It’s the end of the week and as expected we have a Phi to solve and blog.
Regulars will know that Phi often includes a theme. We wondered about Procul Harum (from 15 & 24 across) but could not find anything. We even checked the winners of the Wellington Burger Festival but we think that it is a bit too early for that.
Still, no complaints. We thought we were going to need some help with parsing 14d but we managed to sort it just in time.
FISH (angle) ‘behind’ SILVER (cutlery)
hITCH (problem) after the first ‘h’ (husband) ‘leaves’
A TIC (nervous response) after ASTI (wine) and GM (genetically modified)
ME (the writer) inside or ‘engaged in’ ON (working)
UNDER (governed by) T (tense) HE (ambassador) ROSE (revolted)
N (note) and a reversal (‘turning’)of US in PROCOL (first half of Procul Procol Harum – rock group) Thanks to Simon S
A reversal (‘recalled’) of OIL (painting) OF
bRIDGE (cross) without first letter or ‘abandoning start’
RAT (miserable specimen) W (first or ‘initial’ letter of was) inside or ‘tucking into’ BURST (punctured)
An anagram (‘working’) of HAS TIP and SOCIETy (missing last letter or ‘most of’)
hARUM (second part of Procul Procol Harum – ‘rock group’) missing first letter or ‘heading off’ Thanks to Simon S
An anagram (‘with corruption’) of FAIRLY TEEM
TIrED (exhausted) missing or ‘losing’ the middle letter or ‘heart’
An anagram (‘arrangement’) of LUTE MUSIC round or ‘including’ O (nothing)
A reversal (‘upset’) of BArTS (London hospital) missing ‘r’ (run)
Hidden (‘section of’) in walL AT Home
EON (long time) EG (for one) inside or ‘participating in’ an anagram (‘new production’) of GENUINE
F (loud) LAKE (red pigment)
INT (international) ILL (sick) inside S (southern) CA (California)
TOME (book) around or ‘containing’ FOOL (dessert) + R (recipe) Y (first or ‘initial’ letter of you’ve)
HEN (female) CE (church) above FORTH (Scottish river)
BE OFF (smell perhaps) WITHY (bit of willow tree) OUt (‘in bloom’) missing last letter or ‘almost’
SPORTS (wears) CAST (plaster)
M (millions) inside or ‘enthralled by’ N (new) ODE (poem) + PLUM (P G Wodehouse’s nickname) E (English). This had us stumped – it had to be the right answer but we had no idea why. When writing up the blog Joyce googled ‘Wodehouse plum’ and all was revealed.
An anagram (‘flying’) of BUTTRESS ‘surrounding’ A
CHILdren (seed) missing the second half + I (one)
B (book) RIO (carnival city)
Double definition
I think I was very lucky today: I either had the specialist knowledge (PLUM Wodehouse, LAKE, BA(r)TS, EUGENE ONEGIN etc) or if I didn’t (nho UNDER THE ROSE) I was able to work it out. And I shall just feel sad for those solvers who might be unaware of PROCUL HARUM. Very clever, the way Phi made use of both parts of the name.
Thanks Phi and B&J
UNDER THE ROSE is the literal translation of sub rosa which I came across somewhere.
Another one who had the required general knowledge.
Thank you to Phi and bertandjoyce.
Phi is not normally a setter to make me turn pale, but I was a bit obtuse this morning. I liked NOM DE PLUME, TOMFOOLERY. Not light but still fantastic. Thanks all.
My tuppenceworth, I thought ‘flying buttress’ was very clever. Reading the excellent blog I also realised I’d put in BE OFF WITH YOU mostly unparsed.
Thank you to Phi and B&J
Procul Harum reminds me that I haven’t seen a post from copmus for quite some time. As some may recall, he was a member of said group (keyboards I think).
Thanks Phi and BnJ
To placate a fairly regular visitor here, whose birthday it is today, can I point out that the rock group was ProcOl Harum (as the parsing for 15 demonstrates).
Whoops! I’m always getting that wrong. In my defence, I’ll just say I copied it from PostMark 😉
I have just remembered that it’s ‘fandango’ not ‘fantastic’ which makes my attempt at a themed comment even feebler.
Phi at his best – just the right amount of difficulty ultimately yielding after a lovely ride. I had no chance of parsing NOM DE PLUME or BE OFF WITH YOU (thank you b&j…NHO “withy”), but that’s why there are crosses 🙂 Thank you Phi!
Thanks Simon S – blog corrected.
Hovis @7: and I, naturally, copied it from Bert ‘n’ Joyce …
Thanks both. Mostly untroubled, then I came upon those others have commented upon here, with the prize for brain-damage going to everything Procol Harum related; my issues included that rock bands are a-plenty and they specifically sit just a little before my time, I evidently misspelt the name at first, and most of all. I was looking for two halves, which mathematically we have in words, but not letters; apart from that….
No theme in this one. Back in the days of fixed patterns this was grid 17 and was always a bit tricky simply to fill. But I rather enjoyed spotting ‘flying buttress’ and Procol Harum as I clued!
TFO @12: Rock is dead (for now), but its death is a lot more recent than you’re giving it credit for. The Killers, The White Stripes, and Coldplay are all basically 21st century bands, unambiguously rock, and were successful enough to influence the zeitgeist. These days, the likes of Imagine Dragons and Fun are more pop-rock than pure rock, and there doesn’t seem to be much pure rock on the charts. But that wasn’t true as recently as ten years ago.
Anyway, Procol Harum is before my time, but I’ve heard of them (and even heard their music). I saw from the crossers that PROCONSUL couldn’t be anything else, saw what band we had to be talking about, and then immediately got the ARUM as a result. Without even turning a whiter shade of pale in the process.
I didn’t think there was a theme, but I thought maybe Tomfoolery might be one of Phi’s cats.
PeteHA3: Tomfoolery was also the name of a stage show first staged in 1980 based on the songs of Tom Lehrer, so I did wonder if there was going to be a Lehrer theme.
mrpenny@14 – my remark was that Procol Harum pre-date my music-listening, hence the word specifically. And yes, the rock era continued , hence that I said there were many bands to pick from. I would add that I don’t know the word PROCONSUL – the difficulties were mine and not owing to the setter. I thought that was the idea of the blog -a commentary on your own experience with the puzzle.