Boatman is this morning’s setter.
My reaction when finishing a Boatman is always a deep sigh of relief, and this morning was no exception. As usual, the clues were chewy (such as those for ABREAST and ARACHNIDA, and some answers went in unparsed, and I had to go back and revisit them once the grid was complete. I think I’ve managed to parse everything (at least, to my satisfaction), although I thought the clue for UNSHACKLED appeared to have a couple of redundant words in it until early commenters pointed out what Boatman was doing. The theme revealed itself gradually, and I found CLOCK, PANS, KITCHEN, CAN, BREAKFAST BAR, GAS HOB, TAP, BELFAST SINK, OVEN, WORKSURFACES, ISLAND UNIT, SCALES, PLATES, COUNTER, TOASTER, STOVE and COOKER. If you look hard enough, there’s also LIGHTS and a POT(ty). There may be more?
Thanks, Boatman.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BOW OUT |
Boatman’s head abroad to retire (3,3)
|
| BOW (the front of a boat, so “Boatman’s head”) + OUT (“abroad”) | ||
| 4 | ALIGHTS |
Where to write in crossword grid after answer is set down (7)
|
| LIGHTS (“where to write in crossword grid”) after A (answer) | ||
| 9 | LIVESTOCK |
The herd passes its days by the sound of the clock (9)
|
| LIVES (“passes its days”) by TOCK (“the sound of the clock”) | ||
| 10 | PODIA |
Raised supports for lids of pans on display in armoire (5)
|
| [lids of] P(ans) O(n) D(isplay) I(n) A(rmoire) | ||
| 11 | APNEA |
Not breathing, leap, neatly catching this (5)
|
| Hidden in [catching this] “leAP NEArly” | ||
| 12 | INANYCASE |
Foolish to keep every other one of my scraps, no matter what (2,3,4)
|
| INANE (“foolish”) to keep [every other one of] (m)Y (s)C(r)A(p)S | ||
| 13 | THICKEN |
Set of modifications to kitchen (7)
|
| *(kitchen) [anag:modifications to] | ||
| 15 | DAMAGE |
Contrarily, say ‘a potty break’ (6)
|
| [contrarily] <=(e.g. (“say”) + A + MAD (“potty”)) | ||
| 17 | COVERS |
Reports of can opener, extra small (6)
|
| C(an) [opener] + OVER (“extra”) + S (small)
Interestingly, S as an abbreviation for “small” doesn’t feature in Chambers, but it is in Collins and the OED. |
||
| 19 | ABREAST |
Alongside breakfast bar: cocktail function to be rescheduled (7)
|
| *(breaast) [anag:to be rescheduled] where BREAAST is BREA(kf)AST bar (i.e. except) (coc)K [tail] and F (function, on a keyboard) | ||
| 22 | ARACHNIDA |
American Right are rebuked, including number one web users (9)
|
| A (American) + R (right) + A (are (the land measure)) + CHID (“rebuked”) including N (number) + A (one) | ||
| 24 | ATSEA |
One endless tease with section misplaced. Boatman can be thus (2,3)
|
| A (one) + [endless] TEAS(e) with the S (section) misplaced becomes TSEA | ||
| 26 | CHIMP |
Primate (Catholic) with gas hob? (5)
|
| C (Catholic) + H (chemical symbol fot hydrogen, so “gas”) + IMP (“hob”) | ||
| 27 | SOUNDSOUT |
Canvasses of Islay and Jura, for example, and Forth (6,3)
|
| SOUNDS (“Islay and Jura. for example”) + OUT (“forth”)
The Sound of Islay and the Sound of Jura are both straits off the west coast of Scotland. |
||
| 28 | MONITOR |
Tap made of metal put back in rear-facing part of house (7)
|
| <=(TIN (“metal”), put back) in [rear-facing] <=ROOM (“part of house”) | ||
| 29 | INGEAR |
Mobilise, or Reform gain, re-enabled to move forward (2,4)
|
| *(gain re) [anag:mobilise or reform) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BELFAST |
Type of sink of which fables might be spun on completion of refit (7)
|
| *(fables) [anag:might be spun] on [completion of] (refi)T | ||
| 2 | WOVEN |
Put together with kitchen appliance (5)
|
| W (with) + OVEN (“kitchen appliance”) | ||
| 3 | UNSHACKLE |
Stripped out one slum dwelling, rented unfinished for free (9)
|
| ‘UN (“one”) + SHACK (“slum dwelling”) + [unfinished] LE(t) (“rented”)
