LEFT]

10. End of play is mystifying (6)

STUMPS

Slightly cryptic double meaning. “Stumps” occurs at the end of a cricket match when the umpire literally pulls up the stumps.

11. Archipeligo that is is sent aid organised by European (4,6)

EAST INDIES

Anag. IS SENT AID and E [European]

12. Food shop on purpose having no carpet (4)

DELI

On purpose [DELIBERATE] having no [remove] carpet [BERATE]

13. Demanding cheers, Communist leader starts to notice groans (6)

TAXING

Cheers [TA] communist leader [XI] starts [first letters of] notice groans [NG]

Xi Jing Ping is the current leader of the Communist Party of China

15. Outsize clothes perhaps Lynn will wear for decorating? (8)

OVERALLS

Outsize [OS] clothes [covers] Lynn will perhaps [VERA’LL]

18. Swiss check into hotel spreading lice (8)

HELVETIC

Check [VET] into hotel [H] spreading lice [Anag of LICE]

The Helvetii were the ancient inhabitants of the Alpine regions now mostly contained by modern day Switzerland.

20. In garden tree is burning (6)

ARDENT

Hidden word: garden tree

21. Goddess’s boob you might have noticed, one of a pair (4)

ISIS

Really a very subtle clue, which took me a while to see, hiding in plain sight!

The correct way to write the possessive apostrophe would be: “Goddess'”, so the “boob” [mistake] here is  “one S” [IS]. A pair of them gives us ISIS. The clue is nicely rounded off as Isis was an ancient Egyptian goddess, plus a neat little taunt from Filbert. No; I did not notice it!!

23. Rough little sibling nuts bad footballer called Ian (10)

BROADBRUSH

Little sibling [BRO] nuts bad [anag BAD] footballer called Ian [RUSH]

Ian Rush is, amongst other achievements, still lead goal scorer of  Liverpool FC.

25. Insensitive listener ignores a song (6)

NUMBER

Insensitive [NUMB] listener ignores a [EAR without the E]

26. Simple melody stirred Vatican guards heart (8)

CAVATINA

Anag. of VATICAN and A [guard’s heart = middle letter]

27. Kind of language Nero used (8)

GENEROUS

Hidden word: language Nero used

28. Last of light structure’s left, not yet wobbly? (6)

SUNSET

Structure’s left [S] not yet wobbly [UNSET]

DOWN

2. Reformed characters within Morecambe AA act to improve health (9)

OBAMACARE

Anag. of letters inside Morecambe AA

Obamacare is the colloquial name for the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, championed by former President Barack Obama

3. Check front of trailer is in rear of car (5)

AUDIT

Front of trailer [T] is in rear of [behind] car [AUDI]

4. Red-eye above nearly back from Detroit (9)

OVERNIGHT

Above [OVER] nearly [NIGH] back from Detroit [T]

The “Red-eye” is an overnight flight, usually taking off late in the evening and landing early in the morning. The term is especially used for westbound transatlantic flights. Airlines often make use of these route times to take advantage of cheaper take-off and landing slots.

5. Fool around court in trouble with detective inspector (3,4)

ACT DIDO

Court [CT] in trouble [ADO] with detective inspector [DI]

I have to confess I got this purely from working out the clue. I’ve never heard of this saying, if indeed I’ve parsed this correctly!

6. What spinning session doesn’t need is is hosted hooter (5)

NOSES

Spinning [anag] of SESSION without IS

7. Vehicle in good nick despite electronics making noises (5,4)

SOUND CARD

Vehicle [CAR] in good [SOUND] nick despite [“Grab” D]

8. Send off cross footballer with foot raised (5)

EXPEL

Cross [X] footballer [PELE] with foot raised [E moved to the start]

14. Nile ibis drifts across middle of river unnoticed (9)

INVISIBLE

Anag. of NILEIBIS placed around middle of river [V]

16. BBC presenter’s electric vehicle is outside museum (4,5)

EVAN DAVIS

Electric vehicle is [E VAN IS] outside museum [V AND A]

Evan Davis presents the Radio 4 Today programme, and a number of other BBC radio and TV outputs.

17. Name in diary as of old (4,5)

LONG SINCE

Name [N] in diary [LOG] as of [SINCE]

19. Children love sweets, whatever’s offered (7)

CHOICES

Children [CH] love [O] sweets [ICES]

22. Pickle then consume (5)

SOUSE

Quite a clever multi layer wordplay. Consumé is French for sauce, which are also known as pickles. To “souse” is also to soak in liquid, as you would when pickling something. I would imagine this is also the origin of using souse as the euphemism for being inebriated.

23. Donkey in animal shelter losing  weight (5)

BURRO

Animal shelter [BURROW] losing weight [W]

Burro is the Spanish word for Donkey/Ass

24. Desert island to get away from allotment (3,2)

RAT ON

Island [I] to get away from [removed from] allotment [RATION]

24 comments on “Independent No.11,457 by Filbert”

  1. In 2D, I believe it’s the slightly different parsing of ([m]ORECAMB[e] + AA )*, and in 22D I was assuming that then=SO and consume=USE. 16D is, I think E.V. IS outside V AND A. I thought “E-VAN” at first too, until I gave up trying to work out why DAV might be a museum. 🙂

    Thanks both.

