A solid puzzle with some clever surfaces from Falcon . . .
. . . with nothing even to quibble about from me, but please let me know if I have missed anything.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BY RIGHTS |
Correctly believe ceremony’s on the radio (2,6)
|
| Homophones of (on the radio) BUY (believe) + RITE’S (ceremony’s) | ||
| 5 | WALRUS |
Action taken by us to protect large marine mammal (6)
|
| {WAR (action taken . . .) + US} around (to protect) L (large). Arguably, this clue is an &lit, since I think that “taken by us to protect” is doing double duty in order for us to derive “war.” | ||
| 10 | AUBERGE |
Vegetable that’s given away in French inn (7)
|
| AUBERG[IN]E (vegetable) minus (that’s given away) IN | ||
| 11 | EMPATHY |
Compassion of European politician at hospital close to bankruptcy (7)
|
| E (European) + MP (politician) + AT + H (hospital) + last letter of (close to) [BANKRUPTC]Y | ||
| 12 | CLIMB |
Cold, member making ascent (5)
|
| C (cold) + LIMB (member) | ||
| 13 | IN GENERAL |
Mostly at home with army officer (2,7)
|
| IN (at home) + GENERAL (army officer) | ||
| 14 | SLOT MACHINES |
Cash lost in ‘em in resort? (4,8)
|
| &lit and anagram of (resort) CASH LOST IN ‘EM | ||
| 18 | LANDING STRIP |
After touching down, take off from here? (7,5)
|
| Cryptic definition/&lit and LANDING (touching down) + STRIP (take off) | ||
| 21 | GUITARIST |
Musician’s good universal appeal playing sitar (9)
|
| G (good) + U (universal [content rating]) + IT ([sex] appeal) + anagram of (playing) SITAR | ||
| 23 | PINTO |
Quietly enthusiastic about piebald horse (5)
|
| P (quietly) + INTO (enthusiastic about) | ||
| 24 | THEREAT |
Danger involving English on that account (7)
|
| THREAT (danger) around (involving) E (English) | ||
| 25 | REEL OFF |
Quickly list items in roll of film no longer available (4,3)
|
| REEL (roll of film) + OFF (no longer available) | ||
| 26 | ROTATE |
Go round old gallery, following king (6)
|
| R (king) + O (old) + TATE (gallery) | ||
| 27 | ASTEROID |
Heavenly body of a bodybuilder? (8)
|
| A + STEROID (“bodybuilder,” i.e., muscle-building substance) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BRANCH |
Initially, Bible-basher was manager of church’s regional office (6)
|
| First letter of (initially) B[IBLE-BASHER] + RAN (was manager of) + CH (church) | ||
| 2 | RABBIT |
Leader in synagogue and Buddhist finally talk at length (6)
|
| RABBI (leader in synagogue) + last letter of (finally) [BUDDHIS]T | ||
| 3 | GARIBALDI |
Loose blouse I put among clothes laid out (9)
|
| I inside (put among) GARB (clothes) + anagram of (out) LAID | ||
| 4 | THE NITTY-GRITTY |
Brass tacks article on one of Capone’s men, reportedly uncompromising (3,5-6)
|
| THE (article) + homophone of (reportedly) NITTI (one of [Al] Capone’s men, i.e., Frank Nitti) + GRITTY (uncompromising) | ||
| 6 | ASPEN |
Tree in a small enclosure (5)
|
| A + S (small) + PEN (enclosure) | ||
| 7 | RETIRING |
Modest, bowing out (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | SPYGLASS |
Bring over short gypsy girl’s telescope (8)
|
| GYPS[Y] minus last letter (short) and inverted (bring over) + LASS (girl) | ||
| 9 | SERGEANT-AT-ARMS |
Officer material, star batman heading off abroad (8-2-4)
|
| SERGE (material) + anagram of (abroad) {STAR + [B]ATMAN minus first letter (“heading off”)} | ||
| 15 | HAIRPIECE |
Brutus, for one, in musical number (9)
|
| HAIR (musical) + PIECE (number). I was vaguely aware of this as the name of a hairstyle, but the first definition in Chambers is “a kind of wig.” | ||
| 16 | BLIGHTER |
Beggar born on barge (8)
|
| B (born) + LIGHTER (barge) | ||
| 17 | INDIRECT |
Evasive about being put in charge (8)
|
| RE (about) inside (being put in) INDICT (charge) | ||
| 19 | IN TOTO |
Altogether popular, Miss Gale’s best friend? (2,4)
|
| IN (popular) + TOTO (Miss Gale’s best friend, referring to Dorothy Gale’s pet dog in “The Wizard of Oz”) | ||
| 20 | GOLFED |
Played Sawgrass, say, with shot with iron across lake ending in hazard (6)
|
| GO (shot) +{FE (iron) around (across) L (lake)} + last letter of (ending in) [HAZAR]D, referring to the course at Tournament Players Club Sawgrass | ||
| 22 | AVERT |
Prevent a check pinning rook (5)
|
| A + VET (check) around (pinning) R (rook) |
Will I be the only one on here who didn’t know that Frank Nitty was one of Al Capone’s men? Has my life to date been incomplete? I had as much chance of solving that clue as I had of flying to the moon.
