A tricky puzzle, as one would expect from this setter, but one where much of the parsing turns out to be “obvious” when you see it, which is of course a sign of ingenious clueing. Thanks to Vlad.
| Across | ||||||||
| 8 | GROSS OUT | 414 causing disgust? (5,3) 414 is an “anagram” (OUT) of 144, a GROSS |
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| 9 | BOOKS | Becks has run out in reserves (5) BROOKS (streams, becks) less R |
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| 10 | EMMY | Vlad’s constituents discussed award (4) Vlad as the setter is “me”, whose constituents are M E, sounding like EMMY |
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| 11 | SQUARE MEAL | Cream cracker? Yes and no (6,4) Cryptic/double definition – a cream cracker is literally square, but not a full meal |
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| 12 | OUTWIT | Trick revealed by husband ‘disappearing’ (6) OUT (revealed) + WITH (by) less H[usband] |
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| 14 | EMIGRATE | Relocate – it’s good in Abu Dhabi? (8) G in EMIRATE |
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| 15 | PEAKING | After exercise one man climaxing (7) PE (exercise) + A KING (chess man) |
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| 17 | SEXIEST | Nearly sleep with old flame inside (extremely hot) (7) EX (old flame) in SIEST[a] |
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| 20 | NIGHTCAP | Almost reaching accord over retirement drink (8) NIGH (almost) + reverse of PACT (accord) |
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| 22 | BOLTED | Secured but ran away (6) Double definition |
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| 23 | SHAMPOOING | Driving away American politician involved – it’s part of the clean-up (10) A[merican] MP in SHOOING |
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| 24 | DO IT | Mate’s encouraging words (2,2) Double definition – “do it” is a slangy way of saying “have sex”, “mate” |
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| 25 | MOSES | Lawman whose sombre features repelled (5) Hidden in reverse of whoSE SOMbre |
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| 26 | OPERA HAT | Hear a top’s unsuitable attire for seeing Lulu? (5,3) (HEAR A TOP). Lulu is an opera by Alban Berg |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | DRAMBUIE | What in bar I’m due to order? (8) (BAR I’M DUE)* &lit |
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| 2 | ESPY | See kind of intuitively, perhaps (4) ”Kind of intuitively” could be E.S.P. -Y |
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| 3 | COSSET | What you need to pay round Home Counties for nanny (6) SE (Home Counties) in COST |
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| 4 | STRUDEL | Rustled up some food (7) RUSTLED* |
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| 5 | ABORTIVE | About right for you? The setter has failed (8) ABOUT with U (you) replaced by R, plus I’VE (the setter has) |
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| 6 | COMMERCIAL | Ad nauseam at the end – comic real sick (10) Anagram of [nausea]M COMIC REAL – a nicely hidden definition |
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| 7 | ASLANT | Inclined to give literary lion time (6) ASLAN (lion in the C S Lewis Narnia books) + T |
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| 13 | WYKEHAMIST | Why mistake upset Sunak? Could be (10) (WHY MISTAKE)* – a Wykehamist (from William of Wykeham, the founder) is one who went to Winchester College, as former PM Rishi Sunak did |
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| 16 | NECROPSY | Most of new whips unknown to PM (8) NE[w] + CROPS (whips) + Y (unknown, in maths). PM here is post-mortem, not Prime Minister as the surface suggests |
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| 18 | SHERIDAN | Writer (female) reaches rock-bottom – that’s upsetting (8) SHE (female) + reverse of NADIR |
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| 19 | APRICOT | Time to be foolish at function (one’s stoned) (7) APR[il] 1 (time to be foolish) + COT (cotangent, trigonometric function) |
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| 21 | INHUME | Bury alive – nice! (Originally not seen as cruel) (6) INHUMANE (cruel) less the first letters of Alive Nice |
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| 22 | BUGGED | Annoyed getting the sack, Boots claimed (6) UGG (brand of boots) in BED (the sack) |
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| 24 | DEAD | Very lacking in atmosphere (4) Double definition |
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Aint that some fancy liquor? That’s my man!
