Thank you to Pangakupu. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Local installation always needing power during strike (4,4)
BEER PUMP : [ E’ER(a poetic contraction of “ever”/always) plus(needing) P(symbol for “power” in physics) ] contained in(during) BUMP(to strike by hitting with something else).
Defn: Equipment installed in a local/pub near one’s home or place of work.
5. Retracting of a close to scene in G&S – obscurity round Penzance? (3,3)
SEA FOG : Reversal of(Retracting) { [OF A + last letter of(close to) “scene“] contained in(in) G,S(G & S) }.
Defn: …, the coastal resort and fishing port in SW Cornwall.
And “The Pirates of Penzance is an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.
9. Opening a fresh source of water in Yorkshire (8)
APERTURE : A + PERT(fresh/cheeky) + URE(source of water/river in Yorkshire).
10. Marine life in sea adjacent to America (6)
MEDUSA : MED(short for the Mediterranean Sea) plus(adjacent to) USA(abbrev. for the United States of America).
12. Tearful Australian dismissed by old Communist (5)
MOIST : “A”(abbrev. for “Australian”) deleted from(dismissed by) “Maoist”(a follower of the doctrines of Mao Zedong, Communist leader of China formerly).
13. Found distressed after landing catch? That’s inconceivable (7,2)
UNHEARD OF : Anagram of(… distressed) FOUND containing(after landing) HEAR(to catch/to be aware of a sound made by someone or something).
14. Recruitment business account gathering in information over 12 months (6)
AGENCY : AC(abbrev. for “account”) containing(gathering in) GEN(information) plus(over) Y(abbrev. for “year”, a period of 12 months). A down clue originally?
Defn: Of which a business offering recruitment services is an example.
16. French pastry being cooked — and in Paris (7)
BEIGNET : Anagram of(… cooked) BEING + ET(French for “and”, as spoken in Paris).
18. Conservative, as originally recorded, boarding boat, being averse to road transport (7)
CARSICK : C(abbrev. for a member of the Conservative Party) + [ SIC(as originally recorded/exactly as in the original) contained in(boarding) ARK(a boat or ship, like Noah’s) ].
20. Piece of wood’s rotten? Stop surfing (3,3)
LOGOFF : LOG(a piece of wood cut from a tree trunk or large branch) + OFF(rotten/decayed).
Defn: … the Internet.
22. Docile character accepting English downpour, the idiot (9)
LAMEBRAIN : LAMB(docile/meek character symbolised by a young sheep) containing(accepting) E(abbrev. for “English”) + RAIN(downpour/ heavy rain).
23. Drink not supplied promptly, taking extra time (5)
LATTE : LATE(not supplied promptly/submitted after due date) containing(taking extra/another) T(abbrev. for “time”).
Defn: … made of strong coffee and steamed milk.
24. Stylish harbour in the Seychelles (6)
SPORTY : PORT(a harbour where ships load and unload) contained in(in) SY(the international vehicle registration code for Seychelles, the East African nation).
25. Various therapies I dropped —see the charges here (3,5)
RAP SHEET : Anagram of(Various) “therapies” minus(… dropped) “I“.
Defn: A legal document showing someone’s arrests and crimes committed.
26. S is one mistake in it (6)
SIERRA : [ I(Roman numeral for “one”) + ERR(to mistake/be incorrect) ] contained in(in) SA(abbrev. for “sex appeal”/it).
Defn: The word representing “S” in the phonetic alphabet.
27. Not just power tool user? (8)
PARTISAN : P(symbol for “power” in physics) + ARTISAN(a craftsman, one who probably uses a tool).
Defn: …/biased in favour of a particular cause.
Down
1. Composer having king amongst supporters (6)
BRAHMS : HM(abbrev. for “His Majesty”, term of address for a king) contained in(amongst) BRAS(brassieres, supporters of the female breasts).
2. Yellow flower improving serene rocks (7,8)
EVENING PRIMROSE : Anagram of(… rocks) IMPROVING SERENE.
3. Indulge computer industry for minute in Strasbourg (5)
PETIT : PET(to indulge/pamper) + IT(abbrev. for “information technology”/computer technology).
Defn: French for “minute”/tiny in the language as spoken in Strasbourg, France.
4. God‘s forbearance displayed around Biblical city (7)
MERCURY : MERCY(forbearance/leniency) containing(displayed around) UR(Biblical city in Mesopotamia).
6. The French, very into food and improving the mind (9)
ELEVATING : [ LE(French for “the”) + V(abbrev. for “very”) contained in(into)] EATING(food/something edible used in reference to its quality or tastiness).
