The Thursday crossword this week has been supplied by one of the more recent additions to the Indy compiling team, and this was my first outing with him as solver and blogger.
I found this to be a challenging and highly entertaining solve, which revealed its different layers to me bit by bit and which contained some more unusual vocabulary, such as at 12, 13A, 14 …. The theme word, if it can be described as such, is at 16, which seems rather poignant given recent events in California. And although the catastrophic event in 1666 is the main focus here, 16 is present elsewhere, most surprisingly perhaps at 5!
I am generally happy with my parsing, but I am not sure what the role of “Stateside” is at 10, and I am wondering if the entry at 4 is a term in its own right, akin to a hotspot, say.
My favourite clues today were 6, for overall construction; and 23/16/15 and 22, both for their (semi-) & lit. quality. However, there was a lot to enjoy here, and I am already looking forward to my next outing with Stetson.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | LIFERS | 50 16s uncontrolled – murderous criminals inside?
L (=50, in Roman numerals) + *(FIRES (=entry at 16, pluralised)); “uncontrolled” is anagram indicator |
| 04 | WARM SPOT | Prepares to make brew somewhere near 16?
WARMS POT (=prepares to make brew, i.e. a pot of tea); a warm spot could be “somewhere near a fire (=entry at 16)” |
| 09 | NURSED | Was tender shark served with chard finally?
NURSE (=(type of) shark) + <char>D (“finally” means last letter only); to tend a patient is to nurse them |
| 10 | ATTENDER | One waiting on by Stateside 16 engine
AT (=by, as in at/by the door) + TENDER (=Stateside fire (=entry at 16) engine) |
| 11 | CONSTABULARIES | Magistrate accommodating Bill – sign for police forces
[TAB (=bill, account to be settled) in CONSUL (=magistrate, e.g. in Rome)] + ARIES (=sign, i.e. of Zodiac) |
| 13 | ANGWANTIBO | Lemur – need one to populate jungly Gabon?
[WANT (=need, lack) + I (=one)] in *(GABON); “jungly” is anagram indicator; the angwantibo or golden potto is a type of lemur! |
| 14 | IGBO | Satellite covering GB for Nigerian people
GB in IO (=satellite, i.e. a moon of Jupiter); the Igbo are a people native to SE Nigeria |
| 18 | UNCONFINED | Free fearsome Scots female held by 9 daughters
UNCO (=fearsome Scots, i.e. a Scottish word for fearsome) + [F (=female) in NINE (=9)] + D (=daughters) |
| 21 | INDIAN MONGOOSE | Rodent-eater in portion two Scotsmen try to divide?
[IAN (=Scotsman) + MON (=Scotsman) + GO (=(a) try, attempt)] in [IN + DOSE (=portion)] |
| 23/16/15 | THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON | For heat get old inferno lit
*(FOR HEAT GET OLD INFERNO); “lit” is anagram indicator; semi- & lit.; the reference is to the Great Fire of London in 1666, which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane (=entry at 07/01D) |
| 24 | ADHERE | Stick lands regularly at this spot
<l>A<n>D<s> (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used) + HERE (=at this spot) |
| 25 | DORMOUSE | Instruction to waken besetting minute little sleeper
M (=minute, i.e. measure of time, not adjective meaning tiny) in DO ROUSE! (=instruction to waken) |
| 26 | ONE-TWO | Passes into net won cups
Hidden (“cups”, i.e. contains) in “intO NET WOn”; a one-two is a series of passes in football |
| Down | ||
| 02 | FURLONG | Ten chains in need of a clip?
Cryptically, if your “fur (is) long”, you are “in need of a clip”, i.e. a cut; in imperial measures of length, a furlong was the equivalent of ten chains |
| 03 | RHEOSTAT | Current regulator right: East German in warm
R (=right) + [OST (=East German, i.e. the German word for east) in HEAT (=warm)] |
| 05 | ARTHUR BROWN | Harrow burnt, destroyed? He put out 16 in 1968
*(HARROW BURNT); “destroyed” is anagram indicator; the reference is to UK group (The Crazy World of) Arthur Brown, who “put out” a single entitled Fire (=entry at 16) in 1968! |
| 06 | MAENAD | Is it Hamlet risen? After his Gertrude? Frenzied woman!
