Sunday and we’re up with the Lark
I’ll admit I found bits of this tricky to solve/explain. Did wonder if we were heading into pangram territory but there’s no X or J. Thanks Lark.
Don’t see any themes, Ninas or other devices in the grid, but please let me know if you do.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EDIBLE |
The Spanish president almost backing fine for consumption (6)
|
| EL – “the” in Spanish & most of BIDE(n) all reversed | ||
| 5 | ALCATRAZ |
Junction stops vehicle following gangster alongside Arizona prison (8)
|
| AL (capone) & T (junction) inside CAR & AZ – code for Arizona | ||
| 9 | REINFORCEMENTS |
More soldiers and frontiersmen violently besieging church (14)
|
| CE – church – inside – besieging – FRONTIERSMEN* violently | ||
| 10 | ACHOO |
Sound of allergic reaction from one half of train (5)
|
| A – one & half of CHOO(-choo) a train informally | ||
| 11 | ADULTERER |
Sinner‘s rude tale about king (9)
|
| [RUDE TALE]* about & R(ex) – King | ||
| 13 | HERA |
The woman’s a goddess (4)
|
| HER – the woman & A | ||
| 14 | RESCINDS |
Second Conservative elected to infiltrate socialists withdraws (8)
|
| S(econd) & C(onservative) & IN – elected – all in REDS – socialists | ||
| 17 | WEEPIEST |
Most tragic perhaps, Dominic Cummings’ virtuous parts (8)
|
| This took me quite a while to get, I was fixated, perhaps not surprisingly, by Dominic Cummings the eyesight testing by driving advisor. You have EE (ee cummings the author) & PI – virtuous all in the actor (dominic) WEST. Very well played Lark | ||
| 19 | LYON |
Play down the odd letters going missing in French city (4)
|
| Alternate letters of pLaY dOwN | ||
| 21 | SUPERGLUE |
Stick firmly to petition to keep every girl’s clothing child-friendly (9)
|
| PER – every & the clothing of G(ir)L & U – film rating of child friendly – all in SUE – petition | ||
| 23 | HOUSE |
Building hotel by river (5)
|
| H(otel) & the river OUSE | ||
| 25 | BEHIND THE TIMES |
Old-fashioned, as Murdoch is? (6,3,5)
|
| Murdoch did indeed buy The Times | ||
| 26 | ARMCHAIR |
Lay weapon before leader (8)
|
| LAY – amateur as in ARMCHAIR critic. ARM – weapon & CHAIR leader of a meeting | ||
| 27 | KIMONO |
Lower-class ruffian retreats, having stolen my French gown (6)
|
| MON – “my” in French in a reversed OIK | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | DRENCHED |
Soused duke forced to give up whiskey (8)
|
| D(uke) & W(hisky) removed from (w)RENCHED – forced | ||
| 3 | BON VOYAGE |
Caravan getting an upgrade for the first time – enjoy the trip! (3,6)
|
| CONVOY – caravan with the first letter C being upgraded – as an exam grade would be – to B & AGE – time | ||
| 4 | EROS |
Symbol of love very touching, in retrospect (4)
|
| SO – very & RE – on, touching all reversed | ||
| 5 | ARCADES |
A Catholic afterlife without hot or fun places (7)
|
| A & R(oman) C(atholic) & H(ot) removed from (h)ADES – a less than desirable afterlife | ||
| 6 | COMPLAINTS |
Criticisms about Platonism being misinterpreted (10)
|
| C(irca) – about & a misinterpreted PLATONISM* | ||
| 7 | TENSE |
Almost all of cricket team getting Home Counties contract (5)
|
| TEN, well a cricket team is often referred to as an XI – eleven so almost all of one & SE – the home counties | ||
| 8 | AISLES |
Keys to auditorium passages (6)
|
| Sounds like ISLES – keys in the Florida Keys sense | ||
| 12 | PROPAGANDA |
In favour of Chinese native swallowing American government’s political broadcast? (10)
|
| PRO – in favour of & PANDA – a Chinese native with A(merican) G(overnment) inserted | ||
| 15 | DALTONISM |
Sit with old man suffering problem with vision (9)
|
| A form of colour-blindness, [SIT OLD MAN]* suffering | ||
| 16 | HOLSTEIN |
Eagle possibly dropping one across street in part of Germany (8)
|
| In golf an Eagle might be as a result of a HOLE-IN-one. Lose the “One” & insert ST(reet) | ||
| 18 | EQUATOR |
As hill next to point and line on map (7)
|
| E(ast) a compass point & QUA – Latin for AS & TOT – a hill. I’m really not a fan of using Latin words & phrases in crosswords to be honest | ||
| 20 | LUMBAR |
Plumb arcane quarters of the lower region (6)
|
| Hidden in pLUMB ARcade | ||
| 22 | ETHIC |
And this, according to Virgil, is a rule to live by (5)
|
| ET HIC – “and this” in Latin | ||
| 24 | BEAK |
Find oneself before a king’s magistrate (4)
|
| BE – find oneself & A & K(ing) |
Thanks, Lark and flashling!
