This was a very clever and interesting puzzle.
The theme is given in the top and bottom rows with some other references appearing elsewhere. The isolated middle section of the puzzle immediately hinted that something strange was going on and its purpose is explained in the blog. Oddly, my favourite clue was 19D, which had nothing to do with the theme but had a great consistency about it, with the answer even being the correct language for the word siestas.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DANTES INFERNO |
Poetic work the first with dramatic stakes? Guess not… (6,7)
|
| D[ramatic] + antes(=stakes, in betting) + infer no(=guess not) | ||
| 8 | CARDINAL VIRTUES |
Detective to probe corrupt Vatican ruler’s principles (8,7)
|
| DI(=Detective Inspector) in (Vatican ruler’s)* | ||
| 10 | RELIGIOUS ORDERS |
What holy folk will give in Frankie and Benny’s, maybe? (9,6)
|
| CD | ||
| 11 | VOID |
Latin poet’s moving verse for abyss (4)
|
| Ovid, a poet responsible for The Metamorphoses, with the v{erse} moving to the front | ||
| 12 | SAT |
Location down under home to certain devils reclining on throne? (3)
|
| I must confess to having to look at the puzzle annotation to explain this one but it’s Tas{mania}< with reclining providing the reversal indicator. The devils refers to Tasmanian Devils, which are a type of marsupial indigenous to Tasmania. | ||
| 14 | MACE |
Mephistopheles initially leading wicked staff (4)
|
| M[ephistopheles] + ace(=leading). I’m a little unclear on the purpose of “wicked” – it doesn’t seem to be required for the clue fodder and doesn’t seem to be needed for the def either. I don’t think it’s a triple def because I can’t think of any context in which mace would mean wicked. | ||
| 16 | PLEA |
Accused person may enter this place with endless heat (4)
|
| Pl{ace} + [h]ea[t] | ||
| 18 | SIN |
Casino’s hosting 21, perhaps (3)
|
| Hidden in casino. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. | ||
| 19 | SACK |
Fire and brimstone beginning to affect label on pants (4)
|
| S{ulphur}(=brimstone) + a[ffect] + CK(=Calvin Klein, label of a US fashion brand). The def is in the sense of dismissing someone from a job. | ||
| 22 | CRIMINALISATION |
Fiendish act I’m in on with liar is creating offence (15)
|
| (Act I’m in on liar is)* | ||
| 26 | DEMONSTRATIVELY |
Obviously diabolical spirit’s vile and tart when drunk by yard (15)
|
| Demon’s(=diabolical spirit’s) + (vile tart)* + y{ard} | ||
| 27 | CIRCLES OF HELL |
Underground Zones 1-9 – might four answers here be called one of them? (7,2,4)
|
| The 9 circles of hell features in Dante’s Inferno and might be described as in the clue. The second part refers to the isolated middle section of the puzzle where the four words form a circle containing the word “satanist”. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | APRIL FOOL |
One taken in by proof all made up (5,4)
|
| &lit. I in (proof all)* | ||
| 3 | TWIGGED |
Caught on top of tower with specially picked locks (7)
|
| T[ower] + wigged(=specially picked locks i.e. hair) | ||
| 4 | SHAKO |
Second husband a big hit – or old hat (5)
|
| S{econd} h{usband} + a KO(=knockout, which could mean a big hit either in a boxing sense or in the colloquial sense of something that’s very successful) | ||
| 5 | NAVES |
Church centres called out scoundrels (5)
|
| Hom of knaves(=scoundrels) | ||
| 6 | EARDRUM |
Body part some heard rumbling (7)
|
| Hidden in heard rumbling | ||
| 7 | NO USE |
Futile gesture snubbed by crossword setters online (2,3)
|
| No[d](=gesture with last letter “snubbed”) + us(=crossword setters) + E(=online, as in E-commerce) | ||
| 8 | CURE |
Reminder to include right solution (4)
|
| Cue(=reminder) around r{ight} | ||
| 9 | SO-SO |
A couple of significant others nothing to write home about (2-2)
|
| S{ignificant} o{ther} twice | ||
| 12 | STS |
NASA program regularly blocked sites (1,1,1)
|
| Odd letters of sites. I’d never heard of it but apparently STS (Space Transportation System) is the official name of the Space Shuttle Program. | ||
