Bobcat has his claws out this morning.
I found this pouzzle a bit of a slog to be honest. I don't know if I'm just finding my feet after being on holiday over the last three weeks, but I struggled to get much of a foothold in this puzzle. Normally, I would expect to get a couple of long answers around the perimeter in a grid like this, but after my fist pass, I had maybe seven answers in place, and none of them in the permieter. I eventually got ICE CREAM SODA and GIVE IT A WHIRL, which helped me get through the rest of the puzzle with only BOOTSTRAPPING holding me up in the end, because I was only aware of the word in computing terminology. After an online check, I found an alternative meeting. I wasn't keen on "almost 90% of American" in the clue for ICE CREAM SODA and found some of the other clues a but cumbersome, but everything was gettable in the end.
Thanks Bobcat
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GIVE IT A WHIRL |
Try first two parts of Aeneid, with Virgil in translation (4,2,1,5)
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*(ae with virgil) [anag:in translation] where AE is first two parts of AE(neid) |
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| 10 | VIADUCT |
I may hold up trains going by the Tube (7)
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VIA ("going by") + DUCT ("tube") |
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| 11 | NO CAN DO |
Laid-back politician to lead a new party? It’s out of the question (2,3,2)
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[laid-back] <=Con. (Conservative, so "politician") to lead A + N (new) + DO ("party") |
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| 12 | ROOST |
Bounders needing time to settle (5)
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(kanga)ROOS ("bounders") needing T (time) |
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| 13 | POT-ROAST |
Make a meal of covering over most of route to Stone (3-5)
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<=TOP ("covering", over) + [most of] ROA(d) ("route") + St. (stone) |
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| 15 | MAYONNAISE |
Dressing informally — a month with nothing on (10)
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Informally, MAYONNAISE is MAYO – "a month" (MAY) with O (nothing) on |
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| 16 | TENT |
Camp constituent’s almost the centre of attention (4)
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TENT is almost at the centre of "atTENTtion" |
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| 18 | HATE |
Dislike putting cap on expenditure at the outset (4)
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HAT ("cap") on E(xpenditure) [at the outset] |
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| 20 | ACROPHOBIA |
Version of Pooh in dodgy Arabic’s something dreadful (10)
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*(pooh) [anag:version of] in *(arabic) [anag:dodgy] |
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| 22 | SOMETIME |
Once legendary figure losing head in battle (8)
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(y)ETI ("legendary figure", losing head in SOMME ("battle" in WW1) |
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| 24 | BLIMP |
Setback involving minute vehicle used in Sky promotion? (5)
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BLIP ("setback") involving M (minute) |
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| 26 | SEASICK |
Cook, exhausted after mains, is beginning to be ill (7)
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C(oo)K [exhausted] after SEAS ("mains") + I(s) [beginning] |
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| 27 | STEN GUN |
England overwhelmed by crazy revolutionary arm (4,3)
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Eng. (England) overwhelmed by <=NUTS ("crazy", revolutionary) |
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| 28 | ICE CREAM SODA |
Something at the drugstore excited almost 90% of American coeds (3-5,4)
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*(america coeds) [anag:excited] where AMERICA is [almost 90% of) AMERICA(n) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | IN AGONY |
Suffering greatly from onset of apoplectic fit in hotel yard (2,5)
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[onset of] A(poplectic] + GO ("fit") in INN ("hotel") + Y (yard) |
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| 3 | ERUPTING |
Prominent Russian, having turned up in work unit, is becoming agitated (8)
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UPTIN ("prominent Russian" (PUTIN) having turned UP) in ERG ("work unit") |
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| 4 | TATE |
Virginia could be appearing topless for art patron (4)
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(s)TATE ("could be Virginia") [appearing topless] The art patron in question is Sir Henry Tate, who founded the Tate Gallery in London in 1897, although it was only informally called the Tate until 1932. |
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| 5 | WINDOW-SHOP |
Actively seek the means to enlightenment? Or just have a look (6-4)
