Tuesday entertainment from Laccaria.
This is only the fourth puzzle from Laccaria (whose debut was in November), but they’ve all been good. We have a couple of slightly tricky constructions (such as removing two layers of outer letters), but they’re clearly fair once you see them. I liked the cricketing surface of 19a, the double-bluff in 24d where “end of Ramadan” isn’t N, and the sneaky definition of 14a – but my favourite is the homophone in 21d with a hint of Monty Python. (It has ceased to be. It is an ex-plane.)
As is traditional on a Tuesday, we need to look for a theme. Today it’s provided by the mid 20th century film-maker EDWARD (Ed) WOOD, whose output consists of low-budget films with clunky effects and awkward dialogue, generally regarded as pretty awful – except that some have crossed the dubious boundary into “so bad they’re brilliant” and become cult favourites. Two of his best-known films are “PLAN NINE from OUTER SPACE” (science-fiction featuring ZOMBIE and VAMPIRE characters) and “GLEN or GLENDA?” (a semi-autobiographical docu-drama about cross-dressing). If you really need to know more, see the Wikipedia entry for Ed Wood. Thanks Laccaria for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ALMIGHTY |
Powerful giant’s beginning to dispatch 100 in mythical play (8)
|
| Anagram (play) of the beginning letter of G[iant] + MYTHI[c]AL without the C (100 in Roman numerals). | ||
| 5 | SWATHE |
Points to two articles to wrap (6)
|
| S + W (two points of the compass), then A + THE (indefinite and definite articles). | ||
| 9 | LECTERNS |
Teachers abandoning old city, keeping new desks (8)
|
| LECT[ur]ERS (teachers) without UR (ancient city in Mesopotamia, now Iraq), containing N (new). | ||
| 10 | HORNET |
Trembling finger, finally on the buzzer! (6)
|
| Anagram (trembling) of the final letter of [finge]R + ON THE.
Buzzing insect: a bigger version of a wasp, with a nastier sting. |
||
| 12 | WOOD |
After Court, Judge disrobes, and again for Club (4)
|
| WOO (court, as a verb = make romantic approaches to), then [j[u]D[g]e] with the outer letters removed (disrobed) twice.
A golf club, originally one with the head made from hardwood rather than metal. |
||
| 13 | OUTER SPACE |
Without hesitation, sprinters initially run past location of Pioneers (5,5)
|
| ER (a spoken sound expressing hesitation) + initial letter of S[printers], with OUTPACE (run faster than = run past) around it (without, in the older sense of outside).
Pioneer was the name of a series of US unmanned spacecraft; the last couple of them left the solar system and headed off into outer space. |
||
| 14 | ZOMBIE |
Being animated once again, setter bursts into wizard’s home backwards with award (6)
|
| I (the setter of this crossword speaking), bursting into OZ (home of the Wizard of Oz) backwards + MBE (award).
Mythological “undead” being: a revived corpse. |
||
| 16 | ERRATIC |
Unpredictable lad bags small animal (7)
|
| ERIC (boy’s name = lad) containing (bagging) RAT (small animal). | ||
| 19 | VAMPIRE |
About to follow on, improvise with number one bat (7)
|
| RE (about = on the subject of), after (following on) VAMP (a repeated musical phrase, particularly one used as an improvised introduction while waiting for a singer or solo instrument to start) + I (the number one in Roman numerals; or perhaps as in “looking after number one” = myself). | ||
| 21 | EDWARD |
English bishop maybe stays outside conflict for king (6)
|
| E (abbreviation for English) + DD (Doctor of Divinity degree, perhaps awarded to a bishop) around WAR (conflict). | ||
| 23 | CLOUDSCAPE |
Airy view of cold case up for review (10)
|
| Anagram (for review) of COLD CASE UP.
