Today’s puzzle is set by Atrica, a setter that I don’t think I have blogged very often
This is my second ‘Day’ theme in two weeks as I blogged the Groundhog Day puzzle on 2nd February, and now we have a puzzle celebrating Valentine’s Day. There were plenty of references to love and its associations in both the clues and the entries.
I thought the anagram for TILL THERE WAS YOU was very good and I also liked the definition of ‘show featuring temporary seating’ for RODEO.
GARNISHEE was a new word for me, but the anagram and crossing letters made it a bit easier to deduce.
The word play device sharing a letter between two constituent parts of the entry at 17 down for DEMUREST was one I hadn’t seen before. It’s a bit like the Answer Smash round on House of Games.
I only know of one Melania and if you type Melania into Google, all the results on the first page relate to the former First Lady of the United States., so 20 across was entered fairly quickly after a couple of crossers came up.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Violins playing, but no love at first sight (6)
VISION (the faculty of sight) Anagram of (playing) VIOLINS excluding (but no) L (initial letter of [at first] LOVE) VISION* |
| 4 | Rods securing frame in dormitory (8)
BARRACKS (building providing sleeping accommodation; dormitory) BARS (rods) containing (securing) RACK (frame) BAR (RACK) S |
| 10 | Sycophant, wanting a larger love, devastated (9)
GROVELLER (sycophant) Anagram of (devastated) LARGER LOVE excluding (wanting) A GROVELLER* |
| 11 | Get excited and fall in love? The reverse, on both counts (5)
DROOP (grow weak or faint, the reverse of ‘get excited’) O (zero; love score in tennis) contained in (in) DROP (fall) – the opposite of ‘fall’ in ‘love’, so we have the reverse of the definition on both counts There is a third definition involving erectile dysfunction. – triple definition DR (O) OP |
| 12 | Funny Valentine, our poor half-hearted … who? (8,7)
RELATIVE PRONOUN (the word ‘who’ is an example of a RELATIVE PRONOUN) Anagram of (funny) VALENTINE OUR and POOR omitting one of the central Os (half-hearted) RELATIVE PRONOUN* |
| 13 | Appeared and endlessly vented, having spent too long on the sunbed (7)
ENTERED (appeared) ENTE (letters remaining in VENTED when the outer letters are removed [endlessly]) + RED (the colour you may turn if you spend too long on a sunbed) ENTE RED |
| 15 | Covertly insult another polygamist (6)
SULTAN (a leader of the Ottoman Empire. Most of them were polygamous) SULTAN (hidden word in [covertly] INSULT ANOTHER SULTAN |
| 18 | Crosses and gently touches (6)
KISSES (KISSES are symbolised by crosses) KISSES (gently touches) double definition KISSES |
| 20 | Melania perhaps serene before getting knocked out by love (7)
SLOVENE (Melania Trump, wife of Donald Trump was born in Slovenia when it was still part of Yugoslavia) SERENE with ERE (before) replaced by (getting knocked out by) LOVE to form SLOVENE S LOVE NE |
| 22 | What I resolutely composed is a love song (4,5,3,3)
TILL THERE WAS YOU (love song first recorded by The Beatles in 1963) Anagram of (composed) WHAT I RESOLUTELY TILL THERE WAS YOU* |
| 25 | Regularly overlooked groomsmen, so making spectacular bloomers (5)
ROSES (spectacular bloomers) ROSES (letters remaining in GROOMSMEN SO when letters 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 are ignored [regularly overlooked]) ROSES |
| 26 | He’s forced to deliver but surprisingly he regains (9)
GARNISHEE (reference a legal GARNISHEE order [a court order which creates a charge over a debtor’s bank account in favour of a creditor who has sued and obtained a court judgement against that debtor]; one who is forced to deliver Anagram of (surprisingly] HE REGAINS GARNISHEE |
| 27 | See about green colour at last for deck (8)
DECORATE (adorn; deck) DATE (go out with; see) containing (ECO [environmental; green] + R [final letter of {at last} COLOUR]) D (ECO R) ATE |
| 28 | Sweetheart rejected? Time for rebellion (6)
REVOLT (rebellion) LOVER (sweetheart) reversed (rejected) + T (time) REVOL< T |
| Down | |
| 1 | Viagra’s reformulated around another drug to produce ups and downs (8)
