Independent 11575 / Wiglaf

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A puzzle from Wiglaf today, a setter who has been appearing roughly once a month recently.

 

 

 

I usually find Wiglaf’s puzzles to be quite difficult.  Today’s offering had a few references I had to follow up in order to get relevant background information into the blog. Marie Prevost, the author of Solaris, the MANDATE OF HEAVEN and the town of SARATOV were new to me.

I liked the reference to Elon MUSK as X-man and the use of Tsar in the clue for SARATOV (once I learned a bit more about the history of the city)

No Detail
Across  
1

Ostentatiously dressed as Marie Prevost was, according to rumour? (4,1,4,6)

LIKE A DOG’S DINNER (dressed up flamboyantly, overdressed)

LIKE A DOG’S DINNER (reference the opening line of the chorus of Nick Lowe’s song “Marie Provost.” which begins “She was a winner that became a DOGgie’S DINNER".   Marie Prevost [1896 – 1937] was a Canadian actress who died in poverty.  A rumour suggested that her dog started to eat her corpse)

LIKE A DOGS DINNER
9

Complaint when her pint is spilt (9) 

NEPHRITIS (inflammation of the kidneys; medical complaint)

Anagram of (split) HER PINT IS

NEPHRITIS*
10

Solaris author’s account about WWI aircraft (5) 

CAMEL (Sopwith CAMEL, a humped type of early aeroplane, used in World War I)

(LEM [reference Stanislaw LEM {1921 – 2006}, Polish author of Solaris] + AC [account]) all reversed (about)

(CA MEL)<
11

A canoe adrift around island area in the Pacific (7) 

OCEANIA (an area in the Pacific which includes Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.  Some definitions include Australasia as well)

Anagram of (adrift) A CANOE containing (around) I (island)

OCEAN (I) A*
12

The X-man’s right to catch a rodent (7) 

MUSKRAT (a type of rodent)

MUSK (reference Elon MUSK [born 1971], technical entrepreneur who recently bought and renamed the social media site Twitter to "X";  X-man) + (RT [right] containing [to catch] A)

MUSK R (A) T
13

Opponent of Wade‘s last three letters from opponent of Borg (3) 

ROE (reference the 1973 American Supreme Court case ROE v Wade when the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion.  The ruling was overturned by the same Court in June 2022 when the political leaning of the members of Court was different from 1973)

ROE (last three letters of McEnROE [John McEnroe was a regular opponent of Bjorn Borg in the late 1970s and early 1980s])

ROE
14

Neatly groomed prince adjusted sails after leaving Thailand (7) 

PRIMMED (neatly groomed)

P (prince) + TRIMMED (adjusted the sails) excluding (leaving) T (International Vehicle registration for Thailand)

P RIMMED
17

A very old tsar rebuilt this city (7) 

SARATOV (city in South West Russia, said to have been rebuilt by Tsar Feodor I towards the end of the 16th century after its earlier destruction)

Anagram of (rebuilt) A and V [very] and O [old] and TSAR

SARATOV*
19

Couch potato’s back, enthralled by naked divers (7) 

LOUNGER (couch for relaxing on)

O (final letter of [‘s back] POTATO) contained in (enthralled by) PLUNGERS excluding the outer letters [naked] P and S

L (O) NÉE
22

Support parish priest for keeping it professional (7) 

PITPROP (a support)

PP (parish priest) containing (keeping) (IT + PRO [professional]) – I’m not sure what ‘for’ is doing in the clue.  I know that PRO can represent ‘in favour of /  for’ but the central letters are IT PRO rather than PRO IT.

P (IT PRO) P
24

The Greek goddess of mischief returned her last letter (3) 

ETA (letter of the Greek alphabet, last letter of ATE [Greek goddess of mischief])

ATE (Greek goddess of mischief) reversed (returned)

ETA<
25

Still without gas? (7) 

AIRLESS (without air; without gas)

AIRLESS (without wind; stuffy)  double definition

AIRLESS
26

Stay with seaman, hung over after drinking instant tea, reportedly (5,2) 

STICK TO (stay with)

OS (Ordinary Seaman) reversed (hung over) and containing (drinking) (TICK [moment] + T [letter with pronunciation that sounds like [reportedly] TEA)

S (TICK T) O<
28

Knight absorbed by one friar further on in the book … (5) 

