A typical fun challenge from GAFF this Friday.
FF:9 DD:9
The theme is Tina Turner ( who passed exactly a year ago ). Her name appears in the first row of the grid and atleast a couple of songs ( including a james bond movie theme ).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SONATINA |
Small piece of a nation’s at sea (8)
|
| [ A NATION’S ]* | ||
| 6 | TURNER |
Twist case of eager artist (6)
|
| TURN ( twist ) ER ( EageR, case of i.e. end letters ) | ||
| 9 | PHYSIO |
Brief manipulation of report on sparkling ring (6)
|
| sounds like FIZZY ( sparkling ) O ( ring ) | ||
| 10 |
See 23 Down
|
|
| 11 | GRANDNIECE |
Edit generic DNA of relative (10)
|
| [ GENERIC DNA ]* | ||
| 12 |
See 23 Down
|
|
| 13 | SIMPLY |
Just mean to follow spiritual leader (6)
|
| IMPLY ( mean ) after S ( Spiritual, first letter ) | ||
| 15 | TIGHTEST |
Very close to being the most drunk (8)
|
| double def | ||
| 18 | DEFOREST |
Controversially, extreme divers free to remove trunks (8)
|
| [ DS ( DiverS, extremely ) FREE TO ]* | ||
| 20 | LADING |
Cargo delay involves uproar (6)
|
| LAG ( delay ) containing DIN ( uproar ) | ||
| 21 |
See 23 Down
|
|
| 23 | REELECTION |
3 Slightly altered self-image is what politician desires (10)
|
| REfLECTION ( self-image ) with the F changed to E | ||
| 25 | EAU DE VIE |
5 Utter stench with sign of spirit (3,2,3)
|
| sounds like ODOR ( stench ) V ( ~sign ) | ||
| 26 | ERMINE |
Half-term in Euston station (6)
|
| hidden in “..tERM IN Euston..”; would appreciate more elucidation on the clue construct as i am not confident about this | ||
| 27 | TEMPER |
7 Harden attitude (6)
|
| double def | ||
| 28 | TIE DYERS |
Drawn very well without first-rate pattern makers (3-5)
|
| TIED ( drawn ) [ YES ( very well ) outside R ( Rate, first letter ) ] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | OTHERWISE |
Could be significant being educated differently (9)
|
| 3 | ARSON |
Tip-off of priest’s crime (5)
|
| pARSON ( priest, tip off i.e. without first letter ) | ||
| 4 | ISOENZYME |
Money changes with size of protein producing same reaction (9)
|
| [ MONEY SIZE ]* | ||
| 5 | ARMREST |
Elbow supporter with ultimate venom during detention (7)
|
| ARREST ( detention ) containing M ( venoM, ultimately ) | ||
| 6 | TRUCE |
Peace force in the borders (5)
|
| RUC ( force, Royal Ulster Constabulary ) in TE ( ThE, borders of ) | ||
| 7 | RATCHETED |
Stepped up and betrayed grasping revolutionary (9)
|
| RATTED ( betrayed ) containing CHE ( revolutionary ) | ||
| 8 | EYING |
Scanning electronically, your items never get opened (5)
|
| starting letters of “..Electronically, Your Items Never Get..” | ||
| 14 | PROPPED UP |
Appeared to retain right to be supported (7,2)
|
| POPPED UP ( appeared ) containing R ( right ) | ||
| 16 | GOLDENEYE |
Listen to score and refuse to spy theme (9)
|
| sounds like GOAL ( score ) DENY ( refuse ) | ||
| 17 | SUNDOWNER |
Lose self-wonderfulness, wrecked by drink (9)
|
| [ WONDeRfUlNESs ( without letters of SELF ) ]* | ||
| 19 | THE BEST |
Last report on old city of gold (3,4)
|
| T ( reporT, last letter ) after THEBES ( old city ) | ||
| 22 | ERASE |
Cancel Caesarean section in retirement (5)
|
| hidden, reversed in “..caESAREan..” | ||
| 23/21/10/12 | RIVER DEEP MOUNTAIN HIGH |
Hide in pure earth-moving smash hit (5,4,8,4)
|
| [ HIDE IN PURE EARTH MOVING ]* | ||
| 24 | TOMMY |
Soldier’s musical gun (5)
|
| triple def |
I reckon OTHERWISE is “other” (‘could be significant’) + “wise” (‘educated’) with “differently” as the definition. Also ERMINE is exactly half of the letters from TERM IN EUSTON.
