Independent 11,492 by Phi

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Phiday fun and games again.

As usual with Phi we have a few unfamiliar words or obscure definitions for familiar ones, but it all seemed guessable. I laughed at the dubious university goings-on in 18a and 16d (does our setter have an axe to grind?), the sadly familiar surface of 20a, the “blokes between high points” in 27a, and the alcohol-induced pause of 3d.

And, as usual with Phi, we need to look for something extra. I could see the beginning of a message along the top row as I solved the first few down clues, but the bottom row didn’t fit with that, and it took me a while to see where the rest of the phrase was hiding. I might have missed it altogether if not for something that a commenter mentioned in one of my blogs a couple of weeks back: it’s a very specific niche of humour, “man walks into a bar” jokes as told by grammarians. There are various versions of this online but https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/grammar-in-the-bar.html is as good a reference as any; our phrase is, appropriately enough, a synonymous variant of one of the entries. Thanks Phi for the entertainment.

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

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9 SET-TO
Group closed dispute (3-2)
SET (group) + TO (as in “pull the door to” = closed).
10 I PURITANI
Opera – pair in it flailing around for all to see (1,8)
Anagram (flailing = waving uncontrollably) of PAIR IN IT, around U (film certificate indicating “universal” = “suitable for all to see”).

Opera by Vincenzo Bellini.
11 IN CONCERT
Performing, still to accept study offered by college (2,7)
INERT (still = not moving), containing (to accept) CON (as a verb = study) + C (abbreviation for college).
12 CADET
Private eye recalled apprehending a daughter and younger son (5)
TEC (short for detective = private eye) reversed (recalled), containing (apprehening) A + D (abbreviation for daughter).

French-derived term for a younger son.
13 THYMINE
DNA chemical no longer for you and for me (7)
THY (an old word meaning “your” = no longer “for you”) + MINE (for me).

One of the four chemical building blocks in a DNA sequence.
15 LASAGNE
Way to include spinach in Italian dish (7)
LANE (narrow road = way), including SAG (Indian word for spinach or other leafy vegetables, as in the dish “sag aloo” = spinach cooked with potatoes).
17 CAR
Hard to abandon cleaner vehicle (3)
C[h]AR (short for charwoman = rather old-fashioned term for someone who does domestic cleaning) without the H (abbreviation for hard).
18 HEDONIC
Male academic I see pursuing pleasure (7)
HE (male) + DON (university professor = academic) + I C (a text-message shortening of “I see”; or “see” can be a name for the letter C).
20 ROT
Conservative not fully reversing corruption (3)
TOR[y] (Conservative) without the last letter (not fully), reversing.
21 PUSH-OFF
Launch promotion about exhibition, having taken week away (4-3)
PUFF (promotion = an advertising campaign), around (about) SHO[w] (an exhibition) without the W (abbreviation for week).

To launch a boat from a mooring.
23 HECTARE
Court brought in auditor, disposing of last parcel of land (7)
CT (abbreviation for court), brought into HEARE[r] (auditor) without the last letter.

Metric unit of land area, 1/100 of a square kilometre.
25 DUKAS
French composer’s unhappy, reflecting about another European country (5)
SAD (unhappy) reversed (reflecting), around UK (still geographically a European country, if not politically).

Paul Dukas, probably best known for his orchestral piece The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
27 TORMENTOR
Something that really distresses blokes between high points (9)
MEN (blokes) between TOR (high point) + another TOR.
29 THE TERROR
Heroin during new year festival a mistake, producing horrific persecution (3,6)
H (abbreviation for heroin) in TET (Vietnamese New Year festival) + ERROR (mistake).

A perioed of violent persecution following the French Revolution (also known as the Reign of Terror), or similar occurrences elsewhere.
30 OTAGO
New Zealand region identified in ancient texts in the past (5)
OT (abbreviation for Old Testament = ancient texts) + AGO (in the past).

Region in the South Island of New Zealand.
DOWN
1 ASSIST
Son is trapped by a stone – help (6)
S (abbreviation for son) + IS, contained in (trapped by) A + ST (abbreviation for stone = imperial measure of weight).
2 STACKYARDS
Where piles are stored: small shabby area requiring drastic service primarily (10)
S (abbreviation for small) + TACKY (shabby = not good quality) + initial letters (primarily) of A[rea] R[equiring] D[rastic] S[ervice].

No, I’d never heard of it either, but it’s a logical enough word. Collins Dictionary tells me it’s a storage yard for haystacks.
3 YOUNGISH
Not quite mature solver’s silence after swilling gin (8)
YOU (the solver of this crossword), then SH (sh! = silence! = a command to be quiet) after an anagram (swilling) of GIN.
4 NINE
Contributor to garden in every square (4)
Hidden answer (conributor to . . .) in [garde]N IN E[very].