Really nice challenge today. I love Vlad’s ability to take, sometimes quite long, solutions and turn them into very succinct clues. And some delightful misdirections such as ‘Becks’, ‘Ad’ and ‘Lawman’. Faves inc BOOKS, EMIGRATE, NIGHTCAP, MOSES, DRAMBUIE, ABORTIVE SHERIDAN and APRICOT. I’m not sure about the ‘as’ in INHUME which fits the surface but not really the cryptic grammar. And there appear to be two valid solutions to 22a with either BOLTED or BELTED doing the job? The ambiguous letter is unchecked.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
Impaled mostly but lots to learn and admire. Enjoyed everything after the blog came to my rescue. Thanks Andrew and Vlad. (Agree with the comment about 21d)
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
I get irritated when I enter a perfectly good answer that turns out to be wrong. My FOI was BURNS at 9a – def. “becks”, “run” out (anagram) in BS – reserves. I thought it was a good clue!
A DNF – I revealed DO IT. A couple of others unparsed too.
Favourite SHAMPOOING.
[I haven’t got round to doing this puzzle yet, but I thought I’d drop by and say that those who were disappointed that yesterday’s puzzle was not really Monday fare might fancy giving today’s Indy a go. It’s a clear and sharp effort by a quality setter.]
Thank you Andrew. Agree about the ingenious cluing. Thankfully on Vlad’s wavelength today.
Would give an honourable mention to almost every clue.
NECROPSY my fav for the double misdirection. PM or PM or post mortem. But the wordplay was unambiguous.
Did anyone else see a possible nina in row 1 and column 1?
The grid prompted me to look for a nina. I found a George Lucas quote: “We’re all living in cages with the door wide open.” Is Vlad saying something with : “A cage opens”?
I really enjoyed this – I couldn’t explain why it was ESPY or EMMY although I was pretty sure they were the answers on first read through and had to wait for the crossers to confirm my hunch – I find it’s amazing how much better I can explain solutions when I’m blogging, far too lazy when I’m just solving.
Definitely chewy, but Vlad usually is, but also entertaining.
Thank you Andrew and Vlad.
I find Vlad is very much a “wavelength” setter – and today didn’t seem to be one of those days for me. Enjoyed the challenge but graciously defeated.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
Hard work, but worth the trouble – DEAD good, in fact. This took two sessions, with a sleep in between: when I woke up I looked at the two crossers in 19d and said “that’s APRICOT”, though it took a while to parse it afterwards. Couldn’t parse INHUME or OUTWIT and I had BAGGED for BUGGED, so an enjoyable dnf.
Favourites EMIGRATE for a neat surface,
NIGHTCAP, OPERA HAT, DRAMBUIE, COMMERCIAL, APRICOT.
So how would you improve the clue for INHUME PM @2 and Sofamore @3? “for” or “in” any better than “as”? I can think of a clue that would get me in trouble. 😉
Favourites for me were GROSS OUT, COMMERCIAL for the nicely hidden def. and NECROPSY for the deceptive PM.
@5. Thanks. I’m also disappointed this isn’t standard Tuesday fare. I’m a relative newbie and it’s a real shame these have been so hard. Looks like it’s going to be a whole weak of failures for me…
paddymelon@6: I think you need to explain further (for me, anyway). You mentioned a “partial George Lucas quote” on the Guardian blog, but I still can’t see anything.
I spent way too long trying to find if “goon” was a synonym for “mate” in 24a. Go on. Words of encouragement. I do know the “it”of crosswordspeak, but it didn’t occur to me, and neither did the crossing DEAD for very. .Very good.
I always find Vlad tough and this was no exception. I managed to solve everything but struggled to parse a few. Thank you Andrew for your help with APRICOT and INHUME. With so many great clues to choose from my favourites were GROSS OUT, NECROPSY and COMMERCIAL.
I agree with PM@ 2 re BOLTED/BELTED, both work. I did think WYKEHAMIST was a bit obscure.
Thank you to Vlad and to Andrew.
A work of art. Thanks for parsing EMMY, Andrew. I was trying to conflate ME backwards and MY but it didn’t really pass muster. And I misparsed BOOKS, too, thinking that BECKS might have been the familiar way of addressing the [in]famous ReBEKah Brooks… a bit of a hack, really.
Oops. I see paddymelon has explained further. Don’t know the quote: it might or might not be coincidence.
PS: I tried GO ON too.
Thanks for the blog.. always enlightening
As a retired teacher I appreciated the maths-y flavour of 8 11 and 16.
