Usually I enjoy a Bluebird puzzle, although they are often sneakily hard.
This one left me slightly empty.
I was fully expecting there to be a nice juicy hidden message in the perimeter unches – why else choose this grid design. Instead it is just gobble-de-gook.
Similarly, there have been interesting themes, especially on a Saturday. Again, I cannot see a theme here at all. (I do hope I’m proved wrong.)
All the while battling clues that are definitely on the hard side for me.
So what we have is a puzzle with a surprisingly large number of generally short answers, and a bunch of tough clues.
I did like some of them though, particularly 22d, my LOI (last one in).
Help needed with a few clues that I do not understand (and fear I might have wrong):
8a, 23a, 15d and finally 27d
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | POPE |
Alexander O’Neal’s beginning to wear mask? (4) |
| [alexande]R O[‘Neal’s] BE[ginning]. No, can’t be. I’m clutching at straws making something fit this wordplay. Alexander O’Neal was an R&B singer, maybe that’s where the R and B come from – if so where do O and E materialise from? And I might have the answer wrong anyway – do you “robe” your face when you wear a mask? I’m stuck. <later – just before blog is published> O Good Grief. I just re-thought the clue and realised I had it totally the wrong way round. |
||
| 9 | IDAHO |
Florida holidaymakers going around another part of America (5)
|
| Hidden in FlorIDA HOlidaymakers, Hidden Ind: going around. First one in. | ||
| 10 | ACID |
Cutting One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ opening (4)
|
| A C (One Hundred) and I (One) D[almations] | ||
| 11 | BEAT IT |
Go and act the fool (4,2)
|
| BE A TIT (act the fool) | ||
| 12 | REAWAKEN |
Bring round a new rake ordered in error (8)
|
| (A NEW RAKE)* AInd: ordered in error. | ||
| 13 | REMARKABLE |
Amazing quality of blackboards (10)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | OVAL |
Egg-shaped ball left outside museum? (4)
|
| O (ball) L[eft] around VA (museum, V & A, Victoria & Albert Kensington) | ||
| 17 | IRON |
Decrease strength (4)
|
| IRON (de-crease) | ||
| 18 | SCALE |
Transaction includes cold piece of fish (5)
|
| C[old] inside SALE (transaction) | ||
| 20 | CALL |
Cry about everything (4)
|
| C (about, circa) ALL (everything) | ||
| 21 | SHED |
Some bloke inside small deserted hut (4)
|
| HE (some bloke) inside S[mall] D[eserted]. Is D a valid abbreviation for deserted? <checks> Apparently so. |
||
| 22 | TOOTHBRUSH |
Handheld device to shoot behind both characters cycling (10)
|
| TO (to), then RUSH (shoot) after BOTH “cycling” its characters to make OTHB | ||
| 23 | SUITCASE |
Double-action carrier (8)
|
| I am unsure of the wordplay here. I assume the “double-action” is that a suitcase can both “suit” your belongings, and “case” them. Another “Help!” |
||
| 26 | LOITER |
Waste time, increasingly sad, with computers instead of women (6)
|
| LOWER (increasingly sad) -W[omen] +IT (computers). I like a substitution clue like this |
||
| 28 | SKIN |
At last flames spark, hot and crackling? (4)
|
| [flame]S [spar]K IN (hot) | ||
| 29 | ALIEN |
Exotic pork pie stuffed inside a northerner’s face (5)
|
| LIE (pork pie) inside A N[ortherner] | ||
| 30 | DEED |
Document edited twice, but in different ways (4)
|
| ED< ED. Sweet |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DOPE |
Charlie? Charlie! (4)
|
| Double Def. One drug based. One a name associated with dumbness from various comedians (Chaplin, Drake, Chester etc.) |
||
| 2 | RESTRAINED |
Calm and relaxation preceding spat? (10)
|
| REST (relaxation) RAINED (spat) | ||
| 3 | MISTAKES |
Errors made by young woman full of drink (8)
|
| MISS (young woman) around (full of) TAKE (drink, as a verb) | ||
| 4 | FAIR |
Fete with loud atmosphere (4)
|
| F (loud) AIR (atmosphere) | ||
| 5 | SOLACE |
Comfort one with beer (6)
|
| SOL (a beer, not what I call a proper beer) ACE (one) | ||
| 6 | LAVA |
Something under the surface of toilet was discovered (4)
|
| LAV (toilet) [w]A[s] (was, dis-covered) | ||
| 7 | TIMETABLES |
Programmes made by sentimental drunk ignoring the news about Britain (10)
|
| SENTIMENTAL – both Ns (ignoring the News) = SETIMETAL. Then anagram it (AInd: drunk) making TIMETALES, and put that around (about) B[ritain]. |
||
| 14 | EARTHQUAKE |
Friend runs away after suffering heart tremors (10)
|
| QUAKE[r] (Friend – R) after (HEART)* AInd: suffering. | ||
| 15 | BEANO |
Children’s publication in decline (5)
|
| Another one I don’t understand. How is “Beano” in decline? I know beano means a party, besides the comic (of which I was an avid fan from childhood through adolescence – yes until about 33) Is it asking us to read it as “BE A NO” i.e. decline something offered? If so that feels a stretch to me. |
||
| 16 | OSCAR WILDE |
Flamboyant playwright – Coward? – lies around (5,5)
|
| (COWARD LIES)* AInd: around. | ||
| 19 | ECHELONS |
One’s mixed up with revolutionary liberal breaking ranks (8)
|
| (ONES + CHE (revolutionary) + L[iberal])* AInd: breaking. | ||
| 22 | TEA BAG |
Almost all staff on land straining to be made redundant by me (3,3)
|
| TEA[m] (Almost all staff) BAG (land, as in catch, like a fish). Last one in. This clue’s extended def. really confused me, but when understood I thought it was very good indeed. Favourite clue. |
||
| 24 | TUNE |
Naked men head up for air (4)
|
| [m]E[n] (men, naked) and NUT (head) all reversed (up) | ||
| 25 | EPIC |
Impressive online photo? (4)
|
| E-PIC (online photo). carrying forward the trope that anything online get s E- as a prefix. | ||
| 27 | EVEN |
4 is divisible by 2 (4)
|
| Anything divisible by 2 is even. 4 is just another example. I may be missing something here |
SUITCASE
SUIT and CASE: two court ‘actions’
EVEN
4 (down)=FAIR
The other queries I parsed as KVa above. Rather annoyed I didn’t see de-crease which is fast becoming a chestnut so a silly dnf.
BEANO I did indeed take to ‘be a no’. Especially after we’d already had BE A TIT.
Thanks for the workout Bluebird and beermagnet for the prompt and helpful blog