Mog provides us with this Tuesday’s challenge.
It took us a little while to get into Mog’s puzzle, but once we had filled most of the right-hand side of the grid, the left fell fairly quickly.
Tuesday is theme day, and we were on the lookout for thematic words as we completed the grid, but couldn’t come up with anything. However, looking at the completed grid we realised that the end of the left hand across entries could be linked to the start of the those on the right to make different types of bread – signified by BREAK at 1ac and BREAD at 27ac.
A very satisfying solve with some crafty definitions and neat surfaces. Thanks Mog for the fun – time for some toast!
Double definition
SONIC (‘the hedgehog’ – in the Sega game) round our ‘holding’ Y (variable) MPH (speed)
vALId (legal) missing the first and last letters or ‘unlimited’ BA BA (degrees – Bachelors of Arts). We’re showing our age as we had to check that this is an online sales site – we’d never heard of it!
A reversal (‘twisted’) of EG (‘perhaps’) + LATIN (language)
T (Tesla) A (last letter or ‘back’ in Ribena) ROT (bosh!)
IN (fashionable) CO (company) GO (try) round (‘circumventing’) NIT (twit)
A reversal (‘turned’) of IS in MUCH (great) + mALL (shopping centre) missing the first letter or ‘unopened’
AH (I see) EA (each) D (Democrat)
A reversal (‘revolving’) of NAIL (‘piece that secures’) + A
An anagram (‘upset’) of MAN and TUNNEL
G (good) RAVE (party) LP (album) IT (oomph)
TATE (gallery) R (first letter or ‘entrance’ of reception)
A (area) R (Republican) + alternate or ‘periodic’ letters of sTuDiEs CoOl
URGES (recommends) in (‘boring’) B S (first and last letters or ‘case’ of books) – Anthony Burgess is well known for writing A Clockwork Orange which was published in 1962.
An anagram (‘oddly’) of RAIN’S in or ‘penetrating’ TENT (shelter)
A homophone (‘for auditors’) of BRED (produced)
BE A ST (saint ‘shortly’) – ‘receive canonisation’
A clue-as-definition: an anagram (‘crooked’) of REGIMES
A reversal (‘turned up’) of ARK (‘Genesis refuge’) + I (one) T (time)
A reversal (‘over’) of MATS (tangles) + IN A (America)
GI (soldier) CALm (still) missing the last letter or ‘not finished’ after or ‘chasing’ MA (mum)
An anagram (‘up’) of GO HILLARY – to Sir Edmund Hillary and other climbers, Everest would probably be the ‘Holy Grail’
TRITE (commonplace) after or ‘south of’ in a down clue NI (Northern Ireland – ‘Ulster’)
ON (playing) CORD (string) in CAT (feline)
MALI (country) GNAT (insect) round or ‘biting’ N (last letter or ‘rear’ of Floridian)
C (Conservative) EASE (moderate) LESS (not so much)
Hidden (‘some’) in meatheAD AS TRAiner
APP (‘certain download’) ROVE (cruise)
A reversal (‘receiving rise’) of BATON (staff) + IT
EX (old) + REM (band) in or ‘wearing’ T E (first and last letters or ‘fringe’ of tulle)
An anagram (‘scotch’) of BROTH
A homophone (‘voice’) of RAISED (amplified)
I wonder if the second def in 1a is ‘to get smashed’: I can’t see how ‘to’ works as a link word in a double def.
I was thrown in the SE by entering RAZED rather than the less familiar ‘rased’ which my spellchecker does not recognise. Given the Z would have formed the end of someone’s surname, it did not seem impossible. Interesting mini theme
Thanks both
Ali Baba chez the ginfling meant the Forty Thieves and somewhere Arabic, but the Oriental online market does ring a bell — is it the one with the annual specials spree? Other esoterica were Krait (nho), liana (Tarzan’s swing) and Concordat (school history, along with Entente Cordiale, etc). Didn’t notice the breads but hey ho, nice puzzle, ta Mog and BandJ.
I agree with PostMark about “to” in 1a. I missed the theme but enjoyed speculating about the links between Burgess, Art Deco and Ali Baba.
Very clever theme but I was nowhere near getting it. I assumed it would be something about Anthony Burgess, who I don’t know at all. Perhaps he’d written a book called Gelatin Incognito, for example.
I was defeated by ALI BABA, KRAIT and TAROT in the top left corner. MUSIC HALL and HOLY GRAIL were super clues.
Wasn’t Alibaba in the news a couple years back due to some run-in with the Chinese government? (And yes, the company spells it as a single word.) Anyway, they’re like the Chinese version of Amazon.
No way on earth was I finding that theme–I have a particular blind spot for Nina-like devices–even if I’d remembered to look.
As an owner (read “servant”) of two cats, I quite liked the image of my cats agreeing to play with string in the clue for CONCORDAT. (That certainty is something nearly every cat enjoys…)