Favourite was espy because it made me smile when it finally clicked.
PM@6. But only if you put an E in OPNS
Tough but enjoyable.
Favourite: ESPY.
I could not parse 10ac, 21d.
New for me : NECROPSY.
Fair point Tim C @10. I would choose ‘in’ but the surface would suffer and who am I to tell Vlad what to do? It’s just something I felt about the clue when solving so I supported the comment.
JT @5 as a relatively old hand who would usually manage most or all of the majority of crosswords, I feel your pain as I might have given up if I was starting now. It does seem there are fewer accessible crosswords recently, even in the Quiptic/Monday slots. I am a big Vlad fan and I found this hard and not his most sparkling. I’ve been to lots of PMs. The pathologists uniformly called them autopsies, which sounds American to me. I’d never heard the word necropsy.
Almost gave up on my second sitting but glad I persevered. Certainly one of the toughest solves in months with marvellous misdirections throughout, especially the clever WYKEHAMIST, NECROPSY and OPERA HAT. NIGHTCAP, COMMERCIAL and SHERIDAN were outstanding. Once again, in awe of the setter.
Ta Vlad & Andrew.
BUGGED. We’ve had a couple of crosswords lately with Boots misdirections, so on the lookout. But it was very familiar. I live about half a mile from an Ugg boot shop. They have had legal battles wrt to the brand name which apparently was an Aussie invention, although it sounds suspiciously like an imitation of a stereotypical word that was deemed to be spoken by some First Nations Americans in the bad ol’ days of black and white TV
Stunningly good – I’m feeling a bit punch drunk but DEAD chuffed to have more or less finished. (Vlad just won on points.)
It would be much easier to count the unticked entries. Top favourites ABORTIVE, for the nifty substitution, COMMERCIAL for the ‘lift and separate’ misdirection, NECROPSY, again for the misdirection and WYKEHAMIST for sheer brilliance.
Huge thanks to Vlad for a most enjoyable challenge and to Andrew for rising to it so nobly.
it was a slog but well worth. Loved every bit and learnt much. A sense of satisfaction at not using checks and reveals. Thanks Vlad and Andrew
I think the MEAL of SQUARE MEAL is an allusion to what it comprises (see def 2 in Chambers)
I took 26A to refer to the singer Lulu, for whom it would be “unsuitable attire”. Doesn’t the clue invite both possibilities?
muffin@4. I did the same at 9a, interpreting BS as Back Stock (reserves).
Grim and Dim@27 – the surface reading is certainly meant to (mis)lead you to the singer Lulu, but the ‘unsuitable’ in the clue is to indicate the anagram [the asterisk is missing in Andrew’s explanation]. It would be doing double duty, otherwise.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
In 10 I saw the definition as “ “Vlad’s” constituents “ (in the same way as one might say “hummus constituents”, Vlad’s = MY = EMM Y.
Plausible?
Well, that was a toughie. But as Andrew says in retrospect it all seemed clear and obvious (unlike VAR).
So much to praise but the best for me were APRICOT, BUGGED and NIGHTCAP
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
Found this extremely tough throughout from start to – well, non-finish. Plenty of retro parsing with in many cases a little ripple of applause here for the ingenuity. GROSS OUT, over which I pored for some considerable time with a blank look on my face was the one that completely defeated me in the end. As ever, though, lots to admire along the (tortuous) way…
[A clue in last Tuesday’s Qaos reminded me of the famous (or infamous) gegs (8,4) and I took it as an excuse to post a clue usng the same trick “I elect Republican with ecstasy”(8,11). Just in cse anyone wants the answer it’s ERECTILE (I ELECT R(epublican) with E(cstasy) * DYSFUNCTION (the anagrind)]
[13d appears in this G&S parody: The Rees-Mogg Singalong Extravaganza. “And though I went to public school, at least I’m not a WYKEHAMIST”]
@4 My thoughts entirely. For all the clever surfaces that was the last straw. A setter more interested in their crafting than setting a fair test for us. I suppose that’s what the reveal button is for.
Very enjoyable but tough – thanks Vlad and Andrew.
On a more general topic, I prefer to do the crossword from the Guardian Editions app on my iPad, by clicking on the Puzzles icon at the bottom of the first screen. But this only shows the crossword number, not the setter, which is often useful to know. Anyone got a solution to this?
