Maize has produced something of a cruciverbal tour de force for this latest Indy theme day.
I think that I have interpreted the theme correctly, and did so about half-way through solving this puzzle – see explanation at 01/05 and 8. What an impressive completed grid! Maize has had the last laugh on me, though, since I cannot sort out 10, where I am not even sure if my answer is right; nor can I see how to parse the “l” at 28. I look forward to being enlightened during the day and will amend the blog later.
Apart from that, there is so much flair in this puzzle that it is hard to pick out just a few favourites. However, I did particular like 8, for the misdirection around tennis; 18, for the splitting of Santa / Fe” in the wordplay; 21, for its & lit. quality; 24, for the use of “bread and butter”; and 27, for making me smirk.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01/05 | WHAT’S IN A NAME | Question framed by a leading lady?
Cryptic definition: this rhetorical question is put by Juliet (=a leading lady) in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet |
| 08 | ROSE | Securing final in tennis Wade’s opponent climbed rankings
<tenni>S (“final in” means last letter only) in ROE (=Wade’s opponent in the landmark US Supreme Court decision about a woman’s constitutional right to seek an abortion); in the Shakespearean quotation, Juliet continues: “That which we call a rose by any other name would spell as sweet”; thus, this entry prefaces a long list of other names, comprising the remaining across entries |
| 09 | GRACE | German people displaying magnanimity
G (=German) + RACE (=people) |
| 10 | ERIN | Retrospective name associated with Ireland
N (=name) + IRE (=Ireland); “retrospective” indicates reversal; & lit. |
| 11 | VERITY | Pretty – possessed of sex appeal in truth
IT (=sex appeal, as in She’s got it!) in VERY (=pretty, rather) |
| 13 | CHASTITY | Virtue of reduced speed in built-up area
HAST<e> (=speed; “reduced” means last letter is dropped) in CITY |
| 14 | EVE | Dolly maybe getting 50% bosom reduction a day earlier
EWE (=Dolly maybe, as in the first cloned sheep; “50% bosom reduction” means middle letter “w” is literally halved to become “v”!!) |
| 15 | HELENA | Banks of huge river in Russia’s state capital
H<ug>E (“banks of” means first and last letters only) + LENA (=river in Russia, in Siberia); Helena is the state capital of Montana |
| 16 | SAVANNAH | Boundless sand outside of Nigeria in semi-wild hot biome
[<s>AN<d> (“boundless” means first and last letters are dropped) + N<igeri>A (“outside of” means first and last letters only)] in [SAV<age> (=wild; “semi-” means 3 of 6 letters only are used) + H (=hot, e.g. on tap)]; a biome is an extensive ecological community, hence “savannah” |
| 19 | FLORENCE | Barrier protecting both sides around old Renaissance city
[O (=old, as in OT) in L R (=both sides, i.e. left and right)] in FENCE (=barrier) |
| 22 | INDIGO | Righteous anger after nation’s exported zero dyestuff
INDIG<nation> (=righteous anger; “after nation’s exported” means letters “nation” are dropped) + O (=zero) |
| 24 | NAN | Bread and butter free from NY
NAN<ny> (“butter”, i.e. goat; “free from NY” means letters “ny” are dropped) |
| 25 | PATIENCE | Job’s quality created by 1 in 10 falling into step
[I in TEN (=10] in PACE (=step); Saint Job was known for his patience |
| 28 | GINGER | Red-headed queen on horse keeping fashionable
[IN (=fashionable, trendy) in GG (=horse, colloquially)] + ER (=queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) |
| 29 | JADE | Grow weary of dear Juliet, broken without Romeo
*(DEA<r> + J (=Juliet, in NATO alphabet); “without Romeo (=R, in NATO alphabet)” means letter “r” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “broken” |
| 30 | OLIVE | Take back Wicked Oscar for one with green skin?
EVIL (=wicked) + O (=Oscar, in NATO alphabet); “take back” indicates reversal; an olive has a green skin! |
| 32 | FERN | Symbol for elite rugby nations’ leaders?