Never heard of a brutus hairstyle either. Nor Dorothy’s surname. Nor a garibaldi as a loose blouse. And I’ve only just managed to work out after much effort that Sawgrass is a Florida golf course. Sheesh!
So plenty of head scratchers.
I also don’t much like “abroad” or “resort” as anagrinds, although it has been pointed out before that they’re both somehow legit. (For “somehow”, I presume Chambers?)
Despite this abundance of new experiences, I found this enjoyable, and definitely more achievable than today’s Paul in the Guardian. Thanks Falcon & Cineraria.
No, Geoff, you’re not the only one! I didn’t know Frank Nitti either but I got this from the definition and other crossers I had. It was a favourite, along with GUITARIST, PINTO, SLOT MACHINES and GOLFED.
I also landed the ‘hairpiece’ and ‘loose shirts from their wordplay and crossers rather than definitions. Interesting to learn, anyhow.
Thanks to Falcon for a
– mostly – breezy puzzle and to Cineraria for a fine job on explaining everything away.
Too many unknowable words in the long references and SE corner, where I slowed considerably
Perhaps I was in a bad mood, but in addition I found several clues annoying – e.g I would expect a homophone to be logical rather than two unrelated words such as in 1ac. As another example I find it difficult to see how SLOT MACHINES is & lit – no matter how many times I read it, it looks like a clue missing a definition. And, I really cannot put my finger on a single clue that was a favourite.
But, on a slight twist to what GDU@1 wrote, despite all that, all-in-all I enjoyed much of the puzzle and 100% of the blog. Thanks Falcon and Cineraria.
PS I do not want to blow your cover Cineraria, but are you in the UK? If so, you went beyond the call of duty publishing the blog so early in the morning! Wherever you are, many thanks again
Martyn@4: Thank you. Elsewhere on the blog, I have made no secret of being an American. For me, the Tuesday puzzle appears at 7:00 P.M. on Monday, so it is (usually) a pleasant evening’s diversion.
Thanks for the blog, I thought this was very good.
The GARIBALDI blouse was modelled on the red shirts worn by his followers.
Martyn@3 the UK has seaside resorts such as Blackpool with its Golden Mile containig many amusement arcades full of slot machines, such as Roll-a-Penny and one-armed bandits where people generally loose their cash.
LOSE their cash even , I was going to say lose their loose change and got mixed up.
Like others I did not know that GARIBALDI was a loose blouse but it couldn’t be anything else from the crossers. Also hadn’t heard of Nitti but googled Al Capon’s men and there he was.
First time I have done a Falcon puzzle and I enjoyed it. Lots of neat clues.
Thanks Falcon and Cineraria
Or even Al Capone….
Bits of this one flew in but then it was a bit of a haul to complete. Nevertheless, very enjoyable and everything other than Frank Nitti was fair. My last three were the nitty-gritty, slot machines and hairpiece . Like others, I have never heard of a Brutus naughty Garibaldi blouse, and also took too long to find Rabbit, being convinced that the word must be begin with S from synagogue. 🙂
I thought slot machines was a fantastic clue and also spyglass, when I finally got it.
Thanks for the excellent explanations
Thanks Falcon and Cineraria
5ac (WALRUS): I think “action” works as a definition for “war” in the sense of “warfare”. Trying to include “to protect” would make it a definition by example that would require an indication.
I thought this was a most enjoyable solve. SLOT MACHINES is a very neat &lit as far as I’m concerned and I also liked ASPEN, SPYGLASS, BLIGHTER, GOLFED and AVERT.
Nitti was well beyond my ken – hard to judge whether it’s reasonable to expect that to reside within most folk’s GK – and I’d not heard of the blouse; the great Italian unifier has been remembered in an eclectic combination of items: a dress, a biscuit, a fish, a cocktail …
Thanks Falcon and Cineraria
Thanks Falcon, that was suitably and enjoyably challenging. I revealed BLIGHTER but solved (or guessed) everything else. I didn’t know Brutus as a HAIRPIECE and I only knew GARIBALDI as the Italian unifier and the British biscuit (which I regularly order in bulk.) I did know Frank Nitti; along with Al Capone and Eliot Ness they have become crossword denizens. My favourites were AUBERGE, the very clever SLOT MACHINES, INDIRECT, and IN TOTO. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
I nearly bunged in ALERT but came to my senses in time. Didn’t know Nitti at all, but not ambiguous from crossers and definitions. I don’t think either he nor the blouse would be common knowledge, but fair enough in the puzzle’s context; I knew neither, but was confident of both.
I especially liked SLOT MACHINES and SPYGLASS.
Thanks Cineraria and Falcon.
Amoeba@14 and others earlier: I am reminded of a remark attributed to the much missed John Graham (Cinephile here, Araucaria elsewhere), that no one ever learned anything from doing a Sudoku. I agree that a well written cryptic clue can leave you confident of an answer having learned a new meaning of a word on the way
Thanks Falcon for an enjoyable puzzle and Cineraria for the parsing which I couldn’t see for BYRIGHTS(homophones are difficult) or WALRUS. I thought resort was a sneaky anagrind but fair enough. Am I correct that removing the ‘Played Sawgrass say with’ from the clue for 20D would turn it into an elegant &lit?
20dn in response to Newbie@16: It would still be a definition by example, so it would need a question mark on the end. Subject to that, I agree with you.