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 1926. 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.
Hector @ 1
Yes, you are right, it has to be reversals as otherwise we would be using indirect anagrams which I believe is considered to be an unforgivable sin for a setter.
Apparently CARTHAGE in Missouri is also a stop on route 66.
I also had ‘top entertainers’ as the definition in 18d. Had ‘Again measures length of’ as the definition in 11a.
Duncan, you may wish to edit your intro. I’m pretty certain the road wasn’t established in November of next year 😉
DP @ 3, Hovis @ 4
DP, I was quite proud of getting Miami in Oklahoma, but never thought of looking for Carthage on the route.
Hovis – Ah! – I’ve now taken a 100 years off the date in the blog
Thanks both. Some generous cluing for a small number of unknowns assisted me to make a hash only of IAMBIST where the ‘one’s’ meaning ‘one has’ fools me most times. I could see what was intended in the definition of CLIMATE and persuaded myself an expression such as ‘in the current climate’ could well describe a political situation. Hopefully there are still more link-words than already revealed, although I’m not expecting sixty-six of them.
Great fun. I got most kicks from CHICAGO and CLOWNS. I suppose it was inevitable that Winona would be forgotten.
Having Chicago and Flagstaff in my first four answers I thought about Route 66 but was thinking of the song and when other place names appeared that aren’t in it I assumed there was some other geographical theme at play.
What’s supposed to be wrong with “unexpectedly” for an anagram indicator? It seems a perfectly normal sort of word to use.
Digger @ 9
I was just expressing a personal opinion in the blog and I understand that others may have different views.
I just like anagram indicators to suggest some form of rearrangement, which I don’t think ‘unexpected’ does.
There, are of course, hundreds of possibilities for anagram indicators. I have just looked at four different websites that list potential indicators. One site listed 958 suggestions.
Only one of the four sites listed ‘unexpected’ as a possibility.
I had been going to hint that you should consider Miami, OK? But Duncan twigged it (unexpectedly).
Route 66 also passes through Groom in Texas. When America was a melting pot it generated such an astonishing range of place names from around the world.
Our regular cafe has a wall full of Route 66 memorabilia, and we even went a little way along it ourselves when we were in Flagstaff.
I’m late enough that likely no one will read my comment–I took a day off work to enjoy what will likely be our last day of truly pleasant weather this year here in CHICAGO, so the puzzle had to wait until I was back indoors.
My last one in was FLAGSTAFF, since my familiarity with the rivers of Wales is limited. I should have seen it sooner–I had noted the large number of American cities, but hadn’t linked them up (i.e., I missed the theme, sort of). Given the theme, I am surprised after the fact to not see the chestnut (at least over here) clue for TULSA (a slut rev.).
[Route 66 is technically decommissioned–its entire route is served now by modern interstates–but local governments have realized that that was a mistake from a tourism perspective. So most remaining parts of it are signed as “Historic Route 66.” The longest stretches still in their original two-lane condition are in Arizona, if you’re looking for a short experience without the slog of crossing the boring plains you’ll find between Albuquerque and the Ozarks.]
[The route ran from Santa Monica Pier to Lakeshore Drive, so it literally went from sea to shining…lake. Close enough. Lake Michigan is big enough to be called a sea if it were salt water.]
Thanks mrpenny – not too late, and very interesting. Thanks also to Phi and duncanshiell, of course
Hope you’re wrong about your weather!