An image of clouds in the sky = a view looking into the air. |
||
| 25 | PLAN |
Diagram of tool unfinished (4)
|
| PLAN[e] (woodworking tool) without the last letter (unfinished). | ||
| 27 | INDOOR |
Not out in the open or behind unframed window (6)
|
| [w]INDO[w] (unframed = outer letters removed), with OR behind it. | ||
| 28 | FAMILIAR |
Witch’s cat, perhaps half-starved, meets storyteller (8)
|
| Half of FAMI[shed] (starved) + LIAR (storyteller, from “story” = a lie).
A magic practitioner’s animal companion, sometimes reputed to be a supernatural spirit in animal form. |
||
| 29 | GLENDA |
Provide gorilla skin clothing for Jackson? (6)
|
| LEND (provide), with the outer letters (skin) of G[orill]A around it (clothing).
The recently-departed actress and politician Glenda Jackson. |
||
| 30 | INVEIGLE |
Persuade Nigel I’ve reformed (8)
|
| Anagram (re-formed) of NIGEL I’VE. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ALLOWS |
Permits capital punishment here? Not good! (6)
|
| [g]ALLOWS (a place where capital punishment takes place), without the G (abbreviation for good). | ||
| 2 | MICROCOSM |
Condensed version of rom-com featuring Charlie is ridiculous (9)
|
| Anagram (ridiculous) of ROM-COM + C (Charlie in the radio alphabet) + IS.
A small community or activity exhibiting all the features of a much larger one. |
||
| 3 | GLEN |
Dip ends of long metal pole in… (4)
|
| End letters of [lon]G [meta]L [pol]E [i]N. The ellipsis is there to link the surface reading of this clue with the next one, and isn’t part of the wordplay.
Glen = valley = a dip in the landscape. |
||
| 4 | TONSURE |
…river with rising discharge over crop (7)
|
| URE (river in North Yorkshire), with SNOT (discharge from the nose) reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue) before it (above in a down clue).
Hair cropped short or shaved, especially as a symbol of belonging to a religious order. |
||
| 6 | WOODSCREW |
12’s team that might hold things together (9)
|
| WOOD’S (belonging to 12a WOOD) + CREW (team, especially of rowers in a boat).
A metal screw designed to hold pieces of wood together. |
||
| 7 | TONGA |
Archipelago has section of crag noticeably elevated (5)
|
| Hidden answer (section of . . .), reversed (elevated = upwards in a down clue), in [cr]AG NOT[iceably]. | ||
| 8 | ENTRENCH |
Strengthen one third of cheese, starting with curdled rennet (8)
|
| The first third of CH[eese], with an anagram (curdled) of RENNET before it (starting). | ||
| 11 | MERE |
No more than 1,000 European Engineers? (4)
|
| M (Roman numeral for 1,000) + E (abbreviation for European) + RE (abbreviation for the British Army’s Royal Engineers corps).
As in “a mere whisper” = no more than a whisper. |
||
| 15 | BLINDFOLD |
It stops you seeing old Swedish soprano collapse after breathlessness at first (9)
|
| LIND (Jenny Lind, 19th-century Swedish soprano) + FOLD (slang for collapse, especially of a company going out of business), after the first letter of B[reathlessness]. | ||
| 17 | THRILLING |
Object about a little running water causing excitement (9)
|
| THING (object) around RILL (a brook or stream = a little running water). | ||
| 18 | EVICTING |
Throwing out veg in City – almost rotten (8)
|
| Anagram (rotten) of VEG IN CIT[y] without the last letter (almost). | ||
| 20 | ETCH |
King disembarks from boat to eat away (4)
|
| [k]ETCH (a two-masted sailing boat) without the K (abbreviation for king).
To create a design on metal by using acid to “eat away” areas of the surface. |
||
| 21 | EXPLAIN |
Justify Concorde on the radio, perhaps? (7)
|
| Homophone (on the radio) of EX-PLANE = an aircraft no longer in service, for example Concorde. | ||
| 22 | ENTREE |
Opening space, one in 12? (6)
|
| EN (printing terminology for a medium-width space between characters) + TREE (one of many in a wood = reference to 12a WOOD).
