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. The def. is Alexander referenceing the famous poet – Alexander Pope, and the wordplay: O[‘Neal’s] inside PPE (mask?) I’ll fix the main grid image later – I expect something else wrong in here will be pointed out soon … |
||
| 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
Thanks to beermagnet for the blog – much appreciated. There is a (sort of) Nina along the top, chiming with the central across answer. It was really just a way to get the gridfill started.
Thanks for the pointing out the nina, Bluebird. I would never have seen it otherwise. Parsed SUITCASE & EVEN as KVa and was just about ok with BE A NO. Never heard of SOL, so that was a guess and hope. Didn’t see DOPE. Wonder what that makes me.
I’m poor because I didn’t get the do-re-mi. I had Coke for DOPE, with a rather tenuous C for Charlie and oke for the question mark.
Enjoyable but trickier than recent Bluebirds. Did not spot the nina. ACID, REAWAKEN, SUITCASE, RESTRAINED, TIMETABLES and ECHELONS my faves today.
Thanks both
Disarmingly honest comments from beermagnet, posters, and Bluebird.
I struggled, but completed, this challenging puzzle.
I felt that SOL, for beer, is pushy, in 5(d).
“Be a tit” and “Be a no”, in one puzzle, is a little bit iffy, maybe.
Not a hope in Hades, that I would find the Nina, Do Re Me Fa So La Te ( I hope that’s right ) in the first row, and SCALE at 18(ac).
But is “TIT” in 11(ac) a bird reference?
Overall, a very testing but well-compiled puzzle, tough but fair, and great blog and posts from other solvers.
Thanks to all
I was a little taken aback by the apparent double anagrind in 12a (ordered/in error) and a similar. Issue with *characters* cycling in 22a, but they’re both fair.
Big ticks for 13a, 23a and 26a.
Thanks Bluebird. Like others I found this difficult & I eventually revealed a handful. I would still count this as a worthwhile experience, however, due to the excellence of clues like BEAT IT, CALL, LOITER, ALIEN, EARTHQUAKE, & TUNE. I didn’t spot the Nina. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.