| 13 | TAN |
Successfully sunbathe in vessel with bottom out (3)
|
| Tan[k] | ||
| 15 | COCHINEAL |
Firm friend swallows pill before large red (9)
|
| (Co{mpany}(=firm) + china(=friend e.g. “my old china”) + l{arge}) around E{cstasy}(=drug usually sold as pills). Cochineal is a red colouring made from insects. | ||
| 17 | AVIONIC |
Insiders from navy like a certain Bond dealing with gadgets in the air (7)
|
| [N]av[y](inside letters) + ionic(=type of bond in chemistry) | ||
| 19 | SPANISH |
Rejecting “siestas”, I don’t say a word in this language (7)
|
| Naps<(=siestas) + I + sh(=don’t say a word) | ||
| 20 | ICED |
The first day of advent’s flipping cold (4)
|
| (Dec I)<(=first day of Advent) | ||
| 21 | ENVY |
What sounds just like its heart’s desire (4)
|
| The word envy sounds like NV, which are its middle letters. | ||
| 23 | IAMBI |
Newspaper carrying Methuselah’s second-rate bits of verse (5)
|
| I(=the I newspaper) with “I am B” (B=second-rate as in B-list celebs) on top of it | ||
| 24 | ANTRE |
One who’s six feet under concerned with cave (5)
|
| Ant(=one who has six feet under) + re(=concerned with) | ||
| 25 | IMAGO |
Amigo spoiled how The Metamorphosis ends (5)
|
| Amigo*. An imago is the adult form of an insect, so the form which appears after the end of the metamorphosis. |
I think ‘wicked’ = ACE in MACE and ‘leading’ is just the juxtaposition?
A clever construction with, yes, a most unusual grid – though perhaps not so unusual for this particular compiler. The box in the middle did defeat me with SAT – I had an unparsed SET for ‘location’ but was also wondering whether there might have been a demon or devil called SOT! SAT fitted with SATAN (I didn’t spot that IST continued the word) but I had no idea of how it would parse. I did have to press reveal in the end.
APRIL FOOL is delightful and I agree that SPANISH is very neat. Some cunning anagrams – the spot for CARDINAL VIRTUES is brilliant. And I loved the amigo/IMAGO Metamorphosis. How long did others spend trying to understand the relevance of Frankie & Benny’s in RELIGIOUS ORDERS? Having never been into one, I assumed there was something I was missing – and it’s simply there as an example of anywhere one might place an order! Sheesh!
Thanks Methuselah and NealH
I’m with PM on the parsing of MACE
Loved this puzzle. Diabolically good! Found it tricky to break into but once I got going it all fell into place nicely. My last two in were 16a and 21d, and they were among my favourites when the penny finally dropped – well disguised definitions and inventive, clever wordplay. Great work, Methuselah!
Parsed MACE as PM@1
RELIGIOUS ORDERS
Took it as a DD
ORDERS
1. What holy folk will give
2. Frankie and Benny’s, maybe.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Plenty to like. Excellent blog as well.
Top faves:
CARDINAL VIRTUES, CIRCLES OF HELL, APRIL FOOL, SPANISH and ENVY (a new device, I think).
Thanks Methuselah and NealH.
Loi, hesitantly, was antre, vaguely musing ‘hmm, isnt antrum some sort of cavity, like sinus?’ But yes, this is the sort of theme you can’t escape, a banner at head and foot with lots of stuff about religion, sin, wickedness, virtue and vice in between. And of course no doubts for Aussies about Tassie devils. Lots of fun, ta Methuselah and NeilH.
PostMark@2
RELIGIOUS ORDERS
Oh! Another case of overthinking by me???
I read online somewhere that Frankie stands for Franciscan and Benny for Benedictine. 🙂
Can someone help? I can’t see how the clue for 12a tells the solver to remove the mania part of Tasmania. Thanks
TAS is short for Tasmania
Jay – it doesn’t. TAS is the three-letter postal code for Tasmania (just as NSW is New South Wales and QLD is Queensland)
Thanks for that, Widdersbel @9. Thought I’d missed something.
Great crossword. Took me longer than usual, and enjoyed every minute. Thanks to Methuselah and NeilH
I’m with KVa, my take was that there was an allusion to Franciscan and Benedictine as part of the solve, it could even be that ‘Frankie and Benny’s, maybe’ was intended as the definition??
