Atrica sets the Tuesday challenge this week.
Tuesday is theme day.
There were a couple of references to universities in the clues and 27ac included Harvard and we eventually realised that there were several american Universities in the grid – combining 16ac and 23d to form DARTMOUTH and 20ac and 14ac for PRINCETON. We had already solved YALE at 4d (although we had to check the definition). A Google search at the end revealed one that we didn’t know – BROWN.
An anagram (‘excitedly’) of VP INSANELY ‘about’ A N (new)
I (the setter) leaving SPOiL (ruin) and being replaced by USA (America)
A reversal (‘over’) of IN A PIT round or ‘installing’ M (last letter of rhythm)
COR (my!) inside or ‘boring’ AN (article)
We had to check this. We both knew what an ellipse was from our A Level Maths days but thought that ‘eccentrically loopy’ was a rather strange definition. However, on checking in Chambers, an ellipse can also refer to the mark … – so perhaps we have a double definition here.
Alternate letters only or ‘occasionally’ in TwO iN
SUN (newspaper) LIT (wasted)
The answer had to be DART which looked like it was DRAT (‘flipping’ as an interjection?) with the middle letters ‘flipping’ but then ‘flipping was doing double duty and we then had two definitions. Bert eventually worked out that SHOOT is an American interjection similar to DRAT in the UK.
bLIMP (airship) missing first letter or ‘heading off’
PRovINCE (Ontario?) missing ‘ov’ (‘love’ without the first and last letters or ‘discovered’)
CAMpus (college area) missing half
COLUMn (article) missing last letter or ‘abbreviated’ and BIAs (prejudice) missing last letter or ‘finally censored’
BrainieR (first and last letters only or ‘case’) OWN (private) – the ‘clerical detective’ is Father Brown, a fictional priest and amateur detective created by G K Chesterton.
Reversed (‘returning’) and hidden (‘sample’) in bananA MUST A Shopper
A reversal (‘in retreat’) of SATIRE (something ironic) and V (victory)
SH (quiet) WEDNESDAY (24hr period) after A
MOO (sound made by cow) inside or ‘entering’ EXON (from Exeter) – relating to the nursery rhyme – ‘The cow jumped over the moon’
O (nothing) SIN (wrong) in NESS (head) – the definition seems a bit odd here with nosiness in Chambers as a noun but ‘inquisitive’ is an adjective. Once again, we may be looking at this in the wrong way.
Hidden (‘some’) in roYAL Emblem. A YALE is a mythical animal depicted in heraldry. Chambers says that it resembles a horse with tusks, horns and an elephant’s tail. However, the Royal Mint describes it as a beast with a white goat-like or antelope body. Amazing what you find out when solving crosswords.
An anagram (‘treatment’) of ScrupulouS (first and last or ‘extreme’ letters only) and VIGILANT
I M B (second letters in wIth aMple aBundance ) in NI (part of the UK)
Hidden (‘cutting from’) in azaleA CAN’T HAve
An anagram (‘deceptively’) of SCAMmERS missing or ‘stealing’ one ‘m’ (million) and TALK
IN (popular) + ITEM (couple) inside or ‘blocking’ CENTS (change in Florida)
INsubORDINATE (disobedient) missing ‘sub’ (deputy)
C E R (first or ‘initial’ letters of Caged Escaped Regrettably But) with SURE (certain) reversed or ‘turning up’ Thanks to grantinfreo for pointing out the missing B
MIA (missing in action) around or ‘guarding’ I (island) LIT (literally)
CIA (spies) around or ‘gathering’ O (nothing) after R (Republican) AT (located in)
U (‘something anyone can see’ – film classification) inside MOTH (insect)
Middle two letters or ‘couples’ in lOVe and wENt
NOSINESS
I think the def is ‘being inquisitive’
Thanks Atrica and B&J.
It’s the eight Ivy League universities; there’s also Cornell (split).
The universities featured are all in the Ivy League. At first I thought the selection was a reference to what we at Brown used to call “The Magnificent Seven,” namely the Ivy League minus Cornell, but i see it is hiding in aCORN ELLipsis.
Maybe it’s that elliptic is the adjectival form of ellipsis … ? Either way, eccentrically loopy is nice … oddly quirky.
BandJ, you also need the B[ut] in CerBerus.
Thanks grantinfreo – will sort out when we are home.
Technically a DNF as I couldn’t parse PRINCE. I only parsed DART quite long after the fact, and I’d never heard of goad as a noun which made INCITEMENTS my LOI.
Otherwise a smooth ride, though I forgot to look for the theme despite noticing several university references.
Fave was probably MOUTH, and I liked the YALE (which I looked up to verify my suspicion, long before I’d seen the university refs). These goat-copters have swivelling horns, as alluded to in the surface.
Thanks to Atrica and our bloggers.
grantinfreo@4
ELLIPTIC
Agree (I think the bloggers meant the same thing).
Of ellipse: eccentrically loopy (yes. both words of the def quite apt)
Of ellipsis: …like this?
Gosh, B&J. Fancy not knowing Brown. It’s internationally renowned as the university that Brian Griffin from Family Guy attended. Twice.
Not that I spotted the theme until I had no alternative but to bung in YALE.
Thanks Atrica and B&J.
I guess Atrica tried and failed to get Harvard in the grid and had to use a clue instead,, but a very nice puzzle nonetheless, not as tricky as some of his/hers have been. Thanks all.
A theme right up my alley for once. (AB, Princeton ’96; JD, Harvard ’00). VERITAS was a write-in, and once I realized we were getting all eight, I went looking for COLUMBIA, PRINCE, and MOUTH (having already had the TON and the DART).
[Incidentally, the Ivy League consists of seven of the nine US universities founded before independence, plus Cornell, which dates from the 19th century. The other two colonial-era foundings (Rutgers and William & Mary) are both now public universities.]
Only had to reveal one letter this time, and it was for 10D INCITEMENTS. I can’t believe I thought about ITEM and CENTS but never experimented with combining them.
My favorite is 22A COLUMBIA. Thanks Atrica and B&J!
Pleased to have spotted the unis – apart from CORN ELL which I simply forgot about and, with everything else neatly clued in complete words, I did not think to look at words spanning two lights. My bad. I did remember BROWN, though, from once scanning a list. Goodness knows why it stuck as I cannot pretend I have heard of it in any other context. It would have been lovely to incorporate HARVARD – and I am sure Atrica tried pretty hard so to do: it is amazing how very hard it can be to fit a relatively small number of names into a grid. Bad enough with ‘normal’ words but there is something about names that just delivers vowels and consonants to places you really don’t want them!
Thanks Atrica and B&J
Nice grid, useful theme (spotted it for once) and good clueing, so thanks to Atrica. Couldn’t parse PRINCE or SPOUSAL (I’ve a bit of a blind spot about that “for” replacement device, but we live in hope. I used to miss hiddens all the time) so thanks also to B&J