GAFF gives us a "musical anniversary" theme (which eludes me) to start the week…
Apologies for the lateness of this blog… I enjoyed the puzzle very much, but I can't get the theme! The only anniversary that I'm aware of is that it's my mate Steve's 50th birthday today.
Thanks GAFF!
SMASH (break) + HIT (strike)
FALL (trip) and OW (the result, of falling)
FEN (bog) subsumes LAX (careless)
(DOUSE HUT)* (*exploding)
OH IO (being surprised at the moon)
(CC (volume, cubic centimetre) containing OLD (ancient)) + REAMS (piles)
(OF DRAKES)* (*manoeuvring)
BUS (coach) gets H (hot)
[bom]B A LI[ttle] (partially)
H (hard) + AIR (song) + WAS (used to be) + H[eard] (first)
Double definition
Mary I
[b]RACE (two, topless)
COCK (willy) + EYED (looked)
(BARNEY)* (*rubble)
(NUDITY)* (*disorderly)
DISH (food) + EVE (the day before) + [hote]L (closing)
M[an] U[p] L[ikely] C[reates] H[im] (introductions)
(COME TO ID SEX)* (*doctor)
HAND (maybe right) + CUFF (beat)
TIDDLER (fish, bit of a change)
Quadruple definition
[puzz]LE O[ver] (content to)
OPT (choose) + I (Gaff) + MISTS (obscures)
(BEAGLE WORSE)* (*make)
(MALL (market) + [a]T (last)), SOWN (spread) around
(SIN (offence) + AY (always) with RIB (banter))< (<up)
D[rivers] E[ncountered] D[anger] (in capitals) after HOAR (frost)
Double definition
Double definition
A cable is one tenth of a nautical mile
(10K (run))< (<over)
Thanks Gaff and Teacow!
Liked COLD CREAMS, TODDLER, FRENCH and SMALL TOWN.
TODDLER (my two bits)
Your parse works all right. I just thought a bit differently:
TIDDLER 1 (I) changed to 0 (O): one (digital) bit changed to the other.
Musical Anniversary: Waiting to know about it!
KVa@1, yes that is a much better parsing. Thankyou.
It is 50 years for Abba and Waterloo but I cannot see anything.
I cannot take the credit for this spot but the theme is South Pacific
April 7, 1949 was the first night of (due)SOUTH Pacific. But The FT doesn’t publish on Sundays, so we’re a day late.
75 years – that’s a Diamond anniversary (as is 60 years – confusing, eh?)
BLOODY MARY and CABLE are a couple of characters. Nellie (asked)FOR BUSH is another. Emile De Becque is FRENCH.
BALI HA’I(rwash) is a song, as is I’m Gonna WASH That Man Right Outa My HAIR. So HAIR – another musical – is doing double duty. The theme is RACE.
I couldn’t parse KOI – D’oh!
Thanks G&T – mine’s a large one
There is so much!!! Hmmm…
Why is the theme RACE?
RACE
South Pacific is also considered radical in its exposure of racial issues on the American stage… the legend of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s use of the Broadway theatre to make a courageous statement against racial bigotry is the very foundation on which the work is considered a classic.
Is this why RACE is the theme?
COCKEYED OPTIMIST is another song from the show,
Could someone kindly explain how UNTIDY works. Am I missing an &lit? ‘Disorderly nudity’ does not suggest the solution to me but I may just be being dim. Otherwise is not ‘disorderly’ doing two jobs as both def and anagrind?
PostMark@9
UNTIDY
I am eagerly awaiting a satisfactory response to your question.
Thanks for the blog, plus Bingy and Frankie for the theme which is a bit before my time.
Good puzzle, OHIO very neat although IO gets overused, many other moons are available. Barney Rubble is a good spot and I like the quad for French.
Many clues pleasingly concise but like MrPostMark @ 9 I think UNTIDY has blatant double-duty.
I think the double duty for UNTIDY is both bare-faced cheek and disorderly. I agree with Roz about Barney Rubble.
I’ve never understood the need for rules that forbid certain types of wordplay, even when they don’t render a clue unduly difficult. Two that come to mind are the dreaded indirect anagram and the uber-verboten double duty. The latter is OK in an &lit, but a capital offence anywhere else – why? I thought 27a UNTIDY was a beautifully concise and witty clue. What’s wrong with that?
Thanks Gaff for the tricky (for me) but very witty puzzle, and Teacow for the excellent and much-needed blog.
I’m with Cellomaniac@13 too – I wrote in the answer immediately with a smile and am quite willing to allow ‘disorderly’ to do two jobs. And tbh, I haven’t read any chapter & verse reference that explicity rules against a double duty element in a clue – the most I’ve found is “occasional … generally frowned upon”.
Also raised my chapeau to FRENCH.
ANd of course thanks to Gaff for the workout and Teacow for the cooldown.
Does “capitals” equal “initials”?
For the avoidance of doubt, I was merely playing with words @12. I tend to agree with Cellomaniac.
For a kid from the Bronx using SYZYGY for a double definition is cruel. All I can say is “Why”?
Jay @17 – have you any idea why two feet is anything to do with the answer? I don’t
I’m in New York. Was syzygy a reference to eclipse today? It was a beatiful sight anyways. Enjoyed the puzzle. Needed chambers!
Martin Brice@18
SYZYGY
Think ‘poetic feet’!
Roz@11 the musical was before my time too. But once a year, coming back from summer holidays in Dublin, we’d get a taxi home from Euston, and it would drive past the Dominion theatre in Tottenham Court Road. And I’d wonder why it was still showing the same film, year after year. Couldn’t they afford a new one?
At long last I’ve found out why: ‘The film … ran for just under 4 years and 6 months … It opened on April 21st, 1958 and closed on September 30th, 1962, for an unbroken, record run that will probably never be equal(l)ed.’ συζυγία