I enjoyed this fine puzzle from Jason.
Although I did not encounter anything too esoteric, several clues did require a bit of reflection to parse.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | RATIONALE |
Reason to share beer (9)
|
| RATION (to share) + ALE (beer) | ||
| 10 | AROSE |
Stood up by a prickly paragon? (5)
|
| A ROSE (cryptically, a prickly paragon) | ||
| 11 | BRIEFLY |
In short, sharp cheese is first (7)
|
| BRIE (cheese) + FLY (sharp, in the sense of “perceptive”). See Diane@3. | ||
| 12 | HOSTESS |
She waits on street getting into scrapes with son (7)
|
| {ST (street) inside (getting into) HOES (scrapes)} + S (son) | ||
| 13 | EMU |
Female ignored storm about long-legged bird (3)
|
| [F]UME (storm) minus (ignored) F (female) reversed (about) | ||
| 14 | SAVING GRACE |
Preserving prayer is a redeeming feature (6,5)
|
| SAVING (preserving) + GRACE (prayer) | ||
| 17 | ARENA |
Locality giving home to new venue (5)
|
| AREA (locality) around (giving home to) N (new) | ||
| 18 | MAC |
Model’s first with current coat (3)
|
| First [letter of] M[ODEL] + AC ([alternating] current) | ||
| 19 | MOTOR |
Make fast ship loaded with tons put on speed (5)
|
| MOOR (make fast ship) around (loaded with) T (tons) | ||
| 21 | SISTER-IN-LAW |
Relative realist wins weirdly (6-2-3)
|
| Anagram of (weirdly) REALIST WINS | ||
| 23 | ERA |
A long time in general (3)
|
| Hidden in (in) [GEN]ERA[L] | ||
| 25 | RELEASE |
Set free from concerning contract (7)
|
| RE (concerning) + LEASE (contract) | ||
| 27 | BARRAGE |
Check rant in flood of criticism, say (7)
|
| BAR (check) + RAGE (rant) | ||
| 28 | CHOSE |
Picked Charlie with socks (5)
|
| C (Charlie) + HOSE (socks) | ||
| 29 | AMUSEMENT |
New menu with meat’s fun (9)
|
| Anagram of (new) {MENU + MEAT’S} | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ARABLE |
Moralising story quietly disposed of a form of farming (6)
|
| [P]ARABLE (moralising story) minus (disposed of) P (quietly) | ||
| 2 | ATTITUDE |
Feeling height? Learner will be tense (8)
|
| A[L]TITUDE (height), with the L (learner) substituted with (will be) T (tense) | ||
| 3 | CONFISCATE |
Appropriate prisoner is about to enter destined term of life (10)
|
| CON (prisoner) + [{IS + C (about)} inside (to enter) FATE (destined term of life)] | ||
| 4 | EASY |
A piece of cake is like this — fatty but not gross (4)
|
| [GR]EASY (fatty) minus (but not) GR. (gross) | ||
| 5 | MECHANICAL |
Routine he can claim needs to be changed (10)
|
| Anagram of (needs to be changed) HE CAN CLAIM | ||
| 6 | BASS |
Bishop behind singer (4)
|
| B (bishop) + ASS (behind) | ||
| 7 | BODEGA |
Bloke for example covering a wine cellar (6)
|
| BOD (bloke) + E.G. (for example) + A | ||
| 8 | MENSWEAR |
Chaps declare their schmutter (8)
|
| MEN (chaps) + SWEAR (declare) | ||
| 15 | VAMPIRE BAT |
Charmer I bear with difficulty, over time one bleeds you dry (7,3)
|
| VAMP (charmer) + I + anagram of (with difficulty) BEAR + T (time) | ||
| 16 | GAME WARDEN |
Manager we’d reappointed — one tends to the wild side of life (4,6)
|
| Anagram of (reappointed) MANAGER WE’D | ||
| 17 | ABSTRACT |
Jack’s plot is not practical (8)
|
| AB’S (jack’s) + TRACT (plot) | ||
| 20 | TEENAGER |
Young ‘un who’s spotted brewing green tea (8)
|
| Anagram of (brewing) GREEN TEA, referring to acne | ||
| 22 | SALOON |
Any minute now outside a large bar (6)
|
| SOON (any minute now) around (outside) {A + L (large)} | ||
| 24 | AGENTS |
A place to go for assets (6)
|
| A + GENTS (place to go) | ||
| 26 | ACER |
One term for conker tree (4)
|
| ACE (one) + last letter of (term for) [CONKE]R | ||
| 27 | BOUT |
Book blooming booze-up (4)
|
| B (book) + OUT (blooming) |
Top faves: AROSE (for the prickly ‘paragon‘), MOTOR, MENSWEAR and GAME WARDEN.
