Independent 12,149 by Mog

16 comments on “Independent 12,149 by Mog”

1. My faves: SCALDING, LATERALLY, NEUTRAL, HICCUP and PUSS.

   Thanks Mog and MOH.

2. I like this style of cluing. Very tight and not a link word to be seen. I needed the blog to (sort of) understand STAG. I didn’t know it was a verb meaning to go without a date. And I assume it is being used in an adjectival form in the clue?

   REIMBURSED, PENTATEUCH, COAGULATE, HEADBANGER, NEUTRAL and HICCUP my faves today. I have not spotted a theme either – (which normally means it’s Britpop bands but I’ve looked and can’t see any)

   Thanks Mog and MOH

3. STAGEHAND
   Collins online has this:
   stag
   adverb
   without a female escort
   Works fine, I guess.

4. Another one needing help with STAG. NHO the term birder, but you couldn’t get much a more obvious term for what it is.

   It took far too long to spot the well-disguised STONEWALL, but that was my favourite when the penny dropped.

5. Re STAGEHAND, Chambers has this:
   Stag 3. A man who goes to dances, etc unaccompanied by a woman
   I’d vaguely heard the term “to go stag” but clearly it works as a noun too.

6. Reading across the top and bottom lines gives: SEASHELLS FRAME PAIRS LATERALLY, which sounds like an hint to me. I can see BALTIC, RED, BERING, ROSS (?), IRISH and CORAL.

7. Reading across the top and bottom lines gives: SEASHELLS FRAME PAIRS LATERALLY, which sounds like an hint to me. I can see BALTIC, RED, BERING, ROSS (?), IRISH and CORAL.

8. Brilliant! Thank you Crucivercial, you’ve cracked it. The Ross Sea is part of the Southern Ocean, apparently.

9. I wondered whether BERN (burn) and SCALDING might indicate something was going on but couldn’t see anything else.

10. MOH@5
    Thanks for your view on STAG.

11. Faves were PENTATEUCH, HICCUP, STAGEHAND (once blog and commenters had cleared up “stag”) and STONEWALL (an excellent hiddent).

    Kudos to Cruciversal for spotting the theme!

    Thanks both

12. Great stuff. AGED instead of EGAD stopping a full solve. I did have it in at one point but couldn’t believe it was a word.

    STONEWALL was the last one in so it must be a good hidden.

    Liked the surface of PUSS with it being the last clue. Some other good ones which have already been raised.

    Thanks Mog and MOH

13. Enjoyed this but WHOLLY and HOLY are not homophones for me therefore not for ANYONE listening.

14. Thanks MOH for standing in for us.

    We looked at the completed grid with a glass of local rose wine and couldn’t see any theme.

    Thanks to those who spotted it. Perhaps if AEGEAN were there we may have sorted things out.

    As others have said, STONEWALL was well hidden.

    Thanks to Mog as well.

15. [Just realised when glancing again at Gnomad@4’s comment that I hadn’t parsed the straight surface correctly for REIMBURSED (“Emus tangling with birder”). I just assumed Emus was some personality I hadn’t heard of, rhyming with Remus, of Romulus (in)fame 😅. Oops…

    I find that funny things like this happen when doing crosswords; I suspect I’ve never actually seen emus in the plural written down before – or perhaps it was just the initial cap that threw me!]

16. Thanks Mog and MOH. I think “egads” is somewhat more common than EGAD, but still quite dated. Of course my favourite variant is that of Zaneeta Shinn in The Music Man (set in 1912):
    Zaneeta: Papa, please. It’s Capulets like you make blood in the marketplace. Ye gods!
    Mayor Shinn: You watch your phraseology, young woman.

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