Independent No.11,787 by Punk

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Today’s grid is supplied by Punk.

Before the business begins, I’m going to shamelessly* abuse my blogger position to say hello to my friend Binners, who’s in the departure lounge of her cryptic crossword journey. Keep it up…. it’s worth the pain!

Punk appears to be one of the pseudonyms of my Guardian bette noire: Paul. All of the usual Paul fingerprints are here: multiple word clues; off kilter clueing; ribald humour. Conspicuous by its absence was the tooth-grinding difficulty and feelings of despair. This was a pleasant solve at a very steady level of difficulty throughout. The rehabilitation of “PITG” might have started!

Not my strong point, but can I detect the trace of a Nina in here…?

As ever, definitions are underlined.

*Alright, maybe just a little bit

 

ACROSS

7. What nutmeg grater has done for breakfast item (7,3)

POACHED EGG

“Poached” here a reference to stealing away/hiding. Egg is hidden inside nutmeg grater 

 

9. South African facilities for captive animals, might you say? (4)

ZULU

Sound alike [“might you say”] – “ZOO LOO”

 

11. Record I request, ultimately wanting sound (7)

LOGICAL

Record [LOG] I [I] request [CALL], ultimately wanting [last letter removed]

 

12. Reckon tours about to happen –  very soon? (7)

TONIGHT

Reckon [TOT] tours [placed around] about to happen [NIGH]

 

13/22/3. Number one repeated, afraid last on card essential for bingo! (6,6,7,6)

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

Number one [WINNER] repeated [WINNER WINNER], afraid [CHICKEN] last on card [DINNER e.g. last thing on menu card after breakfast and lunch]

 

15. Cut off vegetable, typical example (3)

PAR

Vegetable [PARSNIP] with snip removed [“cut off”]

 

17. Greek character, inspiring talker shut up (5)

MUTED

Greek character [MU], inspiring talker [TED]

Reference to the fabulous TED series of lectures (Technology, Entertainment, Design)

 

18.  Knees up after a song and dance (3)

ADO

Knees up [DO] after a [A]

 

19.  Nappy back in John (5)

TERRY

My more learned friends inform me this may be a reference to ex England centre back footballer John Terry. Terry towelling nappies are a reusable baby waste catcher system.

 

20.  Hack or bug? (3)

NAG

Double definition clue, either horse names or to nag someone else

 

21/14.  Sudden drop seen with void when flying (8)

NOSEDIVE

Anag. of SEEN and VOID [“when flying”]

I won’t bore you all with my previously stated aversion to splitting single words across multiple parts of the grid…

 

25.  One’s filling stuffs a turkey in European city (7)

ANTWERP

One’s filling [N] stuffs [placed inside] a turkey [A TWERP]

 

26.  Handcuffs piggy individual hasn’t got on? (7)

HAMPERS

Piggy [HAM] individual  hasn’t got on [PERSON]

 

27.  The same doctor cut back (4)

IDEM

Doctor cut [MEDIC] back [backwards]

Idem Latin term for “the same”. There wasn’t much in the clue to suggest it was going towards a Latin term, and I only got this from the crossers

 

28.  Bevvied Australian, dancing and making whoopee (10)

SATURNALIA

Anag [dancing] of AUSTRALIAN.

If “bevvied” (i.e. drunk) was the anagrind, I’m not sure “dancing” was necessary for the parsing, and vice-versa.

 

DOWN

1. Fluid rise complete, predator rampant? (6)

UPFLOW

Complete [UP], predator [WOLF] rampant [upside down]

 

2. Washing going on the line all there (7,8)

HANGING TOGETHER

Going on the line [HANGING] all there [TOGETHER]

 

4. Dubious item with talented nun, art – is it? (5,13)

ADULT ENTERTAINMENT

Anagram. [“Dubious”] ITEM +TALENTED NUN

 

5. Italian author pilloried, Lingua vulgaris (5,10)

LUIGI PIRANDELLO

Anagram [“vulgaris”] PILLORIED+LINGUA

 

6. Saucy American oath arising in vacuous country (8)

CUSTARDY

American [US] oath [DRAT] uprising [upside down] in vacuous country [COUNTRY]

 

8. Bin moved to fridge (3,3,2)

GET RID OF

Anagram [“moved”] TO FRIDGE

 

16. Bar raised over fifth and sixth of billiard pockets (8)

MARSUPIA

Bar [MARS = chocolate bar] raised [UP] over fifth and sixth of BILLIARD

The Marsupia is the term for the abdominal pouch in animals such as Kangaroos, Opossums etc.

