Phi challenges us in his usual way this Friday
I often look for a theme in Phi’s puzzles and think I might have found one today. It’s about 100 years since Route 66 in America was created. Wikipedia suggests that the route was conceived in 1925, before the road was established in November 2026. The road runs from CHICAGO, Illinois to SANTA MONICA in California. The exact route has changed a bit over the years as the country has developed and towns / cities have grown or declined. At some time in the history of Route 66, the road passes through or has passed through MIAMI, Oklahoma (not the one in Florida), SANTA FE, New Mexico, and FLAGSTAFF, Arizona.
t couldn’t make up my mind whether ‘twisting’ and ‘swirling’ in the clues for SENEGAL and CLIMATE were reversal indicators or anagram indicators so I have described the wordplay in both ways in the detailed table below.
I can’t find a dictionary that lists ‘C‘ as an abbreviation for ‘cool’, so I have gone with CL as the initial letters of two consecutive words Cool and Location.
Many words are used as anagram indicators these days, but I baulked a bit at ‘unexpectedly’ in the clue for RITUALISTIC.
I thought there were some excellent surface and wordplay constructions in the clues. I particularly liked the clues for CHICAGO, LIFE SCIENCE and CARTHAGE.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | African country, say, surrounded by twisting roads (7)
SENEGAL (country in West Africa) E.G. (for example) contained in (surrounded by) LANES (roads) reversed (twisting) could also be E.G. (for example) contained in (surrounded by) an anagram of (twisting) LANES (roads) SEN (EG) AL< or SEN (EG) AL* |
| 5 | US city cross with company importing silver (7)
CHICAGO (city in the United States) CHI (Greek letter equivalent to X in our alphabet; the character is shaped like a cross) + (CO [company] containing [importing] AG [chemical symbol for silver]) CHI C (AG) O |
| 9 | Long to get over theatrical production (5)
PANTO (PANTOmime; theatrical performance) PANT (to long) + O (over in cricket scoring notation) PANT O |
| 10 | Display area marks Welsh river (9)
FLAGSTAFF (a pole, etc for displaying a flag) FLAGS (indicates; marks) + TAFF (river in Wales) FLAGS TAFF |
| 11 | Again measures length of house, returning after getting retired (7)
RETIMES (measures time taken again; again measures) RET (retired) + SEMI (semi-detached house indicating that the length of the house is not the full width of the building) reversed (returning) RET IMES< |
| 12 | Hold back official description of poor weather? (7)
REFRAIN (keep oneself from action; hold back) REF (REFeree; official) + RAIN (an example of poor weather) REF RAIN |
| 13 | Get angry about the Earth with shifting of a lake – one’s joining movement (2,9)
GO BALLISTIC (become violently angry) GLOBAL (referencing the whole world [about the Earth] with the first [one of] L [lake] moved to the end [shifting] to form GOBALL) + I’S (one’s) + TIC (spasmodic twitch; movement) – the L that is moved could finish as either the 5th or 6th letter as both are L GO BALL IS TIC |
| 17 | Reinterpreted a man’s action in Californian city (5,6)
SANTA MONICA (city in California) Anagram of (reinterpreted) A MAN’S ACTION SANTA MONICA* |
| 20 | Still wearing recent baby clothes (7)
LAYETTE (a baby’s complete set of clothing) YET (still) contained in (wearing) LATE (recently; recent) LA (YET) TE |
| 21 | Poet: one’s range covering start of sonnet (7)
IAMBIST (a person who lines of verse consisting of metrical feet [iambs]; poet) I (Roman numeral for one) + (AMBIT [scope, ex; range] containing [covering] S [first letter of {start of} Sonnet]) I AMBI (S) T |
| 23 | Minor recipient of honour this evening? (9)
WEEKNIGHT (today is Friday, so this evening is a weeknight [evening of a day that is not the weekend [Saturday or Sunday]) WEE (small; minor) + KNIGHT (recipient of a knighthood [honour]) WEE KNIGHT |
| 25 | Position taken for wellbeing as an Australian (5)
ASANA (Yoga position; position taken for wellbeing) AS + AN + A (Australian) AS AN A |
| 26 | Historic state capital certain to retain an opening for them (5,2)
SANTA FE (SANTA FE, New Mexico, is the oldest [historic] state capital in the United States) SAFE (secure; certain) containing (to retain) (AN + T [first letter of {opening for] Them]) S (AN T) AFE |
| 27 | Political situation and other things swirling around South American capital (7)
