We have a puzzle from Amoeba today, the second Independent one, although there have also been some Amoeba puzzles presented at the annual Sloggers and Betters meetings in York.
The first Amoeba Independent puzzle, published about three months ago, had entries relating to a rock band, but I can’t see a theme here. Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
The nearest I can get to a musical connection is to note that LET YOUR HAIR DOWN is the name of song recorded by various artists. Also, AT THE DROP OF A HAT is a collection of songs from a revue first performed by the duo [Michael] Flanders and[Donald] Swann in 1957.
There are a few unusual words in the grid – EJECTMENT, DYSURIA, TUATARA and SIMULACRA, for example, which often happens when there is a theme and the setter is faced with some odd combinations of letters for words crossing the theme. TUATARA is a word that wouldn’t be out of place in a Phi puzzle
I liked the clue for ANAGRAMMED linking moral, creditable and Liberal Democrat. Other good clues, for me, were those for HOT-WIRE and WAR-HERO
I note that the hidden word at 22 across could have been chow or howl, as well as the required ECHO. Indeed ECHO was the third word I saw.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 9 | After ignoring the first letter, desolate people ultimately accept dispossession (9)
EJECTMENT (dispossession) DEJECT (to depress; to desolate [make extremely sad]) excluding the first character [ignoring the first letter] D + MEN (people) + T (last letter of [ultimately] ACCEPT) EJECT MEN T |
| 10 | Clumsy fiancé regularly falls out with personal trainer (5)
INEPT (clumsy) INE (letters 1, 3 and 5 of [regularly] FIANCÉ) + PT (personal trainer) INE PT |
| 11 | Food company finally fixed trough (7)
YOGHURT (a food) Y (last letter of [finally]) COMPANY) + an anagram of (fixed) TROUGH Y OGHURT* |
| 12 | Rude call-out is heard in part (7)
LOUTISH (ill-mannered and coarse; rude) LOUTISH (hidden word in [in part] CALL-OUT IS HEARD) LOUTISH |
| 13 | Banker‘s paintings discovered (4)
URAL (river [banker] flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan in the continental border between Europe and Asia) MURALS ([wall] paintings) excluding the outer letters (dis-covered) M and S URAL |
| 14 | What Liberal Democrat must be to be seen as moral and creditable? (10)
ANAGRAMMED (MORAL and CREDITABLE can be anagrammed together to form LIBERAL DEMOCRAT) ANAGRAMMED (as described above) ANAGRAMMED |
| 16 | Start without key or with broken key (3-4)
HOTWIRE (to start the engine of a vehicle, usually illegally, without a key, by manipulating the wiring) Anagram of (broken) OR WITH + E (a musical key) HOT-WIR* E |
| 17 | Brave military man shot arrow over ambassador (3,4)
WAR HERO (descriptive of a brave military man) Anagram of (shot) ARROW containing (over) HE (His Excellency; form of address when referring to an Ambassador) WAR (HE) RO* |
| 19 | Following intelligence, top spy infiltrates gathering on the quiet (10)
INFORMALLY (confidentially; on the quiet) INFO (information; intelligence) + (M [code name for the fictional head of MI6 as depicted in the James Bond novels and films; top spy] contained in [infiltgrates] RALLY [gathering]) INFO R (M) ALLY |
| 22 | Screech owl eating parrot (4)
ECHO (repeat a sound; parrot [repeat {by rote}]) ECHO (hidden word in [eating] SCREECH OWL) ECHO |
| 24 | Trouble going from Syria with initially unnoticed drug supply (7)
DYSURIA (difficulty or pain in passing urine; trouble) Anagram of (supply [derived from supple]) SYRIA and UD (first letters of [initially] UNNOTICED and DRUG) DYSURIA* |
| 25 | New Zealand natives see you carrying cross around (7)
TUATARA (New Zealand lizard-like reptiles) TA-RA (goodbye; farewell; see you) containing (carrying) TAU (T-shaped cross) reversed (around) T (UAT<) ARA |
| 26 | The place in which that woman punches partners (5)
WHERE (at or to which place; at what place; to what place) HER (that woman) contained in (punches) (W [West] and E [East], partners in a game of bridge) W (HER) E |
| 27 | Handy gear for processing plant (9)