VAGARIES (unpredictable changes; ups and downs) Anagram of (reformed) VIAGRA’S containing (around) E (ecstasy, another drug) VAGARI (E) S* |
| 2 | Seat in small plane? (5)
STOOL (seat) S (small) + TOOL (a plane is a carpenter’s TOOL) S TOOL |
| 3 | Propositions: obvious temptations? Not initially (9)
OVERTURES (proposals or propositions) OVERT (open; obvious) + LURES (temptations) excluding the first letter (not initially) L OVERT URES |
| 5 | Detailed suggestion promoting a material (7)
APROPOS (pertinent; material) PROPOSAL (suggestion) excluding the final letter (de-tailed) L with the A promoted to the first position in the word to form APROPOS APROPOS |
| 6 | The middle of throng split by lines for show featuring temporary seating (5)
RODEO (an exhibition of cowboy skill including attempts to ride an unbroken horse resulting in many riders losing their seating) RO (central letters of [middle of] THRONG) containing (split by) ODE (lies of verse) R (ODE) O |
| 7 | After opening of container, adjust heat and cool to make aphrodisiac (9)
CHOCOLATE (a foodstuff that contains chemicals thought to be mild sexual stimulants, so possibly an aphrodisiac) C (first letter of [opening of] CONTAINER) + an anagram of (adjust) HEAT and COOL C HOCOLATE* |
| 8 | Lying that’s done during function (6)
SUPINE (lying on the back) UP (at an end; done) contained in (during) SINE (a trigonometrical function) S (UP) INE |
| 9 | Less likely to leave incriminating traces in government – and worshipped? (6)
GLOVED (a criminal who is GLOVED is less likely to leave incriminating fingerprints) G (government) + LOVED (worshipped) G LOVED |
| 14 | Three ticks for liqueur (6,3)
TRIPLE SEC (a clear orange-flavoured liqueur) TRIPLE (three) + SEC (seconds; ticks) TRIPLE SEC |
| 16 | Perhaps glimpse a sin arising and step on it (4,5)
LOOK ALIVE (be brisk; step on it) LOOK (glimpse) + A + EVIL (sin) reversed (arising; down entry) LOOK A LIVE< |
| 17 | Modest in the extreme, show reluctance to share recipe with others (8)
DEMUREST (the most modest; modest in the extreme) DEMUR (show reluctance) + REST (others) with just one R (recipe) shared between the two component parts DEMU R EST |
| 19 | Lacking substance, accepting base trickery (7)
SLEIGHT (trickery) SLIGHT (lacking substance) containing (accepting) E (base of natural logarithms) SL (E) IGHT |
| 20 | Drink, being hesitant to admit mistake (6)
SHERRY (a drink) SHY (hesitant) containing (to admit) ERR (mistake) SH (ERR) Y |
| 21 | Adjusted balance after skating originally looked hard (6)
STARED (looked hard) S (first letter of [originally] SKATING) + TARED (adjustment of the gross weight of a vessel to allow for the weight of the empty vessel; the cargo is the adjusted balance of weight) S TARED |
| 23 | Head over heels, tried again to make the grade – it’s shocking! (5)
TASER (a device used by law enforcement agency to stun or shock an attacker) RESAT (tried to pass an examination again) reversed (head over heels) TASER< |
| 24 | Oaf, I understand, enthralled by the sound of you (5)
YAHOO (brutal or boorish lout; oaf) AH (expression signifying that the recipient understands what has been said; I understand) contained in (enthralled by) YOO (sounds like [the sound of] YOU) Y (AH) OO |
Thanks Atrica and duncanshiell!
Enjoyed the beautiful puzzle and the neat and lovely blog!
Liked DROOP (appreciated the ‘third angle projection’ in the blog), DEMUREST (seen the trick before a couple of times) and STARED.
LOOK ALIVE
‘perhaps glimpse’ because ‘glimpse’ is a particular type of look?
STARED
Is TARED ‘the adjusted balance’ or ‘adjusted the balance’?
Ok. Get it. TARED in the sense of what is tared. Right?
“Till There Was You” is a song from Meredith Willson’s musical The Music Man (1957, filmed 1962). It was covered by the Beatles on their second LP in 1963, but that wasn’t its first appearance.
Started off badly with nothing until 22A ‘Till there was you’, which I’m old enough to remember from its original appearance as described by Andrew @4. I had never heard of ‘Triple sec’ – sounds really nice, though don’t ever remember seeing it on a bar shelf or drinks menu. Most enjoyable, so thanks Atrica and Duncan.