INFRA (lower down on the page, or further on in the book)

N (knight in chess notation) contained in (I [Roman numeral for one] + FRA [friar])

I (N) FRA
29

… so that he might, like the friar, recall holy books (2,5,2) 

IN ORDER TO (so that he might)

IN ORDER (a friar is a member of an order of monks) + OT (Old Testament; holy books) reversed (returned)

IN ORDER TO<
30

Adam and Eve often clashed with Han political philosophy (7,2,6) 

MANDATE OF HEAVEN (Chinese political philosophy that was used in ancient and imperial China to legitimize the rule of the King or Emperor of China)

Anagram of (clashed with) ADAM EVE OFTEN and HAN

MANDATE OF HEAVEN*
Down  
1

Heavy metal at major city theatre (6,9) 

LONDON PALLADIUM (theatre in London’s West End)

LONDON (major city) + PALLADIUM (a member of the platinum group of heavy metals)

LONDON PALLADIUM
2

A small hill in South Africa‘s capital? Not small (5) 

KOPJE (South African term for a low hill)

SKOPJE (capital city of North Macedonia) excluding (not) S (small)

KOPJE
3

America wants China inside NATO? (7) 

ACRONYM (word formed from or based on the initial letters or syllables of other words, such as NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organisation])

CRONY (friend; pal; crony) contained in (inside) AM (America)

A (CRONY) M
4

Not in charge? That’s apparent (7) 

OUTWARD (apparent or seeming)

OUT (not in) + WARD (minor or other person under a guardian; ward)

OUT WARD
5

Plants roses a messenger’s delivered (7) 

SESAMES (plants cultivated for their edible seeds)

SESAMES (hidden word [delivered] in ROSES A MESSENGER’S)

SESAMES
6

Trendy surveyor with implanted lead for instance and gold in tooth (7) 

INCISOR (tooth)

IN (popular; trendy) + (I [first letter of {lead for} INSTANCE] contained in [implanted] CS [Chartered Surveyor]) + OR (gold tincture)

IN C (I) S OR
7

French article rejected by cartographer after ignoring carbon dividend (9) 

NUMERATOR (upper number in  a fraction; number divided by another; dividend)

UN (one of the French forms of a [indefinite article]) reversed (rejected) + MERCATOR (reference Gerardus MERCATOR [1512 – 1594], Flemish geographer and cartographer) excluding (ignoring) C (carbon)

NU< MERATOR
8

Maybe Father’s official statement after forgetting to fix that? (8,7) 

RELATIVE PRONOUN (‘that’ is a RELATIVE PRONOUN)

RELATIVE (a Father is a RELATIVE) + PRONOUNCEMENT (official statement) excluding (after forgetting) CEMENT (fix)

RELATIVE PRONOUN
15

Drug that’s suppressing British university don’s pain at last (9) 

IBUPROFEN (drug that is used to relieve pain, fever, and inflammation)

IE (id est; that is; that’s) containing (suppressing) (B [British] + U [university] + PROF [professor; don]) + N (final letter of [at last] PAIN)

I (B U PROF) E N
16

The verb in the second person? On the contrary (3) 

EVE (second person after Adam)

EVE is contained in (in) THE VERB, which is the opposite (on the contrary) of the statement in the clue ‘the verb in the second person’)

EVE
18

Clay found in marl pit regularly (3) 

ALI (the boxer born Cassius Clay [1942 – 2016] changed his name in 1964 to Muhammad ALI)

ALI (letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly] of MARL PIT)

ALI
20

A lot of pineapple on a Caribbean island (7) 

GRENADA (Caribbean island)

GRENADE (pineapple is an informal term for a hand GRENADE) excluding the last letter (a lot of) E + A

GRENAD A
21

Pause especially during ceremony (7) 

RESPITE (temporary cessation of something that is tiring or painful; pause)

ESP (especially) contained in (during) RITE (ceremony)

R (ESP) ITE
22

How to make saps disappear gradually? (4,3) 

PASS OFF (disappear gradually)

PASS OFF (cryptic crossword clue for [form an anagram of; make] SAPS)

PASS OFF
23

Time to go and play with knob? (7) 

TWIDDLE (play with or rotate a knob on an electronic device for instance)

T (time) + WIDDLE (informal term for urinate; go)

