Guten morgen, meine freunde. Ich bin in Munchen am Urlaub*.
Ok, enough showing off, I have a Methuselah grid to blog before going off in search of more cultural highlights, the best of which come by the litre.
I enjoyed this grid, and a nice steady solve was just the ticket after some of the light beatings some of the setters seem to have meted out this last week or so (bad solver’s go-to excuse: blame the setter!). As well as a couple of very neat mis-directions, my favourite clue has to be 23D: “becoming bricked in”. Wunderschön!
No obvious theme or Nina here as far as I can see, although if you know my work I wouldn’t read too much into that.
Bis Spater!
* possible grammar issues!
Definitions are underlined
ACROSS
1. Goodness me, such infernal clangers! (5,5)
HELLS BELLS
Double definition
6. Idiot singer’s third to do a turn (4)
BOZO
Singer’s [BONO] third to do a turn [third letter rotated through 90 degrees]
10. Hired men backing one-man band’s performance (7)
GIGOLOS
Backing (in reverse) one-man [SOLO] band’s performance [GIG]
11. Silly people that might be seen turning calculator upside down (7)
BOOBIES
The classic school trick of making your calculator say rude words by turning the screen upside down, in this case 5318008! It’s not big or clever, but it is funny…
12. Island or large isle at sea (5)
ELLIS
Anag. [“at sea”] of large [L] and ISLE
13. Unkindly say book without introduction’s in need of rewrite (9)
ILLEGIBLE
Unkindly [ILL] say [EG] book without introduction’s [BIBLE]
15. Two legs moving around quietly avoiding this? (8)
EGGSHELL
Two legs moving [anag LEG LEG] around quietly [SH]
To “tread on eggshells” is an analogy to navigating very carefully through a tricky situation.
18/20. Pop star I libel annoyed about fake news? Just a bit (6, 6)
BILLIE EILISH
I libel annoyed [anag I LIBEL] about fake news [LIE]. Just a bit [ISH]
More fake news: being in my mid-50’s, obviously I knew who this was straight away.
21. With feet on the ground, he muddled along with losses (8)
SHOELESS
Anag [“muddled”] HE + LOSSES
24. Perhaps wedges and smelly fish introduced by hotel (4,5)
HIGH HEELS
Smelly [HIGH] fish [EELS] introduced by [behind] hotel [H]
25. Conversation starter that bloke will duck (5)
HELLO
That bloke will [HE’LL] duck [O]
27. Gives advantage to some participants in doubles session (7)
BLESSES
Hidden word [“some participants in”] DOUBLES SESSION
29. Frozen food in lounge goes out of date (7)
LOLLIES
Lounge [LOLL] goes out of date [DIES]
30. Spark’s latest record is hard work (4)
SLOG
Spark’s latest [S] record [LOG]
31. Second-rate student with awful big shoes to fill is on thin ice? (10)
BOBSLEIGHS
Second-rate [B] student [L] with awful big shoes [anag BIG SHOES] to fill [placed inside]
DOWN
1. Tips from hardy individual with lamp raising current health standards (7)
HYGIENE
Tips [first and last letters] from hardy [H Y] individual with lamp [GENIE] raising current [I moved backwards]
2. Proper bit of flagellation’s upsetting (5)
LEGAL
Hidden word [“bit of”] FLAGELLATION’S upsetting [backwards]
3. Hawks in parts of monastery perhaps made out (5)
SELLS
Sounds like [“made out”] parts of monastery = “CELLS”
4. Cover’s ridiculous headlines leaving no room for article (8)
ENSHIELD
Anag [“ridiculous”] HEADLINES leaving no room for article [remove A]
5. Every so often, solver brawls over brand names (6)
LABELS
Every so often [alternate letters], SoLvEr BrAwLs over [backwards]
7. Either end of Jedi master’s belt (3)
OBI
Either end of OBI WAN KENOBI
8. Topless crowd reportedly witnessed foul (7)
OBSCENE
Topless crowd [MOB] reportedly [soundalike] witnessed [“SEEN”]
9. Sort of milk which Methuselah enjoyed (4-4)
LONG LIFE
Nice redirection: in this case the Bible character, not our setter
14. Rubbish government engaged in black humour? (5)
BILGE
Government [G] engaged in black humour [BILE]
16. Prison uniform left in block (5)
GULAG
Uniform [U] left [L] in block [GAG]
17. Pair of presidents giving up British for hot secret (4,4)
HUSH HUSH
Pair of presidents [BUSH BUSH] giving up British for hot [swap B for H]
19. National emblems not that prevalent until Middle Ages, ultimately (8)
THISTLES
Not that [THIS] prevalent until Middle Ages, ultimately [last letters = T L E S]
20. Young Greeks wept endlessly over timeless city of theirs (7)
EPHEBES
Wept endlessly [WEPT] over timeless city of theirs [THEBES]
22. Married couples regularly RSVP to functions (7)
SPOUSES
Regularly [even letters] RSVP TO [S P O] functions [USES]
23. Becoming bricked in, revolutionary saint surrenders (4,2)
LETS GO
Becoming bricked in [surrounded by LEGO], revolutionary saint [ST backwards]
25. Split seconds from whistle, jammy player overturned lead (5)
HALVE
Second letters from: WHISTLE, JAMMY, PLAYER, OVERTURNED LEAD
26. Making quick getaway, dodging fine for dishonesty (5)
LYING
Making quick getaway, dodging fine [FLYING]
28. Self Esteem’s almost completed prestigious set of awards (3)
EGO
Almost completed EGON RONAY awards.