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If you SHOP for a WINDOW, you could be described as "actively seeking the means of enlightenment" |
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| 6 | INCUR |
Suffer curtailment of fashionable remedy (5)
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[curtailment of] IN ("fashionable") CUR(e) ("remedy") |
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| 7 | LINKAGE |
Bond’s in Spain, tailing Russian barman, keeping his head down (7)
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E (International Vehicle Registration code for "Spain") tailing LINKA-G ("Russian barman" i.e. composer, Mikhail GLINKA, keeping his head (initial letter) down) |
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| 8 | OVEREMPHASISE |
Capricious hopes and aims endlessly serve to provide too much stress (13)
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*(hopes aim serve) [anag:capricious] where AIM is AIM(s) [endlessly] |
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| 9 | BOOTSTRAPPING |
Low-cost launching with no public backing initially a pig to sort out (13)
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*(npb a pig to sort) [anag:out] where NPB is N(o) P(ublic) B(acking) [iniitally] |
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| 14 | MATCHMAKER |
Former striker appearing before union rep? (10)
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MAKER ("former", i.e one who forms or makes) with MATCH ("striker") appearing before |
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| 17 | SHEBEENS |
Novel drone perhaps given directions to unlicensed premises (8)
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SHE (H Rider Haggard "novel") + BEE ("drone") given N + S (north and south, so "directions") |
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| 19 | TIMPANI |
Instruments not fit to hold a note when set up (7)
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<=(INAPT ("not fit") to hold MI ("a note"), when set up) |
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| 21 | BRIDGED |
Went over the top visiting Bradford on vacation (7)
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RIDGE ("top") visiting B(radfor)D [on vacation] |
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| 23 | TRIPE |
Tense, and ready to show guts (5)
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T (tense, in grammar) + RIPE ("ready") |
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| 25 | ASIA |
Some quasi-autonomous region (4)
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Hidden in [some] "quASI-Autonomous" |
Would you have been content with “most of” in 29A? It seems to me that “almost 90% of” is actually more precise.
Couldn’t recall SHEBEENS, although it rings a bell now, and couldn’t parse LINKAGE. How is “fit” “go” (2d)?
Mostly enjoyable, on the harder side.
Thanks Bobcat and loonapick
GDU @ 2 “Does the peg go / fit in that hole?”
Wow: my last one in was 9D which I only solved from the crossed letters and an online crossword solver. I still cannot equate the solution with the definition. I am familiar with the expression “pulling one up by the bootstraps” meaning “a person helping himself to achieve something by his own efforts”, I am not familiar with its relation to a “low cost launching”. I look forward to an explanation.
Thanks, loonapick, this must have been a hard slog for you today.
GDU @ 2 “Does the peg go / fit in that hole?”
James@4. First entry for “bootstrap” in Collins is
verb
If you bootstrap an organization or an activity, you set it up or achieve it alone, using very few resources.
Peterson bootstrapped the company himself, and hopes to continue without outside funding.
Yet another horrible crossword.
Solving these is supposed to be a pleasure. Is this the work of the new editor? Three toughies in a row.
Some of us don’t have hours and hours to be able to spend and try to solve these insoluble, pleasureless riddles. My problem is that once I have decided the puzzle is very difficult, I lose heart. Because I have no idea whether the clues are so obscure as to be impossible. It’s alright to have a few difficult ones in a crossword, because when you have crossing letters, you can figure them out.
Big thumbs down from me.
I know some of the commenters here will enjoy these struggles (and I applaud you). But I wonder how many busy readers of the FT actually get to do so.
Nice puzzle
Ps. I finished the previous Bobcat, so it’s not as if I’m incapable of doing so.
I’ve just re-read Loonapick’s above to see whether I’m being ungenerous and I think not. Too many of the definitions are vague or unknown. Eg. Blimp, window, shopping, ice cream soda. And I still don’t understand the parsing of mayonnaise.
Maybe I should give up trying to do them ( lots of laughing emojis).
Thanks Bobcat and Loonapick
General comment in response to Moly@7: I very much hope that the FT crossword editor does not consider the commenters here as a representative sample either of the people who actually attempt the FT crossword or of his intended target audience.
15ac: The logic appears to be that a month (MAY) followed by O (with nothing on) gives MAYO, an informal version of the answer. I put this in unparsed, and have a lot of sympathy with the view that the solver is being asked to do too much.
28ac: Before reading the comments, I was planning to say that “almost 90% of” could have been replaced by “almost all” and no one would have had any grounds for objection. I agree with Rudolf@1 that “almost 90% of” is more precise.
Moly@9
The definitions you mention are far from vague.
BLIMP – “a non-rigid dirigible klighter than air craft used for observing, advertising etc” (Chambers).
WINDOW-SHOP – Chambers defines WINDOW-SHOPPING as “the activity of looking at goods in shop windows as the next best thing to buying them”
ICE-CREAM SODA The whole clue is pretty much a straight definition. US drug stores in the 1950s used to attract young people by having soda fountains – you can find lots of references to this by googling.
MAYONNAISE As loonapick says, the dictionary definition of MAYO is that it is an informal term for MAYONNAISE, which is a dressing. The wordplay is “a month” = MAY, “nothing” = O, “with nothing on” has the effect of juxtaposing O with MAY.
I think you are being uncharitable. I see nothing loose in any of the clues in this puzzle.
James @4, to avoid confusion, in future would you mind using a different name or adding something to yours so that our posts can be distinguished? I have been posting here for quite a few years as James. Thanks
Bobcat has typically posed moderately challenging puzzles, often with ninas (which present their own setting challenges). This time, I had quite a few quick guesses requiring me work backwards to the parsing. I gave up trying to figure out the apparent anagram for BOOTSTRAPPING in my head–I usually need scratch paper for something that convoluted. For MAYONNAISE, I got that MAY + O was involved, but the wordplay seemed to just stop there??? I guess if I interpolate some commas or dashes, with some squinting, this clue makes sense. Fair clues, though. Thanks for the clarifications.
Needed the blog to parse LINKAGE, although it was all that fitted the gap and what I thought was the definition. Similar thoughts about the MAYONNAISE clue to other commentators. But otherwise solved and parsed.
I normally solve the Guardian crossword and the FT later, so don’t usually comment, but I definitely came to the Monk puzzle yesterday for a challenge, which it was.
Thank you to loonapick and Bobcat.
Liked SHEBEENS – an !rish word with descendants in South Africa. ‘Afrikaans: sjebeen Xhosa: ishibhini’
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shebeen cites ‘1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom:
“On almost every corner there were shebeens, illegal saloons that were shacks where home-brewed beer was served.”‘
Liked the crossword, too. Thanks B&l
I am definitely not on the same wavelength as Bobcat and felt this one was a bit of a struggle. There are several clues I understand but still wonder about, even after reading loonapick’s excellent blog. I had a lot more clues than usual that I guessed and worked out later.
I did not have a chance of parsing the unknown SHEBEENS, not knowing SHE, or LINKAGE, not knowing GLICK
I liked ERUPTING (clever construction) BLIMP and TATE (both nice surfaces and relatively straightforward)
Thanks Bobcat and Loonapick
Thanks Bobcat for a worthy challenge. After several sessions I got there in the end, albeit with a nudge for 9d and several others unparsed. My top picks were GIVE IT A WHIRL (great incorporation of an anagram in a smooth surface), SEASICK, STEN GUN, BRIDGED, and TRIPE. My hat’s off to anyone who could “cold solve” SOMETIME — yeti as a “legendary figure” is pretty far out there. I needed all the crossers for that one. Thanks loonapick for sharing your thoughts as well as parsing.
Enjoyed the chewiness of this, and generally try and suppress any dislike of clue format on the grounds that it’s a crossword and the setter can try new ways to get us, and we have to respond…this keeps us on our toes and stops it being samey and stale. Of course it must be fair but in retrospect it usually is, and it’s our denseness that’s at fault. This is borne out by the fact that different solvers slate different clues, there’s no consensus as to which are considered unfair ( nearly always) -one man’s meat is another man’s poison….
We thought the clue for MAYONNAISE was fair but fiendishly punctuated.
James @12 maybe you could rename yourself James the first?
Thanks Bobcat and Loonapick, didn’t parse IN AGONY
[James @4, James @12: Maybe one of you can be King James, if you like that version.]
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues , lots of variety and imagination .
@4 & @12
Please let’s sort this amicably.
James @12 has been using that moniker for some seven years now.