This puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi all. On my first pass the down clues proved more tractable than the acrosses. However, in the end it was more of an east-west split, as the handful of answers which held out for a while were all on the right hand side.
There are some references to differences in PRONUNCIATION and a song featuring them. My favourite clue was for the related (Shall We …) DANCE, 24d. I also thought the &lit at 13a was nicely done and will mention 7d for its amusing surface. Thanks to Crosophile for the fun.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Motor home’s grand, a trendy thing (6) |
| GARAGE — A home for a motor: G (grand) + A + RAGE (trendy thing) | |
| 5a | Backing for soul number that’s irrational and ridiculous (6) |
| ABSURD — BA (soul – in ancient Egyptian religion) reversed (backing …) + SURD (number that’s irrational). I remembered ka from barred crosswords but was less sure of ba | |
| 10a | Bringing back opportunity to 28 about English version (9) |
| RETRIEVAL — RETRIAL (opportunity to 28, 28a being REHEAR) around (about) EV (English version – of the Bible) | |
| 11a | Run rings round picnic? (5) |
| OUTDO — A picnic could be described as an OUT DO | |
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|
| 12a | I complain about pleasant girl (5) |
| NAOMI — I plus MOAN, all backwards (about). Naomi, from the Hebrew, means pleasant or gentle | |
| 13a | Not even caring, I steal with abandon (9) |
| LARCENIST — Odd letters of (not even) CaRiNg, I and STEAL anagrammed (with abandon). You could remark that a larcenist doesn’t necessarily steal uncaringly and with abandon, but the one described here does and that’s good enough for me | |
| 14a | Tame bats held by back of neck – you’ll need to get a handle on it (8) |
| NAMETAPE — An anagram of (… bats) TAME in (held by) NAPE (back of neck) | |
| 15a | It makes a sauce accompanied by potato in 8 9 song (6) |
| TOMATO — TOMATO and potato feature in Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off a song featuring PRONUNCIATION CONTROVERSIES (8d 9d) | |
| 18a | Maybe fly where Mormon can be found? (6) |
| INSECT — Where Mormon can be found? IN SECT | |
| 20a | University lecturer initially enraged after 50% cut in school education programme (8) |
| SCHEDULE — U (university), L (lecturer) and the first letter of (initially) Enraged after half taken from (50% cut in) SCHool plus ED. (education) | |
| 23a | Rotating cylinder made to bend inside pipe (9) |
| TREADMILL — An anagram of (… to bend) MADE inside TRILL (pipe: to make a high pitched sound) | |
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|
| 25a | A young woman’s unsuitable (5) |
| AMISS — A + MISS (young woman) | |
| 26a | With frequency not satisfactory in intro, more piano (5) |
| OFTEN — Without S (satisfactory) at the beginning, [s]OFTEN (more piano). I wasn’t sure about this: thinking that soften surely means make more piano, I wondered until I got the crossing entry if OFTER might somehow be the answer. I also had to dig beyond my handy Chambers into Collins for S as an abbreviation for satisfactory | |
| 27a | Hole up around yard with rocks when eavesdropping – this is basic (9) |
| HYDROXIDE — HIDE (hole up) around YD (yard) with ROX, soundalike of (… when eavesdropping) ROCKS | |
| 28a | Try once more, sing away in practising for performance (6) |
| REHEAR — SING is not present (away) in REHEAR[sing] (practising for performance) | |
| 29a | Iced dessert in solidified state, round sphere (6) |
| SORBET — SET (in solidified state) round ORB (sphere). I tried for a while to make this GELATO | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Section of chart for making e.g. music (3,4) |
| ART FORM — A section of chART FOR Making | |
| 3d | Is it manic, misguided, seeing a soul in everything? (9) |
| ANIMISTIC — IS IT MANIC anagrammed (misguided) | |
| 4d | Cover a lot of jealousy and run off with loved one (8) |
| ENVELOPE — All but the last letter of (a lot of) ENVy (jealousy) and ELOPE (run off with loved one] | |
| 5d | Attractiveness of everything on river in The Dales (6) |
| ALLURE — ALL (everything) on URE (river in The Dales) | |
| 6d | Special ice cream cake (5) |
| SCONE — S (special) + CONE (ice cream) | |
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|
| 7d | Could this drink be nastier? (7) |
| RETSINA — This drink could indeed be (when anagrammed) NASTIER | |
| 8d | How we speak arranging pact or in union … (13) |
| PRONUNCIATION — We are making an anagram of (arranging) PACT OR IN UNION | |
| 9d | … disputes – resistance remaining in reorganised sections (13) |
| CONTROVERSIES — R (resistance) and OVER (remaining) in an anagram of (reorganised) SECTIONS | |
| 16d | Brahms and Liszt agree with poor chap off to Bayreuth (9) |
| OPERAGOER — An anagram of (Brahms and Liszt: drunk) AGREE with POOR | |
| 17d | Inside of dock, defendant’s first caught by forensic traces and shuts off (8) |
| OCCLUDES — Inner letters of (inside of) dOCk + Defendant’s first letter inside (caught by) CLUES (forensic traces) | |
| 19d | A dame packing heat put blade away (7) |
| SHEATHE — SHE (a dame) containing (packing) HEAT | |
| 21d | Employ uniform floor covering element around island (7) |
| UTILISE — U (uniform) + TILE (floor covering element) around IS (island) | |
| 22d | One of two – one of two 8s (6) |
| EITHER — There are two PRONUNCIATIONs (8ds) of EITHER; you are free to choose either | |
| 24d | Being there, but not at 10 to 2 (5) |
| DANCE — The definitions refers to 2d, ART FORM. The other number is not a cross reference: this is [atten]DANCE (being there) but not AT TEN | |
15a TOMATO – The Gershwin song spawns two Wiktionary entries: ‘tomayto, tomahto¹ … potayto, potahto² … Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off‘ (1937)
Thanks Crosophile and Kitty!