Egon RONAY was a famous food writer who had a restaurant award named after him.
Thanks Methuselah and Leedsclimber
Lovely breezy crossword. Some excellent nonstandard clues; Bozo for instance.
Lots of smiles and no quibbles
I think 28 is referring to the four showbiz awards Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony or EGOT, which appeared in a puzzle relatively recently.
Not sure how, but I managed to complete this despite being very unsure about eight of my answers, especially in the NE corner with no calculator to hand! Thanks Methuselah and Leedsclimber.
I’m with Hounddog @2 on EGOT – and I, too, only know if from crosswords. Nice crisp puzzle for a grey, wet Saturday morning. I did wonder if there might be something underlying the puzzle when ENSHIELD and EPHEBES made appearances. Along with BOBSLEIGHS, they are not words one would rush to clue. But I am not seeing anything. I share Matthew’s appreciation for the non-standard clues – though, despite having encountered it several times before, I am still not wholly enamoured of the turning-N-to-get-Z device. GIGOLOS, LONG LIFE, SPOUSES and LETS GO are my faves today.
Thanks Methuselah and Danke schön to Leedsclimber
Is there something going on with letters used, like a recent one? Nearly all hgbls but also quite a lot of letters appearing one or twice, eg vpcz, which probably scuppers it.
There are a lot of double letters in the solutions, especially LL, but not sure that’s a theme. Forgot EGOT, so left EGO unparsed. For a while, I wondered why PEAHENS were young Greeks (wEPt over followed by AtHENS) until BILLIE EILISH disabused me of that idea. I notice that this can be parsed in two ways, depending on whether you take ‘about’ as a reversal or indicating an inclusion. Not entirely convinced the clue for BOBSLEIGH works.
Noticed that all the Acrosses use BOBSLEIGH as a word bank, except for the twisted N in 6a BOZO, that converts U2’s singer into a twisted Ex-PM.
[Too slow editing] – He did something similar with METHUSELAH recently.
Morning all. Thanks Leedsclimber for the blog. 28d is EGOT, yes. I thought the definition was easy enough so it was a good opportunity to gently introduce solvers to a cultural reference that doesn’t often appear in crosswords. Same logic as OBI, although surely most people have heard of Obi Wan.
FrankieG’s spotted that the acrosses only use certain letters. These letters have something in common which the wordplay for 11a was supposed to hint at. I’ll leave you with this earworm.
Only words that can appear on a calculator: 01345678 = BLGSHEIO
Which group released an album called Five Three One – Double Seven O Four in 1979?
My favourite 28d EGOT is Rita Moreno (1931–). She had already GOT her O, G, & T for West Side Story (1962),The Electric Company (1973), and The Ritz(1975),
when her “Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music” GOT her the Outstanding E for The Muppet Show (1977).
It’s Outstanding. [She even GOT an extra E for The Rockford Files the following year.]
Hovis @6: L has an anagram to fill, in the same way that water has a bucket to fill. Twisted. Working it out doubled my solving time.
(Boo-boo transcribing the clue for 30a; apostrophe needs moving.)
Gobbo @12. You may be right. I had similar thoughts but didn’t like a single letter, L, to fill an 8-letter anagram. Not wrong but seems a bit odd.
As is often the case I start off with a solution like 1a and think hooray, we’re getting an AC/DC theme. One day maybe.
EGOT is almost compulsory in all US crosswords (along with Oreo, Olé and Etna) so no problem there.
Lucky I’m just the right age to have gone from slide rules and books of log tables to pocket calculators.
Now off to try to find an every day use for ENSHIELD.
Thanks both.
All good apart from bobsleighs running “on thin ice”, I feel on ice would suffice… the calculator trick was neat, took me back to a misspent youth…
Thanks Methuselah n Leedsclimber
Thanks both. I particularly admired LONG LIFE GIGOLOS and BOZO, but failed on first attempt with BOOBIES as I didn’t know that meaning of the word, and went all Denis Healey with BILLIES….now who looks silly?
We found that hard. Obi required two nhos and the calculator reference seemed very obscure even as someone old enough to use one. But we made it in the end even if we couldn’t parse everything.
@10: Oops. Forgot the Z in 6a BOZO. That can be a 2 upside down, so: 012345678 = BLGSHEZIO
Great puzzle. I am in awe of the theme in the across clues which just makes it all the more stunning.
Thanks M&L, aka 7+3 — (Rotate the calculator an extra 90 degrees to turn the E into an M, (though that turns the L into a capital gamma Γ)).