I’ve just googled to find that Ermine is the name of a power station.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I usually do with a Gaff puzzle. Struggled a bit with the NW quadrant until THE BEST lead me to get SIMPLY. My last 2 were my favourites: DEFOREST & PHYSIO.
And of course Tina Turner played The Acid Queen in the 1975 film of Tommy 24d. I had real difficulty understanding how18ac worked, my LOI by far.
Hovis@1
OTHERWISE
Parsed it as you did.
I was just wondering if the OTHER bit is coming from the ‘could be significant being’?
Maybe just as you say, the significant OTHER=could be significant. Or The significant OTHER
could be a significant being?
Liked the clue a lot.
The ERMINE Power Station is in Canada (Wiki). Right? Or you have one in the UK too by the same name?
Had 2d OTHERWISE almost the same as Hovis@1: “Could be significant being” = ‘significant OTHER’ + WISE = “educated”, with “differently” as the definition.
Assumed 26a was using ERMINE figuratively as high social position/station.
Hi Hovis@1 – Thanks for the edit. Your parsing is of course right.
KVa@4 – I got to the same end on google and could only find an Ermine street in the UK but no station.
Regards,
TL
Tina Turner played the Acid Queen in 24d Tommy(1975)
(Simply) The Best was one of her last hits.
FrankieG@5
ERMINE
the dignity or office of a judge, noble, or king (Collins)
You are right.
‘SIMPLY THE BEST(1989) | Better than all the armREST‘ (or DeFoREST [What’s “Bones” Got To Do With It?])
[Sorry Steven – I missed your post @3 when I refreshed before posting @5. I blame KVa’s lengthy post @4 😉 ]
😉
Wasn’t aware of that definition for ‘ermine’ and only looked it up in my Chambers app (no such meaning there) but agree it makes more sense than the power station.
Missed Tie Dyer and Phisio. Otherwise a steady solve.
A few others I couldn’t understand and thank you for explaining them.
Not a great fan of Gaff themed puzzles: the constraint of shoehorning in references to the theme (most of which passed me by) tends to produce a rather patchy overall experience.
I parsed OTHERWISE like Hovis@1, though I wasn’t very happy with “educated” for wise: one can be very highly educated and utterly unwise (think Boris). However, I guess it’s arguable.
One quibble: Chambers and the Shorter OED both give re-elect/re-election as hyphenated, which is certainly how I would write it, so I think the numeration is wrong unless someone can show me a justification elsewhere.
I too found the NW corner challenging, and was perplexed by ERMINE station. Like others, I thought there were several enjoyable clues.
There were a couple of hinderances solving RIVER DEEP – MOUNTAIN HIGH. Not unlike RE-ELECTION, the dash between DEEP and MOUNTAIN was omitted. And the answer contained two four letter words but the app gave no direction for which word goes in which clue. In the end, with only a few crossers, the answer and order became obvious.
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs
Not knowing much about Tina T we found this a bit of a struggle but things started to fall into place once a few crossing letters enabled us to get 23/21/10/12 which we then googled.
We’d agree about RE-ELECTION needing to be hyphenated; an interesting coincidence that that clue should appear just now.
Thanks, Gaff and Turbolegs.
Perplexus@15
REELECTION
…so I think the numeration is wrong unless someone can show me a justification elsewhere.
Collins gives both options (with and without a hyphen).
Thanks, KVa@18: I suppose it had to be out there somewhere.
Thanks for the blog, missed the theme but enjoyed the clues, DEFOREST was very neat.
Hyphens usually disappear over time, apparently the rate has increased, Azed ignores them for enumeration so I am used to it.