Enjoyable puzzle. Nice blog.
Liked ABSURD, OUTDO, LARCENIST, SOFTEN (I didn’t remember the abbreviation. I thought ‘satisfactory in intro’=S and SOFTEN without S=OFTEN. I think Kitty’s explanation is better), UTILISE and DANCE.
SORBET
(obviously a typo)
ORB (sphere)
Other CONTROVERSIES (or is it CONTROVERSIES?): 1a GARAGE – does it rhyme with carriage or barrage (or Nigel Farriage?)
12a NAOMI – NAY-oh-mee or NIGH-oh-mee? 20a SCHEDULE – UK “SH” versus US “SK” – I favour SK, because there’s a CHI in the original Ancient Greek σχέδη.
Thanks KVa @2 – S-ORB-ET was less a typo than a lapse of concentration when writing up the blog. Now fixed.
FrankieG – yes, indeed there are a couple more words with differing pronunciations that I’d originally spotted.
An enjoyable puzzle indeed, although it’s no wonder I didn’t parse ABSURD!
Thanks Kitty & Crosophile.
For me (and The Beach Boys) the “T”is silent in 26a OFTEN. And I don’t pronounce the “EN” in 4d ENVELOPE as if it were French.
6d SCONE rhymes with CONE, until you’ve eaten it. Then It’S GONE…
Like KVa, I parsed 26a slightly differently, Kitty though I have the same query as you wrt ‘more piano’ = (s)OFTEN. I took the ‘in intro’ as a single letter indicator referring us to the initial S in Satisfactory. I wasn’t aware of S as a … satisfactory abbreviation for satisfactory.
I like FrankieG’s identification of other potential pronunciation controversies. SCONE is another.
I agree DANCE is very cute.
Thanks Crosophile and Kitty
…and for 22d EITHER / NEITHER, in the interests of fairness, I choose one of each: EYE-THER and KNEE-THER.
If you read “more piano” as a musical instruction it has an imperative sense, which “soften” can share, so that works well enough for me.
Found this an enjoyable puzzle with some inventive wordplay and a fun theme. Thanks, Crosophile and Kitty!
Incidentally, I solved this while listening to RadMac on the radio. They have assorted interstitial messages they litter throughout their show, one of which is Kirsty Young saying: “You say po-tay-to, no one says po-tah-to”
5a ABSURD: As Kitty, I’d only heard of KA before. Oed’com appears to know nothing of BA. “It’s in Chambers“, of course ‘… as a bird with a human head. [Egyp]’
Wiktionary has a very extensive entry – bꜣ with five etymologies, and lots of hieroglyphs. [They’re all Greek to me.] – “… A bird? How absurd to swallow a bird”.
PS, ‘potayto, potahto, tomayto, tomahto‘ Loved the puzzle. Thanks C&K (&W@9 😉)
Rather enjoyed this one with its PRONUNCIATION CONTROVERSIES which have given me an ear worm for the rest of the day! My favourite has to be NAMETAPE having listened to my daughter bemoaning the length of time it’s taken her to sew them into her children’s uniforms prior to the start of term…….
Had to resort to the reference books in order to parse ABSURD.
Thanks to Crosophile for the puzzle and to Miss Kitty for the review and the pic of the squirrel with good table manners!
What a lovely blog and bunch of comments. Thank you very much. By the way, I think SORBET’s 2 pronunciations got overlooked? Being derived from SHERBET, I prefer to sound the T but I think I’m in a minority.
Thanks both. The SCONE debate regularly rages in our house. ABSURD went in but was always going to beat me in parsing, as I knew neither part. A mini query sits with DANCE in that ‘to’ in the clue suggests a verb if it is doing anything, yet we are asked to use the noun in ART FORM to deliver the answer.
Crosophile@13 – don’t you mean “sherbay”? 🙂 (Or “sherbert” as many seem to prefer.)
Great crossword and blog – thanks.
As a teenage maths student I always loved the fact my teacher was the irrational Sue Surd.
Crosophile@13: Yes, oed.com has 3 pronunciations for 29a SORBET [And 6 for LEVEE]
2 UK — /ˈsɔːbeɪ/ SOR-bay — /ˈsɔːbᵻt/ SOR-buht
1 US — /ˈsɔrbət/ SOR-buht
But YARN finds 45 instances (mostly US) and they all pronounce it SORBAY, apart from Homer S: ‘My kids do not eat sorbet; they eat sherbet.’
“And finally…” That song in ‘Popular culture‘:
I can’t find ‘the 1970, Anne Bancroft television special … in which she plays a hapless singer in an audition who sings the song from sheet music, cluelessly ignoring the different pronunciation of to-may-to and to-mah-to, etc.’ (Ira G says it actually happened!) But here’s the ‘essentially similar sketch … performed by comedians John Bird and John Fortune in the 1976 Amnesty International benefit concert A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick).