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Q. What happens when a Phi crossword doesn’t appear on a Friday?
A. You get a Phi crossword the next day instead.
Also, the fact the yesterday’s Coot puzzle was so heavily themed means I can relax about not finding any theme in this one. I trust. (Edit: FAILED) It is a high standard pleasing puzzle like we come to expect from Phi, and much appreciated it is for all that.
Favourite clues include 1D which gave me a good PDM after fiddling with the letters for a while; 20A where I imagined the proverbial “gift horse” being a “bum pinto”; 24A Audio book was clear from the crossing letters that I had by that time (it was my last one in) but I had to think hard to untangle the tricky wordplay; 26A Mansion also had an interesting construction. (That’s enough favourites.)
There are a few bits of wordplay I need help with: 15D Eloquence, and 18A Atomic. (Edit: fixed in the detail below)
Also, for 29A I do not know how Prometheus exemplifies innovation (Edit: Please see various comments, particularly KVa @ #10)
And at 12A, can “s” be an abbreviation for “singular”? (Edit: Of course it can. It’s in Chambers)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BAKING SODA | Treatment for dyspepsia: hot drink from Texas (6,4) BAKING (Hot) SODA (drink from Texas, soda is American for a soft drink) |
| 6 | EMIT | Send out terms of reference with opening missing (4) [r]EMIT (terms of reference, opening missing) |
| 10 | LATTICE | Network a couple of times beset by insects (7) A TT (a couple of times) inside (beset by) LICE (insects) |
| 11 | ESSENCE | Concentrate key energy around Senate (7) ESC (key, on your keyboard top left) E[nergy] around SEN (Senate) |
| 12 | CEYLONESE | Caught observer taking in solitary and singular old island people (9) C[aught] EYE (observer) around (taking in) LONE (solitary) S[ingular] I’m not sure “singular” can be abbreviated to “s”, single can for sure. Edit: Of course it can. It’s in Chambers. Thanks KVa @ #12 |
| 13 | CLAMP | Unforthcoming sort with quiet grip (5) CLAM (Unforthcoming sort) P (quiet) |
| 14 | AMERICAN | Yankee era I’m struggling to preserve (8) (ERA I’M)* AInd: struggling, CAN (preserve) |
| 16 | DOCTOR | Rig entrance, keeping Court inside (6) DOOR (entrance) around (keeping) CT (court, abbr.) |
| 18 | ATOMIC | Spies intercepting three letters regarding type of bomb (6) Unsure of this I can see CIA (Spies) around (intercepting) MOT (three letters) but that is all reversed, and quite honestly “three letters” is a very lax way of referencing MOT (or TOM). There must be something I’m missing here Edit: Thanks to Hovis and Kva who leapt in at #2 & #3 MI (Spies, Military Intelligence) inside (intercepting) A TO C (three letters, indeed the first 3 letters) Tricksy bit to make ATOC |
| 20 | BUMP INTO | Encounter none-too impressive horse (4,4) BUM (none-too impressive) PINTO (horse). I laughed at this one |
| 23 | EQUIP | Question I posed during record supply (5) QU[estion] I inside (posed during) EP (record) |
| 24 | AUDIO BOOK | Assessment nearly satisfactory after receiving negative response in oral version? (5,4) AUDI[t] (Assessment, nearly), then OK (satisfactory) around (after receiving) BOO (negative response) Last one in |
| 26 | MANSION | Building: builder set about new one variously (7) MASON (builder) “variously” around N[ew] and I (one), i.e. separately plugged in |
| 27 | IBERIAN | Change of character in 3 recalled as Spanish? (7) Reverse of NAIROBI (answer to 3d) with I for O (Change of character) |
| 28 | TREK | Long journey ends in disappointment for the monk (4) Ends of the words [disappointmen]T [fo]R [th]E [mon]K |
| 29 | PROMETHEUS | America getting behind school event there with Edison’s foremost example of innovation (10) THE US (America) after (getting behind) PROM (school event there) E[dison] I got this from the wordplay and the def. seems likely but I’d be happy if anyone explains how the def. defines the answer more clearly Edit: See various comments, e.g. #10 through #18 |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BALACLAVA HELMET | Souvenir of historic encounter? Leave a match ball for representation (9,6) (LEAVE A MATCH BALL)* AInd: for representation. First one in but I did spend some time fiddling with the letters before Balaclava appeared then rewarded by lots of first letters |
| 2 | KITTY | Fund gear before end of current year (5) KIT (gear) [curren]T Y[ear] |
| 3 | NAIROBI | African city atmosphere taken in by big shot heading for Islamabad (7) AIR (atmosphere) in NOB (big shot) I[slamabad] |
| 4 | SKELETAL | Thin sort of shooting almost entirely seen around end of April (8) SKEET (sort of shooting) around [apri]L, then AL[l] (entirely, almost) |
| 5 | DIESEL | Engine conks out – article from Seat (6) DIES (conks out) EL (article, Spanish) |
| 7 | MANHATTAN | Chap covering beat in part of major city (9) MAN (Chap) HAT (covering) TAN (beat) |
| 8 | THE SPORT OF KINGS | What will engage empty folk in horse spotting, possibly (3,5,2,5) (F[ol]K HORSE SPOTTING)* AInd: possibly. &Lit |
| 9 | PSYCHO | Additional lines unknown, company accepting Hitchcock’s foremost film (6) PS (Additional lines) Y (unknown), CO[mpany] around (accepting) H[itchcock] |
| 15 | ELOQUENCE | Chess assessor mostly put out over European’s expressiveness (9) I cannot understand this wordplay at all Edit: ELO (Chess assessor – a rating system for chess players). QUENC[h] (put out, mostly), over E[uropean] Thanks KVa again |
| 17 | BUDDHISM | Friend with old money adopting his faith (8) BUD (Friend), DM (old money) around (adopting) HIS The answer that got me unstuck. I mentally ticked off several faiths before spotting Bud/Friend |
| 19 | IMPAIR | Spoil one politician’s notes? (6) I MP (one politician) AIR (notes, as in music) |
| 21 | PROJECT | Plan supporting plane receiving investment from college (7) PRO (supporting) JET (plane) around (receiving) C[ollege] |
| 22 | BANNER | Prohibitionist‘s contribution to demo? (6) Double Def. with one cryptically referencing someone who bans, the other – what they might wave when protesting |
| 25 | OLIVE | Picked up nasty old fruit (5) EVIL (nasty) O[ld] all reversed (picked up) |
I noticed MANHATTAN PROJECT, ATOMIC and I had a feeling PROMETHEUS was related. DOCTOR BANNER had a gamma bomb though.
