A challenging and satisfying puzzle today from a compiler whose work I have limited experience of both solving and blogging.
I needed to plug away at this for a good long time, but I did get there in the end. Unusually, I struggled with some of the longer entries today, with the shorter entries revealing themselves much more quickly for once. 20 and 22 were both new to me, which made the puzzle hard to finish. My favourite clues today are 14 and 15, both for smoothness of surface; and 25, for the distracting use of “mouthy”. Furthermore, I am not sure of my parsing of 22, specifically the rendering of “choose the best” as “cull”.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
PR (=spin, (unethical) public relations) + *(USES) + P (=power, in physics); “(to) doctor” is anagram indicator
STAB (=(to) knife) + MOW (=(to) cut e.g. a lawn); “revolutionary” indicates reversal; wombats are native Australian marsupials
[L (=line) in PAT (=glib)] + O (=old, as in OT); the reference is to the 5th century BC Athenian philosopher
<m>OST (=nearly all; “millions (=M) avoiding” means letter “m” is dropped) + RACISM (=bigotry)
*(MAYBE ORDER); “new” is anagram indicator; the “digital” of the definition refers not to modern technology, but to the fingers
N (=noon) + EE (=phone company, in the UK); “née” is used in married women’s names to indicate their maiden names, hence “once called”
FRENCH (=Parisian) + LETTER (=landlord, a letter of property); as a condom, a French letter could be described as affording “protection for the amorous”
B (=British) + [PUDD (D (=Dutch) + DUP (=politicians, i.e. Democratic Unionist Party]; “going back” indicates reversal) in LACKING (=without a)]
US (=American) + E (=English)
PELLUCI (I + CULL (=choose the best) + EP (=record, i.e. an extended-play record); “to spin” indicates reversal) + D (=date) + L<ad>Y (“disheartened” means all middle letters are dropped)
Hidden (“to an extent) in “stuDENT IS TRYing”; cryptically, dentistry could be described as a “mouthy art”
<th>E <railwayme>N (“finally” means last letters only are used) + SU<r>E (=safe; “losing run (=R)” means letter “r” is dropped)
[ATTLE<e> (=Prime Minister, i.e. Clement Attlee; “briefly” means last letter is dropped)] in RD (DR=doctor; “retired” indicates reversal)
*(TONY + <b>LAI<r>); “taking (away) sides” means first and last letters are dropped from anagram, indicated by “in conflict”
PEP (=Man City’s manager, i.e. Pep Guardiola) + PER (=for a, each); to pepper a dish is to season it with pepper
ERAS (=Taylor Swift tour) + ED (=journalist, i.e. editor)
*(RENT BOYS OK); “to work” is anagram indicator
P (=pressure, in physics) + HOT (=fiery) + O (=love, i.e. zero score); a still is an ordinary photo
*(DRAW THESE); “around” is anagram indicator; 9pm is the watershed, i.e. the time beyond which programmes broadcast on UK TV may be unsuitable for family viewing
ME (=your setter, i.e. Amoeba) + <b>A<w>D<y> (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used)
*(AN ELITE + A<thlete> (“beginning” means first letter only)); “to run” is anagram indicator
SYMME (EMMYS (=awards, for the TV industry; “on reflection” indicates reversal) + TRY (=critically examine, of a criminal by a court)
PER (REP=agent; “turns” indicates reversal) + {ET (=film) in [NICK (=prison) + Y (=yard)]}
*(ATE SUNDAE); “foolishly” is anagram indicator
ABS (=navy men, i.e. able-bodied seamen) + <m>URDER(=killing; “initially covered by navy men” means letter “m” is replaced by ABS at start)
Z (=unknown, in algebra) in [TUN (=barrel) + LEAH (=Jacob’s wife, in OT)]
EDIS (SIDE=team; “upset” indicates vertical reversal) + ON (=working, in operation); the reference is to US inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
Hidden (“some”) in “wooZY DECOnstructed”; zydeco is a type of accordion-based popular dance music originating in Louisiana
[<m>Y <grandm>A (“at the very end” means last letters only are used)] in LOL (=that’s funny, i.e. laugh out loud, in textspeak); a true friend is a loyal one
<b>RILL (=fish; “headless” means first letter is dropped)
Great puzzle, I thought, with a couple of chewy ones there. My main hold-up came from putting sophistry instead of DENTISTRY for the mouthy art (the student being a soph[amore] ?😅)… I can’t say I was convinced but I couldn’t shift the idea, until I finally twigged ABSURDER.
Nho PELLUCIDLY but it had to be that when the checkers fell into place from right to left. I too wasn’t too sure about cull, but hey ho. The other obscure one, ZYDECO, was in another crossword in the Indy or G in the not too distant past, so I’d heard of it, if not having much more of a clue now what it is than I had then!
Thanks both
AP, zydeco is…either your cup of tea or it isn’t. Just like accordions in general. Of the forms of music Louisiana has given us, I’ll take dixieland over zydeco ten times out of ten. (Yet I have heard good zydeco–it’s basically square-dance music with an accordion and maybe someone singing (-ish) in either a thick Cajun accent or in actual Cajun French; that can have its moments.)
Only two comments? This is a high-quality puzzle that deserves more! I found the NE by far the most difficult quadrant. Quite a few anagrams but well disguised. Thanks to Amoeba and RR.
@3 Completely agree. This was a very good puzzle. Picaroonesque in some places.
Very good puzzle. Good blog.
Thanks Amoeba and RR.
Top faves: BLACK PUDDING, PEPPER, PERNICKETY and ABSURDER.
PS: We are thankful to the admin and the team working behind the scenes to
tackle all the problems this site is facing.
I forgot to comment yesterday. Senior moment? However the puzzle was so good that I couldn’t let it pass by.
I found this quite challenging but great fun from start to finish with FRENCH LETTER my favourite.
Why does 23a need “very”?
Many thanks to Amoeba and to RR.
Rabbit Dave – ‘very’ is there for the surface, but doesn’t invalidate the cryptic reading. A bit like choosing ‘regularly’/’regularly seen’/’regularly dropping out’ and so on for alternation.
Thanks to RR and commenters for battling the website demons – and of course to the people who keep this site running.
Alliacol@3, as others have alluded to, there have been a lot of technical issues with the site over the last few weeks, culminating in a big upgrade operation yesterday and the day before. Comments weren’t functional until yesterday evening UK time.
Thanks Admin and all involved for the effort to solve these issues; the site seems to be working perfectly today.
mrpenney@2, that sounds like an interesting thing to have on the agenda if visiting, even if only for novelty value!
RD@6, Amoeba@7, indeed it invoked the very end of poor granny’s life, and so made for a smooth surface.