As usual, it is a Phi puzzle on a Friday
Phi can often include a theme or message in his grids, but I don’t think there is one here today. If there is, I am sure a solver will point it out.
There was a good mix of subjects covered in the entries with something to satisfy most interests. We have geography, a bit of science, some culture, a philosopher, a foreign language, a film, a reference to literature, a musical and some lifestyle references.
I don’t think I have come across ‘willingly’ as a synonym for ‘soon’ before, but Chambers lists it.
I wonder how often the word REANNEX (4 down) is used in everyday conversation.
It’s odd how some words you have never seen for months on end suddenly appear twice in succession. This is the second time this week I have come across NOHOW in a crossword.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Area of London much favoured after leaving university (6)
POPLAR (district in East London) POPULAR (much favoured) excluding (leaving) U (university) POPLAR |
| 5 | Henry, not well, in the wrong, taking Government money (8)
SHILLING (money, old coin in the UK; currency in some East African countries) ([H {henry} + ILL {not well}] contained in [in] SIN ]wrong]) + G (government) S (H ILL) IN G |
| 9 | Exclusive game: one’s first to get lead (8)
PLUMBAGO (graphite; used in a lead pencil) PLUM (especially valued; exclusive) + BAG (quantity of fish or game caught or shot) + O (initial letter of [first] ONE) PLUM BAG O |
| 10 | Pressure on US leader to drop initial cover for South American (6)
PONCHO (South American cloak, a blanket with a hole for the head; cover for South Americans) P (pressure) + HONCHO (American term for a leader) excluding the first letter (to drop initial) H P ONCHO |
| 11 | Not participating, being inattentive about money (10)
ABSTINENCE (refraining from; not participating) ABSENCE (state of inattention; being inattentive) containing (about) TIN (informal term for money) ABS (TIN) ENCE |
| 13 | Radio report of disgusting poultry (4)
FOWL (poultry) FOWL (sounds like [report of] FOUL [disgusting]) FOWL |
| 14 | Wild idyllic sex left one excluded, not reading things well (8)
DYSLEXIC (having great difficulty in learning to read or spell, unrelated to intellectual competence and of unknown cause) Anagram of (wild) IDYLLIC SEX excluding (excluded) an L (left) and an I (Roman numeral for one) DYSLEXIC* |
| 17 | Failure in performance mostly significant (6)
TURKEY (complete failure) TURN (performance) excluding the final letter (mostly) N + KEY (significant) TUR KEY |
| 19 | Gloomy character English men held in regard (6)
EEYORE (gloomy character in Winnie-the-Pooh books) E (English) + (OR [other ranks; men] contained in [held in] EYE [regard]) E EY (OR) E |
| 21 | Live in performance? On the contrary – broadcast kept back making cause of complaint? (8)
BACTERIA (cause of disease [complaint]) (ACT [performance] contained in [in] BE [live] – the opposite of [on the contrary] of ‘live in performance) + AIR (broadcast) reversed (kept back) B (ACT) E RIA< |
| 23 | Datum giving carbon content of oil? (4)
FACT (datum) C (chemical symbol for carbon) contained in (content of) FAT (oil) FA (C) T |
| 25 | One destroying top horror film (10)
ERASERHEAD (1977 American surrealist horror film) ERASER (one destroying) + HEAD (top) ERASER HEAD |
| 28 | Scottish castle is linked to old Welsh county (6)
GLAMIS (castle in Angus, Scotland) GLAM (Glamorgan; historic Welsh county) + IS GLAM IS |
| 29 | Nothing special over Arab money being invested in railway (8)
ORDINARY (plain; nothing special) O (over, in cricket terminology) + (DINAR [currency in some Arab countries] contained in [being invested in] RY [railway]) O R (DINAR) Y |
| 31 | Is Parisian anger about new divorce? (8)
ESTRANGE (divorce) EST (French [Parisian] for ‘is’) + an anagram of (about) ANGER (As Hovis says at comment 3, much better as RAGE [anger] containing [about] N [new]) EST RANGE* or better EST RA (N) GE |
| 32 | Time in employment curtailed after revolution in Arab city (6)
RIYADH (capital city of Saudi Arabia; Arab city) (DAY [period of time] contained in [in] HIRED [in employment] excluding the final letters [curtailed] ED) all reversed (after revolution). Hovis also points out that HIRED means ’employment’ so we only need to remove the D rather than ED (RI (YAD) H)< |
| Down | |
| 2 | Bird that hurts gerbil’s tail (3)
OWL (bird) OW (that hurts!) + L (final letter of [tail] GERBIL) OW L |
| 3 | One US University supporting student maximum number? (5)
LIMIT (boundary, such as a maximum number) L (learner; student) + I (Roman numeral for one) + MIT (Massachussets Institute of Technology; US University) – as this is a down entry, the letters IMIT ‘support’ the letter L L I MIT |
| 4 | Appropriate again to have King hugging Queen? (7)
REANNEX (take [appropriate] again) REX (title used by a reigning king) containing (hugging) ANNE (name of one of a few Queens or Queen consorts) RE (ANNE) X |
| 5 | Cuddle in bed, willingly embracing Penny (5)
SPOON (indulge in sentimental courtship, for example by cuddling in bed) SOON (willingly) containing (embracing) P (penny) S (P) OON |
| 6 | I stop securing politician access to government funds (7)
IMPREST (loan or advance of money, especially from government funds for some public purpose) (I + REST [stop]) containing (securing) MP (Member of Parliament; politician) I (MP) REST |