Defn: Improving/raising the mind to a higher intellectual and spiritual level.
7. They established institutions in which orphan forgets trace of lost parents (8,7)
FOUNDING FATHERS : “foundling”(an orphan/an infant who has been abandoned by its parents) minus(forgets) 1st letter of(trace of) “lost” + FATHERS(male parents).
8. Military group ready to intervene in turn for writing on the wall? (8)
GRAFFITO : [ RAF(abbrev. for the Royal Air Force, a group in the British military) + FIT(ready to act/having the ability to undertake a task promptly) ] containing(to intervene in) GO(one’s turn/a chance to do or use something that comes in turn).
11. Exclamation over a book, or antihero in one (4)
AHAB : AH!(an exclamation expressing surprise, pleasure or other emotions) placed above(over, in a down clue) + A+ B(abbrev. for “book”).
Defn: Captain of a whaling ship in the story/book, “Moby Dick”.
15. Pin down late supporter about tense, tense situation (4-5)
NAIL-BITER : NAIL(to pin down/to fix with, well, a pin or nail) + BIER(a frame used to support a late/dead body/corpse) containing(about) T(abbrev. for “tense”, in grammar).
17. College in university ranks visionary specialists? (8)
OCULISTS : C(abbrev. for “college”) contained in(in) OU(abbrev. for the Open University in the UK) + LISTS(ranks/gives one a position within a grading system).
19. Put down an unanswerable question (4)
KOAN : KO(abbrev. for “knock-out”/to render unconscious/put down) + AN.
Defn: … used in Zen Buddhism.
20. Feel bad, upset about imminent script (6,1)
LINEAR A : Reversal of(…, upset, in a down clue) AIL(to feel bad/suffer) containing(about) NEAR(imminent/a short time away).
Defn: …/writing system, an ancient one in this case.
21. New take presented by working actor-director (6)
KEATON : Anagram of(New) TAKE plus(by) ON(working/functioning).
Answer: …, Buster in the silent-film era.
23. Elizabeth Taylor initially accepting singular musical heart-throb from the past (5)
LISZT : LIZ(a form of “Elizabeth”) + 1st letter of(… initially) “Taylor” containing(accepting) S(abbrev. for “singular”).
Defn: …, Franz who with his physical attractiveness and virtuosic piano playing was the object of Lisztomania or Liszt fever.
Another top notch challenge from this setter. I completed the right side without anything on the left but it eventually fell into place. New for me was KOAN, MEDUSA and LINEAR A. When I saw BEER PUMP, BRAHMS and LIZST, I thought there might be an inebriate theme but no. The usual M?ori word appeared with (Kapa) O PANGO (I’m guessing) meaning the team in black, which is obviously topical at the moment. Favourites were BEER PUMP, CARSICK (couldn’t parse), PARTISAN and RAP SHEET. Super stuff.
Ta Pangakupu & scchua.
…and thanks for the colourful blog.
Re 24, SY is the car plate code for the Seychelles, but it’s the ISO code for Syria. The ISO code for Seychelles is SC, which cost me a couple of minutes.
I parsed CARSICK, but struggled to parse MOIST as I blanked Maoist, but also got most of the righthand in before the left, helped by finding FOUNDING FATHERS a write in
I also spotted BRAHMS and LISZT and wondered about themes.
Thank you to scchua and Pangakupu.
Great stuff, though a little easier than the setter’s recent puzzles.
Favourite was PARTISAN
Thanks Pangakupu and scchua
There’s an A missing in your parsing of AHAB, scchua.
1D is surely HM in BRAS.
Yes good illustrations. Not heard of LAMEBRAIN or KOAN but easily derived. Also LIZST as a heart-throb was unexpected and S for singular not my favourite.
Thanks both
I agree with Togs @7.
I wondered if I was going to complete this when the NW held out despite all efforts. But an enforced break to take folks to the airport meant I attacked it with renewed vigour and BEER PUMP suddenly resolved itself, after which I was able to mop up the remainder. I still find Pangakupu much trickier than Phi though it’s hard to say why. Maybe the choice of synonyms, maybe some of the surfaces throw me, I don’t know. I liked BEER PUMP when I got it, together with PARTISAN and OCULISTS. KOAN was well beyond my ken and I’d agree with scchua that ‘over’ would work better in AGENCY if it were a down.
Thanks Pangakupu and scchua
Good fun and mildly instructive – I didn’t know that Liszt was a heart-throb as well as being an obscenely talented pianist, and I wasn’t familiar with KOAN. Unfamiliar word + clear wordplay is always helpful.
Incredibly conscientiously assembled blog, even though Togs @7d is surely right about BRAHMS.