GAME WARDEN
Reads like an extended def. Nice anagram and surface.
Thanks Jason and Cineraria.
I’d agree with Cineraria’s summary of this pleasant 29a. The only word I didn’t know, ‘schmutter’, was guessable from the surface and checked out here.
KVa picked some good ones, to which I’d add BRIEFLY and BOUT for ‘out’ cluing ‘blooming’.
Thanks to Jason and Cineraria.
For BRIEFLY, I parsed ‘sharp’ (fly) as in a ‘snappy’ dresser.
Diane@3: Yes, I considered that when I was writing up the blog, and at the time, for some odd reason, I could not make any sense of that usage, but now that seems perfectly plausible.
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues and many very concise and precise.
The letter A seems to turn up a lot but probably just normal random variation .
Despite the above, sharp/fly still has me scratching my head. Why are agents assets? Put on speed/motor? Schmutter was new to my lexicon.
All else hunky dory and enjoyed.
GDU@6: “Put on speed” for “motor” is in Chambers.
“Fly,” in the sense of “well-dressed,” would have been popular US slang about 30 years ago.
A spy, for instance, might be called an “agent” or an “asset.”
In his Saville Row tailoring, James Bond might be described as a fly-looking asset motoring along in his Aston Martin!
Though I’m currently reading Mick Herron (so no issue with asset) and Jackson Lamb is anything but!
24d AGENTS = “assets” (1975, quite young) in spy fiction…
…They’re called “joes” (2001, even younger) in Slow Horses – {edit: adding the quote for Diane@8}:
2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 215: Lamb didn’t look any different, was still a soft fat rude bastard, still dressed like he’d been thrown through a charity shop window, but Jesus, River thought—Lamb was a joe.
10a A ROSE – “Every Roſe hath its thorn” (1656, Anthony Burges) [or (1988, Poison)].
Yes, definitely a Joe but not fly!
… And he drives an old black cab, not a DB5.
Liked how 13a EMU’s “about” has to be applied first to the word order: “Female ignored storm”< “storm ignored Female”, and then to the wordplay: [F]UME<.
Thanks J&C
Thank you Cineraria @ 7. They’re all new to me. I must lead a sheltered life.
Pretty easy apart from some English slang:
“bod” for “bloke”;
“schmutter” for “menswear”;
“fly” for “sharp”;
“hoes”” for “scrapes”;
“bout” for “booze-up”.
I’m still not convinced by 19A. Isn’t “motor” a noun and “put on speed” means accelerate, which is a verb?
Anyway, thanks to all.
Frieda,
If someone’s really motoring, it means they’re driving fast.
Thanks Jason and Cineraria
Frieda@15: Like a lot of words in English, “motor” can be more than one part of speech, including a verb. It has been said that in English any noun can be verbed, in other words used as a verb. This is probably an exaggeration, but not much of one.
11ac: Collins 2023 p 757 has three headwords fly, of which the third is marked slang, and the first definition “knowing and sharp; smart” is marked chiefly Brit. I am fairly sure that I was thinking of that sense when solving.
19ac: Further to Cineraria@7, the definitions for motor as a verb in Collins (p 1287) include “to move fast; make good progress” marked informal.
I realise that my comment about 11ac does not mean what I wanted it to mean. I intended to say that I was thinking of the “knowing and sharp” sense.
12ac mainly for Frieda@15: The word “scrapes” is slang in the surface reading, but in the cryptic reading, “scrapes” is a verb. Collins p 933 defines the verb hoe as “to dig, scrape, weed, or till (surface soil) with or as if with a hoe”.
Pelham Barton @ 17:
It’s proper that nobody curbs
Our language, which drifts in the burbs –
Those outskirts of towns
Where verbs become nouns
And nouns, such as text, become verbs.
Calvin and Hobbes, many years ago, “Verbing wierds the language”
Also, tv ad from the sixties “The Esso sign means happy motoring”
Thanks Jason and Cineraria, this was a lot of fun.
Nick@21: Great limerick, we like it!
A neat and fun crossword which requires no arcane knowledge – although I am not sure about “bout” for “booze up”
I’m not sure why schmutter is menswear. “Schmatta” is a Yiddish word for rags or very cheap clothing. I believe “Schmutter” is just another variation of the same word. In fact, it could be menswear, womenswear or children’s clothing, the emphasis isn’t on the wearer but the quality of the material
Beak@24: The first definition of bout in Collins (p. 245) is “a period of time spent doing something, such as drinking”. That is near enough for me.
Jay@25: The definition is “their schmutter,” referring back to “chaps” at the beginning of the clue.
Further to Cineraria@27, Collins (p. 1780) defines schmutter as “cloth or clothing”, marked slang. Yes, it comes from the Yiddish word for rag, but the concept of poor quality is not preserved in the definition as an English word.