A straightforward puzzle from Steerpike this morning…
…and a pangram to boot.
Thanks, Steerpike
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ERMINE |
Stoat essentially mesmerises quarry (6)
|
| [essentially] (mesm)ER(ises) + MINE (“quarry”) | ||
| 4 | JUNK MAIL |
Unsolicited correspondence from Spooner’s brother’s lock-up? (4,4)
|
| If the Rev. Spooner tied to say JUNK MAIL, itt may have come out as MONK (“brother”) JAIL (“lock-up”) | ||
| 10 | GOLIATH |
Giant barbarian besieges city bordering Italy (7)
|
| GOTH (“barbarian”) besieges LA (Los Angeles, so “city”) bordering I (IVR code for Italy) | ||
| 11 | GO TO POT |
Drug of choice for degenerate (2,2,3)
|
| GO-TO (‘of choice”) + POT (“drug”) | ||
| 12 | HEED |
Report that chap would listen to (4)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay of HE’D (“that chap would”) | ||
| 13 | FRANCISCAN |
Mendicant caught in dodgy S African quarter (10)
|
| C (caught, in cricket) in *(s african) [anag:dodgy] + N (North, so “quarter”) | ||
| 16 | LISBON |
Life initially is good in French city (6)
|
| L(ife) [initially] + IS + BON (“good in French”) | ||
| 17 | CLEAVER |
One who’s departing on Charlie’s chopper (7)
|
| LEAVER (“one who’s departing”) on C (Charlie, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 20 | INQUIRE |
Question popular vocalists on the radio (7)
|
| IN (“popular”) + homophone/pun/aural wordplay [on the radio] of CHOIR (“vocalists”) | ||
| 21 | MEDUSA |
Jellyfish from sea west of America (6)
|
| Med. (“sea”) west of USA (“America”) | ||
| 24 | PRETENDERS |
Print media mostly filled with youthful wannabees (10)
|
| PRES(s) (“print media”, mostly) filled with TENDER (“youthful”) | ||
| 25 | ACHE |
Extract of lilac heals pain (4)
|
| Hidden in [extract of] “lilAC HEals” | ||
| 27 | HEARTEN |
Catch nurse neglecting daughter’s comfort (7)
|
| HEAR (“catch”) + TEN(d) (“nurse” neglecting D (daughter)) | ||
| 29 | GREMLIN |
Garden mole isn’t regularly seen? Mischievous creature! (7)
|
| [regularly seen] in G(a)R(d)E(n) M(o)L(e) I(s)N(t) | ||
| 30 | THEORIES |
Conservatives defending extremely hardline ideas (8)
|
| TORIES (“Conservatives”) defending [extremely] H(ardlin)E | ||
| 31 | REGRET |
Lament taking part of sinister German revolutionary (6)
|
| Hidden backwards in [taking part of…revolutionary] “sinisTER GERman” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EGGSHELL |
Paint porcelain food container (8)
|
| Triple definition | ||
| 2 | MALFEASANCE |
A false name cunningly conceals cleric’s latest wrongdoing (11)
|
| *(a false name) [anag:cunningly] concealing (cleri)C [‘s latest] | ||
| 3 | NEAT |
Elegantly simple trap ensnares head of acquisitions (4)
|
| NET (“trap”) ensnares [head of] A(cquisitions) | ||
| 5 | URGENTLY |
Desperately posh fellow enters rally periodically (8)
|
| U (“posh”) + GENT (“fellow”) enters R(a)L(l)Y [periodically] | ||
| 6 | KITTIWAKES |
Cats patrolling promenade devoid of large birds (10)
|
| KITTIES (“cats”) patrolling WA(l)K (“promenade” devoild of L (large)) | ||
| 7 | AMP |
Current measure affected declining leader (3)
|
| (c)AMP (“affected”, declining leader) | ||
| 8 | LITANY |
List shed light on an actuary’s conclusion (6)
|
| LIT (“shed light on”) + AN + (actuar)Y [‘s conclusion] | ||
| 9 | CHARM |
Seduce cleaning lady on Malta (5)
|
| CHAR (“cleaning lady”) on M (IVR code for Malta) | ||
| 14 | CREPUSCULAR |
Dim, heartless sycophant broadcast a slur about copper (11)
|
| [hearltess] CR(e)EP (“sycophant”) + *(a slur) [anag:broadcast] about Cu (chemical symbol for “copper”) | ||
| 15 | LOTUS-EATER |
Carefree island-dweller of old devoured by terrible sea turtle (5-5)
|
| O (old) devoured by *(sea turtle) [anag:terrible] | ||
| 18 | CREDENCE |
Study about breaking First Nation’s trust (8)
|
| DEN (“study”) + C (about) breaking CREE (“First Nation”) | ||
| 19 | HAZELNUT |
American bully left lunatic morsel of food (8)
|
| HAZE (“American bully”) + L (left) + NUT (“lunatic”) | ||
| 22 | UPSHOT |
Raises highly topical issue (6)
|
| UPS (“raises”) + HOT (“highly topical”) | ||
| 23 | BRAGS |
Bishop ridicules vainglorious claims (5)
|
| B (bishop, in chess) + RAGS (“ridicules”) | ||
| 26 | MEME |
Setter repeated idea that’s doing the rounds (4)
|
| ME + ME (“setter”, repeated) | ||
| 28 | AXE |
Times article sent up East 17 (3)
|
| <=(X (“times”, in arithmetic) + A (“article”), sent up) + E (east)
The 17 refers to 17ac, “cleaver”. |
Bright and breezy! I enjoyed this for its crisp parsing throughout.