Thanks, both.
As usual, Pangakupu has hidden (at least) a couple of Maori words in the grid: RATI and PANGO on this occasion.
Thanks Pangakupu and scchua
Mostly good. A couple of places where he included an unnecessary but helpful word – Yorkshire in 9a and yellow in 2d.
I’ve heard “eats” for food, but not “eating”.
How is the ‘s in 4d justified in the wordplay?
1d. It’s not Rex but His Majesty in Bras.
Thanks P & S
Muffin @13 – surely Mercury is Mercy displayed about Ur, with is contracted legitimately to ‘s?
And you might say that something was good eating, might you not?
Andrew @12. Even more than PANGO, there’s OPANGO – the All Blacks.
Muffin @13.
Treat God’s as God is…
Jim @17
Yes, that works for the wordplay.
NeilH @15
Even in that usage, are eating and food the same parts of speech?
Enjoyable puzzle.
We learnt about Linear A and Linear B in the 6th form.
Linear B turned out to be Greek but Linear A is still a bit of a mystery. (Or was in those days, at least).
Thanks to Pangakupu and our blogger.
Enjoyed this. Quite tricky in places. I did not parse 2d (had the starting E and guessed it from the word lengths) but forgot to check if it was an anagram.
Favourites: NAIL-BITER, LOGG OFF, BEIGNET, PETIT, MOIST, LISZT
Thanks, both.
I agree with Togs@7 re HM in BRAS -> BRAHMS.
Thanks Yes Me@3.
Thanks Togs@7. I had it right when solving, but lost it when writing the blog.
Thanks AlanC@6.
Blog clarified/corrected.
Looked up Opango, there’s a town called it right up north. [Nearest I’ve been is Whangarei, where mrs ginf ran a workshop one year].
I’m normally not a great fan of this setter, often feeling put off at first by the wordy clueing. However, once I had seen my way in initially with the OCCULISTS, and then the very helpful long anagram of the lovely EVENING PRIMROSE, I made pleasing progress with this, and plenty of ticks and smiles along the way. Didn’t much care for MOIST or PETIT, however, and the last two in I found to be the tricky CARSICK and KOAN, which last one I must admit I had to look up. I’m making promising strides with Pangakupu at last, I feel…
OCULISTS with a single C, better get those old peepers of mine retested…
Togs@7
BRAHMS
scchua had HM in BRAS. Isn’t your parsing the same?
Missed scchua’s post@21. Understood that something was different in the blog initially.
Thank you scchua for your detailed and beautifully illustrated blog, as usual.
Mistified about a place in Cornwall called Sea Fog. No matter how much I try google won’t reveal that to me.
Am siding with Crispy@16 re the Maori nina, PANGO Black, but I’m sure Paul T will put us straight.
I have to admit, I solved a lot from defs and retro parsing.
Liked the surfaces for MAOIST, LAMEBRAIN and KOAN.
Quibble about the def for PARTISAN. Not just A couple of goodies. The greatest singer/poet of all time (don’t shoot me down, it wasn’t Dylan) Saw Leonard Cohen in his 70s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RYy_8u4blk
and the real question, not a KOAN, about PARTISAN: Pete Seeger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XxsFpxsiBk
Delightful puzzle, and I love the blog with the colourful illustrations. I’d not heard of KOAN. LAMEBRAIN is a favourite word. Useful for abuse on HYS. Even using the anagram facility, it took a surprisingly long time for the penny to drop on RAP SHEET. With thanks to Pangakupu and schuua.
Great tracks, ta pdm (lots of hands clapping … )
Muffin @18 – I think “eating” is a gerund, as to which I still recall the deliberately nonsensical rhyme a canny teacher had us chant sixty years ago – “A gerun dizza verbal noun” – I singi tonmy wayto town
So yes, I think eating is the same part of speech as food.
(A classmate offered the equally useful Verbal adjectives I hate. They’re called participles, mate).
Ticks for PETIT, BEIGNET, and KOAN
Cliche klaxon for the cringey SA but just about redeemed by HM as a refreshing alternative to K CR GR etc.
Couldn’t decide between Michael and Buster for Keaton
Cheers P&S
My first thought was Diane, cheetah @31, but i don’t think she directed …
Pieced together, helped by getting the EVENING PRIMROSE.
I thought the KEATON was Diane, who’s a working actor/director. I liked the surfaces of BEER PUMP and RAPSHEET and the wordplay for NAIL-BITER. At the beginning I thought there was a reversed ‘ill’ somewhere, but it was ail instead.
Thanks Pan and scchua.