Liked the innovative anagram of a number in 8a GROSS OUT, and the ‘Lift and Separate‘ of a Latin phrase in 6d COMMERCIAL. {Edit: as Eileen@24}
Brilliant and tough! I felt as if I’d inadvertently wandered into an advanced class, but what a great lesson!
New words: NECROPSY, INHUME and WYKEHAMIST (very UK GK that last one).
Too many favourites to list, but I’ll just mention ABORTIVE, COMMERCIAL, APRICOT, NIGHTCAP and SHERIDAN. And ASLANT for the literary lion.
Thanks Andrew for the explanations and all the bits of parsing that I missed.
And thanks of course to Vlad for the excellent puzzle.
Vlad at his best today. A long solve but completed and parsed. LOI APRICOT.
Took ages to clock the meaning of PM but when all cross clues were in the penny finally dropped.
Thanks to setter &blogger.
FrankieG@34. Delightful ear worm. Thanks so much.
Tough, needed a couple of impatient reveals in the end, but the clues generally check out as fair – I do agree with others that the ‘as’ in INHUME is ungrammatical for the cryptic reading, and also wondered where the ‘soundalike’ indicator was for ‘you’/’U’ in ABORTIVE (is it the question mark? or is it simply saying that ‘you’=’U’?)
But lots of great clues: GROSS OUT, COMMERCIAL, APRICOT, NECROPSY and ESPY.
Many thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
A tough one for me today. Favorites were 8A, 6D and 16D for the misdirection. Several remained unparsed.
And I would not have parsed 21D if I had stared at it for a month of Sundays, so congratulations to those of you who did.
I did think this was a cracker from Vlad. I solved most of it during my insomnia hour and had six to go, all in the SW, when Morpheus reclaimed my brain. These fell readily enough in the morning. Never having heard of UGG boots, I didn’t have a hope of parsing BUGGED, but everything else was perfectly clear. Just to say to Rob T, immediately above, that I really don’t think a soundalike indicator is necessary for you/U, as this is standard texting language.
Balfour @43 – thanks, I did think that might be the answer… other setters do indicate textspeak but I guess it’s perhaps becoming normalised enough to not need it.
Very tough in parts, very clever everywhere. Was BUGGED I had forgotten Uggs, had to verify where Sunak was schooled, but overall was the opposite of DEAD GROSSed OUT.
Superb. Vlad back to his best form. Too many ticks to mention but LOLs for GROSS OUT, INHUME, and BUGGED which Vlad very neatly guess-proofed by having bugged or bagged equal to annoyed or claimed
Cheers V&A
Phil McHale@36 The setter’s name is shown where the crossword appears in the paper, usually in the Journal section; today it was on page 12.
Family story from the 1880’s. When my great-uncle Harold was a toddler, he was fascinated by his father’s OPERA HAT. He thought it would be interesting to see what happened when he jumped on it from the stairs. When asked what had happened to the now destroyed hat, he said “A big torm truck it.”
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
Very nearly gave up with the intention of coming back tomorrow, but once Wykehamist went in (unparsed – I thought it was some kind of political grouping) the remaining half or more of the grid started to fall into place quite quickly. Did not parse BUGGED, although I have heard of UGG, and did not parse BOOKS, and have now learnt ‘beck’ as a form of stream. One up to Vlad, and thanks for a very enjoyable game. Thanks Andrew for explaining everything.
Thoroughly impaled at the beginning with no Across clues solved on first pass. However, I eventually put it all together. I liked GROSS OUT for the ingenuity, DRAMBUIE for a good anagram (likewise, WYKEHAMIST), and the wordplays for SHERIDAN and APRICOT. I can’t say that I like you=U but Wiktionary has it as Internet, informal, so maybe the setter is off the hook.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew: splendid stuff. I also had BELTED for 22a, which sort of works, though BOLTED is clearly better. A flesh wound for me, rather than a thorough impalement!
(I came here for the answers to the several that I couldn’t do …
But now …
Big Thank You to FrankieG@34. That’s the funniest, most brilliant song I’ve ever heard.)
Like others, had belted for 22a. Always find a Vlad too much like hard work.
I’ve only just seen FrankieG’s link (big thank you from me, too).