MA (=Gertrude, i.e. mother of Hamlet) + ENAD (DANE=Hamlet; “risen” indicates vertical reversal); the maenads were frenzied women in Greek mythology |
| 07/01D | PUDDING LANE | Dull sort left an echo where 23 16 15 began
PUDDING (=dull sort, heavy-witted person) + L (=left) + AN + E (=echo, in NATO alphabet); the Great Fire of London (=entry at 23 16 15) began here |
| 08 | THRESHOLD | Flog the elderly? That’s the limit
THRESH (=flog, beat out) + OLD (=the elderly) |
| 12 | ANTINOMIANS | An onanist excited keeping note for heretics
MI (=note, i.e. in music) in *(AN ONANIST); “excited” is anagram indicator; antinomians are those that deny the obligatoriness of moral law, hence “heretics” |
| 13 | AFFLICTED | A fine French cop periodically attends sick
A + F (=fine, on lead pencils) + FLIC (=French cop, i.e. a slang word in French for policeman) + <a>T<t>E<n>D<s> (“periodically” means alternate letters only are used) |
| 17 | RED DEER | Start to eat: more ginger brought round for creature
E<at> (“start to” means first letter only) in REDDER (=more ginger) |
| 19 | NASCENT | New: a perfume beginning to develop
N (=new, as in NT) + A + SCENT (=perfume) |
| 20 | HAIRDO | Shock arrangement that’s surprising Irish party?
HA (=that’s surprising, as exclamation) + IR (=Irish) + DO (=party, function): the “shock” of the definition is a head of hair! |
| 22 | ZERO | Mitsubishi used in kamikaze role?
Hidden (“used in”) in “kamikaZE ROle”; & lit.; the reference is to the WWII Japanese fighter aircraft, sometimes used in kamikaze operations |
After a shaky start, I got THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON using the ‘rhythm method’ (dah dah dah di dahdah), then everything else slotted in nicely with no queries. Thanks Stetson and RatkojaRiku
“Fire tender” is the American (“stateside”) term for UK “Fire engine”.
Given all the references to fires, ‘red deer’ reminded me of ‘Red Adair’ (don’t know if that was deliberate – probably not). Learnt a few things but got them all from the wordplay, which is always nice. New to me were the wonderfully named lemur, antinomians and fire tenders. Oh, and also that meaning of ‘zero’.
Liked ATTENDER, FURLONG, T G F O LONDON and ZERO.
Thanks Stetson and RR.
WARM SPOT is actually in Collins as an area of skin that responds to heat or a pleasant memory, but maybe the setter only has Chambers. Wasn’t Stetson used as an alternative ID specially because of the TS Eliot link in the first one? Odd that it’s been rolled out again.
Usual quality puzzle, though, thanks.
10a: Andrew@2, that’s what I thought, too, but I can’t seem to find it in any dictionary, and Wikipedia just redirects it.
4a: Merriam-Webster has a WARM SPOT: “a lasting affection for a particular person or thing”.
LOi 13a: A?G?A?T?B? a jorum, where WANT didn’t seem likely, but it worked. Apparently there are some in Gabon, too.
“Challenging and highly entertaining” is exactly how I’d put it too. I don’t recall any other “normal” recent puzzle which presented me with so many unfamiliar terms! But the great clueing meant that they all yielded except for my only failure which was MAENAD; my ignorance of Hamlet and of Dionysus’s coterie meant that it wasn’t guessable.
Given that 16a FIRE was clearly key, I attacked the crossing words first and got the F-R- crossers (and THE), from which the fact that the clue was likely to be an &littish anagram which ruled out farm/ form the word FIRE fell out, quickly confirmed by 1a LIFERS. The rhythm method of Tatrasman@1 then led me to TGFOL and things started rolling from there.
Aside from MAENAD, the other nhos were fire TENDER, ANGWANTIBO (and agree that WANT didn’t seem likely so the whole thing went unfilled for a good while, even with plenty of checkers), IGBO, UNCO, MON (I just shrugged at those latter two; they were clearly correct), INDIAN (specifically) MONGOOSE, ARTHUR BROWN, ANTINOMIANism and the Mitsubishu ZERO (tho visually it turned out to be familiar).