HYDRANGEA (shrubby plant with large globular clusters of showy flowers) Anagram of (for processing) HANDY GEAR HYDRANGEA* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Party hard, routinely getting plastered, drinking without getting upset (3,4,4,4)
LET YOUR HAIR DOWN (to allow yourself to behave much more freely than usual and enjoy yourself; to party, for example) Anagram of (getting plastered) HARD ROUTINELY containing (drinking) W/O (without) reversed (getting upset) LET YOUR HAIR D (OW<) N* |
| 2 | Star soldiers under Stalin? (3,5)
RED GIANT (RED star of high luminosity) RED (communist, Stalin for example) + (GI [American soldier] + ANT [reference a soldier ANT {an ANT with a disproportionately large head}] giving [two] soldiers) – this is a down entry so GI and ANT are placed under RED RED GI ANT |
| 3 | Display containing no end of goose fat (5)
STOUT (fat) SET OUT (display) excluding (containing no) E (last letter of [end of] GOOSE) STOUT |
| 4 | Judgement posted before Vice President loses power (8)
SENTENCE (judgement in court) SENT (posted) + PENCE (reference Mike PENCE [born 1959], American Vice President during Donald Trump’s first term as President) excluding (losing) P (power) SENT ENCE |
| 5 | Camp stand-up takes all laughter as good to begin with (6)
STALAG (German camp for prisoners of war) STALAG (first letters of [to begin with] each of STAND-UP, TAKES, ALL, LAUGHTER, AS and GOOD) S T A L A G |
| 6 | Artist supports innovative musical representations (9)
SIMULACRA (images; representations) Anagram of (innovative) MUSICAL + RA (Royal Academician; artist) – this being a down entry, the letters RA ‘support’ the letters SIMULAC SIMULAC* RA |
| 7 | He represents this priest boring philosopher endlessly (6)
HELIUM (He is the chemical symbol for HELIUM) ELI (the crossword world’s favourite priest) contained in (boring) HUME (reference David HUME [1711 – 1776], one of the crossword world’s top ten philosophers) excluding the final letter (endlessly) E H (ELI) UM |
| 8 | Mashed potato father had right away (2,3,4,2,1,3)
AT THE DROP OF A HAT (instantly; right away) Anagram of (mashed) POTATO FATHER HAD AT THE DROP OF A HAT |
| 15 | Two overlapping signs for lenders (9)
LIBRARIES (lending institutions; lenders) LIBRA (one of the signs of the zodiac) + ARIES (another sign of the zodiac) with the two signs sharing (overlapping) the letter A LIBR (A) RIES |
| 17 | You and I are going to quarrel – that’s rich (4-2-2)
WELL-TO-DO (rich) WE’LL (you and I [WE] will [‘LL]) + TO-DO (commotion; quarrel) WE LL–TO-DO |
| 18 | Swap shillings and farthings? (8)
EXCHANGE (swap) EX (former) + CHANGE (shillings and farthings are pre-decimal [pre-1971] currency in the United Kingdom and were frequently seen in CHANGE before then. Farthings were phased out even earlier [1961]) EX CHANGE |
| 20 | One who doesn’t eat more quickly (6)
FASTER (one who doesn’t eat) FASTER (more quickly) double definition FASTER |
| 21 | News agency at Hay scrapping article for lack of interest (6)
APATHY (lack of interest) AP (Associated Press, a news agency) + AT + HAY excluding the A ([indefinite] article) AP AT HY |
| 23 | When half-cut, fame and talent can be deadly (5)
FATAL (causing death; deadly) FA (letters remaining in FAME when ME, the final 2 of 4 [half] letters are excluded [cut]) + TAL (letters remaining in TALENT when ENT, the final 3 of 6 [half] letters are excluded [cut]) FA TAL |
Not much wrong with this.
Nice change
Thanks Duncan and Amoeba
I thought this was mostly good fun but slightly spoiled by the inclusion of several obscure words, some of which (notably TUATARA) were not sympathetically clued.
I had been led to believe by folks who know about these things that “ones” should be used for phrases for which “ones” or “your” are equally applicable, so I wrote in LET ONES HAIR DOWN as soon as I read the clue. I only realised it was wrong when I tried to parse it.
The Vice President in 4d is long forgotten so, personally, I think he should be qualified by “ex”.
HOT-WIRE was my favourite.
Many thanks to Amoeba and to Duncan.
Faves: EJECTMENT, ANAGRAMMED, HOTWIRE (nice surface), L Y H DOWN, RED GIANT (simple and elegant), A T D O A HAT and WELL-TO-DO.