(S)TARED took some thinking – I’ve never been 100% confident I understand ‘tare’ and I’ve never encountered the verbal form. Likewise, GARNISHEE where I had no idea at all of the debt connection. DROOP is an interesting device – defining the opposite of the solution.
Tatrasman @5: I am aware that TRIPLE SEC is an element of quite a number of cocktails. It might be that it is one of those drinks not consumed on a standalone basis which is why it wouldn’t be on a menu. I have used it myself – and it did not come in a large bottle – which might explain why you didn’t notice it!
Thanks Atrica and duncan
Andrew@4 – It was one of the songs The Beatles played in their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964:
All My Loving, TILL THERE WAS YOU, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and I Want to Hold Your Hand.
The diamond anniversary of Beatlemania.
Thanks A&DS
Thanks for the comments everyone! After reading KVa @2 and 3 I realized that “tare” as a verb is a bit odd (the noun means “that which is left over”). If the verb is considered as transitive the clue does not work. For example: “The chemist tared the flask and then weighed out the reagent”. The clue would have needed to say “adjusted (the) balance *for*”. The “taring” is actually done by placing the flask on the (digital) balance and pressing a button, which causes the weight of the flask to be subtracted from the readout. So I think it has to be intransitive: “the chemist tared, and then weighed out the reagent”, in which case “tared” means “performed the taring operation”, i.e., adjusted the (readout of the) balance. Anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I was lucky enough to see “The Music Man” a couple of years ago on Broadway with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster and heard “Till There Was You” in context. The Beatles perform it beautifully of course (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHAqAO7w8M8). Happy Valentine’s day and thanks to duncanshiell.
Thanks Atrica & DS
At the builders merchant I worked at many years ago we had a (mechanical) weighbridge.
For a vehicle that needed loading, we would ‘tare it off’, ie adjust the counterweights till the reading was zero, then tip sand or aggregate in till the required weight displayed.
So tare as a verb didn’t jar for me at all.
I suppose taring is what is happening every time I use the zeroing scales in my kitchen. Just never realised that’s what I was doing.
Thanks Atrica for dropping in and sharing your thoughts with us.
Postmark@10
STARED
I think you remember OUTSTARED and the def ‘the first to look away’ (Guardian-Paul). I thought duncan’s parsing worked on the same logic (though I read the clue as ‘adjusted (the) balance’).
LOOK ALIVE
Anyone…any thoughts on why ‘perhaps glimpse’?
I couldn’t see SEC for ticks, but of course it’s quite obvious now.
It took a while to get the song. The Beatles were a bit passé and old fashioned by the time I got in to music in 1972…
Thank you both.
Other THONGs are available My (12a) Funny Valentine
Another ‘… show tune … 1937 … Rodgers and Hart … became a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 albums performed by over 600 artists.’
Wikipedia cqba to list them all. There are four on my iPod, by PetulaC, ElvisC, MichelLeG & FrankieS.
And DS, your “third definition” for DROOP is the first thing I thought of, considering the boozy clues for SHERRY & TRIPLE SEC, and “Viagra” in 1d.
KVa @11: I assume you are questioning the ‘perhaps’ which I took to be a DBE with the setter seeing ‘glimpse’ as an example of look. TBH, I’d have been more than happy with ‘look’ and ‘glimpse’ being treated as synonyms with no DBE required.
Thanks Postmark@14 for your response.
@1 I expressed the same view but wanted to get it validated as I wasn’t very sure.
KVa@11: “Perhaps” was added during the editing process. Chambers gives “glimpse” (noun) as “a brief look” so it’s an example of a “look”. There are a lot of contexts in which the two words (as verbs) are not synonymous of course.
Enjoyed this a lot; thank you Atrica. Nice to see ‘love’ in a clue (1a) not meaning the letter ‘O’. Lots of great clues, but loved 11a and 12a particularly (DROOP, RELATIVE PRONOUN) and 1d ‘s use of Viagra was a hoot. Thanks also to DS for the blog.
That was fun. Just a bit surprised that, of all the love songs in the world, we get one that seems very obscure to me. But obviously not to everyone else…
I am not in form today – another long haul with nothing seeming simple. Enjoyed it immensely though.
Thanks Setter and Blogger
Thanks, Atrica. New setter to me, highly enjoyable puzzle. Took a while to get “on the wavelength”, but much elegant cluing.
Thanks Atrica@16