I was unsure why “stripped out” is there, but commenters have explained it for me. |
||
| 4 | AWKWARD |
Decoration around worksurfaces: it’s fiddly! (7)
|
| AWARD (“decoration”) around W(or)K [surfaces] | ||
| 5 | IMPLY |
Suggest island unit of length to satisfy catering needs (5)
|
| I (island) + M (metre, so “unit of length”) + PLY (“to satisfy catering needs”) as in to “ply with drink” | ||
| 6 | HYDRANGEA |
Camouflage guide, say as a shrub (9)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [say] of HIDE RANGER (“camouflage guide”) | ||
| 7 | SCALES |
Balance plates … (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | MOTION |
… perhaps spinning on supports a short time before it tips up (6)
|
| ON supports MO (“a short time”) before <=IT [tips up] | ||
| 14 | ISOLATION |
Loneliness is over: passionate about love (9)
|
| IS + O (over, in cricket) + LATIN (“passionate”, as in Latin temperament) about O (love, in tennis) | ||
| 16 | MERMAIDEN |
Something of a charmer, Ma identified as a nymph (9)
|
| Hidden in [something of] “charMER MA IDENtified” | ||
| 18 | SCISSOR |
Cross is vandalised and cut (7)
|
| *(cross is) [anag:vandalised] | ||
| 19 | ABACUS |
Counter with one incomplete support half-used (6)
|
| A (one) + [incomplete] BAC(k) (“support”) + [half] US(ed) | ||
| 20 | TOASTER |
Kitchen appliance rotates while cooking (7)
|
| *(rotates) [anag:while cooking] | ||
| 21 | TALCUM |
Before music begins, stop man from talking. See you listened to soft rock (6)
|
| KING (chess “man”) stopped from TAL(king) + homophone/pun/aural wordplay [listened to] of SEE YOU, before M(usic) [begins], so TAL-CU-M | ||
| 23 | HOP IT |
Composer discovered tempo initially to be off (3,2)
|
| (c)HOPI(n) [discovered, i.e with covers removed] + T(empo) [initially] | ||
| 25 | STOVE |
Cooker broke (5)
|
| Double definition |
thanks L and B! chewy indeed. I wondering about ALIGHTS until I realized (I think correctly) that definition is “is set down”
This seemed easier for me than Boatman often is, perhaps a case of a generous grid. Highly enjoyable as always with many smiles. Favourite was KITCHEN. Afraid I can’t help with the apparently extraneous “stripped out” in UNSCHACKLE.
I thought the UN at the start of 3a was oNe oUt, both words stripped of their outer letters, hence no extra words
Sorry, 3d
An ‘agent’ alights whereas a ‘patient’ is set down — just a quibbletino.
Agree re oUt oNe for un-, DropBear @3, well spotted. At the time I just bunged and didn’t pick it.
I loved this one! Lots of variety, both of method and of difficulty. There were some brilliant constructions, such as those for ABREAST and TALCUM, and I also particularly enjoyed UNSHACKLE, AWKWARD, MOTION, LIVESTOCK and STOVE. But LOI was the relatively simple (but also nicely concise) SCALES.
I took the def for ALIGHTS as per Ilan Caron@1 “is set down” and also quibbled about it as per grantinfreo@5 although only after I’d already got it. I parsed UNSHACKLE as per DropBear@4/5.
I also took MERMAIDEN to be an adjective, “as a nymph”, but that’s just because I’ve never heard of this variant of mermaid. Also new for me: CHID as the past tense of chide, HOB for imp.
For IMPLY, is the PLY bit coming from “catering [to] needs”, to ply one’s wares? I’m not really seeing the literal “satisfying catering needs”.
I didn’t parse the “Mobilise, or” bit for IN GEAR until reviewing the finished puzzle, Very cheeky!
loonapick, I guess STOVE is missing from your list (plus OVEM WORKSURFACES -> OVEN, WORKSURFACES).
Thanks both
I’m with DropBear @3 with the parsing of the UN in UNSHACKLED – oUt oNe stripped
Thanks to the early commenters re UNSHACKLE. I now see what Boatman did, but would still argue that the first two words could be considered unnecessary as UN can be ONE on its own. I’ll amend the blog to add IS to the definition of ALIGHTS when I get a chance.