Only maori word I know is kotanga (car radio aerial)
PDM@27 yes Kapo O Pango is the All Blacks team. It’s also the name of their newer haka composed especially for the All Blacks. Previously they only ever performed Ka Mate which was composed by Te Rauparaha around 1820. Up late watching the cricket so managed to do this between overs before the All Black play Uruguay in the morning.
Oysters are such good eating/food …
gif@ 29. 32. Glad you enjoyed them.
@32. Yes, and Robi@33, Diane was my first thought. She has directed a few.
You wait all day for a Keaton actor/director and then …
PaulT@35. How do you get any sleep?
Thanks Pangakupu and scchua
I wonder if it’s a coincidence that Buster Keaton was born 128 years ago today?
Very enjoyable.
Was sunk by the combo of 18a/19d so thanks for the hints.
[PDM@39 I only watch rugby & cricket so it doesn’t happen that often.]
Me@35 typo – should be Kapa O Pango for All Blacks Team. In fact Pangakupu’s nina gives All Blacks as previously pointed out. The O is long so should have a macron which we can’t seem to do on this site.
“It” meaning “Sex Appeal” meaning “SA” is such an annoying reach of a composition to appear so regularly. The fun in a cryptic is being able to connect these disparate ideas and get that moment of “ooooh, of course!” and that one doesn’t fit the bill for me at all.
Paul T, I identified that @1 but thanks for the full explanation.
More on the gerund for NeilH@30 from the pen of the late Ronald Searle:
I can’t lay my hands on my own copy of “How to be Topp” so try https://matouenpeluche.typepad.com/.a/6a00e554e97d5c88340167619f770a970b-800wi
According to scchua’s excellent parsing of this rather tough crossword, not only did I not get it in 26a but have never had it.
Shannen @4: with BRAHMS and LISZT, maybe he was thinking of drunk Cockneys? I won’t go looking to see if there’s other rhyming slang tucked away, but I doubt that’s a theme either.
This is the first Pangakupu I’ve managed to finish without much struggle. Maybe I’m getting used to his style, or maybe he’s getting used to ours. I thought to look for the Maori Nina, but I’m hampered by knowing no Maori at all.
Interesting to see GRAFFITO in the singular, which is rare, at least in American English.
Way beyond my capabilities today as I found the surfaces clumsy to be honest. I lost interest, despite proudly decoding quite a lot of clues. Must have been on the wrong wavelength.
mrpenney @47: I also mentioned BRAHMS & LIZST and inebriate @1. I’m starting to think my entry is invisible 🙂
We thought this was the best Pangakupu to date: many thanks to setter and blogger. And we parsed everything!
Nice to see GRAFFITO and LINEAR A varying from their more common relatives; the latter remains undeciphered, sadly, so we still do not know the language of the ancient Cretans, despite the beautiful arts and crafts we have in abundance. (Heraklion Archaeological Museum highly recommended).
AlanC@1&49 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang says BRAHMS &… can also be Schindler’s after too many Britneys. Would you Adam it?
FrankieG @51: 2 Irishmen discussing Cockney rhyming slang, you’re having a bubble 🙂
Thanks scchua, nicely explained and illustrated as usual, and well spotted Simon S@40 as I think that is not a coincidence. until recently I only knew that there was a singular GRAFFITO from some books by, I think, Nigel Rees, that a friend had. But (and this is a mighty coincidence), only this morning I read about a Sgraffito being an artistic design adorning traditional buildings in the Engadin (St Moritz etc) region. Up there they often still speak Rumantsch which is derived from Latin hence the proximity of the word. Anyway, thanks Pangakupu.
[Re: Linear B, I recommend “The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code” by Margalit Fox. I found it fascinating. It highlights the work done by Alice Kober before her untimely death. Michael Ventris finally decoded the script, helped by Kober’s work. Some argue that had she lived she would have beaten him to it.]
Like many of us, I had the right side filled with the left still almost blank. I confess to liberal applications of the CHECK button,
20ac Wouldn’t “piece of wood’s rotten” generate LOGSOFF?
Thanks to Pangakapu and scchua.
Odd – I had the LHS complete and nothing in the right for some time!
AlanC@52 – My Cockney’s a little rusty – I only learnt and spoke it in primary school, so I could only think of bubble (& squeak) Greek. I had to Google it:
https://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2023/04/recording-of-the-week-you-havin-a-bubble-mate.html
I’m pleased to see that The British Library’s Jonnie Robinson, Lead Curator of Spoken English is keeping track of it as an evolving language.
