This Wednesday, unless I am much mistaken, sees work by a new compiler. I have certainly not come across the work of this setter, let alone blogged any of his puzzles.
This was an unusual grid accommodating a large number of clues, many of which are short in length. I wonder if any other 15 x 15 grids published in the Indy have ever included as many clues as this one?
I found this puzzle to be a nice mix of accessible and less accessible clues, meaning that I got off to a flying start, but then slowed down quite considerably towards the end. I hope that I have solved and parsed everything satisfactorily, although I would appreciate confirmation of 6 and 19.
My favourite clues today were 2, 16A, 27, 32 and 37, for overall construction and/or smoothness of surface reading.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | WASP | Buzzer was quiet
WAS + P (=quiet, i.e. piano in music) |
| 03 | NASA | Some train as astronauts or rocket scientists here
Hidden (“some”) in “traiN AS Astronauts” |
| 06 | ABUT | Support an opinion
A BUT (=an opinion, of a contrary nature); to abut is to lean against, rest on |
| 10 | CHIEF | Leader of revolutionary force capturing island
I (=island) in [CHE (=revolutionary, i.e. Che Guevara) + F (=force, in physics)] |
| 12 | PEANUT OIL | Put ale in supply boxes close to oleo cooking fluid
<ole>O (“close to” means last letter only) in *(PUT ALE IN); “supply”, i.e. flexibly, is anagram indicator |
| 13 | SQUIRREL | Son making a stink essentially in row in store
S (=son) + QU – I for A – RREL (=row, argument; “making (letter) a stink essentially”, i.e. middle letter (=an “i”)” means “a” becomes “i”); to squirrel away is to stash away, store |
| 14 | OTHERS | Some parents heading off for rest
<m>OTHERS (=some parents); “heading off” means first letter is dropped; the others are the rest |
| 16 | QUINTET | Group still in middle of winter
<wi>NT<er> (“middle of” means central letters only) in QUIET (=still) |
| 19 | A M RADIO | Fancy diorama that’s a source of lots of talk
*(DIORAMA); “fancy” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | WEB | Network with live revolutionary
W (=with) + EB (BE=live, exist; “revolutionary” indicates reversal) |
| 22 | IBN SINA | Old scholar starts to improve brilliant next step in numerical algorithm
I<mprove> B<rilliant> N<ext> S<tep> I<n> N<umerical> A<lgorithm>; “starts to” means first letters only; Ibn Sina (or Avicenna) was a Muslim peripatetic philosopher and polymath (980-1037), hence “old scholar” |
| 25 | SCOURGE | Whip snake’s first firm egg
S<nake> (“first” means first letter only) + CO (=firm, company) + URGE (=egg (on), encourage); to scourge is to whip, flog |
| 28 | KIBLAH | King in Bilbao oddly beginning to head in direction of Mecca
K (=king, in cards) + I<n> B<i>L<b>A<o> (“oddly” means odd letters only) + H<ead> (“beginning to” means first letter only); kiblah is the point towards which Muslims turn in prayer, the direction of Mecca |
| 29 | SOUTHERN | Ten hours travelling well away from the North Pole
*(TEN HOURS); “travelling” is anagram indicator |
| 33 | ALL-SEEING | Godlike angels lie around
*(ANGELS LIE); “around” is anagram indicator |
| 34 | FIELD | Fellow lied about location of information in database
F (=fellow) + *(LIED); “about” is anagram indicator |
| 35 | DEEP | Went back in ocean
PEED (=went, i.e. for a wee, urinated); “back” is anagram indicator; the deep is the ocean |
| 36 | RING | New equipment cases for band
N (=new) in RIG (=equipment, gear) |
| 37 | PREY | Flying predator overlooking very large victim
<os>PREY (=flying predator); “overlooking very large (=OS, for outsize)” means letters “os” are dropped |
| Down | ||
| 01 | WICKS | Wife chooses to be topless for burning needs
W (=wife) + <p>ICKS (=chooses; “to be topless” means first letter is dropped; wicks are needed in candles, hence “burning needs” |
| 02 | STIMULI | Prepared litmus paper to show causes of reactions
*(LITMUS) + i (=(news)paper); “prepared” is anagram indicator |