DYSURIA (I think)
Def: Trouble going
HELIUM
Def: He represents this
Great puzzle and blog.
Thanks Duncan and Amoeba.
Good puzzle. Didn’t like EJECTMENT much. Don’t think I’ve seen it before. Couldn’t parse STOUT but I had STRUT for display so the parsing was lost on me. Couldn’t work out how the R became O but of course I was on the wrong track. Otherwise fine. Special likes for ANAGRAMMED and HELIUM which took me a while and yeah, TUATARA was a gimme for an antipodean without even worrying about the parsing once I had the T. Always nice to see GK from this part of the world once in a while and not MĀORI. Thanks Duncan and Amoeba.
Surely Pence’s place is secure among the very few VPs who will be long and gratefully remembered! Ex- could have been deployed, but I don’t think it is necessary.
Parsed 24a DYSURIA as “Trouble going” 🙂, and 7d HELIUM as “He represents this”, (as KVa@3).
Lots more Pence in 18d EXCHANGE: Shilling (bob) coins (1s=12d=5p) weren’t demonetized until 1990.
[Half-crowns (2s6d=30d=12.5p) were phased out in 1970; tanners (6d=2.5p) in 1980; florins (2s=24d=10p) lasted till 1993.]
I’m with KVa and FrankieG on the definitions for DYSURIA and HELIUM. I failed on the nho TUATARA by taking TA-TA rather than TA-RA as my ‘see you’ resulting in the plausible TUATATA. I was surprised at some of the solutions and, like duncan, looked hard for a theme to explain them but, if there is one, I’ve missed it. But then Eccles gave us some unusual words yesterday so why shouldn’t Amoeba?
Favourites today inc YOGHURT, ANAGRAMMED, HOT WIRE, SENTENCE, WELL-TO-DO, EXCHANGE and FARTHINGS.
Thanks Amoeba and duncan
I made good progress until I hit the two unknowns, but enjoyed the solve
This is the second time in a couple of days that YOUR has been used instead of ONES, and as I already had the U from 13a, it was easy to see which word went in 1d
Thanks to Amoeba and Duncan
I really enjoyed this. Some interesting vocab, for sure, but nothing too outlandish. Well, maybe just the one toast-dropper. Certainly, after tough TUATARA, I was worried when I saw 27a’s plant. Thank goodness it wasn’t the expected exotic. Favourites included RED GIANT, ANAGRAMMED, HOT-WIRE, EXCHANGE, INFORMALLY and LIBRARIANS. Many thanks to Amoeba and Duncan.
Thanks for the fine blog Duncan, and to commenters for taking the time to solve and, well, comment. No theme today, just some unusual words that cropped up as the grid came together. My apologies to those with TATA for the New Zealander – an ambiguity that I didn’t spot while setting. I’m not aware of any norm regarding ONE’S vs YOUR, either as a setter or a solver, and in both guises would be happy with either.
Guardian solver here, came onto the i because the site was down. Thoroughly enjoyed this, although I fell down on HELIUM.
Really enjoyed this one; barked up several wrong trees until I went back and parsed a bit more carefully. Specially liked ANAGRAMMED and HELIUM which stumped me for ages. LIBRARIES was very neat.
Very, very, hard work, for me.
I did not even finish correctly, with (9 across) entered as Evestment, where EJECTMENT was the solution.
Of course…..EJECTMENT. (?)
When I had to go gungadin, on the likes of DYSURIA, and TUATARA, then it’s not easy setting & solving, for me.
Better solvers than me, will disagree. i.e. everyone.
Some good wordplays, ( 15 down, LIBRARIES, is fantastic ).
14 (across) ANAGRAMMED, is probably the best clue and solution that I can recall, for a long time.
But, if I am supposed to crack, that “news agency” = ” Associated Press” = AP, then I must give up betting.
Completed, but with an error; so not completed.
Left me feeling that I have only one brain cell left.
Yamas, Amoeba kai duncanshiell
Thanks Amoeba for a satisfying & nicely crafted crossword. I expected more of a struggle but this dropped into place relatively quickly. My only stumble was TUATARA (I had ‘tuatata’). My top picks were INEPT, ANAGRAMMED (LOI), HOT-WIRE, WAR HERO, DYSURIA, STALAG, LIBRARIES, and EXCHANGE. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.