Thank you for the challenge Methuselah and thanks also to NeilH
As innovative and interesting as I expect from the old man – and kudos to the Indy for being probably the only daily that would publish such an unusual grid. I had wondered if some of the circles of hell were in fact in the answers (I’m not literate enough to have known them, so I wondered if the likes of ANTRE were involved).
CARDINAL VIRTUES was my pick, and I see I’m not alone.
SACK was my last one in, and perhaps (along with ENVY) the most fiendish, with that ‘brimstone’ for S! I always have to make sure I’ve parsed this setter properly, but as usual, it was worth it.
Thanks both.
I liked the Franciscans and Benedictines and the way the surface of the clue for OVID points to Virgil in Inferno. I read the middle square as Satan sits in the middle circle of Hell, but Satanist makes more sense.
Just popping in to confirm that PM has the intended parsing for MACE and that KVa is right that Frankie & Benny isn’t a random restaurant but was chosen because it happens to match the Franciscan and Benedictine orders of monks. The hellish central circle is meant to spell out SATANISTS plural, as that way it truly circles around with the first letter also acting as the last letter. Thanks NealH for the blog and I hope solvers didn’t mind such an unusual grid and a few unfriendly entries.
Thank you, @NealH, for parsing SAT. The best I could get was SET, or location, leaving the rest of the clue to serve as mere ornament (!).
Thanks Methuselah and NealH.
Great puzzle and blog.
Could not parse SAT, SACK (messing with slacks); or 27a fully – did not make the connection to SATANIST(S). Was unaware of Franciscan and Benedictine links.
With these gaps filled, the whole is a lot larger than the sum of the parts.
Impressive grid-fill. Thanks again.
Methuselah is one of my favourite setters across the papers covered by 225, and this puzzle was a delight.
I got precisely nowhere with the top half to begin with, but made a bit more progress initially with the bottom half, and the position of the H gave away CIRCLES OF HELL, from where the game kicked off. Badly, in a sense: I had it mixed up and stubbornly lodged in my head that the latter came from Paradise Lost, which meant, ridiculously, that DANTE’S INFERNO was my LOI, needing all the checkers! In the meantime I had got enough of the mysterious inner unhelpfully-detached “circle of hell” to fill in the nho STS from the evident SATANIST(S(!)), and the general theme helped with ENVY and indeed SIN, ICED (like Satan in the centre of hell), VOID and others. Also loved the additional nod to Ovid’s The Metamorphosis, plus to Virgil as per Peterts@13.
Loads of great clues, with the lovely &lit APRIL FOOL, TWIGGED, SAT (what a clue for such a humdrum word!), SACK (cK – genius) and SPANISH topping my list.
The only one which left me cold was RELIGIOUS ORDERS because I saw no actual definition in what was otherwise a fine idea for a CD. In response to PostMark @2: the ORDERS bit was my penultimate one in. But as Doofs@11 has explained, it’s likely that there’s more depth (as indeed I had a niggling feeling about, but was too ignorant to get to the bottom of) – in which case I bow down as it’s probably the best clue of the lot!
Loads of NHOs in this puzzle for me: SHAKO, IAMBI (in that form; I got it via Ianbic pentameter), ANTRE and IMAGO (think I’ve seen it once before in a puzzle); every day’s a school day – and with the slick setting, all could be derived.
Overall one of my favourite puzzles of the year so far… thank both!
Another super puzzle, thanks Methuselah. Loved the long themers, the APRIL FOOL and VOID especially. Thanks Neal H for the blog which helped me to see what I had missed
A day late but wanted to add my voice to the praise for this exceptionally well-constructed puzzle. The grid design initially made me screw my face up but actually it suited the theme to perfection!
Re 20D, If I remember my RE lessons properly Advent falls on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, not simply the 1st of December.
It’s also my wife’s justification for putting decorations up in November!
roo seed@20, you do remember correctly. I would hesitate over that clue for that exact reason. But as we have a long-established tradition of (religious) advent calendars and candles that start on the 1st December, I think the common understanding of advent is as valid as the strict liturgical sense.
Thanks Methuselah for a delightful puzzle, and NealH for the blog.