| 04 | APPLE | Fruit drink – about a couple of pennies
P P (=a couple of pennies) in ALE (=drink) |
| 05 | AJAR | Partly open a container
A + JAR (=container) |
| 07 | BOOKEND | Library support on shelf K
K is the last letter of book, hence “book end”! |
| 08 | TELESCOPE | Capture base with new steel instrument
*(STEEL) + COP (=capture, catch) + E (=base, in mathematics); “new” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | BUTTER | Spread blanket at the top, say
B<lanket> (“at the top” means first letter only) + UTTER (=say) |
| 11 | FIRST | “Trees” with T at the front
FIRS (=trees) + T |
| 15 | DABS | Recalled small spoiled fish
S (=small, in sizes) + BAD (=spoiled, gone off); “recalled” indicates reversal |
| 16 | QUICKSAND | It draws in the hearts of local workers, envisaging panda confined to pound
<lo>C<al> <wor>K<ers> <envi>SA<ging> <pa>N<da> (“the hearts of” means middle letters only) in QUID (=(a)pound) |
| 17 | NOS | Withdrawing issue’s negative votes
SON (=issue, offspring); “withdrawing” indicates reversal |
| 18 | TWAS | Opening of Christmas poem student finally understood on reflection
<studen>T (“finally” means last letter only) + WAS (SAW=understood, grasped; “on reflection” indicates reversal); the reference is to ‘Twas the night before Christmas, the 1823 poem by Clement Clark Moore |
| 20 | ABU | Father of graduate retiring at university
AB (BA=graduate, i.e. Bachelor of Arts; “retiring” indicates reversal) + U (=University); abu means father (of) in Muslim names |
| 23 | NEBULAE | Clouds in otherwise blue area in northeast
[*(BLUE) + A (=area)] in NE (=northeast); “otherwise” is anagram indicator |
| 24 | IMAGES | Current publication with extremely egregious pictures
I (=current, in physics) + MAG (=publication, magazine) + E<gregiou>S (“extremely” means first and last letters only) |
| 26 | OUT OF | Lacking focus regularly leads to failing grade
<f>O<c>U<s> (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used) + TO + F (=failing grade, in exams); if you are out of time, then time is lacking |
| 27 | ROE DEER | Animals run out over grass at back of pasture
RO (=run out) + <pastur>E (“back of” means last letter only) + DEER (REED=grass; “over” indicates reversal) |
| 30 | ORGAN | Gold plating ultimately added onto an instrument
OR (=gold, in heraldry) + <platin>G (“ultimately” means last letter only) + AN |
| 31 | NODDY | Big city accommodating strange bird
ODD (=strange) in NY (=big city, i.e. New York); a noddy is a tern-like sea bird, unaccustomed to man, therefore easily caught and so deemed stupid! |
| 32 | TIER | Audible drop in level
Homophone (“audible”) of “tear (=drop)” |
Thanks, Liari and RR. Nice debut with an interesting mix of very straightforward ones and some proper head-scratchers. NASA, CHIEF and PREY were my faves – very neat. I hadn’t picked up on the number of clues but you’re right – 39 is a lot!
By the way, I can tell you that Liari is a her not a his.
Thanks, Liari and RR!
Liked SQUIRREL, BOOKEND, QUICKSAND and OUT OF.
ABET (in place of ABUT)
6a I had ABET and the software accepted the solution as correct.
I think BET fits in better as ‘opinion’.
Liari might not be a he…
Becky (Liari) (@liari77_becky) / Twitter
Becky M here:
https://mycrossword.co.uk/Liari?ref=the-rackenfracker
I also had ABET.
ABET too and…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting
MW in UK, before FM and DAB
US Talk Radio
Today is an anniversary
RR!
In your preamble, you said:
“I would appreciate confirmation of 6 and 19.”
6 Discussed already (ABET)
19 A M RADIO is correct.
Two earworms:
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Roadrunner (Once) – “I got the AM RADIO on” – 1974
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnmHgnPPkkQ
and
Steely Dan – FM – “No Static At All” – 1978.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV3zWSawJiw
Nice puzzle – concise cluing – loi & cod SQUIRREL – it held me up for a while.