Dole can be Adrian (Mole); Andy / Cheryl / George / Nat (King) Cole; Billy (Joel); De La (Soul); Rock & / Jam / Sausage (Roll).
Thanks for the blog , really good puzzle , I will just mention NAIL-BITER for the “late” supporter.
Roger Daltrey played Liszt in “Lisztomania”, director Ken Russell , enough said.
Linear-A is still undeciphered.
{ AlanC@1 yet again , plus extras for a bonus point , it is now 33-13 , be very careful now this week. Is bra a difficult concept for KPR fans ? ]
[Roz @59: such a cruel mistress. Yes bra doesn’t bring us many cups.
[ Or support . Cruel?? I gave you a bonus point ]
Like others, I enjoyed this puzzle more than earlier ones by this setter (probably, like others, in part because I had more success with it). I had ticks for 9a APERTURE, 18a CARSICK and 20a LOG OFF, but failed on 20d LINEAR A, which I hadn’t heard of and never would have guessed from the wordplay. Thanks, Pangakupu for the excellent crossword and scchua for the useful and colourful blog.
Thanks also to Meandme@45 for the wonderful Ronald Searle gerunds.
Paddymelon@27, thanks for the shoutout for Leonard Cohen (with link). You are right about him in comparison with Dylan, but I would respectfully call him the greatest poet/songwriter, as neither he nor Dylan should properly be called singers.
[Roz, I presumed support was your pithy quip, kind mistress].
Thanks Pangakupu for an excellent crossword. I missed MEDUSA and KOAN but all else eventually fell into place with my top picks being BEER PUMP, APERTURE, BEIGNET, SPORTY, and GRAFFITO. Thanks scchua for the blog.
A nice entertainment and I’ve added KOAN to my lexicon. (Though I quibble that PETIT has no place in an English (language) crossword.)
Thanks both.
[As to the Dylan/Cohen (off-topic) topic, Dylan in fairness opened the way for Cohen (imho) by establishing the (previously un-plumbed) genre of ‘music for the tone-deaf’ which Cohen has manured with an overlay of lyrical gibberish.]
[Is it necessary to rank Dylan against Cohen? Dylan wrote more great songs than Cohen, but he wrote far more in total.
I’ve always thanked Douglas Adams for describing our house in the second Dirk Gently book – The long dark teatime of the soul – and adding that Dirk expected to find every Dylan album up to Blood on the tracks somewhere in the house. I thought “I don’t have that”, so I bought it, and immediatley thought it was the best thing he ever did!]
Anyone else here who came into this puzzle aware of koans but not of beer pumps? I too completed the entire right side while the left was still blank…
Actually BEER PUMPS was my FOI. What does that say?
For a moment I thought 24a was going to be Swanky, but I was soon disabused of that idea.
Compus@34. I haven’t seen a wire coathanger used as a car aerial for many years. Still a thing in regional Qld?
Geoff – where are you??
[ muffin@66, I guess we’ll always disagree about the relative literary merits of Cohen and Dylan. At the height of their popularity there was an equally popular touring group called the Three Tenors – Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Josee Carreras. I used to have nightmares about a tour featuring the alternative Three Great Singers – Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. ]
[Oh cellomaniac@72. a bass-baritone, a high baritone, and a bass? Or just Three Gravelly Voices?
I can’t stand Dylan’s voice, I much prefer his songs covered by other artists, but Cohen and Waits I like to listen to. It’s a funny thing, their voices are so soothing even when they’re singing dark stuff, a bit like watching murders on crime tv.]
[ paddymelon@73, I’m with you on Tom Waits – his whole presentation, including his voice, perfectly fits his wry songs. But Cohen’s dull monotone I find gets in the way of the beauty of his verse. I prefer covers (as with Dylan), or even just reading his song-poems, which often stand on their own without the music. (Not always, though – Hallelujah, for example, is greatly enhanced by the melody, preferably sung by someone else.) ]
[cellomania@74. We’re probably the only ones here so I can tell you how funny I find it that so many churchy-type choirs sing Hallelujah. Don’t they realise it’s all about sex?!]
[And I just found out that Bob Dylan was one of the first to perform Hallelujah in concert.
Didn’t know that. They had a lot in common, of Jewish heritage and, as many of us were in those days, concerned about love and life and politics.
Link doesn’t have good sound but I like the arrangement a la Dylan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuLmf7DMPPo ]
I have never used or seen BEER PUMP – in the circles I move in they’re usually called hand pumps, but I couldn’t get the wordplay to confirm. Writing in 2d with its initial E put me on the right track.
Never did get SPORTY – ‘stylish’? Well, maybe.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
S1z3@71, I think Geoff is in Coffs Harbour