| 7 | Army left at odd points: core manoeuvres (9)
LANDFORCE (military force serving on land; army) (L AND F [letters 1 and 3 {odd points} of LEFT) + an anagram of (manoeuvres) CORE L AND F ORCE* |
| 8 | Definitely not a skill in audio (5)
NOHOW (not in any way; definitely not) NOHOW (sounds like [in audio] KNOWHOW [specialised skill]) NOHOW |
| 12 | Enthusiastic response supported by the French scientist, rival to Mariotte (5)
BOYLE (reference Robert BOYLE [1627 – 1691], English chemist who formulated the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas at the same time as the French scientist Edme Mariotte [1620 – 1784]) BOY (shortened form of OH BOY!, an expression of pleasure, enthusiasm, etc) + LE (one of the French forms of ‘the’) – again, as a down entry, the letters in BOY are ‘supported’ by the letters LE BOY LE |
| 15 | Metal, iron, bent by circus performer (4-5)
LION TAMER (circus performer) Anagram of (bent) METAL IRON LION TAMER* |
| 16 | Common city vehicle basics: the last shall be first (3)
CAB (taxi, a common city vehicle) ABC (rudiments or basics) with the final letter [last] C moved to the beginning to form CAB CAB |
| 18 | Long-running musical from a particular country, but not nationalist, on reflection (5)
EVITA (long-running musical) NATIVE (from a particular country) excluding (but not) N (nationalist) reversed (on reflection) EVITA< |
| 20 | American philosopher capable of making me snore (7)
EMERSON (reference Ralph Waldo EMERSON [1803-1882], American philosopher) Anagram of (capable of making) ME SNORE EMERSON* |
| 22 | That guy taking two days in car to make Somerset village (7)
CHEDDAR (village in Somerset) (HE [that guy] + D [day] + D [day] ) contained in (in) CAR C (HE D D) AR |
| 24 | A sample of wit turning up in reference book (5)
ATLAS (reference book) A + SALT (a sample of dry or pungent wit) reversed (turning up) A TLAS< |
| 26 | Elevated from the beginning, but not entirely the ultimate in style (5)
ABOVE (elevated) AB OVO (Latin, from the beginning) excluding the final letter (not entirely) O + E (last letter of [ultimately] STYLE) AB OV E |
| 27 | Love truth-telling, though no religious figure (5)
HONEY (darling; love) HONESTY (telling the truth) excluding (no) ST (saint; religious figure) HONEY |
| 30 | American abandoning study of Republicanism (3)
RED (Chambers tells me that this a term sometimes applied to Republicans, although I associate it more with a description of politicians on the other extreme) READ (study) excluding (abandoning) A (American) RED |
Is that PUSSY CAT saying something?
OWL, FOWL, TURKEY…
Some birds have made starts SPOON, HONEY, RED…
Can’t progress much.
As an ailurophile, it was nice to see the pussycat in column 3.
ESTRANGE must be EST + RAGE about N.
Needed Chambers to get IMPREST & AB OVO.
In Chambers thesaurus, HIRE is listed under EMPLOYMENT, so don’t need the extra letter of HIRED in 32a.
Hovis @ 3
Thanks – I’ve updated the parsing for ESTRANGE. and RIYADH
You are clearly right about RAGE and N, as well as HIRE rather than HIRED as I am using the ‘in’ twice in my parsing. I’ve left the original parsing in as well so that people can understand your comment.
KVa @1 has a lot of it. OWL rhymes with FOWL, of course, if one were singing charmingly to, say, a small guitar.
Owl is there (2d) and PUSSY CAT is a NINA at column 3. Many solutions that are words taken verbatim from Lear’s poem SHILLING, HONEY, TURKEY, ABOVE, SPOON, LAND ( a particle this latter one ).
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43188/the-owl-and-the-pussy-cat
Thank you Phi and Duncan
I found this quite runcible, and unlike some money not easily wrapped up.
Thanks Duncan – we needed help with the parsing of 26d. Also, we needed a word search for IMPREST – just couldn’t see what the word could be given the crossing letters we had.
Thanks Phi – too eager to check the parsings to stop and look for a theme. We think we would have missed it anyway.
Thanks both. I checked most parts of the grid for a Nina, but evidently not all! ABOVE defeated me I in the parsing, and further demonstrates that I never learned Latin, but relieved to see it is an unknown to others. PLUMBAGO was another unknown, though I knew plumbum which gave me a good start
We were thinking this would be a DNF but at the last minute we saw ERASERHEAD as our LOI. FOI was POPLAR and guessing ‘Henry unwell’ would give us HILL somewhere in 5ac we wondered if it could be part of another place name in a theme of London districts; obviously not, and we didn’t spot the real theme. An enjoyable puzzle, though with a bit of headscratching in the NE corner before we got PONCHO. Favourites were DYSLEXI C and BACTERIA; we also liked EEYORE.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan.
PS Flea@6: you’ve missed FOWL (as in ‘you elegant …’)
Missed the theme but had plenty to challenge me and it was satisfying to eventually fill the grid even if I couldn’t fully parse PLUMBAGO (like TFO @9, only knew the plumbum bit) and RIYADH and I didn’t know IMPREST for ‘government funds’ either.
Off to reacquaint myself with The Owl and the Pussy Cat.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan
‘Hovis also points out that HIRED means ’employment’ so we only need to remove the D rather than ED’
should be
‘Hovis also points out that HIRE means ’employment’ so we only need to remove the E rather than ED’