I struggled. Despite consulting the web, I could find no reference to imp/hob or stove/broke or Latin/passionate or ply/satisfy, so I’m still in the dark. Many of the rather challenging wordplays resulted in groans rather than smiles. I’ve never known a mermaid to gain EN.
Very nice puzzle – most enjoyable one for some time, for me.
AP@7, I took “ply” as in to ply someone with fine food and drink, often with an implication of expecting something in return.
It was a dnf for me, as I’d carelessly put ARACHNIDS for 22a, so didn’t get ABACUS (I stupidly didn’t apply my own mental rule “if you’re really stuck on a clue, double-check that the crossers are correct”).
Thanks Boatman and loonapick.
GDU@10 I took stove in its use as “stove in”, meaning smashed up, which would certainly result in something being broke(n)
Thank you, DropBear @12, but I’ve never heard that expression. Is it British?
Geoff @13 – I believe “stove in” derives from stave, the planks from which barrels are made, and is particularly a nautical expression (appropriate for Boatman).
I think on my first pass I managed one clue; but it all came together nicely in the end. As others have said, some very chewy clues, but all of them fair on close examination (though I think the cluing of ABREAST is near the line). As Mandarin @2 observes, a decent grid; there have been a lot of Grauniad puzzles lately using grids that give you no initial letters, or, worse, a majority of unchecked letters in a lot of clues. Good for Boatman.
Thanks, both.
GDU@13 possibly, as I am an ex pom, but by now spent 53% of my life Down Under so sometimes get confused about origins
STOVE
stave
to break
past staved/STOVE.
Liked IN ANY CASE, UNSHACKLE and AWKWARD.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick.
I also parsed UNSHACKLE as DropBear @3. Very enjoyable with a few write-ins which is untypical of this setter. My favourites were of course, my birthplace, BELFAST, MERMAIDEN, HYDRANGEA, ABREAST, TALCUM and SCISSOR. I wonder if lack of SLEE(P) across the middle is referring to the APNEA clue.
Ta Boatman & loonapick.
IN GEAR
Couldn’t understand the need for two anagrinds.
Tried to see if ‘mobilise’ would work as a def, but
then there would be a part of speech mismatch.
beaulieu@11, re PLY, thanks – for some reason that usage didn’t surface.
Very tricky and I had to back-parse many of my answers.
New for me: BELFAST SINK; SOUNDS of Islay and Jura.
I could not parse or fully parse:
17ac apart from C = C(an) opener + S = small
19ac
5d apart from I=island
and also
25d the STOVE=broke bit until I found this in my online dictionary:
stave in
(past and past participle staved or stove | stəʊv | ) (stave something in, stave in something) break something by forcing it inwards or piercing it roughly: the door was staved in.
I think that the use of two anagrinds with IN GEAR is misdirection. It makes for a clunky surface, IMHO but I think that’s Boatmen’s style. I found the puzzle quite difficult to solve but I’ll look out for the next one to see if I can do better. Thanks both.
KVa@16 I suspect the double anagrind is a little political jibe for the purposes of the surface reading, hence the capitalisation of Reform. I agree it’s not needed for the clue.
Loonapick @9 – I would say that usually when a setter uses ‘one’ to indicate UN, a qualifying adjective is preferable as that definition is noted as ‘dialect’ in dictionaries (eg. “local one”)
Thanks both.
ABACUS, HYDRANGEA and AWKWARD were my favourites. I think in every other Boatman puzzle I have done, one of the Boatmen is nautical and the other a first person, but not today. I wondered if Islay and Jura had distinctive checks, tartans maybe until the crossers put me right.
I’d agree with Mandarin @2; this felt more approachable than many a Boatman. I found I was alert to his tricks, such as the two stripped letters in UNSHACKLE, the ‘stopped man’ in TALCUM and the WORKSURFACES in AWKWARD. Not a puzzle for the strict Ximeneans, I’d suggest. The delightfully hidden MERMAIDEN is my COTD – despite the presence of an unnecessary ‘a’ in the fodder.
Thanks both
Got there in the end but with a great deal of reverse parsing.
