Independent 11,833 by Methuselah

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My second Methuselah blog in a couple of months – a pleasant surprise.

Being a born pedant, I had a few quibbles (noted below), but otherwise this was a very enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked the long anagrams at 11a/17d and 14a, the &lit of 18d, and the apparent self-reference in 22d that turned out to be a Biblical joke. Thanks Methuselah for the fun.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
7 AUTOBAHNS
Hans about to change his ways? (9)
Anagram (to change) of HANS ABOUT.

Extended definition: the word for motorways in Germany, which is where you might expect to find people called Hans.
8 IOWAN
Moon having ghostly appearance gets one in a state (5)
IO (a moon orbiting Jupiter, popular with crossword setters) + WAN (pale = having ghostly appearance).

A person living in the US state of Iowa.
10 REIGNED
Sat on throne, dictator’s not exactly hailed (7)
Homophone (dictator’s = said out loud) of RAINED (not exactly hailed: raindrops rather than hailstones, but it seems a rather weak definition).
11/17 FREEDOM OF CHOICE
Right rubbish home office decor (7,2,6)
Anagram (rubbish) of HOME OFFICE DECOR.

Right = something one is entitled to.
12 COMPUTER
Part of network where one travelling to work needs other end of platform (8)
COM[m]UTER (one travelling to work), with the second M replaced by P, which is the other end of the word P[latfor]M.
13 WORLDS
Terms describing large spheres (6)
WORDS (terms) containing (describing) L (abbreviation for large).

World = sphere = the extent of one’s interest or influence.
14 TRANSISTOR RADIO
One receiving hidden signals making inroads with traitors? (10,5)
Anagram (making = constructing) of INROADS + TRAITORS.
19 EUROPE
Characters within cell revolutionised record number of countries (6)
Inner letters (characters within . . .) of [n]EURO[n] (a nerve cell), then EP (abbreviation for extended-play record) reversed (revolutionised).

A group of countries = a number of countries.
20 ACTIVITY
A bit of drama ahead of Italian family’s latest project (8)
ACT IV (the fourth section of a play = a bit of a drama) + IT (abbreviation for Italian) + last letter (latest) of [famil]Y.
23 EXPRESS
Partner after divorce papers, say? (7)
EX (short for ex-wife or ex-husband = partner after a divorce) + PRESS (newspapers).

As in to express one’s opinion.
25 OUTMANS
Has more than ridiculous amounts (7)
Anagram (ridiculous) of AMOUNTS.

Outman, as a verb = to have more manpower, for example an army winning a battle by force of numbers.
26 RECCE
Leads from random encounter could change entire investigation (5)
Leading letters (leads) of R[andom] E[ncounter] C[ould] C[hange] E[ntire].

Shortened form of reconnaissance or reconnoitre: a visit to gather information about a place in preparation for later activity there.
27 MACHINERY
Tackle with great speed finishes off uneven game for City (9)
MACH I (in aerodynamics, a speed equivalent to the speed of sound = great speed) + last letters (finishes) of [uneve]N [gam]E [fo]R [cit]Y.

Tackle = mechanical equipment for lifting heavy weights.
DOWN
1 ATRIUM
A quick haircut outside university hall (6)
A TRIM (a quick basic haircut) around U (abbreviation for university).

Latin-derived term for an open public space within a larger building.
2 UBUNTU
South African philosophy club untucked trousers (6)
Hidden answer (. . . trousers, as a verb = holds) in [cl]UB UNTU[cked].

Bantu word (from South Africa) referring to the interconnected nature of humanity.
3 SHUDDERS
Shakes from extremely stylish milk dispensers (8)
Outer letters (extremes) of S[tylis]H, then UDDERS (the part of a cow from which we obtain milk, though “dispensers” seems an odd way of putting it).
4 AS IF
I don’t believe that last gift’s totally unwrapped (2,2)
[l]AS[t] [g]IF[t] with all the outer letters removed (totally unwrapped).

A disdainful expression, indicating that what’s just been suggested is impossible; used in much the same way as “pigs might fly”.
5 SIDE DOOR
At last, it’s do or die – failing another way out (4,4)
Anagram (failing) of the last letter of [it’]S + DO OR DIE. The adjacent “do or” in the anagram fodder makes this a bit too obvious, I think.
6 SWADDLED
Hunk and date aboard toboggan wrapped up warm (8)
WAD (hunk?) + D (abbreviation for date), contained in (aboard) SLED (toboggan). “Wad” and “hunk” can both mean “lump”, but I’m not sure they’re interchangeable; “wad” usually means something loose (such as hay or rags) pushed together into a tight bundle, and “hunk” means a rough piece cut off a larger solid mass (such as bread or cheese).
7 APRICOT
One’s stoned, having foolish date on company time (7)
APR I (abbreviation for April 1 = All Fool’s Day = foolish date) + CO (abbreviation for company) + T (abbreviation for time).

A fruit with a stone.
9 NAMES
Calls from capsized sailor not getting an answer (5)
SE[a]MAN (sailor), without the first A (abbreviation for answer), reversed (capsized = upside down in a down clue).

As in “she calls him Fred”.
15 AIRSPACE
US tax collectors slashing American rate for high-flying area (8)
IRS (abbreviation for Internal Revenue Service = the US federal tax organisation), inserted into (slashing) A (abbreviation for American) + PACE (rate).
16 SUPREMES
Famous backing singers somehow mess up holding note (8)
Anagram (somehow) of MESS UP, containing RE (a note in the musical sol-fa scale, as in do-re-mi).

“Backing singers” is a little unfair: the group was originally “The Supremes” without a named lead singer, then briefly “Diana Ross and the Supremes”, and continued under their original name after Ross left.
17
See 11 Across
18 ODYSSEY
Poem about end of journey on ship taking years (7)
ODE (poem), around the end letter of [journe]Y + SS (abbreviation for steamship, originally “screw steamer” from its screw propeller), then Y (abbreviation for years).

