This was one of the hardest puzzles I’ve been scheduled to blog for a long time.
Some of it was self-inflicted.
Solving started well. Thank goodness there was an easy one to get started at 6A, and 6D was written in pretty quickly too. For that one the “now and then” “alternate letter” device is not using strictly alternate letters and it was only when writing the blog I noticed. I’m now wondering – mistake or intentional?
The top right quadrant was getting completed and I was very happy for the split clue that is 1/10 to provide a link across to the top left and some first letters to boot. But I could make nothing from them. First pass (when all clues read and attempted) ended after somewhere north of 30 mins with less than half the grid complete.
Second pass startedby getting 1A, appropriately enough given its answer. I had to run through names of musicals in my head before realising which one. A nice PDM. Again I was grateful for a split clue – 4/21 provided a better toe-hold in the bottom right quadrant which had by then only had lonely looking couple of answers 24 and 19. (Always pays to know the 5-letter antelopes.) I particularly liked the “semi-retired” prison boss idea for 20.
By this time I was conscious the bottom left was looking worryingly empty besides 18 and 25. The latter was cold solved after considering what “extremely nebulous” could really be delivering. That one is a candidate for my favourite clue.
What I will call the end of the second pass arrived when I wrote in 13 (wrongly as it turned out, but I wasn’t so surprised about that in the end) and I saw there were 6 unsolved clues, all in that bottom left corner. There followed a period of about half an hour during which I could not get anywhere with any of them. I was just about to leave it a while, clear my head, come back to it later, when I spotted the issue – I had swapped the N and M when writing in 18. No wonder I could not make Anemones fit at 15 – a word I have had trouble pronouncing correctly since I was a small child, apt to say “Anenome” unless I think about it. It seems the unconscious N/M swapping has crept from my speech to my writing. What can this mean?
So the grid ws finally being completed. But not without one final indignity. I found the answer I’d given for 13 thinking I was being all clever, SIBILATING, was also wrong. Earlier, it seemed so right from all the “sss” sounds in the clue and the other crossing letters. I should have thought about the wordplay more. So I could then put in 14 Solecisms without making it start with an I.
Solving time less than 2 hours – should I be happy?
What I am happy about is re-reading this set of clues and answers. There are many top quality examples of tricky wordplay here.
After a close run consideration I’m giving 9 across the top clue award. As the seventh word in a limerick is usually a place name I spent time trying to think of places whose name could be taken as “too long for it”, e.g. Overton. Great relief when I realised seventh was part of the definition.
Just one clue I haven’t satisfactorily understood: 16.
Help please.
No theme or Nina that I noticed.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CATHARSIS | Hot air’s circulating to plug musical release (9) H[ot], (AIRS)* AInd: circulating, inside (to plug) CATS (musical) |
| 6 | TRAMP | Fronts for thieving racketeers announce massive price hike (5) First letters (fronts for) the next 5 words in the clue First One In. |
| 9 | ORDINAL | Perhaps seventh word in a limerick’s too long for it (7) Hidden in wORD IN A Limerick. |
| 11 | INLAY | Christmas visitor possibly taking other end of weighty decoration (5) IN-LAW (Christmas visitor, possibly) with W swapped for Y |
| 12 | SPONSORED | Lad very embarrassed to admit papa’s promised money (9) SON SO RED (Lad, very embarrassed) around [P]apa |
| 13 | ASPIRATING | Making a certain sound when stealing away (10) AS (when) PIRATING (stealing away) Last One In. |
| 18 | NOM DE PLUME | Old men up for dancing with yours truly, Methuselah? (3,2,5) (OLD MEN UP)* AInd: for dancing, ME (yours truly) |
