Independent 11,473 by Twin

by

Twin provides today’s exercise in lateral thinking.

There are some very good surfaces here (I laughed at 28a and 17d), and some quirky definitions hiding in plain sight (especially 29a and 8d). I also liked the well-constructed reversal of 18d and the very neat 22a. Thanks Twin for the fun.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 ROMANTIC COMEDY
Dear city, common ground for 8 in 12, say (8,6)
Anagram (ground = broken into small pieces) of DEAR CITY COMMON.

Definition by example: SLEEPLESS (8d) in SEATTLE (12a) is a romantic comedy film.
9 BLUE PETER
Flag down fellow crossing junction (4,5)
BLUE (down = unhappy) + PEER (as in “peer review” = fellow = another member of the same group), around (crossing) T (as in T-junction = a three-way road junction).

Common name for the maritime signal flag representing the letter P (blue with a white square).
10 TRIAL
Pilot backing international air traffic control (5)
Hidden answer (. . . control), reversed (backing), in [internationa]L AIR T[raffic]. The containment indicator “control” works if you think of the previous three words as plural: these words control (contain) the solution.

Pilot = an initial small-scale test = trial.
11 PEELER
Old copper kitchen tool (6)
Double definition. An old word for a policeman (copper), named after Sir Robert Peel who established the Metropolitan Police; or a tool for removing skins from vegetables.
12 SEATTLE
Resolve to drink Australian port (7)
SETTLE (resolve, as in “resolve a dispute”), containing (to drink) A (abbreviation for Australian).

Port city on the US West Coast.
14 WAR CHEST
Wife with most mischievous, offensive kitty? (3,5)
W (abbreviation for wife) + ARCHEST (comparative form of arch, as an adjective = mischievous).

A financial reserve (kitty) set up to fund a military campaign, or metaphorically for political purposes.
16 MORTAL
Human trafficking’s origin covered in lesson (6)
First letter (origin) of T[rafficking), contained in MORAL (lesson, as in the moral of a story).
19 TOPERS
Poster misrepresented sponges (6)
Anagram (misrepresented) of POSTER.

Toper = sponge = someone who drinks a lot.
20 FINE ARTS
Painting and sculpture among others left during attacks (4,4)
NEAR (left: the “nearside” of a car is the left side in the UK where we drive on the left) in FITS (attacks, as in “coughing fits”).
22 IMPEACH
Find fault with what political constituencies have? (7)
Political constituencies have I (one) MP (Member of Parliament) EACH.
24 STUDIO
Film-maker‘s rolling outside shortly (6)
Anagram (rolling = moving around) of OUTSID[e] (shortly = all but the last letter).
27 DRAFT
Sketch paper used by dead artist (5)
FT (Financial Times = newspaper), after D (abbreviation for dead) + RA (Royal Academician = artist).
28 SHORT-TERM
Mother’s desperately clinging to mid-thirties, not looking ahead (5-4)
Anagram (desperately) of MOTHER’S, containing (clinging to) the middle letters of [thi]RT[ies].
29 GEORGE HARRISON
Something writer‘s seeing: a good horror novel (6,8)
Anagram (novel = new) of SEEING A + G (abbreviation for good) + HORROR.

The writer of the Beatles song Something.
DOWN
1 RUBY
Red Rum cut through (4)
RU[m] (cut = last letter dropped) + BY (through, as in “learning through experience”).
2 MOUSETRAP
Team pours liquid that might stop Jerry (9)
Anagram (liquid = moving freely) of TEAM POURS.

Jerry = the mouse character in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.
3 NEPAL
State penitentiary put up Capone (5)
PEN (abbreviation for penitentiary = US word for prison) reversed (put up = upwards in a down clue), then AL (the gangster Al Capone).
4 INTEREST
What’s added to money bag? (8)
Double definition. A payment added to money left on deposit; or as in “if that’s your bag” = something you’re interested in.
5 CORPSE
Crack up while playing score, struggling with pressure (6)
Anagram (struggling) of SCORE + P (abbreviation for pressure).

