I cannot access the blogging utility that I normally use, so as a stopgap, I am posting these parsing notes, which I hope will be reasonably clear to anyone who has attempted the puzzle.
ACROSS
- BLIMEY, Goodness me!, B (British) + LIMEY (British) “in more ways than one”
- ASSESSOR, Examiner, hidden in (overlooking a lot) [embarr]asses Sor[bonne]
- CANNON, a danger to everyone when loose, homophone of (announced) CANON (cleric)
- PHARISEE, hypocrite, H (husband) inside (in) PARIS (capital) + E + E (“Es”)
- ANTI-HERO, a flawed character, anagram of (horribly) AN[C]HORITE, minus (“out”) C (caught)
- DOG-EAR, page turned down, anagram of (dotty) DO[W]AGER, minus (no . . . left) W (whiskey)
- INCA, South American once, INCA[RCERATED] (imprisoned “briefly”) Not 100% sure about this one???
- RASPUTIN, advisor to Tsar, RA’S (artist’s) + PUT IN (installed)
- VICTORIA, old queen & waiting for train here?, double definition
- SING, turn informer, “half of” SING SING (prison)
- ABUSES, insults, ABS (sailors) around (welcoming) alternate letters of (“occasional”) [A]U[S]S[I]E
- EGYPTIAN, like mummy, anagram of (getting drunk) A GIN TYPE
- STONE AGE, a time, STAGE (pulpit) around (enthralling) ONE (cardinal, i.e., number)
- HILTON, hotel, first letter of (“head of”) L[LOYD’S] inside (is visiting) HIT ON (discover)
- ARKANSAS, this one [i.e., state] perhaps, A + R (Republican) + KANSAS (state). Arkansas is currently a Red state.
- NOD OFF, snooze, anagram of (this might make) DON, i.e., if “nod” is “off.”
DOWN
- LEARN, master, R (rupees) inside (put . . . in) LEAN (bank)
- MENDICANT, beggar, MEND (sort out) + I CAN’T (I’m unable)
- YANKEE, bet & he fought in civil war, double definition
- APPROPRIATENESS, Propriety, APPROPRIATE (nick) + NESS (head)
- SLAPDASH, careless, SLAP (make-up) + DASH (rush)
- STING, smart & Police[-]man, cryptic/double definition, i.e., the lead singer of The Police
- OPERATION, job in theatre [i.e., surgery], ORATION (lecture) around (about) PE (training)
- NAIL BITER, fraught occasion, anagram of (nervous) [N (new) + BLAIRITE]
- UNSETTLED, outstanding, UN (article for Le Monde, i.e., in French) + SETTLED (composed)
- TRESPASS, an unwelcome intrusion, TRÈS (Gérard Depardieu’s very, i.e., in French) + PASS (amorous advance)
- HYPHEN, what unites neo-conservatives, cryptic definition/&lit
- SENNA, F1 champ [i.e., Ayrton Senna] & this’ll get him going [i.e., as a laxative], double definition
- ALOOF, supercilious, A + FOOL (idiot) reversed (flipping)
Things I learnt today …
Yankee is a bet. (Not in Collins)
Senna is a laxative.
Limey is British.
Slap is make-up. (Also not in Collins)
Everything else fell into place and was enjoyable. Thanks Moo & Cineraria.
Thanks, Moo and Cineraria (great effort to post the blog under the circumstances and it is quite clear though brief)!
INCA
I read it as
imprisoned=In (the) Can. IN CAn briefly.
Hey, so did I!
KVa@2: I had also considered IN CA[N], but the expression familiar to me is (as you mention) “in the can,” so I don’t see how the parsing adequately accounts for the missing “the.” But maybe that was what Moo was going for.
Is there a Nina? I see Riga, Shag and Lethe written down and across in the grid but no idea if they mean anything or are linked in some way…
Steven@5: I saw those, too, but assumed that they must be what I call “unintentional ninas,” (which frequently appear), when I could not draw any connection between them. “Shag” in particular has at least five distinct meanings, none of which (for me) call to mind anything relating to the other two words.
I finished off in the SE corner, not being able to see that old chestnut HYPHEN – good clue though – for ages and only then getting HILTON for which I’d been trying to make ‘Discover’ work as the def. Satisfying to get everything in the end. Favourite was the topical surface for TRESPASS.
Thanks to Moo and Cineraria
Definitely at the easier end of my spectrum, but no less enjoyable for that.
I ended in the bottom right hand corner, struggling a bit with Hypen, Hilton and Sing.
This is the third time in recent FTs that it is the south-east corner I have found the most difficult.
A pattern?
Thanks to all.
I really liked EGYPTIAN and the neat allusion to “Mother’s ruin”.
Thanks both.
A straightforward solve with no problems. We also parsed 13ac as IN CAn. We liked PHARISEE, EGYPTIAN and STONE AGE; also MENDICANT, althought we think we’ve seen a similar clue for that before.
Thanks, Moo and Cineraria.
Thanks Moo, that was enjoyable with my top choices being PHARISEE, RASPUTIN, STONE AGE, NOD OFF, and TRESPASS. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.