Gozo is today’s setter
I’m afraid this was a puzzle badly in need of editing, which is a great shame as it could have been a really good puzzle for those who like some general knowledge in their crosswords.
An editor should have picked up on “left” being used twice to indicate L (12ac and 25ac), “new” as an anagram indicator at both 30ac and 5dn, “bits of” and “bit of” at 14ac and 26dn, “regularly” in 14 ac and 26dn, “about” as an anagram indicator twice (1ac and 11dn), as well as “up” being used to indicate reversal in an across clue (28ac). In addition, the “the” in 4ac is superfluous and 2dn should have a question mark as it is definition by example. If you want to be really pedantic, Otranto is not a city, but that’s nitpicking,
As I said, a real shane as there were some very good clues in here (I liked XEROX and ATHENA for example). I don’t know if 1dn is MORALIST or MORALISM as I can’t quite parse it to my satisfaction. KVa at 2 has proposed a viable parsing.
Thanks, Gozo, and sorry for the critical nature of the post.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MAD TOM |
Homeless Bedlamite in C17th song about toad in mid-summer (3,3)
|
| *(toad) [anag:about] in [mid] (su)MM(er)
Tom o’ Bedlam is a character in an anonymous poem written in the early 17th century, |
||
| 4 | PICK-ME-UP |
It will do you good putting bits of muddy earth in the small truck (4-2-2)
|
| [bits of] M(uddy) E(arth) in PICK-UP (“small truck”) | ||
| 9 | ROUTER |
Start to reboot external computer device (6)
|
| [start to] R(eboot) + OUTER (“external”) | ||
| 10 | EDENTATE |
14, say, of PM by gallery (8)
|
| (Anthony) EDEN (British “PM” 1955-57) + TATE (art “gallery”)
The 14 in the clue refers to 14ac (UNAU), an edentate animal. |
||
| 12 | LOLL |
Expression of amusement having left lounge (4)
|
| LOL (laugh out loud, in textspeak, so “expression of amusement”) having L (left) | ||
| 13 | SEERS |
Visionaries always on board (5)
|
| E’ER (“always”) in SS (steamship).
If you’re in a ship, you are “on board”. |
||
| 14 | UNAU |
Sloth of lunarnaut returning regularly (4)
|
| [returning] <=(l)U(n)A(r)N(a)U(t) [regularly]
An unau is a two-toed sloth. |
||
| 17 | SPREAD-EAGLES |
Awfully aged, relapses and lies with limbs outstretched (6-6)
|
| *(aged relapses) [anag:awfully] | ||
| 20 | NO PAIN, NO GAIN |
Motivational saying cooking pig with onion and naan (2,4,2,4)
|
| *(pig onion naan) [anag:cooking] | ||
| 23 | IMPI |
Warriors involved in claim — pilloried (4)
|
| Hidden [involved] in “claIM PIlloried” | ||
| 24 | TIGHT |
Not working during this evening — getting pickled (5)
|
| Not ON (“working”) during T(on)IGHT (“this evening”) | ||
| 25 | PLOP |
Dad, left inside, to fall into a beanbag (4)
|
| POP (“dad”) with L (left) inside | ||
| 28 | CARBOLIC |
Disinfectant soap makes one throw up in vehicle that’s cold (8)
|
| <=(I LOB) (“I throw”, up) in CAR (“vehicle) + C (cold) | ||
| 29 | ATHENA |
Minerva’s successive top marks (6)
|
| A, THEN A again, would be “successive top marks” | ||
| 30 | NEON SIGN |
One inn’s grand new light (4,4)
|
| *(one inns g) [anag:new} where G = grand | ||
| 31 | KOPECK |
All right returning kiss for money (6)
|
| <=OK (“all right”, returning) + PECK (“kiss”)
A kopeck is a now worthless Russian coin, one hundredth of a rouble. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MORALISM |
Aesop’s foible? (8)
|
| See KVa’s comment at 2 below. | ||
| 2 | DRUG LORD |
Spike expressing surprise at El Chapo (4,4)
|
| DRUG (“spike”) + LORD (an “expression of surprise” as in “Oh my lord”)
El Chapo is the nickname of the infamous Mexican drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán. |
||
| 3 | OLEO |
Love lion print (4)
|
| O (love) + LEO (“lion” constellation or star sign)
An oleo (short for oleograph) is a print in oil colours. |
||
| 5 | INDIRA GANDHI |
New Indian guard, non-U, greeting PM (6,6)
|
| *(indian gard) [anag:new] + HI (“greeting”) where GARD is [non-U] G(u)ARD | ||
| 6 | KINK |
Whim of relatives and knight (4)
|
| KIN (“relatives”) + K (knight) | ||
| 7 | ELAINE |
The Lady of Shalott rested during the middle of week (6)
|
| LAIN (“rested”) during [the middle of] (w)EE(k)
Elaine of Astelat was part of the Arthurian legend. She was a lady who died due to her unrequited love for Lancelot. She was the subject of several poems and tales including Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. |