Entree = opening = something providing access to a particular social group. |
||
| 24 | OLDIE |
At end of Ramadan, look up pensioner? (5)
|
| EID (an Islamic religious festival, in this case Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan) + LO (lo! = look! = instruction to pay attention to something), all reversed (up, in a down clue). | ||
| 26 | NINE |
Muses, perhaps on fiancée, now and again (4)
|
| Alternate letters (now and again) of [o]N [f]I[a]N[c]E[e].
“The Nine” = short for “the nine Muses” of ancient Greek culture. |
Thanks, Laccaria and Quirister!
Liked OUTER SPACE, ZOMBIE, THRILLING and OLDIE.
Very enjoyable challenge. Liked everything but especially OLDIE with Eid in the news a couple of days ago. NINE was fun and HORNET which took some time to drop. Thanks Quirister for the blog and Laccaria- a kind of mushroom? – for the entertainment.
Hard work but great to see the theme at the end, even if the GLEN and GLENDA bit passed me by. PLAN NINE from OUTER SPACE once had the dubious distinction of being the worst film ever made, so of course instantly became the proverbial “cult classic”. Some pretty hard ones along the way; I missed the ALMIGHTY anagram fodder, had no idea about VAMP for ‘improvise’, couldn’t see the reversed EID in OLDIE and needed the not easy FAMILIAR for my last in NINE.
Lots of good clues with my favourite being the def for ZOMBIE.
Thanks to Laccaria and Quirister
Very enjoyable, though the theme passed me by completely. Thanks Laccaria and Quirister.
Thanks both. Strongly agree that OLDIE deserves praise – too clever for me to parse. Sad that Concorde is the ‘ex’ in EXPLAIN but I have not yet abandoned hope of its return with digital and not analogue equipment. Anagram indicators need sometimes to push boundaries to be original, which is how I view the wordplay for ALMIGHTY
Thanks all for the generous comments! I must admit, to celebrate both this puzzle coming out and July 4th (eh??), I played through a few extracts from PLAN 9 this morning – both Mrs L and I having a good laugh! Anyone who wants to watch the film can easily do so – here. But keep your coffee cups away from the keyboard! 🙂
Always nice to see a Big Dave protégé getting a gig here. I made rather heavy weather of this and it was only when going back over it to nail the parsings that I appreciated the cleverness of it so well done Laccaria.
Not keen on clues that rely to a degree on guessing a boys/girl’s name, particularly an old fashioned one as per ERRATIC but that’s a minor quibble. I particularly liked HORNET, ZOMBIE (though it felt a tad manufactured) EXPLAIN and OLDIE.
Many thanks to Laccaria and to Quirister for a top blog.
Some head-scratching in places but we got it all in the end – and parsed everything! Looking for the theme we saw ZOMBIE, VAMPIRE and FAMILIAR and thought it might have something to do with dark arts, but we were obviously barking up the wrong tree.
Good to be back on 15^2.
Thanks, Laccaria and Quirister.
Stephen@7. I take your point about over-use of names, I agree it can be a rather ‘cheap’ way to provide a def. (have you gone through the lists of boys/girls names at the end of Chambers? – and that’s far from comprehensive).
Yes I have to acknowledge the input from Big Dave (may he R.I.P. 🙁 ) and Prolixic, otherwise I’d never be here! But also a word for Alberich – also sadly departed – who gave me lots of invaluable advice.
For those interested in how a clue evolves – a word about 29a GLENDA (I sent in this puzzle before Glenda J’s untimely death). I instantly spotted the obvious anagrams ANGLED and DANGLE (plus others) but (a) I found it hard to work either of those words together with JACKSON into a good surface, and (b) Mike suggested I consider cutting down a bit on anagrams. Then I remembered that MICHAEL J was reputed to have kept a pet chimp (amongst other ‘pets’). Metamorphosing the chimp into a GORILLA gave me a source for the G—-A. And it worked!