It’s Phiday again!
Another classic puzzle from our regular Friday setter. Is there a theme? Phi usually has something going on, but, as is becoming more and more normal, we can’t see anything apart from the central down unches reading TORN and the central across unches reading COSY. Is there a connection? Any thoughts out there?
A reversal (‘recalled’) of NAIL (capture) in or ‘charging’ VAT (tank)
QUitO (South American city, capital of Ecuador) missing ‘it’ + RUM (odd)
An anagram (‘will work’) of MANICURIST and TALC
LUTE (instrument) round or ‘cracked by’ DD (couple of daughters) I (one)
R (rex – King) bELIEVE (reckon) missing or ‘seeing off’ ‘b’ (Baron)
EEK (alarmed sound) after M (first letter or ‘head’ of mouse)
E (English) CO (company) LOGICAL (reasoning correctly)
An anagram (‘wheeling around’) of HORRID CAWS
A reversal (‘returned’) of SUP (drink) + H (hospital)
S (south) IBERIA (‘Spanish area mostly’ – it also includes Portugal)
E (energy) oMITTED (failed) missing the first letter or ‘not initially’
IN (popular) + an anagram (‘to adapt’) of GRIMY NOVEL I’M
PossiblY missing the middle letters or ‘without content’ + THO (albeit) N (new)
S (society) ‘engaged’ in mARTIAN (alien) missing the first letter or ‘heading off’
V (versus – ‘against’) lOCAL (pub) missing the first letter or ‘not opening’
An anagram (‘ghastly’) of SNIDE SLUR
IS after A NUB (central point)
A reversal (‘taken up’) of SIT (position)
QUARRELS (‘pointed missiles’ – arrows for a crossbow) OMEn (sign) with the ‘n’ (Nationalist) missing or ‘gone off’
ONTO (aware of) LOG (mathematical quantity) Y (unknown)
USA (America) + a reversal (‘upset’) of EG (for one)
L (line) in or ‘adopted by’ HEATH (former PM)
An anagram (‘fancy’) of EROTICA ON X I
MODE (way of working) ST (stone)
An anagram (‘works’) of OUTSOURCE
HURL (dash) IS ‘entering’ CH (church)
DIRT (gossip) round EC (‘financial centre’ – London postal district)
BONY (thin) with an extra N (character)
YE (old word for ‘the’ – ‘article from long ago’) in or ‘penned by’ DON (academic)
GOyA (Spanish artist) without the ‘y’ (unknown)
I found a couple of these quite tricky when mopping up the end game. The ‘extra character’ in BONNY which I hoped was one of the letters already in place but which could have been anything; the anagram for CIRCUMSTANTIAL was hard to do in my head (plus I didn’t recognise the def) and I spent too long thinking SA in QUORUM was South Africa. LUDDITE, QUARRELSOME and the excellent MODEST are my podium today.
Thanks Phi and B&J for a commendably early blog
In As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 4, Touchstone refers to “a quarrel upon the seventh cause” or “a lie seven times removed” the parts of which are the retort COURTEOUS, the quip MODEST, the reply CHURLISH, the reproof VALIANT, the countercheck QUARRELSOME, the lie CIRCUMSTANTIAL, and the lie DIRECT. I didn’t remember this myself, but found it by searching online when I thought the consecutive answers to 13d, 15d, and 16d looked like they could go together.
Thanks, Phi and Bertandjoyce.
Well done Matthew for spotting the theme. You are on the ball today – just As (we) Like It.
Clever of Phi and thanks Matthew.
Meanwhile, 6d’s subject is the the Riddle of Aduwhy
Aduwhy nofime reely reel
Aduwhy nofime ear
Aduwhy nofa tree makes anoys
Fairs no-one air tuweer
[Actually, the riddle is more epistem- than ont-, but hey ho]
A Phi, as I like it, and a stunning spot by Matthew @ 2.
To be fair, B+J, you did start your blog with “classic puzzle”.
This was a good challenge, and skilfully compiled, even without the theme taken into account. The more so, now I realise the craft Phi has shown, to place the keywords into the grid.
The NE corner held me up a bit: QUORUM and ONTOLOGY were evasive, ( never heard of the latter). USAGE felt a bit stretchy for “management”, but doubtless Chambers will disagree.
All round, good stuff, Phi, BJ……. and Matthew
Most of this was good stuff, and I’ve given up complaining about definitions (and anagram indicators), just grateful when I spot them… same goes for themes, and this was one I was unlikely to spot. Didn’t alter the solve and nicely brought “quarrel” back into the spotlight. My last recollection of its use as a pointy thing, being when I read Ivanhoe, halfway through last century. Also overjoyed to find one of my favourite agricultural implement, both as a written word and as a spectacle, right up there with a scythe…
Thanks Phi and Bertandjoyce
Thanks both. Nearly got there, but sought assistance once the brother of ANUBIS, Ahubis was revealed to be inaccurate. I am always embarrassed to struggle with three-letter answers, worse so when I know one of them, yet it was so with TIS – however, surely I plead hopefully, the ‘a’ in ‘a position’ is rogue?
Hurl = dash?
Otherwise all good, except that as always phi’s themes mean nothing to me even when they are explained.
Thanks Phi. If I had looked for a theme I never would have seen it so it’s just as well I didn’t waste my time. Otherwise this crossword was a good use of my time with MEEK, ARTISAN, VOCAL, MODEST, and GOA being my favourites. I missed BONNY & PYTHON, both unknown to me. Thanks B&J for the blog.
Ericw @8: Both hurl & dash can mean to throw violently. (This is supported by Chambers.)
Ericw@8 funnily enough “CHURLISH” stumped me for a bit, because “hurl” didn’t spring to mind.
As well as “to throw”, (and to vomit ), to hurl is “to scurry/dash”.
This one was delayed until a late lunch on this unusually busy Friday here in Chicago. Just wanted to say that after six months of doing the Indy daily, Phi has become my favorite setter over here. The difficulty level is pitched exactly to my abilities (never too easy, and when it’s occasionally too hard, it’s never because it’s too recondite), and lots of good wit. I would never in a month of Sundays have thought to look for the Shakespeare quote today, but it adds to the pleasure now that it’s been pointed out. Thanks.
(But do you pronounce Phi as a homophone of fie as Americans do, or a homophone of fee as they do in continental Europe? Having learned through these puzzles the shocking fact that in Britain, “beta” and “beater” are homophones, I take nothing on faith any more.)
I’ve been trying to get all these words into a single grid for years, off and on… I remember seeing AYLI at Stratford years ago, and Touchstone started backstage left with ‘retort courteous’ and moved diagonally to reach front right with ‘lie direct’.
I say ‘fie’, though I’m aware that Greek (and Latin) pronunciation keeps a lot of people deeply engaged – or possibly simply out of the way.