Independent 11,753 by Hoskins

20 comments on “Independent 11,753 by Hoskins”

1. Harry on top form today with a theme that even I could spot although I only found 15 of the 17 relevant items shown in the review.

   Initially I couldn’t make any sense of the surface for 12a but it works assuming “Maiden” is a recognised abbreviation for Iron Maiden. (But, why oh why, use an Americanism [“rest room”] if you don’t need to?)

   I spent far too long trying to parse COD-PIECE for 13a before the penny piece finally dropped.

   A couple of unknowns for me were the famous (?!) American artist in 7d and the rap singer in 16d.

   With plenty of ticks to choose from, my top picks were ALCATRAZ, REROOFED, and COOK.

   Many thanks to Hoskins and to Quirister.

2. Enjoyable even with any theme passing by like ships in the night.. shame cos it would maybe have helped with my confusion of MIDWAY with MEDIAN initially… difficult to see how I missed it when you see them all displayed.. no complaints otherwise
   Thanks Hoskins n Quirister

3. For once, a theme I could recognise and ARRAN certainly dropped a heavy hint: the theme was going to be islands or sweaters. I didn’t spend time with Mr Google checking the less obvious words so missed both GANNET and PEARL islands (though I wondered about the latter in the context of Pearl Harbor). I guess it is not too surprising that there should be a Gannet Island – there are lots of Puffin Islands and a fair few Gull Islands. No Manx Shearwater Islands, though. As our blogger says, not the most solver friendly grid but the cluing was not particularly impenetrable so the lack of ways in to each quadrant did not hinder.

   Slightly annoyed not to have got DURST: I ended up with that from the wordplay but, on checking Google, everything seemed to be about American real estate mogul turned serial killer, Robert Durst, so I rather assumed I needed another synonym for (b)URST.

   Thanks Hoskins and Quirister

4. MAN
   Are ‘restroom’ and ‘can’ both American words? If so, this should be another way to hint at Americanism?

   Liked ONE-PIECE (nice piece of clueing), COS (politically correct!?), MADEIRA (Madira in Hindi means liquor. Dunno if these two words have a common etymology. OK. OK. Cheers!) and CANARY (Is it possible ARY will? A delicious split!).

   Thanks Hoskins and Quirister!

5. For 23d, CANARY & “grass” can both refer to an informer, which is how I parsed it.

6. Hoskins is a real ‘island HOPPER‘ CANARY = grass as in stool pigeon. [Hovis@5 beat me to it. I was too busy reading…

7. …Ford CAPRI – as driven by Terry McCann in Minder]

8. ARRAN – not to be confused with ARAN (not to be clued as an island, but as an archipelago or historic barony), where the !rish jumpers come from.
   Thanks H&Q

9. @FrankieG. And thus the car of desire for many young boys growing up in the 70/80s. It was a very silly and very lovely car all at the same time.

   Lovely crossword with a theme so obviously signposted that even I saw it and was able to use it

   Thanks Hopkins and Quirister

10. A lot easier once I had spotted the thematic key, though I, too, failed on Limp Bizkit GK.

11. I set off on a wild goose chase after putting MINOANS at 9D. It doesn’t quite work but I was desperate! Thanks Hoskins and Quirister.

12. Hovis @5, FrankiG @6: thanks, that’s a better explanation of CANARY. I’ve updated the blog.

13. I had to look to see if ANDROS was an island and although I know LimpBizkit I’m not so up in them that I knew Fred Durst. Other than that, all in and parsed.

    Thank you Hoskins and Quirister

14. Like others, I had to check Andros was an island. Interestingly (?), it is also greek for ‘Man’, so we effectively have to isles of Man.

15. CANARY
    Hovis @5, FrankieG @6
    I do understand your parsing.
    However, is taking CANARY as a type of grass not a plausible alternative?
    (I took it as a type of grass. Obviously! 🙂 )

16. Thanks both. Enjoyable and fun, whilst including a couple of my regular irks, being the translation skill needed in LATIN though I did know the French bunny, and crossword-ubiquitous film in GANNET which is the name of the character, but only partly that of the movie. Interesting that DURST was not clued as famous, and like PostMark@3 says Google appears to confirm this, yet HOPPER is – I have only recently caught up with the name though I knew Nighthawks, and have since tried to persuade a family friend he was a talented uniped.

17. A friend has enlightened me on CANARY.
    The grass is called CANARY-grass (not just CANARY).
    It’s clear now!

18. Lovely crossword, just my level. Happy memories of camping on ARRAN.
    And AISLE made me smile 🙂
    Thanks H and Q

19. Very enjoyable, with a theme even I noticed. Rather amused to see Fred Durst pop up – I wonder how often that’s happened in crosswordland? ANDROS the only one I had to rely on wordplay alone for.

    Thanks Hoskins & Quirister.

20. Hovis@14 ANDROS (ἀνδρός) is the genitive of ANER (ἀνήρ), so means “of man” – It’s another Isle (I’LL AISLE) of Man.

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