| 22 | MOUSTACHE | Masculine decoration catching zip has gotta hurt (9) O (Zip, zero) inside (catching, caught by) MUST (has gotta [has to]) ACHE (hurt) |
| 24 | NYALA | Lioness grabs tail of unlucky antelope (5) [unluck]Y in NALA (Lioness from The Lion King) |
| 25 | NOTIONS | Tory leader fills political address with extremely nebulous ideas (7) T[ory] in NO IO (political address, Number Ten = No. 10) then N[ebulou]S |
| 26 | SIT IN ON | Observe silicon and another element at work (3,2,2) SI (Silicon, Si) TIN (another element) ON (at work) |
| 27 | SUDAN | Country torn asunder without old monarch (5) (ASUND[er] )* AInd: torn. ER removed (without old monarch ) |
| 28 | SIDE ORDER | Token of affection almost returned, but interrupted by fish and chips? (4,5) RED ROS[e]< (Token of affection, almost, returned) around IDE (fish) |
| Down | ||
| 1/10 | COOKIE MONSTER | Muppet CEO Kermit soon replaced (6,7) (CEO KERMIT SOON)* AInd: replaced. |
| 2 | TODDLE | After tango, snubbed stranger’s left in lurch (6) T[ango], L[eft] inside ODDE[r] (stranger, snubbed) |
| 3 | ANNOYS | Some irritating sound in my earhole? That does it! (6) Homophone of “a noise”. HInd: in my earhole. A noisy noise annoys an oyster |
| 4/21 | SILAS MARNER | Character who looms large in a seminar’s novel reading? (5,6) (L[arge] A SEMINARS)* AInd: novel reading. Silas_Marner is a weaver |
| 5 | SYMBOLISM | Beset by problems, I lob my soup over some art (9) Hidden reversed in probleMS I LOB MY Soup Is this referencing e.g. Jackson Pollock or Extinction Rebellion? Probably both |
| 6 | TUNISIAN | North African vessel sits in Arno now and then (8) TUN (vessel), not quite alternate letters (now and then) from sItS In ArNo |
| 7 | ASTEROID | Rock in more expansive bit of space always losing velocity (8) [v]ASTER [v]OID v=velocity |
| 8 | PARADIGM | Showing off, dropping name in front of male model (8) PARADI[n]G (Showing off – N[ame]) M[ale] |
| 14 | SOLECISMS | One text contains just over a hundred mistakes (9) SOLE (one) SMS (text) around (contains) CI (101, just over a hundred, in roman) |
| 15 | ANEMONES | Submariner beginning to navigate through twisted ocean plants (8) NEMO (Submariner) N[avigate] in (SEA)* AInd: twisted. We must derive SEA from Ocean before anagramming it – is that a step too far? |
| 16 | AMOUNTED | One got on … or came down? (8) A (One) MOUNTED (got on) or is this a Double Def. ? Can this mean both dismounted and its opposite? |
| 17 | MELTDOWN | Massage on vacation limited personal crisis (8) M[assag]E, LTD (limited) OWN (personal) |
| 19 | ONE-TWO | During goalless game, reduced team’s rolling with punches (3-3) TEN< (Team, reduced from eleven to ten, reversed (rolling)) W[ith] in O-O (goalless game) |
| 20 | WARNED | Semi-retired US prison boss given notice (6) WARDEN (a prison boss in america) with DEN reversed |
| 23 | EASED | Relaxed, or wound up, blowing top (5) [t]EASED TEASED (wound up) with first letter blown off |
AMOUNTED
Looks like the second part (the def) is not about dismounting.
Came down to=AMOUNTED to.
Thanks Methuselah and beermagnet!
Loved INLAY, SUDAN, TODDLE, ASTEROID, ONE-TWO and WARNED.
ANEMONES
Twisted ocean=Reversed SEA. Looks fair.
Yes, very hard going after those first couple went in. Cats and Evita seem to be our setters’ favourite musicals and this helped me get 1a quite early. I didn’t notice the problem with TUNISIAN and couldn’t properly parse NYALA or the ‘… who looms’ bit of the def for SILAS MARNER. I agree with KVa @1 about AMOUNTED as in “It ‘came down’ to / AMOUNTED to the same thing”.
Lots of clever clues with the crossing SIT IN ON and my last in WARNED my favourites.
Thanks to Methuselah and beermagnet
For 6d, we just had sits = is, then the alternate letters.
Nice puzzle, glad it was a co-solve.
Thanks beermagnet and Methuselah.
Got on the right wavelength with some lucky guesses that parsed. The more crosswords you do, the luckier you get 😉 Still took around 40 mins though with some lovely sneaky clues only let down by 6d. I was thinking “Tinstian” or “Tunstian” which led me to “Tunisian” with what I assume to be a mistake in the clue, Andy’s comment @4 notwithstanding.