Some of you may remember this parody, introduced to us some time ago – by Vlad himself.
The link doesn’t work: try googling ‘A very stable genius, Randy Rainbow’.
Thanks for the blog, great puzzle , should have been a Saturday . I only got eight answers cold solving but worked through each corner with the help of the grid. NECROPSY wins by a short head from many other fine clues.
WYKEHAMIST I knew from an episode of Colditz ( BBC 70s series ) . George Brent went to Winchester and had to check on a fellow Wykehamist who they thought could be a German plant .
Me @54 – it was Vlad with his Tyrus hat on – see here at 4dn:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2019/10/03/independent-10288-tyrus/#comments
Eileen @54
Many thanks for that. I’m going to pass on the link!
Valentine@48😄
[Glad you found it, muffin @57!
I’ve just discovered that STABLE GENIUS was actually in an earlier
Vlad puzzle which I blogged. Vlad called it ‘the gift that goes on giving’.]
I got 6 of these one of which was wrong. Not sure about being on different wavelengths but on completely different modes of communication today.
Made use of the blog though and there were only a few that I thought “that’s a bit too tough”
Thanks for the blog, it sure got a thorough reading from me today. Looking forward to Vlad’s next offering to see if I can ‘tune in’ this time
Eileen@54, your link lost its colon and was appended to the default “http://” instead of replacing it, like this: “http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A”
Here it is as you intended: “A VERY STABLE GENIUS – Randy Rainbow Song Parody” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A …
Found this one tough and mostly fair.
OUTWIT we parsed as out with (reveal) then take away the “h” rather than using the “by”.
Either way it works.
WYKEHAMIST by exclusion and Google!
I was DEAD pleased to have finished this, having misled myself with unparsed (and obviously incorrect) INTOMB and STAMPEDING in the SE corner. Oh, and I wrote down the fodder for DRAMBUIE with a letter wrong, which also didn’t help. So, finishing with one hand tied behind my back, in effect.
PM for NECROPSY was my favourite moment.
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
[There’s also the Minions’ version from Despicable Me 3 (2017), with nonsense karaoke lyrics, but saner than Moggy or the Orange Man.]
Thought there might be an “award” theme in the NW, with EMMY, ESPY, and, obscurely, GRAMMY and OBIE, but more likely just an EDDY. Tim C @10 et al: how about “Originally not appearing cruel”?
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
[FrankieG @64 – but even further from any reference to today’s puzzle!
I apologise to everyone for extending the digression beyond JRM but any version of the famous G and S patter song would have reminded me immediately of Vlad’s exploitation of Randy Rainbow, which I just wanted to share, since it was Vlad’s day. I hope others may have enjoyed it.]
I gave up on this very quickly, when it became clear that it wasn’t going to be a fast solve. Funnily, the only solution I’d got out of the 6 or 7 that I’d tried turned out to be wrong:
“Becks has run out in reserves”. I had SEAMS (streams minus r) in which a seam of precious metals, a reserve of precious metals, seems to work for me. So I’m happy I chucked it in.
I look forward to tackling a Vlad on more equal terms much further into my crosswording future!
[Eileen
You don’t have to apologise to me! Wife and daughter both loved it.
AP
Interesting on 9a – as I posted earlier, I was more than happy with BURNS.]
Son reading through the blog: SQUARE MEAL / cream cracker – brilliant though the idea is – is plainly and simply the wrong way around, to me. A square meal is neither a cream cracker nor not a cream cracker. 😉
And in what way does OUT = “revealed” (using the substitution test)?
A pity these occurred early on, because the rest of it was great and seemingly fair enough (thanks to the blog presenting it all as light reading)… only INHUME and BUGGED would have been never-evers I think.
AP @69 (now that I do recognise your initials;-) ) – congratulations on not giving up! I applaud your positive comment.
Vlad’s puzzles are usually quite challenging but always scrupulously fair and therefore ultimately satisfying, so you can trust in the integrity of his cluing (see Andrew’s preamble). If you can now see the reasoning behind today’s clever clues, you’re on the way! Persevere and you have many treats in store!
Edit: your later comment has appeared while I’m typing – I’ll leave that to others: I’ve run out of time!
AP@69 I am afraid this is confidential but tomorrow the secret will be OUT ( or even revealed ) .