 

17. Duck a l’orange? (8)

MANDARIN

Double definition

 

23. Villain in operatic venue discovered after opening of Rigoletto (6)

RASCAL

Operatic venue discovered [LA SCALA] after opening of Rigoletto [R]

 

24. Cold drink containing gas (5)

RHEUM

Drink [RUM] containing gas [HE = Helium]

15 comments on “Independent No.11,787 by Punk”

  1. 13a/22a/3d -“last on card” = “D”; “essential” = INNER”
    Think 28a SATURNALIA is meant to be &lit-ish, containing all the elements of an orgy: drinking, dancing, and the other.
    [typo 23d RASCAL- You’re deleting the “LA” in “LA SCALA”, instead of just the “L”]

  2. Not sure you have quite the right parse for ADULT ENTERTAINMENT, Leedsclimber. Your fodder is missing ART. I think the definition is simply ‘it’ as a euphemism for sex.

  3. I guess you can do both, dance and make whoopee, at a saturnalia. But anyway, the ginf neurons weren’t exactly dancing with this, they were busy watching a footy game and using the check button … only 84% error-free on the scoreboard (the local team weren’t much better, oh well). Thanks to Puck and Leedsclimber.

  4. Ran out of time editing: 13a/22a/3d … with the definition as just “bingo!” — 28a … with “dancing” as the anagram indicator.
    Especially liked 5d LUIGI PIRANDELLO, with its ‘lift and separate’ of a Latin phrase, to get some fodder, and a Latin word to use as an anagrind.
    L&P

  5. Hmmm. One of those crosswords one admires for cleverness but doesn’t enjoy. Too many ungettable long anagrams and nhos including the weird phrase about dinner that seems like just a random sequence of words if ( like me) you don’t know it. Each to their own.

  6. Hmm, you’ve gone and confused me now, PM @2. I merely totted up the same fodder Lc has used and bunged. But yes, you need item for the i and m, the nun for the u, and art for the r. I’ll come back later … 🙂

  7. [Pirandello was a fave of the late mrs ginf; we once spent a couple hours browsing at his house, a museum. The Taviani bros did a delightful film called Kaos of four of his stories. He wrote heaps of everything, and got a Nobel]

  8. I can’t understand why, instead of one of these every Saturday as they used to have, the Guardian now takes a dubious pot luck for its prize.
    Re 4d, for once, I think ‘it’ is not sex, but means ‘the answer’, as the whole clue (dubious item with talented nun that presents itself as art) is a much better definition.

  10. This was the first time I’ve gone up against Paul’s Punk alter ego, and it was the setter at his trickiest, I thought. I didn’t know the author so needed an educated (and for once, correct) guess, and was sure I was going to end up with some unknown religious artwork for the nuns!

    Staggered over the line once ENTERTAINMENT appeared from the mist, and I agree with James @8 about the definition. A very challenging but rewarding puzzle. Now time for a lie down.

    Thanks both.

  11. Thanks both. Far from my most enjoyable outing. A different level of challenge, with much that seemed vague, even once an answer emerged. SATURNALIA stands as the best example, where there is debate here over which is the anagrind and the definition. I’d say TERRY sort of works, and at least I knew him, but not LUIGI ‘whatshisface’ (though I was only two letters away) derived from a 15 letter anagram, which made yesterday’s pharaoh look like a breeze. In MUTED I’ve seen TED clued as ‘talks’ quite often, however even their website does not convince me about ‘inspiring talker’

  12. Nothing seemed to give me a way in to this. A few solves but too spread around to help any. Revealed the winner winner thing. Nho. What’s it meant to mean? Don’t answer that, .I don’t really care.
    At least I now know what a TED talk stands for. Never would have put those three topics in bed together.
    Oh well, not my day.
    Ta both.

  13. Liked this one. The anagrams filled the grid and helped with crossers. Australian for SATURNALIA wasn’t too hard to see. I thought the def included ‘dancing and making’ … Liked HAMPERS and TONIGHT and MANDARIN which became obvious after a while. I seldom do any other crossword and would normally steer well clear of Paul but Punk while not easy seems more accessible and rewarding and would be welcome back anytime. Thanks also for the blog.

  14. As I’ve said before, there can come a time after staring at clues where they just become a meaningless jumble of words and it’s time to give up. Got maybe a half dozen answers.

    And no, I’ve never heard the WINNER… phrase before. Was never going to get that.

  15. Interesting puzzle. I thought CODDLED EGG was a better fit than POACHED EGG for the clue, having considered both, so the NW gave me a lot of trouble.

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