||
| 8 | PRENUP |
Soft prune stewed before match (6)
|
| P (piano in music notation, so “soft”) + *(prune) [anag:stewed] | ||
| 11 | GENERALISING |
Inferring about lingerie snag (12)
|
| *(lingerie snag) [anag:about] | ||
| 15 | CABOC |
Italian navigator cut bit of cream cheese rolled in oatmeal (5)
|
| (John) CABO(t) (15th century “Italian navigator”, cut) + [bit of] C(ream)
Technically, caboc is cream cheese rolled in oats, but the “cream” would be doing double duty if included in the definition. |
||
| 16 | XEROX |
Copy and ultimately fax the paper to inbox (5)
|
| [ultimately] (fa)X (th)E (pape)R (t)O (inbo)X | ||
| 18 | EAGLE EYE |
Keen scrutiny of detective after stroke (5,3)
|
| (private) EYE (“detective”) after EAGLE (“stroke”)
Technically, an eagle is a score in golf, rather than a stroke, unless I suppose you’re scoring a hole in one on a par 3. |
||
| 19 | KNAPSACK |
Hiker’s bag for break by fire (8)
|
| KNAP (“break”) by SACK (“fire”) | ||
| 21 | NIACIN |
Vitamin B in can I spilt (6)
|
| *(in can i) [anag:spilt] | ||
| 22 | OPORTO |
Loves taking wine in city (6)
|
| O + O (zeroes, so “loves”) taking PORT (“wine”) | ||
| 26 | SONS |
Children of seniors regularly turned up (4)
|
| <=S(e)N(i)O(r)S [regularly, turned up] | ||
| 27 | OTTO |
Emperor ran away from Italian city (4)
|
| RAN away from OT(ran)TO (“italian city”)
Otranto is a port in Italy. |
I think 17 is SPREAD-EAGLES rather than SPREAD-EAGLED. 2 S’s and 1 D.
I share your uncertainty re Aesop.
SPREAD-EAGLES
Challers@1 The app confirms the solution.
The def should include the ‘lies’ I think.
MORALISM
Chambers gives ‘a penchant’ as a meaning for ‘foible’.
Aesop’s penchant was MORALISM. Does it work?
Thanks, Challers@1 – I also need an editor!
I agree with KVa re SPREAD EAGLES (‘lies’ being part of the def) and MORALISM (if it were ‘moralist’, there’s no reason for ‘foible’ – a weakness which might describe Aesop’s moralizing. The play on ‘foibles and ‘fable’ was nice).
Like Loonapick, I enjoyed ATHENA, along with LOLL, NEON LIGHT, OPORTO and TONIGHT.
I failed on CABOC, a cheese I’m unfamiliar with but knew Cabot.
Thanks to Gozo and Loonapick for a fine blog.
It’s instructive to read the blog and see what editing might have done … but I can’t say I noticed the use of certain devices or words more than once, as Loonapick pointed out. I don’t think it would have bothered me if I did notice. See the clue … solve the clue … repeat … hope to finish the puzzle. Maybe during the process appreciate a clever surface or an unusual way to clue something. I would rate each clue on its own if I bothered to reflect. Upon reflection, I too saw that Otranto does not appear in several lists of Italian cities that I checked — and I put in MORALISM with the same reasoning that KVa gave.
There’s something going on here; have a look at each answer. Pity I didn’t notice it before finishing as it would have helped me with CABOC (I put in CABOT) which I couldn’t get.
Well spotted, Word Plodder. When writing a blog, I often get so into the detail that so miss the bigger picture, so miss out on themes and devices such as that which is evident in today’s puzzle.
Ah yes! Well done, Wordplodder. And yes, this definitely would have helped with CABOC. And to think I paused to look for a theme, nina or other added layer of fun!
Plaudits to Gozo!
I didn’t notice, and don’t really mind, the reuse of fairly common devices like “new” as an anagram indicator. But I did find EAGLE showing up twice a bit jarring, especially when one of them was, as you mention, inaccurately clued. I enjoyed the rest though, even if I did end up with CABOT and OTHO, unparsed, rather than CABOC and OTTO.
Thanks loonapick and Gozo.
Nice one WordPlodder@7 😉
A THEN A – a double Playtex – appeared in Soup’s Gladiators themed Prize here…
…And here is the Gladiatrix in question.
Thanks G&L
Regarding opening comments
Constructive comments are helpful to all
Destructive comments like today are a bit catty
alawoo
Thanks Gozo and Loonapick
alawoo@13: I thought Loonapick’s opening comments were constructive, indicating ways in which the crossword could have been improved. Adverse criticism is not necessarily destructive.