Actors’ slang: corpse, as a verb = to break into laughter (crack up) while trying to act (play) straight-faced.
6 METHADONE
Gathered and ingested a single drug (9)
MET (gathered = arrived at a specific place to do something together) + HAD (ate or drank = ingested) + ONE (a single).

Synthetic drug used for pain relief or in treating opioid addiction.
7 DEIST
Believer to stop missing Sabbath (5)
DE[s]IST (to stop) without one S (abbreviation for Sabbath, or for Saturday / Sunday).
8 SLEEPLESS
See spells mixed up a lot? (9)
Anagram (mixed) of SEE SPELLS.

Up = out of bed, so “up a lot” = not getting much sleep.
13 TWO-THIRDS
Tense argument’s covering this briefly for 8 in 12, say (3-6)
T (abbreviation for tense) + WORDS (an argument, as in “to have words with someone”) containing THI[s] (briefly = all but the last letter).

This time it isn’t a reference to the numbers of other clues, but a straightforward mathematical ratio.
15 HEREAFTER
Present a case for feminist hospital drama in the future (9)
HERE (present) + A + outer letters (case) of F[eminis]T + ER (TV hospital drama).
17 TARDINESS
Being late regularly, unless entering time machine (9)
Alternate letters (regularly) of [u]N[l]E[s]S, entering TARDIS (the time-travelling vehicle from Doctor Who).
18 DIASPORA
A Republican work mentioned rising migration (8)
A + R (abbreviation for Republican) + OP (abbreviation for Latin opus = a musical or literary work) + SAID (mentioned), all reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue).
21 CHASTE
Simple tea set replaced (6)
CHA (Asian-derived word for tea) + anagram (replaced) of SET.

Not the most obvious definition of the word, but the dictionaries give “simple and unadorned” as a meaning.
23 PHASE
Period expression ignored by Romeo (5)
PH[r]ASE (a verbal expression) without the R (Romeo in the radio alphabet).
25 UTTER
Downright eccentric to go topless (5)
[n]UTTER (eccentric = an unusual person) without the first letter (top, in a down clue).
26 OMEN
Sign in, not using first name (4)
[h]OME (in = at home), without the first letter, then N (abbreviation for name).

10 comments on “Independent 11,473 by Twin”

  2. Brilliant stuff. Lots of lift-and-separates: “Flag down”, “Human trafficking”, “Red Rum”, “State penitentiary”, “mixed up”, “Sign in”
    And as you say, Quirister, ‘quirky definitions’ – “offensive kitty” is the quirkiest.
    Loved GEORGE HARRISON.
    Thanks T&Q

  4. I obviously didn’t employ sufficient lateral thinking and made rather heavy weather of this one. I did smile at PEELER & SHORT-TERM and enjoyed seeing the featured film so all was not lost.

    Thanks to Twin and to Quirister for the review.

  5. I found this quite challenging but very enjoyable. The use of 8 in 12 in two entirely different ways was very clever.

    My only (very minor) query – isn’t “used” in 27a surface padding?

    My top three from a long list of ticks were BLUE PETER, GEORGE HARRISON and TWO-THIRDS.

    Many thanks to Twin and to Quirister.

  6. I thought this was really good. Particularly liked TARDINESS (a genuine laugh out loud), IMPEACH and TWO-THIRDS. Thanks to Twin and as ever to Quirister.

  7. Superb! Thanks, Twin and Quirister. Agree that 28a and 17d are particularly brilliant, and would add 14a, 8d and 29a too.

  8. Thanks, Twin and Quirister.
    Impenetrable at first, had to be chiseled out from bottom up.

    Terrific puzzle, more please!

    Loved both “8 in 12, say” – saw 8d as possible SLEEPLESS but didn’t enter it until later.
    Others
    WAR CHEST
    IMPEACH
    DIASPORA
    HEREAFTER

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