F<or> E<lite> R<ugby> N<ations>; “leaders” means first letters only are used; & lit., since the successful NZ rugby union team, the All Blacks, are symbolised by a silver fern |
| 33 | KITTY | Tackle temporarily emptied pool
KIT (=tackle, gear) + T<emporaril>Y (“emptied” means first and last letters only are used) |
| 34 | SAFFRON | Dark Lord gets very loud replacement for Posh Spice
SAURON (=Dark Lord, in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings); “very loud (FF) replacement for posh (=U)” means letters “ff” replace “u” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | WHOLEMEAL | Why old men all scratch their bottoms around Spain? It’s unrefined
E (=Spain, in IVR) in [WH<y> OL<d> ME<n> AL<l> (“scratch their bottoms” means last letter of each word is dropped)]; e.g. wholemeal flour is unrefined |
| 02 | ALEWIFE | Fish starter’s off the menu for Mr & Mrs
<m>ALE (=for Mr; “starter’s off the menu” means first letter is dropped) + WIFE (=Mrs, i.e. missus); an alewife is a fish related to the herring, common off the NE coast of America |
| 03 | SAG | Plastic bags covering up a bit of brewer’s droop
*(<b>AGS); “covering up a bit (=first letter) of brewer” means letter “b” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “plastic” |
| 04 | NUANCES | Rising start accepts Lethal Weapon but not Fifty Shades
<l>ANCE (=lethal weapon; “but not fifty (=L, in Roman numerals)” means letter “l” is dropped) in NUS (SUN=star, in our solar system; “rising” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 05 | ARENA | Arsenal finishing second and losing league here?
AR<s>ENA<l>; “finishing second (=S) and losing league (=L)” means letters “s” and “l” are dropped |
| 06 | AVESTAN | Thus Spoke Zarathustra gave standards about it
Hidden (“about it”) in “gAVE STANdards”; Avestan is the language of the Zoroastrian scriptures, and thus of Zarathustra |
| 07 | EDICT | Part of Benedictine order
Hidden (“part of”) in “benEDICTine” |
| 12 | YEARN | Desperately hope for New Age to come earlier
YEAR (=age, i.e. a person’s age) + N (=new, as in NT) |
| 17 | VYING | Very good to adopt feminine principle in competition
YIN (=feminine principle, in Chinese philosophy) in VG (=very good) |
| 18 | ANGLE IRON | Piece of engineering close to Santa Fe bridging rocky glen
*(GLEN) in [<sant>A (“close to” means last letter only is used) + IRON (=Fe, i.e. chemical symbol)]; an angle iron is an L-shaped piece of iron or steel used in structural work, etc |
| 20 | RAIMENT | Habit of organist’s regularly entertaining pieces
MEN (=pieces, i.e. in chess) in <o>R<g>A<n>I<s>T (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used) |
| 21 | ENEMIES | Sort of nemeses endlessly besieging one?
I (=one) in*(NEMESE<s>); “endlessly” means last letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “sort of”; & lit. |
| 23 | DONE FOR | Backed up bog blocks means of access down the drain
NEF (FEN=bog, in East Anglia; “backed up” indicates vertical reversal) in DOOR (=means of access) |
| 28 | ALACK | It’s sad for Romeo, a knave Juliet’s left
A + <j>ACK (=knave, in cards; “Juliet (=J, in NATO alphabet)’s left (=L)” means letter “j” is replaced by “l”; “She’s dead, alack the day!” is a quotation from Romeo and Juliet, announcing the death of Juliet |
| 27 | NOOKY | “How’s your father?” is in noisy exchanges with “All right!”
“is in noisy exchanges with all right (=OK)” means letters “is” are replaced by “ok” |
| 31 | ELF | Overnight cobbler of the German football team
“elf” is the German word for “eleven” hence “German football team”; elves were the “overnight cobblers” in the tale by the Brothers Grimm |
For 26 down I interpreted “Juliet’s left” as an instruction to turn J into L
My goodness this was very tough but I really enjoyed the challenge.of what was a very clever puzzle with a theme that even I could spot.
I failed to parse 14a, missing the subtlety of the 50% bosom reduction.
Isn’t “the menu” in 2d surface padding?
Many thanks to Maize and to RR.
Agree, RD @2; “Fish starter’s off for Mr and Mrs” would be elegant and sufficient. Not that it would’ve helped necessarily, I had to reveal the L to get it. Post-solve I did remember it appearing before, unlike Avestan which was a total nho. So, plenty to enjoy and a bit to chew and digest, thanks Maize and RR.
RD @2 and gif @3: ‘off the menu’ is an acceptable way of saying ‘gone’, ‘disappeared’, ‘not present’ so it’s defensible as a deletion indicator and ‘the menu’ is an integral part of the phrase. Yes, it could have been done without those two words but they are not padding.
Lovely puzzle; some tricky parses and, like RD, I did not see the trick with the W>V in EVE but that’s a weak spot from. I never spot W’s being inverted to get M’s etc. I particularly enjoyed Maize’s @lits.
Thanks both
Much gentler than Maize’s previous offerings thanks to the generous theme, and much to like. I was a little concerned about my last two, but eventually thought of the ALEWIFE, and was pleased to discover the unknown AVESTAN was a hidden.