ATOMIC is MI (Military Intelligence) inside A to C.
ATOMIC
Spies=MI, three letters=A TO C, MI intercepting ATOC.
Type of bomb.
ELOQUENCE
ELO -a rating system for chess players-chess assessor. put out=QUENC(h) —-> almost QUENC, European=E
ELO E over QUENC
15D Arpad ELO devised and gave his name to the rating system for chess grandmasters, so he is the ‘chess assessor’ then QUENC(H) plus E.
As for ELOQUENCE, i can only assume ELO has something to do with ‘chess assessor’ then QUENC(h) + E.
Just pipped me at the post, KVa.
Thanks for the ELO info.
Good puzzle.
For 18 across it is spies “MI” intercepting “A to C” three letters
Thanks to Phi and Beermagnet
18A. I parsed it as: Three letters A TO C intercepted by MI as of MI6 etc.
PROMETHEUS
Some info from a site:
Prometheus’ name means forethought, so he symbolizes thinking ahead and planning before taking action. While he was not the only god associated with fire, he is often associated and depicted with it in ancient works of art. Prometheus also symbolizes the creation of humankind and the development of fire.
Very enjoyable! Took me a while to get on the setter’s wavelength but eventually did (or was it checkers!) with only the South East holding me up.
Favourite was DIESEL with BUMP INTO and IMPAIR providing smiles.
Many thanks to Phi and Beer Magnet. I parsed ATOMIC as all the others who rushed in to offer their suggestions
CEYLONESE
singular=S (Chambers).
I just read that Oppenheimer was nicknamed ‘Prometheus’ (for obvious reasons).
@3
Correction
ELO QUENC over(above) E
Prometheus’s liver was pretty innovative as well.
PROMETHEUS stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals – an innovation for us.
Hovis@1 – “Hulk Smash!”
Hooper @15. That was how I read the clue. “Innovate” can mean ‘renew’ and that’s what the poor guy had to do each day after the eagle ate his innards.
Oh Good grief there was a theme. And it’s pretty obvious. How did I miss it? Probably because I thought there wouldn’t be one after yesterday’s. Oh well.
Thanks to everyone’s comments. All loose ends tied up:
18A ATOMIC – That “A to C” device is cute. I got stuck thinking of CIA
15D ELOQUENCE – ELO chess rating! Not the E.L.O. I know.
Interesting (Arpad Elo Wiki) I see he was also a Physics Prof.
12A CEYLONESE – I suspected S=Singular would be valid. I didn’t think Phi would use it willy-nilly.
Chambers: I haven’t got an online version and my very old paper copy is, err, here somewhere (aka buried)
29A PROMETHEUS – All these Greek gods, coming round here exemplifying something ….
Didn’t spot the them but I’ll add that DOCTOR ATOMIC is an opera about Oppenheimer by John Adams. (And DOCTOR MANHATTAN was a blue-skinned superhero in the Watchmen graphic novel and film.)
I wonder if there is a ‘doctor’ theme. Dormouse mentions 2 and I already mentioned Banner.
21 comments in and still not quite there.
DOCTOR ATOMIC is an excellent opera about Robert Oppenheimer (wife KITTY), who led the MANHATTAN PROJECT, and whose biography (one of the greatest bios I’ve read) AMERICAN PROMETHEUS formed the basis for Christopher Nolan’s recent film.
There’s something dreadfully sad about how Oppenheimer delivered so much and was then dumped by the wacko politicos that followed – wouldn’t happen elsewhere, I’m sure (did someone say Turing?)
Thanks for dropping in Phi. We both enjoyed the film but completely missed the theme.
We needed the blog to parse ATIMIC. Like beermagnet we were fixated on CIA but there was no reversal indicator.
We don’t remember having seem the link between NAIROBI and IBERIAN before – very neat.
Thanks to Phi and beermagnet.
An excellent puzzle, and I was glad to access the parsing of AUDIO BOOK. If anyone is still looking, I’d be grateful to understand how DM means “old money” in the parsing of BUDDHISM?
Hiya PJ.
DM = Deutsche Mark – lately currency of Germany now superseded by the Euro, thus “old” money.