It’s Phi-day again!
Another satisfying puzzle from our regular Friday setter, and another failure on our behalf to identify a theme.
Perhaps there isn’t one, or maybe it’s one of Phi’s obscure and personal collections of words that he uses to start to fill the grid.
Hopefully, he’ll drop by later to elucidate.
7d was a nice reminder of one of Bert’s favourite films of the 60s – ‘Blow Up’
N (new) with DRAW (raffle) in front
FIRM (company) round or ‘installing’ REAL (genuine) A (article)
TEAM (soccer side) HAMMERS (London football team – West Ham) with the ‘s’ (second) moving to the front or ‘taking the lead’
TIlT (incline) missing or ‘releasing’ ‘l’ (large)
UND (‘and’ in German) I D (first letters – ‘at the outset’ – of Italian dames)
HIND (‘to the rear’) RACE (hurry) round N (last letter or ‘rear’ of van)
SOON (promptly) in BASIS (support) + T (time)
gLOSS (commentary) missing or ‘overlooking’ ‘g’ (grand) – we had to check that gloss = commentary – Chambers has one of the definitions as ‘a collection of explanations of words, a glossary’
PUNnY (‘like some jokes’) missing one of the ‘n’s or ‘avoiding repetition’
AS (when) C (100 in Roman numerals) + an anagram (‘sprawled’) of CITIES + M (millions)
A (area) LAME (imperfect) in or ‘surrounded by’ a reversal (‘ebbing’) of NILE (African river)
TUM (corporation, as in stomach) ID (papers)
O (nothing) after A D (day)
An anagram (‘after repair’) of CAR RAN AGAIN
E (English) SUET (fat) with DUDE (guy) outside or ‘coming round’ – a new word for us
T (first letter or ‘bit’ of text) WEAK (without much force)
RUTS (routine activities) in BID (attempt) all reversed or ‘rising’ – in a down clue
A (American) HAD (kept) round or ‘hoarding’ E (energy)
An anagram (‘if doubtful’) of PARDON ME
F (fine) LASH (short facial hair)
RE (about) MINIS (miniskirts – 60s fashion) CE (the Church)
AU and OR (two ‘types’ of gold) the second in or ‘captured by’ RA (artist)
ANTI (against – ‘not supporting’) round or ‘consuming’ ONION (pungent vegetable)
H (Henry – unit of conductance in physics) in or ‘entering’ MITERS (‘American joints’ – the American spelling of mitre joints)
An anagram (after treatment’) of AND OPENS and S (last letter or bowels). Our COD for its neat construction.
An angram (‘laid out’) of A FORTUNE’S
A reversal (‘turning up’) of NITS (word for ‘idiots’) in DICT (dictionary)
PIE (dessert) BALD (plainly presented)
An anagram (‘at work’) of LAD in MURK (darkness)
ANGLE (viewpoint) after J (judge)
NICE (very precise) round H (hydrogen)
G (gallons) in MERE (lake)
Top faves: AURORA, SENNA PODS and NICHE.
TUMID: Should the def include the ‘given’ to make it adjectival as the solution is an adjective?
As my first two in were DRAWN and AHEAD, I was expecting some kind of sporting theme. SENNA PODS was my favourite too. I was only familiar with the Northern sens of MITHER meaning to moan or complain.
No theme today. Next week, though…
TUMID and DESUETUDE new to me. No hope getting the latter, but otherwise great. Also smiled at SENNA PODS
Was I the only one to put in SLEDGE HAMMER without parsing?
Thanks P, B and J. (not the sandwich)
SENNA PODS
Not sure it was intended to be an &lit. Pretty close.
Laxative … and opens bowels at last, after treatment
ANDOPENS* (laxative)+S after (the aforesaid) treatment.
CAD in a way.
Nice straightforward Phi with only commentary/gloss and the nho DESUETUDE causing some head scratching. The latter defeated me and it, together with SENNA PODS, felt like an odd inclusion in an otherwise fairly normal grid. BASSOONIST, GRAN CANARIA, NOSFERATU and MUDLARK were my favourites today.
Thanks Phi and B&J [Funnily enough, I watched ‘Blow Up’ quite recently]
Fun puzzle. Thanks, Phi and B&J. I’m familiar with DESUETUDE (surely I’m not the only one?) but, ironically, it’s a word that has pretty much fallen into disuse (the most recent citation in the OED is 1874).
Xmac – I’m intrigued. SLEDGE HAMMER fleetingly crossed my mind (dubiously justified with side=ledge) but it’s too many letters. How did you fit it into the grid?
Thanks both. Defeated by three unknowns…..NOSFERATU may well be regarded as a classic, but the silent movie genre is off-radar for me, then there was the crossing DESUETUDE where I lacked the patience to eke out suet and dude. MITHERS was the other – it fails a spellcheck on my device, and I can find nothing to confirm the definition given, and possibly knew it more meaning bothers or fusses,
Widdersbel @7. Good point. A case of more haste less speed. I only got as far as the D before seeing the dreaded red squares (online) so I never realised the full extent of my folly.
Quite straightforward until the last two or three for us and we got mithers wrong. Was convinced it ended on ws for wanders vacantly. To this northern oik, mither is to hassle someone, had never come across the other meanings.
If I may be a little pedantic, Henrys measure inductance, conductance is measured in Siemens.
Thanks Phi and B&J