I liked the triple def in 1d, 14d for ‘creep’, GO TO POT and LOTUS EATER for its ‘O sea turtle’ anagram and NEAT surface.
Didn’t know the ‘jellyfish’ but a lucky guess was confirmed here by Loonapick. Thanks to him and Steerpike.
I wasn’t familiar with haze=bully but most of the rest was relatively straightforward and highly enjoyable! Many thx Loonapick and Steerpke
Nice crisp puzzle. I was pleased to recall CREPUSCULAR and to spot LOTUS EATERS. LOI, MALFEASANCE, needed all the crossers though I knew what fodder I was playing with. However, if I have encountered bully = haze, I had forgotten it. My only uncertainty was INQUIRE – did the homophone apply to ‘in’ as well resulting in ENQUIRE?
ERMINE is very smooth, the Spoonerism for JUNK MAIL is amusing, CLEAVER and CHARM are both elegant and COTD is the delightful spot for GREMLIN.
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick. I agree with PM@3 about the ambiguity in 20ac, which affects an unchecked letter. Presumably someone who solved online will have confirmed INQUIRE as the intended answer.
Lots of nice surfaces. My favourites were EGGSHELL, UPSHOT, GREMLIN, and GO TO POT. So saying, I liked the clues Diane and PM singled out too, While not a favourite, it was nice to have an unstrained Spoonerism.
My last 2 words took much much longer than the other clues – CREPUSCULAR and MEDUSA. AXE seemed a lot of work for three letters and I thought “morsel of food” for HAZELNUT was strained. I am not sure I understand how enquire could be the answer to 20ac. Nonetheless, I do use the app on weekdays and it confirmed INQUIRE as correct.
Finally, are FRANCISCANS really mendicants? The only Franciscans I know have been pretty firmly rooted in a large building and are certainly not beggars.
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick
Thanks Steerpike for an excellent set of clues. My top picks were LISBON, CLEAVER, INQUIRE, MEDUSA, PRETENDERS (great surface), THEORIES, KITTIWAKES, and AMP. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
[Martyn @5: Franciscans take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience so technically they are mendicants; their lifestyle depends on funding from others; this can be rather generous so most live very comfortably.]
Further to earlier discussion on 20ac:
If the wordplay is taken as [popular] + [vocalists on the radio], this gives IN + “choir” = INQUIRE.
If the wordplay is taken as [popular + vocalists] on the radio, this gives “in choir”, which can also be ENQUIRE, certainly the way I pronounce that word. My pronunciation is indicated in Collins 2023 (p 659 and p 1007) and Chambers 2016 (p 786) as the only pronunciation. SOED 2007 p 1391 allows two different pronunciations for the first syllable of enquire. ODE 2010 (p 583) gives no help on pronunciation, but marks enquire as “chiefly Brit.”
All fairly straightforward and solved without help other than checking ‘haze’ for ‘bully’ in the dictionary; Chambers doesn’t actually mark it as American usage, so maybe ‘American’ was just there to improve the surface. Lots to like; ERMINE, GREMLIN and the use of 17 as the definition for 28 took our fancy.
Further to Martyn and Tony @ 5 & 6: the Wikipedia article about the Franciscans states that the original Rule of Saint Francis … did not allow ownership of property, requiring members of the order to beg for food while preaching.
Thanks, Steerpike and loonapick,
This was enjoyable – took me a while to get going, but all went in quite nicely in the end. MALFEASANCE and GO TO POT got the biggest grins.
I’m another who wasn’t sure of haze=bully, but I know of the ritual unpleasant initiation of some poor sod to a sports team or similar as ‘hazing’, so it wasn’t a huge stretch while solving.
Thanks both.
Thanks for the blog, very good set of clues.
HAZE=bully is public school slang , I have seen it in novels such as A Perfect Spy.
Had to be INQUIRE for me .
Thanks Tony@6, PB@7 and a_c@8. I really enjoy these exchanges and learning new things.
I agree with Roz@10 about HAZE. I have come across it outside America in books and real life.
Re Franciscans being mendicants – the background of The Name of the Rose is the strong vow of poverty sworn by Franciscans and one of the many accusations levelled over the centuries at them; that they espoused the heretical notion of apostolic poverty (which clearly was at odds to great wealth of church). It lead to some very nice and clever thoughts on ideas of ownership and property which persist to this day in the law.
Sorry – didn’t mean to go on but it’s a bit of legal history I am fond of.
Loved the crossword too