T WIDDLE
27

Soviet Bolshevik leader knocked back a couple of vodkas after aperitif (5) 

KIROV (reference Sergei KIROV [1886 – 1934], Russian and Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary)

KIR (an aperitif drink made of white wine and blackcurrant syrup or liqueur) + VO (first two letters of [a couple of] VODKAS) reversed (knocked back)

KIR OV<

 

15 comments on “Independent 11575 / Wiglaf”

  2. Goodness me! GK rich, for sure. Like our blogger, I had to turn to Mr Google several times to check and/or learn. I did end up with a completed grid and no reveals and pretty much everything parsed so no complaints but it was fairly tough. The one I couldn’t parse was the DOGS DINNER: I did look up the actress and saw she died alone with police being called when her dog’s barking alerted neighbours. But no mention of the rumour so that went in with a shrug. I think that counts as the most obscure of the GK Wiglaf expected us to possess.

    I liked PRIMMED, LOUNGER, OUTWARD, NUMERATOR, ALI and TWIDDLE the most.

    Thanks Wiglaf and duncan

  3. Got 1a & 1d straight away, remembering the Nick Lowe song (1978), and Sunday Night at the… (1955-66)
    More nhos – PRIMMED, KOPJE, “marl pit”. The ring of 3-letter solutions reminded me of when Araucaria would have had a 12-letter Nina.
    Especially liked MUSKRAT – where the X-man wasn’t Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, or Iceman (1963),
    ROE – where Wade wasn’t Virginia (1977), and “opponent of Borg” wasn’t Jean Luc Picard (1989),
    and EVE – The second person in the verb.
    Thanks W&d

  4. I’d say all the knowledge required today was of pub quiz level, nothing too specialist, so it was right up my street. I found some of the parsing quite tricksy though – eg having to delete cement in 8d.

    Nice puzzle. Thanks, Wiglaf and Duncan.

  5. Nothing too specialist? On the contrary some of the GK was quite obscure – never heard of Lem, and whilst we’d heard of Ms Prevost we knew nothing of her, certainly not her sad end. There were others we’d never heard of, too.
    Not a particularly enjoyable solve, but thanks, Duncan (and Wiglaf).

  6. Thanks both. Reference earlier comments here, if this was GK rich, I was GK poor, and if fake news about failed actresses along with 16th century Flemish cartographers is in the pub quiz, I hope it’s happy hour

  7. Some of it might be a tad recherché but it’s all pretty superficial stuff, definitely not specialist – eg I’ve never read Solaris (nor seen either of the film versions) but I knew the author.

    I suspect the legend of Marie Prevost’s demise is more widely remembered than any of her 100+ films these days.

  8. Quite a struggle, but satisfactory in the end despite some laboured parsing. I certainly learned a lot here! Thank you.

  10. Thanks, Wiglaf and duncanshiell.
    GK heavy, yes, but still enjoyable.

    I liked:
    MUSKRAT
    ROE
    LOUNGER
    IN ORDER TO
    ACRONYM
    NUMERATOR
    EVE
    STICK TO

  11. Jimboeb@9 Me too. Knew very little about Marie Prevost so looked her up. I hope Wiglaf is having a much happier life than she had and certainly a better end. I found 1A rather tasteless.

  12. A strange mix of enjoyable ( I liked numerator) and extremely obscure. @7 it doesn’t get less obscure because you repeat yourself, but well done for your own gk.

  14. Failed with an unparsed EYE instead of EVE, Think I was going for a homonym of I somehow in my mind.

    Many of the same GK gaps as most others.

    Slight quibble with what I understand to be a cryptic no-no at 9a where PHRENITIS works exactly without any crossers.

    Also a little error in the blog at 26 where TICK is parsed from moment instead of instant.

    I struggled like mad for quite a long time before things started to click. Too many went in unparsed for it to be satisfactory for me though. Good challenge nonetheless.

    Thanks Wiglaf and Duncan.

  15. Managed just a handful and gave up. After coming here to find the answers am glad I did as there was *so* much Egg Head level knowledge needed, way beyond what I have. Even after Googling Marie Provost, I had no clue if what it was getting at.

    With one where I thought I had it, it turned out there were two viable anagrams (9ac)!

    Am in awe of Duncanshell being able to explain it. Thanks 🙂 Back to school for me!

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