  4. Thanks, Filbert and Leedsclimber!

    HARD LEFT
    (a typo)
    Remaining=LEFT

    OVERALLS
    Clue-as-definition?

    ISIS
    I parsed it like Mev and JWW.

    NUMBER
    (a typo)
    NUMB=EAR without A
    Def: song (not ‘a song’)

    EVAN DAVIS and SOUSE
    I am with Mev@1

  5. SOUND CARD
    Vehicle in good nick initially despite electronics making noises (5,4)

    Vehicle in good nick=SOUND CAR +initially despite=D

  6. Brilliant. The double “is” trick in 11a and 6d, then the Godess’s boob… made me laugh out loud. Thanks, Filbert and Leedsclimber.

  7. SUNSET
    I am thinking if ‘not yet wobbly=UNSET’ or ‘wobbly=UNSET’.
    I am missing something.

  8. Thanks both. I take it the ISIS double ‘is’ device is also reflected in the permitter, reading THE THING IS IS THAT, though I am uncertain of the exact relevance

  11. TFO @8 – good spot! I don’t know if the nina is referring to anything in particular but adding an extra is after “The thing is…” is something I’ve noticed people doing often in interviews and it really infuriates me! Looks like Filbert has noticed it too.

  12. Thanks Filbert. My liking for this crossword increased dramatically once I came here and I saw the revelations regarding ISIS. (I was happy enough to solve the clues without assistance and never looked further.) In any event I had many favourites including DELI, TAXING, NUMBER, and GENEROUS. Thanks Leedsclimber for the blog.

  13. Evan Davis is an isisist…

    Great (very) extended gag. Perfect crossword assembly. Thanks Filbert.

  14. Thanks Filbert and Leedsclimber.
    Terrific puzzle.
    Nice not to see TATE as the museum! EVAN DAVIS is a fav, that I got purely from wordplay. Never heard of him.
    TAXING, HARD LEFT, TOMATO and EAST INDIES are my other favs.

  16. Parsed ISIS as others and have the same misgivings as KVa on SUNSET. I would equate “wobbly” with “unset” so the “not quite” mystifies me.

  18. Gobbo. Maybe what Filbert was getting at. The normal sense of the verb “set” in this context is “make rigid” which doesn’t suggest any wobbling but it’s not a point worth belabouring further.

  19. Oh but it is!
    What context? Tumbledown buildings? There is no other here. But it would be absurd to talk of one that is set. So we look for a scenario that fits. Wobbling and setting share a jelly context. Clearly it’s what Filbert was after. Otherwise he’s an idiot or lazy, both of which are demonstrably nonsense.

  20. We were pleased to get it all, even Isis. But tgere seems to be a bit of grammar you all know that I don’t in the parsing. Ah well.

  21. Widdersbel @11 on the nina:
    The “is is” is a grammatical (mis)construction discussed under “repetition” in Jeremy Butterfield, ed., Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 4th ed., 2015 (pp. 700-701). A paper quoted there, Shapiro and Haley, American Speech 77(3) 2002, 305-12, calls it the “reduplicative copula”. The earliest examples are from the 1970s.

    Shapiro and Haley quote e.g. George W Bush: “What I’ve said is is that …” and “My concerns are is that …”

    Butterfield concludes, “This ‘pleonastic’ doubling or repetition of ‘is’ is clearly a marked and possibly permanent feature of modern spoken English. There are even examples of triple ‘is'”.

  22. @21 in the blog:
    Also, I don’t think the “boob” in the clue at 21a is the possessive form in “goddess’s”, which is actually perfectly correct. The boob he means can only be the “is is” construction which is the theme of the crossword, as indicated in the nina and appearing in 11a and 6d.

  23. Lovely to have the site back, many thanks to Leedsclimber and everyone else for the blog and comments after the event.
    Is is has its own wikipedia page here: double copula
    Aside from George Bush and Evan Davis’s linguistic tics, it crops up in crosswords quite often. Copula in Latin is a leash/coupling/link. Where ‘is’ is used as a link and then there is another ‘is’ or equivalent in the wordplay there is a double copula. It is usually hidden because the first ‘is’ appears to be the possessive ‘s, as in for example, ‘Greek character’s tea is brewing (3)’. I particularly like this one from Philistine (28,584), in which the ‘s is not even pretending to be possessive:
    Buyer’s pro tem infractus est (6)

  24. Thanks mjr04 and Filbert for the extra info. I remember very much enjoying that Philistine clue at the time despite the solecism. I generally think that kind of thing is not worth commenting on as a solver but I always appreciate it when a setter pays attention to these details (one of the reasons I always enjoy a Filbert 🙂 ).

    Can’t say I watch Evan Davis enough to have noticed his tic, but good to know he wasn’t just a random inclusion.

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