Re IN GEAR, if one had selected reverse gear, one would be enabled to move backward, not forward…
… I’ll get my coat
Another smile for BELFAST (also my birthplace) though it took a while to understand. I think I’ve only ever seen the sink mentioned in crosswords. The smile was wiped out by the fingernails-on-blackboard effect of HYDRANGEA. ‘Nuff said.
Tough to finish. Mostly fine but a few overcooked clues.
My thesaurus app gives imp as the first suggestion for hob but thar meaning is buried deep in the dictionary defs. You live and learn.
Thanks both.
UN=one is either dialect or French, so as neither is indicated, the middle-letters parsing is probably the intended one.
Some of these parsings were too chewy (laborious and fiddly) for my taste, but I know that this is exactly what others enjoy, so I’m not complaining. Latin=passionate was a bit of a stretch and I didn’t know Islay and Jura had sounds (I wondered if single malt whisky might be involved…) I liked LIVESTOCK.
Any idea what SCORNS is doing in Row 6? Coincidence?
As NeilH @14 correctly notes, STOVE has primarily a nautical application. It therefore features often in that most boatmanly of novels, Moby-Dick. Here is one of many examples:
‘His three boats stove around him, and oars and men both whirling in the eddies; one captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale, … blindly seeking with a six inch blade to reach the fathom-deep life of the whale. That captain was Ahab.’
The book was, I found, a tough sell to students of 19th-century American literature, due to a combination of its sheer length, the eccentricities of Ishmael’s narrative voice, and a modern distaste for killing whales.
A fairly gentle work-out (making it three in a row this week). I too had oUt oNe as the stripped words at 3d, which was probably my favourite clue.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick
Puck is a hob, hobgoblin or imp, and a modernisation of Robin Goodfellow. Having checked I know that from Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill, but possibly also from the Dark is Rising series or Edith Nesbit’s House of Arden series (I read them about the same time, and bits blur together).
I really enjoyed this, agreed with the parsing of oUt oNe for UNSHACKLE, didn’t have problems with the vocabulary, but a boat collision leading to the boat that was hit being STOVE in is familiar, and did think there’s a lot of kitchen stuff here.
Thank you to Boatman and loonapick.
Yes, some chewy clues. I BIFD quite a few and sorted out the parsing later. I liked the potty break in DAMAGE, the breakfast bar in ABREAST, the surface for IN GEAR, where the double anagrinds didn’t phase me, the stripped out slum dwelling for UNSHACKLE, and, my favourite, TALCUM with the man not talking.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick
Having had the deep joy of maintaining the Queen’s peace for many years, ‘I’m gonna stove your ‘ed in’ is familiar to me, albeit grammatically incorrect it appears.
Unfortunately I can’t claim unaided completion as I needed to look up Islay and Jura SOUNDS. All the left side went in rather easily (except for the final letter of ARACHNIDA) but on the right side I spent ages on the last five words… HYDRANGEA was my jorum; I also liked ABREAST for the clever construction and LIVESTOCK. It was nice that “Boatman” was used in its actual meaning rather than to indicate a personal pronoun. Thanks a lot Boatman and loonapick!
Thanks, Lookapick and all – the consensus parsing of oUt oNe for UNSHACKLE is certainly the one I had in mind, though I do like to see an alternative suggestion!
Gladys @29 – Interesting spot! This is not a personal jibe at my solvers!
Balfour @30 – Very much the definitive use of “stove” – I’m always happy to see evidence that I’m not the only person to have actually read Moby Dick: a book the size of whales.
In other news of unintended NINAs, someone on theguardian.com has commented that, two lines below the feature that Gladys spotted, there’s an incomplete SLEEp, which could be (but isn’t – at least not consciously) a reference to 11 Ac!
Nice to see Boatman back after an absence since June. I think Boatman must have been in the middle of kitchen renovations when composing this puzzle! Other theme references in the clues: scraps(?), can opener, kitchen appliances, cooking, catering, and in the answers, maybe SCISSORS and THICKEN. Great fun!
Second day in a row I botched a couple of crossers. 22a ARACHNIDI instead of ARACHNIDA, and 19d ANIMUS (counter?) instead of ABACUS, so dnf
The pair of 7d SCALES and 8d MOTION were my favourites, with elipses that work beautifully. The former was loi (like AP@7) and took ages — so many words could fit in that space. “Balance plates” with the following “perhaps spinning” and “before it tips up” cleverly evokes a circus plate spinner — very nicely done!