I agree with Pelham Barton. It’s fair to say some repetition of the sort mentioned is acceptable but there does seem a bit too much here. Given the substantial constraints of same beginning and ending, much can be forgiven, so the repeat of EAGLE didn’t bother me but, as others, didn’t care for “eagle” = “stroke”.
alawoo@13 – as a blogger, I believe my role is not simply to explain the parsing of clues, but to comment on the quality of the puzzle. I rarely criticize setters, and as an amateur compiler myself, would consider myself less critical than some commenters. When a setter submits a puzzle to a publication, it rarely gets published without editing, and I just felt this one had not been given enough scrutiny – my beef is with the editor, not the setter.
I will do the polymath if I want clues that rely on general knowledge. The worst example was CABOC, where I needed to spend time researching both an explorer and a cheese to solve the clue.
The editing issues that held me back were “Up” in 28ac, and the incorrect EAGLE for “stroke” in 18dn. Also, I do not see how a ship can be “on board” in 13ac (implying a ship on a ship). I did not pick up on the other issues, beyond thinking there was a lot of repetition and I found loonapick’s overview instructive.
ATHENA and TONIGHT were my favourites.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
Martyn @16 that on board trick is sandwiching E’ER (always, poetic contraction of ever) in SS (e.g. the SS Titanic) to give S(EER)S visionaries. It’s a regular crossword trick.
I didn’t put EAGLE EYE until really late because I couldn’t believe we’d have SPREAD EAGLES and EAGLE EYE in the same crossword, but the crossers and definition meant that’s what it had to be.
Thank you loonapick and Gozo
13ac: The device used here of “aboard” = “in a ship” = “in SS” has indeed been around for decades. That does not mean that we should encourage setters to go on using it. I would be quite happy if I never saw it again.
Thanks for the explanation about SEERS Shanne@17.
I am probably missing something obvious, but I am afraid I still do not see how it works. I get “e’re”, but not sure about “on board”. Is “on” an insertion indicator? If so, does “board” mean ship? Even in crossword land, is that a bit of a stretch? On the other hand, if the whole of “on board” means ship, wouldn’t the answer to the clue be ERESS?
Apologies for the questions, but I do appreciate and learn from everyone’s views.
Martyn@19 re 13ac: As I understand it, you have to keep the “on board” together until you have persuaded yourself that it is equivalent to “in a ship”. Only then does “in” become the insertion indicator and “a ship” = SS becomes the container, in this case for EER. In my view that is not just a bit of a stretch, it is far more than that, but it has been used for a long time now. I repeat, I would be quite happy if it were never used again. I would also be delighted if anyone else can give a more convincing explanation.
Hmm. I feel the criticism of ‘on board’ = within SS is a tad harsh. We see ‘hungry’ = containing an O and other similar devices. It’s quirky but surely falls into the whimsical/apparently category and it does feel defensible, therefore. I’ll grant it is probably overused.
PostMark@21: I certainly remember “empty” = “with nothing in it” = “with the letter O inserted” doing the rounds thirty years ago. Stretching that to “hungry” seems to me to be asking too much of a solver who is not already familiar with the use for “empty”.
Thanks Gozo for the crossword, Loonapick for the blog, and WordPlodder for the icing on the cake. I enjoyed all three.
Poor puzzle for all the reasons given above.
Another one of these “figure out answers from definition and crossers then try and figure out parsing” puzzles.
Some lazy, unfocused cluing
Lazy editing.
I also suspect that word finder is allowing setters to include more and more obscure words as answers, which is also lazy. If it’s cheating for solvers to use them, it’s cheating too for setters.
Is “split” an anagrind? Hmm.
Never heard of Mad Tom, Unau
Mad Tom is a bizarre solution. It does not appear in any dictionary that I can see, nor any crossword list, nor is the character referred to as that in the poem. He is called Mad Tom in another poem ‘Mad Maudlin’s Search’ which according to wikipedia was written as a reply to Tom o’Bedlam, but I’d say as a justification for putting it in a daily crossword that falls rather short. It must be self-referential.
Collins has madtom (one word) as a type of catfish.
Moly @ 24 – I don’t think “split” would be a good anagrind, but in this case it’s the very easily misread “spilt”, which seems OK to me
Thanks Tom @ 25
I’ve always thought I might have dyslexia
(Lots of 😆)
Suprised by all the critical comments here, very much enjoyed this myself.
Yes, there are a number of very obscure words (had to google some of them), but once I spotted the theme of the puzzle it becomes much easier. A fun twist on the regular crossword.
I do agree about EAGLE = stroke being confusing. However I can’t get excited about repeated uses of “new” or “left” = L – I didn’t even register those as repeats.
Many thanks to GOZO for a fun puzzle and loonapick for the blog.