I knew FLIC and it comes up from time to time, although I’m not sure why it should be well-known. Perhaps it crops up on Netflix?
The only questionable thing was cluing GB directly, given than IGBO was a nho probably for many of us; I would have been less doubtful if it had been clued as Great Britain. As it was, it seemed a bit too obvious; surely IO is the only two-letter moon, and there wasn’t much else to play with!
Thanks both
Apart from the lemur – well clued but so unlikely I didn’t beleive it could be right, at first- everything went in very quickly.
Great to see the reference to Arthur Brown. Pre-Brexit he divided his time between Lewes and Portugal. In Lewes he did some terrific stuff bringing on aspiring teenage rock musicians, revealed an unexpected side as a great children’s entertainer at the Pells Pool, and sang a floor spot at one of the folk clubs. He still had that amazing 5-octave voice. The last time I saw him he was Henry III in the son et lumiere for the anniversary of the Battle of Lewes, while I played medeival harp for a mystery play. As nice a bloke as you could meet.
Thanks both. This certainly had originality and entertainment, if not a huge amount of solver sympathy, starting with a 20-letter anagram for the gateway clue, and including all the obscurities already referenced. I too failed only on MAENAD where my GK was entirely absent, but fortunately I did know ARTHUR BROWN – it is a crazy world, indeed.
Ditto re the thythm method Tatrasman @1 (a bit nail-biting re the other, thank the Lord for the pill). The lemur took trust; when you’ve got *a*t and you need “need”, it’s gotta be want, no matter how weird angwantibo looks. Ditto for Arthur Brown, nho but had to be that, (lthough his name isn’t weird). Lots of fun, ta Stetson and RR.
(Yes, surprisingly the name came fairly easily simply because I couldn’t make any other plausible forename from the letters, helped especially by the lack of a ‘d’ and an ‘e’. Well, I say “surprisingly”, but in fact I’m so often impressed by the anagrams that setters choose, which usher you to the answer by ensuring that all the wrong routes that one briefly considers get shut down quickly by the particular set of letters involved or excluded.)
I’ve never heard of, and certainly never thought of, the rhythm method for multi-word answers, so thanks to Tatrasman @1 and others for that. Favourites FURLONG and ZERO (which I idly thought might be a current model of car – why not?) Enjoyed expanding my vocab and knowledge, so thanks to Stetson and Ratkojariku
Thanks Stetson for the puzzle and reminding us of the nights we spent dancing away to FIRE in Marburg, Germany in the summer of 1968!
Lots of other clues to enjoy although there were more unusual words here in the grid than we would normally like.
Thanks Tatrasman.
Thanks Stetson. I was lucky in that my second one in was THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON, having only the R from HAIRDO, my FOI. I ultimately failed with the nho MAENAD & ANGWANTIBO but everything else fell into place. I particularly liked WARM SPOT, INDIAN MONGOOSE, and DORMOUSE. As an American I’ve never heard a fire engine called a ‘tender.’ It must be a regional thing. Thanks RR for the blog.
I actually remembered ARTHUR BROWN. 1968 was about when I discovered Radio 3 and stopped listening to pop music.
I’d assumed Stetson was used as the setter’s name in the T.S. Eliot crossword back in August (which I enjoyed) as Stetson is a name appearing in The Waste Land.
And I liked 25ac. 🙂
Late to attempt this today. Initially found it a battle and decided to go for the long ‘un which I suspected to be an &lit and solved from enumeration. At which point, revisiting some of the early clues was made much easier – apart from the lemur and the heretics. I did throw myself briefly by plumping for HEAT SPOT until the obvious anagram fodder for ARTHUR BROWN forced a rethink. MAENAD is very nice.
Thanks both
Saving this one for dinnertime CST–rough day at work, y’all–means that no one will see this comment. But I’m another American who calls a fire engine a fire engine. My guess is the “tender” thing is archaic.
I had never heard of Arthur Brown, but that was the only anagram that yielded a name. I had a similar experience to others with the lemur: the instructions led to that arrangement of letters, and lo, that turned out to be a thing. I only failed on MAENAD.
Well, what a great theme-tastic puzzle by Stetson. I missed it totally on Thursday, but got around to it in the end. GREAT FIRE clue probably shades it over the others, but masterly stuff throughout.