Other favourites 9a LIVESTOCK, 18d SCISSOR (“cross is vandalised”), 20d TOASTER (rotating kitchen appliance)
Thanks both
*ellipses
Ref: hob. I find this word does bring up the association with imps etc, largely due to it being one of the three linked pseudonyms adopted by the late Paul Facey-Hunter who set as Puck, Hob and Wanderer.
Good fun crossword. All the answers but not all the parsing! Thanks
If you don’t know it, some of you may enjoy A Word A Day https://wordsmith.org It’s free and today’s word is abreast
I reckon LATIN can equate to ROMAN-TIC.
Boatman @37: it was me and I also mentioned it @17. I thought it was amusing but probably not deliberate. Thanks for popping in and commenting, it’s always appreciated.
Gladys@29: I didn’t much like latin=passionate either (it’s a tired stereotype), but it’s in Chambers.
Lots of retroparsing here too…
Is there a word in the English language that defines/describes Boatman’s device of putting his setter name down in some clues and it could either mean I or I’m or My as part of assembling the components of the clue, or a nautical reference to what a Boatman might be getting up to aboard his craft? Tying us in knots, meanwhile…
I wrote several in without parsing, and I still struggle to see 1a – BOW (the front of a boat, so ‘Boatman’s head’). The oarsman nearest the prow of a boat is called BOW, so there’s no need for ‘head’ after Boatman’s moniker. What am I missing?
I was surprised to be told @31 that this was “a fairly gentle work out”. I think “chewy” is a better description @33, and I enjoyed the challenge.
I particularly liked the anagram of the theme word for ‘set’ at 13a, and the helpful crosser from ‘worksurfaces’ 😁 , which gave me a foothold at the end of 9a. Friendly grid, as has been mentioned, but definitely not a walkover.
Thanks to Boatman (and for dropping in), and thanks to Loonapick as ever.
Ab fab 🙂 Top ratings for ABREAST, TALCUM and IN GEAR
I was another ARACHNIDS as in my delight at finally remembering A=ARE I forgot to parse the final letter. Luckily I was able to count on the ABACUS to put me straight
I’m still (very) slowly working my way through Boatman’s book “The first 50” and they are way harder than this one
Cheers B&L
@47 The front of the boat itself is the bow; that’s a term a boatman might use so it’s a “boatman’s head”. Maybe you could _also_ clue Bow with just “boatman” (though that would feel a bit loose to me), but that doesn’t make it invalid to clue it a longer and more explicit way.
I’ve seen much tougher ‘Boatman’s than this and it would have been a breeze, had I not mistakenly penned in ARACHNIDS instead of ARACHNIDA. I also missed A for ‘Are’ (unit of area) despite that being a favourite wp device. This meant that I was stuck for a long time on ABACUS (nothing would fit A-S-U- ) … if only I’d gone for that clue first!
Everything else went in fine – I wasn’t sure of MERMAIDEN being a more elegant version of MERMAID but I assumed it’s OK without bothering to look up.
Is there a mini-theme? Sort of kitchen-oriented, I wondered, what with SCALES, SCISSOR, TOASTER, STOVE, and of course THICKEN.
TALCUM usually refers to the powder you dust on babies – as well as on bicycle inner tubes – rather than the soft rock it comes from which is TALC. But an excellent clue: we can accept a bit of cruciverbal licence! Also likes for APNEA, AWKWARD, ABREAST, MOTION, and more.
Thanks to Boatman and loonapick.
[edit]: just noticed mention of the theme above. I didn’t go deep enough into SOUNDing OUT the clues…
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, with all solved and only TALCUM unparsed, though I must say ‘stop man from talking’ is pretty clever. Thanks to our blogger for helping me out with that one, and to setter for a fun puzzle.
Laccaria @50: not just a mini kitchen theme. Quite a lot of kitchen theme as outlined by loonapick in the preamble?
A mixed bag for me. I agree it was tough going. I really liked the variety and tightness in the cluing. But I also like surfaces that read naturally, and there were not too many of those. I also feel dividing one word into to two without an indicator is unfair, and there were three examples today. I ticked THICKEN and TOASTER.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick
ronald@46 re the uses of the setter’s name in clues, I do like this device, and Bard used it recently and does so from time to time. In the Indy, Methuselah uses it quite a lot and usually very well (difficult to decide which way he’s jumping), as does Grecian (Brockwell in the G) occasionally.