Clue-as-definition (&lit): Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem about Odysseus’s ten-year sea journey home (with many adventures and interruptions) after the Trojan War.
19 EMEER
Ruler from space periodically visited meteors (5)
EM (a wide space between characters in printing) + alternate letters (periodically visited) of [m]E[t]E[o]R[s].

Also spelled emir or amir: Arabic term for a monarch or other authority figure.
21 INTUIT
Understand tenor’s committed to one night in Paris (6)
T (abbreviation for tenor in vocal music), inserted into (committed to) I (one in Roman numerals) + NUIT (French word for night, so “night in Paris”).

To understand by instinct rather than from knowledge or evidence.
22 IMAGED
Perhaps something Methuselah said scanned (6)
Methuselah (Noah’s grandfather in the Old Testament, said to have lived a very long life) might have said I’M AGED. No comment on whether our crossword setter of the same name might feel the same way.

Image, as a verb = scan = make an image of something, especially for medical diagnostics.
24 SUMO
Wrestler’s a little too muscular to be flipped over (4)
Hidden answer (a little . . .), reversed (flipped over = upwards in a down clue), in [to]O MUS[cular].

“Sumo” is the name of the Japanese wrestling sport, but I don’t think the word can be used as a name for an individual wrestler. Perhaps “sumo” as an adjective = relating to the sport of sumo wrestling = wrestler’s? [UPDATE: As FrankieG@4 points out, the OED recognises “sumo” as a wrestler, although my usual sources of Chambers and Collins don’t.]

21 comments on “Independent 11,833 by Methuselah”

  3. A tyoically fun puzzle from this setter, with smooth and entertaining surfaces and a nice variety of devices.

    Lots of favourites, including EXPRESS, ODYSSEY, APRICOT, SWADDLED (despite sharing our blogger’s concern), AUTOBAHNS, IOWAN and REIGNED, all of which had cunning surfaces.

    SUPREMES held me up until I had enough checkers; he can’t literally mean famous backing singers, right? Oh yes he can. And thanks to Quirister for giving the fairer context on that one.

    Annoyingly I revealed – probably too soon – the last one which held out, the lovely IMAGED; I tend to get impatient when I’ve only got a couple left, and again the clever surface misled me! I assumed that Methuselah was going to be the “I” checker and couldn’t make sense of it, and despite also having being open to the possibility that our more aged friend was being referred to instead (true to our setter’s style), I didn’t manage to find the keys down the back of my threadbare thesaurial sofa.

    Thanks both!

  4. Oed.com has 24d SUMO:
    ‘1. 1864– A wrestler who competes in the sport of sumo (see sense 2) …’ 29 years before
    ‘2. 1893– A Japanese form of wrestling …’

  5. Managed this without the usual confusion I seem to have with this setter… still plenty of challenges, and hadn’t fully engaged with the complexity of IMAGED, just took it from the crossers and the def… similarly with MACHINERY, altho I saw the Mach 1 bit quite early, I sort of lumped it in with the actual def, machinery does speed up the tackling of things? n before that I was definitely looking for a city… wasn’t disturbed by Quirister’s quibbles, but fully endorse the comments on the Supremes, echoed by AP@3, whose name merely stated their obvious talents…
    Thanks Methuselah n Quirister

  8. Enjoyable puzzle. I would say ‘milk dispenser’ is no more outré as a definition than the commonly seen ‘flower’ for river, for example. I suppose it depends on your tolerance level for such whimsy but I enjoy the inventiveness of it (I’ve seen similar ideas before but not often enough for it to have become a cliché yet). Thanks, M&Q.

    Hovis – good spot! Hadn’t noticed that but seems obvious now you mention it.

  10. Good spot, Hovis@7! – 😉 – It’s albums, starting with 7a AUTOBAHN[s] – (1974, a 50th (Golden) anniversary)…

  14. My knowledge of Kraftwerk doesn’t go beyond their Minimum-Maximum double album which contains tracks such as: AUTOBAHN(s), COMPUTER WORLD(s), transistor RADIOACTIVITY, outMANs MACHINE which is quite a lot. I would guess there may be other tracks from other albums (or maybe it is album titles).

  16. Thanks both. Might have struggled with UBUNTU but I know it as a computer operating system which my father-in-law preferred to Windows, despite his PCs regularly failing. OUTMANS was new but very gettable, though I personally feel the definition is not as specific as perhaps it should be, and I am not convinced by ‘making’ as the anagrind in TRANSISTOR RADIO particularly as the context includes ‘with’, but just about anything goes so I am rarely deterred from looking for anagram fodder.

  18. Thanks Methuselah. Even though I missed the theme (had I looked I would have seen it since I know all those records) I still enjoyed this. My favourites were AUTOBAHNS, SHUDDERS, AIRSPACE, SUPREMES, ODYSSEY, and INTUIT. I missed UBUNTU and I needed the blog to parse EUROPE and APRICOT. Thanks Quirister for the blog.

  19. Thanks for the blog, Quirister, and to commenters for sniffing out the theme. Probably a fair cop on SUMO, even if the less intuitive sense is supported by some dictionaries. On the other hand since wad/hunk was supported by Chambers I didn’t really question it.

    @TFO I did briefly think that people who recognise the computer sense probably outnumber people who recognise the original philosophical sense, but then thought people who haven’t heard of either are probably still in the majority and would on average feel more hard done by at being expected to know something computery than something philosophical.

    Apologies to the Supremes… A previous crossword of mine had Supreme solver facing a new sort of clue’s caught out (5,4) and another one referencing one of their hits.

    Until next time!

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