I agree with PostMark on ‘off the menu’ meaning ‘not available’. There are clues in which ‘regularly’ could work, but so too could ‘regularly dropping out’ – both provide accurate instructions to the solver. It comes down to taste, and you might quite reasonably prefer the clue without, but it’s not padding.
I did spot the W-V construction, and it was my favourite part of a very nice puzzle.
Thanks both.
Spotted the theme (The last time I spotted a theme was sometime in 2024. My average is twice a year. I hope to do three this year-A stiff target!).
Top faves: ERIN, EVE, SAVANNAH, ENEMIES and ALACK.
No problems with ‘off the menu’ (Agree with PostMark@4).
Thanks Maize and RR.
PM@4, re 2(d), on balance, I agree. One man’s padding, is another man’s surface reading. “Starter’s off the menu”, is an original and clever instruction to delete the first letter from [M]ALE. I cannot knock the setter, when they are inventive.
I found this to be an absorbing puzzle, I seem to have convinced myself there are several inter-twined themes.
Greens/ Virtues/ Spices/ Shakespeare (R and J)/Foodstuffs.
I may be overthinking it! ( not my forte).
A minor quibble in11(ac), I don’t like PRETTY = VERY.
I’m pretty sure, but not very sure, on this. Not the same in my book.
Super stuff, thanks Maize & Riku
Not much to add to the above. I’ll just mention that the blog for SAG doesn’t actually say what is being anagrammed.
I’m always on the alert for something special when it’s a Maize puzzle, and this was fantastic. In addition to the ama(i)zing grid fill there were some corkers in the clues, including ROSE, ERIN, EVE, NAN, PATIENCE, OLIVE, SAFFRON, AVESTAN and ANGLE IRON. Thanks Maize & RR
Agree with ENB@7 about pretty = very, which held me up for a bit. Didn’t spot that the acrosses were all names – very clever indeed. Saw the two spices and did wonder if they had anything to do with R&J (I did Macbeth for O-level). 🙂 Thanks Maize and RR.
An absolute cracker, Maize, bravo!
Oh, and I think there might be a bit more to 1A. The leading lady (first female name) in this grid is Rose, which the question has been framed by, no?
I thought the question “What” is in (framed by) a name (leading lady) and then an & lit as in the blog. I like Mev’s idea, too. Great puzzle, especially ROSE.
Thanks to all those who’ve explained 28 and pointed out my omission at 3. Any thoughts on 10, though?
Thanks for the excellent blog RR, and to all who took the time to comment above.
10 is just as you’ve parsed it. ‘Name associated with Ireland’ simply means N+IRE and retrospectively is indeed a reversal indicator. It’s an &Lit because Erin is an archaic (or literary) name for Ireland.
With hindsight I’m inclined to agree that ‘pretty’ is a not-very-nice synonym for ‘very’ in 11a, even if it is supported by Collins.
E.NBoll& @7 raises an interesting point about extra mini-themes. I think this might be no more than the fact that girls’ names often relate to nature or traditional virtues, and was purely unintentional.
Thanks both. I enjoyed this in the main, endorsed by the fact the couple I sought help with would have taken eons if not forever, viz HELENA and ALEWIFE wherein the geography GK failed me in the former, and I’ll say the acceptable but superfluous ‘menu’ sent me off on the wrong scent in the latter, as I became ‘pretty’ determined to end the word with (L)IST.
This was quite straightforward until it wasn’t. Stumbled over the line with ALEWIFE, HELENA, ALVESTAN and SAVANNAH taking some unpicking. Also has EWE instead of EVE but that’s just laziness in not working through the clue.
Thanks Maize and blogger. And thanks for a theme even I managed to spot.
I thought maybe reverse of ,N[orthern] I[reland] + re for 10ac, though Republicans mightn’t be pleased.
Many thanks Maize and RR, really enjoyed that, realising all the across were girls name really helped finish this
This was clever and annoying in equal measure! The ewe to eve conversion seems weird to me: no doubt it’s a device seasoned solvers recognise but nothing about it tells me to change the middle letter. And “finishing” doesn’t tell me to remove a letter (5) but rather to stop at “ar” and add something. But I’m told I am just being grumpy. Was surprised by the spelling of the biome, always savanna in science, as opposed to the place in Georgia.
Fun puzzle. Failed to parse SAVANNAH, but otherwise all in place. Thanks to all.
Fun memories: The last stop on the Cambridge end of Boston’s Red Line train is ALEWIFE. For the first year I was at Harvard, that mystified me–is that some rude name for a barmaid? Then I learned that the stop is named after the Alewife Brook Parkway, which is named after the Alewife Brook along which it runs, which is named after the fish. [There was a cinema that was more or less walking distance from the Alewife stop; now that no one much goes to the cinema any more, I imagine that fewer Harvard kids make it to the end of the line.]