Thanks L&RR
James @7 Ah, would that be an anniversary of NASA’a ALL-SEEING WEB(b) (am)RADIO TELESCOPE taking its FIRST DEEP FIELD IMAGES of SOUTHERN RING NEBULAe, by any chance? Or something like that.
Nice one, Liari, welcome to the gang! And thx RR.
The most powerful telescope ever sent to space, WEB B launched on December 25, 2021, and NASA shared its first set of scintillating images on July 12, 2022.
So many clues – some of those must have been difficult to slot in!
I did need to check on the old scholar and the ‘direction of Mecca’ but nothing else caused too many problems.
The old chestnut at 5d made me smile and 35a was a shame – tops for me were NASA, PREY & NODDY.
Thanks and welcome to Liari and thanks to RR for the review.
Quite a tough debut offering from Liari with a few unfamiliar words and names, some tricky parsing and a v. difficult clue in SQUIRREL to figure out at the end. The theme was also way beyond me but well done to those who spotted it.
Thanks and welcome to Liari and thanks to RR
Thanks both. I set off rapidly then took quite a while to work out some points of cultural education e.g. KIBLAH and the unlikely-looking IBN SINA. There are so many gaps in my knowledge of ornithology so of course I did not know NODDY is a bird, but it’s name rings a bell!
There was a lot to like here, such as QUINTET, STIMULI, BOOKEND, TELESCOPE, QUICKSAND and NEBULAE. But although we don’t like to appear ungenerous to a new setter we found this a bit too contrived with its “fussy” grid – the result, we think, of fitting in so many themed answers.
Nevertheless we just about got it all, only needing to guess an unparsed SQUIRREL and having ABET rather than ABUT, so thanks, Liari and RR
Congratulations to the setter on their debut puzzle. I was unaware of the theme but it appears to have been well covered. SQUIRREL, ORGAN and NODDY made me smile. IBN SINA, KIBLAH and ABU were all new to me.
Thanks Liari and RR
Hello all! Thank you for all the kind comments here and on Twitter. Today was indeed the first year anniversary of the first images from the James Webb Telescope. https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
There were 12 themers (WASP, NASA, QUINTET, WEB B, SOUTHERN, RING, DEEP, FIELD, TELESCOPE, FIRST, IMAGES, NEBULAE) plus BUTTER (which is my son’s nickname, who loves astrophysics) and, for those that know me, I always put a bird in all of my puzzles (NODDY).
Thank again RR and everyone!
Also in the NE corner, I see 5d/12a/9d spells A JAR of PEANUT BUTTER. So that’s pretty neat.
I loved this puzzle!!! I solved it with no hints whatsoever. All my buzzle friends can confirm. What a great Indy debut(t) by Liari! Booty.
Thanks Liari. I missed the theme but I still enjoyed this crossword due to clues like WEB, SCOURGE, PREY, and STIMULI. I missed SQUIRREL and KIBLAH; I had ABET instead of ABUT. Thanks RR for the blog.
To our blogger, yes, Independent 9740 by Maize – January 1, 2018 had 46 clues.
I have no idea whether or not that’s the record though.
In 1a, what “was” was, was WAS
oxtoby@22 🙂 – yes, ‘TWAS
Liari now holds the record for the shortest anniversary in a crossword ever. One year – so it can’t be beaten.
I spent too much time Googling Hubble – he was discovering things in 1923 – so I@10 was pipped at the post by Mev@11. Curse you, Mev!
His comment wasn’t there when I clicked “Post Comment” – honest. I found this, though:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/what-did-hubble-see-on-your-birthday
What a refreshing change from 50-year-old albums. 🙂
Enjoyed doing this while a friend who had dropped by over-stayed and wouldn’t take the hint – (‘You’re doing a cryptic crossword – can I help?’ (I mean: really!)).
(I was a bit concerned to have TWA_ showing up – ‘surely not’ was my thought and ‘whew’ when the brain clicked in at last.)
But a fine puzzle with a theme that zipped over my head with the speed of light (possibly faster – 🙂 ).