CLIMATE (Collins dictionary gives the ‘political climate’ as an example of a prevailing trend [current situation]) ETC (et cetara; and others) reversed (swirling) containing (around) LIMA (capital city of the South American country of Peru) Like twisting in the clue for SENEGAL at 1 across, the wordplay here could be interpreted as using swirling as an anagram indicator for ETC C (LIMA) TE< or C (LIMA) TE* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Unconscious mental pressure to have a drink before attempt (8)
SUPEREGO (the strong unconscious inhibitory mechanism which criticises the ego and causes it pain and distress when it accepts unworthy impulses from the id; unconscious mental pressure) SUP (have a drink) + ERE (before) + GO (a try; an attempt) SUP ERE GO |
| 2 | Tiny molecule never found in form of butane (8)
NANOTUBE (a molecule of a fullerene that is cylindrical rather than ball-shaped; ‘nano-‘ implies it is very small) NO (never) contained in (found in) an anagram of (form of) BUTANE NA (NO) TUBE* |
| 3 | Revolutionary in leaving place for boat tidy (5)
GROOM (keep clothes and appearance clean and tidy) MOORinG (place where boats are secured; place for boats) excluding (leaving) IN and then reversed (revolutionary) GROOM< |
| 4 | Severe punishment having caught one neglecting entomology for biology? (4,7)
LIFE SCIENCE (Biology is one of the life sciences) LIFE SentENCE (severe punishment) excluding (neglecting) ENT [entomology]) and then containing (having) (C [caught] + I [Roman numeral for one] ) in its place (for) – giving CI replacing (for) ENT LIFE S (C I) ENCE |
| 5 | Tea, hot, served in Central America … (3)
CHA (tea) H (hot) contained in (served in) CA (Central America) C (H) A |
| 6 | .. as a result of American engaging in various topics (4,5)
IPSO FACTO (by that very fact or act; as a result of) (OF + A [American]) contained in (engaging in) an anagram of (various) TOPICS IPS (O F A) CTO* |
| 7 | Cheers when splitting a variable screen image (6)
AVATAR (a movable image that represents a person in a virtual reality environment or in cyberspace; screen image) TA (thank you; cheers!) contained in (splitting) (A + VAR [variable]) A VA (TA) R |
| 8 | Upset, not working? Stop working (6)
OFFEND (upset) OFF (not working) + END (stop working) OFF END |
| 12 | Unexpectedly it curtails retaining expression of individuality following religious practice (11)
RITUALISTIC (following religious practice) Anagram of (unexpectedly) IT CURTAILS containing (retaining) I (expression of individuality) RITUALIST (I) C – any of the Is could be the one contained |
| 14 | American aboard drifting Italian ship sunk during war (9)
LUSITANIA (The Lusitania was a British ocean liner sunk by a German U-boat during World War 1 on May 7, 1915) US (American) contained in (aboard) an anagram of (drifting) ITALIAN L (US) ITANIA* |
| 15 | Remote lake – it’s repeatedly brought up with two accounts raised (8)
TITICACA (reference Lake Titicaca, a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world; remote lake) IT reversed (brought up; down entry) + IT reversed (brought up; down entry) giving ITs repeatedly brought up + AC (account) reversed (raised; down entry) + AC (account) reversed (raise; down entry) giving two accounts raised. TI< TI< CA< CA< |
| 16 | Ancient city, source of history in times of horse-drawn transport? (8)
CARTHAGE (ancient city state near present-day Tunis) H (first letter of [source of] History]) contained in (in) CART AGE (time of horse-drawn transport) CART (H) AGE |
| 18 | Cool location initially has top entertainers (6)
CLOWNS (circus entertainers; [big-]top entertainers) CL (first letters of each of [initially] Cool and Location) + OWNS (has) CL OWNS |
| 19 | Monster very active in West and North (6)
WYVERN (fictitious monster, winged and two-legged, combining characteristics of the dragon and the griffin) Anagram of (active) VERY contained in (in) (W [West] + N [North]) W (YVER*) N |
| 22 | The writer’s intent on sending up US city (5)
MIAMI (a US city) (I ‘M [I am; the writer’s ] + AIM [intent]) all reversed (sending up; down entry) (MIA + MI) < |
| 24 | Odd bits of energy recycled? That’s cool! (3)
GEE (exclamation of surprise or enthusiasm; that’s cool) EEG (letters 1, 3 and 5 of [bit of] EnErGy) recycled by one place right and round to form GEE GEE |
I’d go with reversals in the clues for SENEGAL and CLIMATE. Otherwise the anagram fodder has to be inferred from ‘roads’ and ‘and other things’. In 18d I think the definition is ‘top entertainers’ – CLOWNS perform in the big top.