I’m glad to find I was not alone in struggling a bit with this. My last two in were the interlinked INLAY and ANNOYS – ‘in-law’ for Christmas visitor is fair but tough. I was going through the names of reindeer, elves, goodness knows what else. I spent far too long trying to work out what was going on with TUNISIAN and eventually settled for Andy’s solution of sits = IS. I think it is reasonably unlikely with both this setter and the editorial process at the Indy that a mistake such as that would get into print – but I guess you never know. I did look at those alternate letters several times and sometimes they seemed to read alternately and sometimes not!
This really is one of those puzzles where it is too hard to nominate favourites – it was so good throughout. I looked at KVA’s list and thought ‘I agree with those – but what about …’ and could have added another couple of dozen! So I am left with what always feels like a wimp-out: no faves as they are all good.
Thanks for the workout, Methuselah, and to beermagnet for the lucid and detailed blog.
It’s always reassuring to come on here and find out the day’s crossword is officially difficult! Really enjoyed the tussle, thanks, Methuselah. And top blog, Beermagnet. Aspirating made me smile and favourite was notions, for the surface.
Parsed 6d TUN IS IAN as Andy@4
Loi 7d VASTERVOID
For 9a wORD IN A Limerick – These are the seventh words in a few Limericks I’ve heard recently: Delaware, Wisconsin, and Dallas.
Can you guess what they rhymed with? Click here if you give up.
Thanks KVa, as ever, for explaining 16. I might have got it myself if I’d ever amounted to much.
Hovis, your comment made me realise I probably haven’t done enough Methuselah puzzles before. I know they have appeared on Saturdays in the past nut not that often. I will seek out more to try to get more familiar with these kind of knotty clues.
Until now I’d thought 15d A(NEMO+N)ES^ was just misspelt and/or pismronounced, like enmity/emnity – Wiktionary had the IPA wrong in 2009 here
but oed.com allows it as a β variant: ‘
Variant forms α. 1500s– anemone, 1600s enemony, 1600s–1800s anemony, 1700s anemonie; β. 1600s anenomy, 1700s anenome‘.
Lovely puzzle. Thanks M&bm – liked the extended blow-by-blow commentary.
[Earworm for 3d ANNOYS – Neil Innes’ What Noise Annoys a Noisy Oyster? (1975 Single)…
…Chords & Lyrics here – ‘NB: Transcribed while driving down the M5 on the way to Cardiff!’]
Yep.. pretty much the same as beermagnet.. not helped by refusing to see the inclusions despite many previous warnings to self… definitely needed the blog to explain 20d as I failed to spot the definition, I had a vague feeling that something might be half-backwards, and so it turned out… filled up a decent chunk of an otherwise tedious Saturday.
Thanks Methuselah n beermagnet
This was a great crossword.
Thanks for persevering, beermagnet. I never set out to make my puzzles exceptionally tough, just surprising and original: I think ‘what would solvers get a kick out of figuring out?’, not ‘how can I take up everyone’s afternoons?’. A clue that’s tough because it’s wrong is another matter, though, so my apologies for 6d (tempted as I am to grab the rubber ring Andy chucked me @4!). Thanks for the kind comments and see you next time.
Thanks both. Quite a challenge….INLAYS leaves me with a feeling of ‘if only’ relating to in-laws visiting solely at Christmas. EASED took me to the alphabetical route for parsing the ‘wound up’ element, and I was happy when I arrived at ceased as in a business being wound up, having ceased trading, but evidently I got the right answer for the wrong reason.
Thanks, Methuselah and beermagnet. First Methuselah puzzle I’ve tried. Found it hard but fair and ultimately rewarding. I’ve had trouble keeping pace with all the Indy’s new setters, but M. is now one to watch for.
Opposite to beermagnet I got the bottom half ok, but completely stumped in the NW. Maybe I should learn more muppets! I had to resort to reveals, but all accompanied by “yes, I see”. I thought the achy ‘tache was good and was pleased with myself for getting the weaver.
Thanks Methuselah and beermagnet.
Thanks, @15Methuselah, for a great couple of hours (off and on). My appreciation for good setting always involves me (1) not having to check, (2) never looking up anything, and (3) almost giving up four or five times. It was amazing how good some of the clues were! Know idea how you do it.
Got a lot more of this done than I thought I was going to when I stopped for a meal. Still couldn’t get the last few in the top left.