AP @ 69 One of the few constituents of a cream cracker is ground wheat = MEAL, so a cream cracker is meal shaped into a square.
And, indeed, in itself it’s not a square meal while being a meal square.
A complete bust for me. PEAKING the only one I got on my own. Revealed a few which then helped me get a bunch of others but that’s just cheating. Thanks for the blog as the parsing on some defeated me. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow…
Can I please ask for further explanation of ESPY?
I have no inkling as to what’s going on.
Hi Steffen. ESP is extra-sensory perception, or in other words an inkling 🙂 or intuition. Y is a common ending for adjectives if they’re formed from nouns, so ESP-Y could mean ‘kind of intuitively’. But this meaning is fanciful, or made up just for this clue.
Of course its proper meaning is to see.
Thanks
ESP I could understand, but Y was beyond me…like the whole puzzle!
Plus ca change…
It’s worth remembering that trick with the Y. It gets used from time to time. The setter has put “perhaps” on the end of the clue to show that he’s doing something a bit cheeky!
[FrankieG and Eileen, thanks for two classic earworms which I intend to spread widely!
pino@30, thanks again for the hint you sent the other day, not sure if you saw my reply.]
A curate’s egg for me. Some lovely clues but one or two that baffle me. In particular 4d – where on earth is the anagind? If it’s “up”, then why?
Thanks to Andrew for a very informative blog and to others for their kind comments.
JayZed @79 – yes the anagrind is “up” as in excited, and anagram indicators using something to do with excited, disturbed are usually accepted.
Shanne @79 – I can happily accept “excited” or “disturbed” as anagram indicators, but “up” meaning “excited” (“up” as in happy? Or as in aroused?) feels like a huge stretch as an anagram indicator.
Just to say how much we are enjoying this crossword. We still have a few to do (21 dn, 18 dn, 24dn and 22 dn although we think that is BUGGED but cannot see why).
I got here by entering 29621 Vlad, clicking on the first entry and then taking off my glasses so I could not see any giveaways as I wooshed down to the end. Thank you so much, Vlad (we WILL crack it in the end) for this most enjoyable challenge.
Loved GROSS OUT, and DRAMBUIE!
Thanks Vlad and Andrew!
Eileen@70, thanks for the encouragement!
Roz@71, “out” and “revealed” seem like different grammatical beasts in that example, i.e. it seems almost coincidental that they’re interchangeable there. And I don’t see them as synonymous even then! Anyway, it’s not important, of course.
Simon S@72, yup I get the joke, and it’s brilliant; it’s just that I think it should have been the other way around: square meal in the surface, and cream cracker as the answer. I’ve tried quite hard to tease out why I think that, but without great success so far. It’s something along the lines of “saying a cream cracker does not constitute a square meal makes sense, but saying a square meal does not constitute a cream cracker does not”. But again: anyway…
Thanks all for the input!
Thanks for a robust, well-balanced crossword, Vlad.
Cheers all.
JayZed @82 – in my edition of Chambers (1998, 2003 reprint) the definition of up gives:
up up, adv in, to or toward a higher place, level or state; aloft; on high; towards a centre (such as a capital, great town, or university); in residence, at school or college; northward; to windward; in to a more erect position or more advanced state of erection; out of bed; on horseback; in an excited state; in revolt; with (increased) vigour, intensity or loudness; afoot; … and a whole lot more
Either “in revolt” or “in an excited state” works as an anagram indicator, and if Chambers gives both as meanings of “up”, Vlad is off the hook here.
Well you can see by the time of this post how long that took. Long battles are just as satisfying though, thank you Vlad, and Andrew for the brilliant blog, I’m in awe of quick solvers.
Tough crossword, I had “Poached” as the answer to “rustled up some food” which I thought worked well.
Hardest puzzle for a while, especially the SW half.
Took us four days, but well worth the effort and head scratching
Took daughter and me even longer, but what a magnificent puzzle! I usually give up if a puzzle takes so long, but this was worth all the effort. Sadly, one gap at the end, 24d.
Completed all but five in the SE. Very pleased to make it that far in a Vlad puzzle — must be making progress!
22a, coincidentally I recently heard this joke: We adopted a dog from a blacksmith, and when we got it home it made a BOLT for the front door