Three squared = a square number.
5 OUT TO LUNCH
Eating nuts? (3,2,5)
Double definition. Having a meal away from the home or workplace; or slang for crazy.
6 NIECES
New bits of music having no power for relatives (6)
N (abbreviation for new) + [p]IECES (bits of music) without the P (abbreviation for power).
7 YARD
Raised end of wood beam from which sail hangs (4)
End letter of [woo]D + RAY (a beam of light), all reversed (raised = upwards in a down clue).

A bar attached horizontally across a ship’s mast, from which a sail is suspended.
8 MISTREAT
Obscure reply not about abuse (8)
MIST (as a verb = make cloudy = obscure) + REA[c]T (reply) without the C (abbreviation for Latin circa = about = approximately).
14 END OF STORY
It’s Y – no more arguments (3,2,5)
Reverse wordplay, so we have to guess the definition before resolving it: Y is the end letter of the word STORY.

An expression meaning “that’s the way it is and I won’t discuss it any further”.
16 GARGANTUAN
Fault-finder upset about a university accepting dodgy grant on a big scale (10)
A + U (abbreviation for university), containing (accepting) an anagram (dodgy) of GRANT, with NAG (as a noun = fault-finder = a habitual complainer) reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue) around the whole thing.
17 CUPIDITY
Prize given to one song that’s depicted heartless greed (8)
CUP (as in World Cup = trophy = prize) + I (one in Roman numerals), then DI[t]TY (song) without its middle letter (heartless).
19 CACHEPOT
Ornamental planter caught with long lid upended (8)
C (abbreviation for caught, in cricket scoring) + ACHE (as a verb = long = yearn), then TOP (lid) reversed (upended = upwards in a down clue).

From the French for “pot-hider”: an ornamental container for a flower pot.
22 OYSTER
Marine creature only gutted on rear of vessel? Not entirely (6)
O[nl]Y (gutted = inner letters removed) + STER[n] (the rear of a boat) without its last letter (not entirely).
24 EARBOB
Each old coin about right for jewellery item (6)
EA (abbreviation for each) + BOB (slang for a shilling = old coin), around R (right).

Another word for an earring.
26 KNEE
Part of body that’s been kneaded partially after twisting (4)
Hidden answer (. . . partially), reversed (after twisting), in [b]EEN K[neaded].
28 RARE
Run time rising? Not often (4)
R (abbreviation for run, in cricket scoring), then ERA (time) reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue).

I’m not sure the grammar quite works here: “not often” generally corresponds to “rarely” rather than just “rare”. But maybe someone can come up with a sentence in which they’re interchangeable.

11 comments on “Independent 11,492 by Phi”

  1. Thanks Quirister. Couldn’t parse MISTREAT and missed the theme that you have highlighted so well. I like the puzzle a whole lot more now. An alliterative synonym peramabulates into a pub. Liked CUPIDITY for greed. Thanks Phi.

  2. RARE
    It’s RARE that a book makes me cry.
    It’s not often that…

    Does it work?

    OTAGO
    ‘in ancient texts in the past’: Doesn’t it sound tautological?
    Of course, it’s there for the wordplay. Does the surface read all right?

  3. Thanks both. I was slowed mainly by my own inadequacies today, as I knew yardarm but couldn’t justify YARD and knew sagwala as the Indian dish but looked quizzically at LASAGNE. KNEE screamed out as the answer, because kneaded was in the clue, and might have worked better with a different word. Most opera titles are just foreign unknowns for me, so ‘A Puriitini’ sounded plausible….all enjoyable, but not my best performance

  4. Very enjoyable Phi offering with a Nina I could see easily enough even if I didn’t know what it meant. Otherwise same comments as made by Quirister including the never heard of but all made sense CADET, STACKYARDS, CACHEPOT and EARBOB.

    Thanks to Quirister (including the Grammar in the Bar link – new to me) and to Phi

  5. Most enjoyable. We almost missed the nina having guessed an unparsed ‘stockyards’ for 2dn. We liked THYMINE and END OF STORY (the latter helping us to see PUSH OFF rather than ‘push out’ for 21ac).
    Thanks, Phi and Quirister

  6. Another STOCKYARDS here. I even looked up TOCKY, which apparently means covered or filled with mud, and ROOT for NINE, as every square must have one and where would gardens be without roots? KVa How about “People revere ancient texts now but ancient texts in the past were often written over.”? Thanks for a very good puzzle with an excellent blog to accompany it.

  8. Petert@6
    OTAGO
    Your sentence with ‘ancient’ and ‘the past’ makes sense. However…

    If the NZ region was identified in some ancient texts, that work must have been done in the past.
    Maybe it has to be read in another way.
    I am still misreading the clue, I think.

  9. KVa@8 Perhaps somebody once claimed that OTAGO figured in, for example, a Nostradamus prediction, but this is now discredited???

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