Thank you g@49. So it’s not “head of a boatman”, but what a boatman would call the front part of a boat. “Foremost Boatman” would have been more accurate than just Boatman, which I agree would be loose, but I’m pretty sure this setter has done something equally loose with his name before. (The “head” on a boat is actually the toilet!)
I’m another who was surprised to see both Boatmen today being nautical rather than self-referential. I think in the past it’s invariably been one of each. I was also another Arachnids, but the check button put that one to bed quickly. I enjoy Boatman because there’s always a lot of lateral thinking, but that feature also means that I use that check button more often than I do in many other puzzles.
[Balfour @30: I’m one of the weirdos who actually enjoyed Moby Dick when we read it in high school. These days I can’t imagine a high-school class being assigned that book, so it’s probably now confined to the realm of collegiate studies. But all the tropes piled on metaphors piled on motifs make it a really great work of art–it rewards close reading in so many ways, in so many places. (I guess now that I think about it, the class I read it in was AP English (=Advanced Placement, designed to get university credit if you get a good enough score on the exam at the end), so it technically was a college-level class!)]
I finished it because the grid and variety of clues meant that there were enough letters in for the most difficult clues.
And I enjoyed it even though I did not fully parse every solution.
Great puzzle, at the easier end of Boatman’s range for me. ABREAST, LIVESTOCK, UNSHACKLE and TOASTER were my faves.
I can’t quite get my head around 4a. Is set down is passive, isn’t it? Whereas ALIGHTS is active. I’m missing something, probably.
Good to see Boatman back. Thanks to him and loonapick.
Phitonelly@58 I had the same thought, but if you are set down from a coach, then inevitably you alight. I suppose the process of getting out of any vehicle involves both the driver stopping and the you getting off.
@58 phitonelly
My web dictionary says that “set down” means:
“stop and allow someone to alight from a vehicle.”
Thus, you may assume that if someone “is set down” he/she then “alights.”
However, “alight” does not strictly mean “set down” which is more of an issue IMHO.
Note that I am French, and may not be fully attuned with English logic in this case!
Petert@59,
Yes, the end result might be the same, but that doesn’t make the phrases synonymous. Seemed uncharacteristically loose for Boatman. Unless I’m missing something. Have a sneaky feeling I am.
Ditto, Frogman@60. We crossed.
I forgot to mention I also liked the different uses of Boatman
I didn’t think I’d complete this, but aligned my brain later on in the day and got on a roll, before a brief struggle at the end on annoyingly straightforward DD. It’s too late to add anything useful but I did arrive parsed and agree with DropBear @3 & 12.
Thanks loonapick and Boatman.
Re: Boatman using his name in clue. His is one of the few pseudonyms which is a perfectly common word in English. Others are ‘Fed’, ‘Kite’, and the late (and sadly missed) ‘Puck’, for instance. But I can hardly imagine my own moniker making sense if used in a clue (how many would guess, without looking up, that it’s a mushroom?) – other than as a reference to myself.
I prefer to avoid that sort of self-reference, in any case. During my Independent setter days, I recall that the setter’s name there is displayed very inconspicuously, in small print – unlike the Grauniad. And in other papers like the Times it’s not revealed at all. Best be anonymous!
Re comment 7, what’s the significance of ‘mobilise’ please?
Hospital visit yesterday so not much time for the crossword and we found this very chewy … but determined to finish and finally completed this morning. Very enjoyable. Favourites are PODIA, AWKWARD and DAMAGE. Thanks to Boatmen for the challenge and Loonapick for shedding light on the two we couldn’t parse.
I was another ARACHNIDS at 22a, and only when I was stuck at 19d ABACUS did I consult the check button to correct my S/A error.
It appears that poc@27 doesn’t like puns (6d HYDERANGEA) in a puzzle whose principal characteristic is wordplay. ‘Nuff said.
Thanks, Boatman, for the puzzle and for joining us here, and Loonapick for the blog and theme identification. (I couldn’t see the kitchen for the sink.)
Shouldn’t ALIGHTS be “sets down” rather than “is set down”?