Liked WEEPIEST a lot. Also liked EQUATOR.
Thanks flasling and Lark.
Delightful!
17a, LOI.
Typo in 18d, TOR?
Liked
EDIBLE
ACHOO
DRENCHED
BON VOYAGE
TENSE
HOLSTEIN
[2 typos making a TOT(18d) of W(hiskey)(2d) — it has to be !rish.]
Liked the inventive cluing — CONVOY AGE, HOL(ST)E-IN-ONE
Liked the Latin, too — ET HIC, and the QUA in EQUATOR.
WEEPIEST was the standout — a lift-and-separate of Dominic Cummings to get West and ee, (just like Bob Marley recently)
Thanks L&f
I missed HOLSTEIN. Very clever. Lots of nice clues such as those mentioned above and the nice spot that REINFORCEMENTS includes the letters of FRONTIERSMEN.
Enjoyed all of this except 15D DALTONISM, which I’d never heard of and, being unable to allocate letters to gaps and running out of time, had to resort to a word list. Thanks Lark and Flashling.
In places, this was almost as tricky as the Schleswig-Holstein question itself, but definitely more fun than ARCADES. Thanks, both.
ETHIC — “And this for Caesar is a moral code (5)” – https://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/05/19/financial-times-15553-by-alberich/
HIC with a long “i” (pronounced “heek” not “hick”) can also mean here in Latin, so the clue could have been “And here, according to Virgil…”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hic#Latin – ‘Etymology 2 – Adverb – h?c (not comparable) – here, in or at this place
29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.16-17: “h?c illius arma, h?c currus fuit” — “Here [was] her armor, here was [her] chariot.”‘
But that might have made it a tad harder to get.
GeneratePress didn’t like the long “i”s – “hic illius arma, hic currus fuit”
The theme is songs by Sparks from their 70s albums KIMONO my HOUSE and PROPAGANDA: REINFORCEMENTS, ACHOO, BON VOYAGE, EQUATOR, COMPLAINTS are all by the Mael brothers, who are still making brilliant quirky pop today.
Nice spot QB never would have seen that.
No chance here with 14a – nho Dominic West. Got HOLSTEIN from def + the ST but needed the blog for parsing. Otherwise all plain sailing. Thanks all.
This was tough in parts but good fun all the way.
Even though I thought of Dominic West and PI, I still couldn’t parse 17a. I did wonder if Dominic Cummings might have earned the soubriquet of “wee pest” during his chequered career, but that would have given an extra P. I’ve never heard of EE Cummings.
Although I used to love Sparks (for whom the word “quirky” [ack. Q_B @9] might have been invented), the presence of a theme never occurred to me.
Many thanks to Lark for a fun challenge and to flashling.
Thanks both. Some parsing escaped me, so grateful for the enlightenment here, all of which related to clever cluing, with in my opinion the one exception of WEEPIEST wherein the GK required to justify the tempting wordplay was too obscure.
I failed to parse WEEPIEST as, although I spotted Dominic West, I didn’t know EE Cummings. Like Rabbit Dave, I dabbled with Wee Pest. Liked BEHIND THE TIMES and KIMONO. The theme totally passed me by. Thanks Flashling and Lark.
Well spotted Quizzy_Bob@9
I had heard of e e cummings, but only in lower case characters. Wikipedia seems confused…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings ‘Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. Cummings, and e e Cummings’
…but includes this photo of his poem IMPRESSIONS IV from Tulips and Chimneys(1923 – a centenary) his debut book of verse.
It’s on a wall in Leiden, Netherlands, coincidentally number 23 in a series, and everything is in small letters, as it should be. “the hours rise up…”
I had heard of daltonism, too – the Spanish/Portuguese/Italian for colour blind is daltónico/daltônico/daltonico.
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