Good morning from Philadelphia. This is Braze (a zebra with two twists) filling in for Eileen. Thanks to Brendan and also to the hosts for giving me an opportunity to crossword blog (and digress) again!
Phew! I was anticipating a very hard puzzle but the editors saved this one for today because this Friday is the 13th. Brendan found lots of ways to reference 13 in this puzzle, which was lots of fun. My favorites were 4d, 21d, and 15d for the misdirection.
I was also pleased to see Rodin make an appearance, so I could call out the Rodin Museum here on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which is our avenue of museums. It’s the only museum outside France dedicated to his works. Philly is underappreciated as an art town: everyone thinks it’s just the Rocky statue, but besides the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and its annex) we also have the legendary Barnes Institute, which is the most concentrated collection of masterworks you’ll ever see. Be sure to make time for it if you come to Philadelphia.
On to today’s clues and solutions!
Across
| 1a | ALPHABETISING | Way to produce order using 26 characters helping a bit as arranged (13)
*HELPING A BIT AS (anagram indicated by “arranged”) Thanks to Crispy @6 for the correction. |
| 10a | OUTBACK | Both parts of return trip in remote region (7)
OUT + BACK (two legs of a return trip) |
| 11a | TWELFTH | Some flight flew there, returning before 13th (7)
<fligh_T FLEW T_here< (hidden word indicated by “some,” reversal indicated by “returning”) |
| 12a | THEFT | Taking one of London’s papers (5)
THE + FT (Financial Times, a paper familiar to solvers!) |
| 13a | RE-ENACTOR | Person taking part in historical pageants? Not to be confused with career (2-7)
*NOT + CAREER (anagram indicated by “to be confused”) |
| 14a | CHILD | French cookery expert, one of 13, possibly (5)
Julia Child, famous TV chef (and wartime intelligence analyst too) |
| 16a | SLIDE RULE | Line written in regret after another splits party – that can speed up division (5,4)
S(L)IDE RU(L)E (L [line] inserted in SIDE [party] + RUE [regret]) |
| 18a | REGROWING | For instance, din in arena is on the rise again (9)
R(EG + ROW)ING EG (“for instance”) + ROW (“din”) contained in (“in”) RING (“arena) |
| 19a | RODIN | Frenchman who sculpted river god (5)
R (“river”) + ODIN (“God”) |
| 20a | LORDLIEST | I strolled haphazardly, like most aristocratic types (9)
*ISTROLLED (anagram indicated by haphazardly) |
| 23a | VIRUS | Cause for complaint from man in Latin America (5)
VIR (man in Latin) + US (America) |
| 24a | NAMABLE | Mediterranean islander backed as OK for nomination (7)
<ELBA + MAN< (“mediterranean islander,” reversal indicated by “backed”) |
| 25a | RED CARD | Punishment for player, one of 26 (3,4)
Double definition, reference to a deck of cards |
| 26a | ROUGH DIAMONDS | Trump listened to group of 13 unsophisticated types (5,8)
RUFF (homophone indicated by “listened to”) + DIAMONDS (“group of 13,” also a reference to cards) |
Down
| 2d | LETTERING | Allowing to capture queen – writing on wall, perhaps (9)
LETTING (“allowing”) containing (“to capture”) ER (“queen”) |
| 3d | HEART | Middle one of 13 (5)
Double definition, and another playing card reference |
| 4d | BAKER | One of three sea-going tradesmen who understates 13? (5)
Nursery rhyme reference: three men in a tub: the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. The 13 is a reference to a “baker’s dozen.” |
| 5d | TETHERING | Securing 13 at sixes and sevens? Good (9)
*THIRTEEN + G (anagram indicated by “at sixes and sevens”) |
| 6d | SHED A TEAR | Apparently was moved from hut over a rent (4,1,4)
SHED (hut) + A (†) + TEAR (rent) |
| 7d | NO-FAT | Kind of diet contributing to reduction of a tummy (2-3)
reductio_N OF A T_ummy |
| 8d | SOUTH CAROLINA | Shout out and sing in a part of US – one of 13 colonies (5,8)
*SHOUT (anagram indicated by “out”) + CAROL (“sing”) + IN A (†) |
| 9d | THIRTEEN A SIDE | Like some Rugby matches I attend here, is mishandled (8-1-4)
*I ATTEND HERE IS (anagram indicated by “mishandled”) |
| 15d | DOODLEBUG | Setter, for example, including double anagram for old weapon (9)
DOG (“setter, for example”) containing *DOUBLE (anagram indicated directly!) The weapon referred to was the V1 “buzz bomb.” New one to me: I know of the doodlebug as a little railway carriage. |
| 16d | SWINEHERD | Farm worker has drink in piece of pottery (9)
WINE (“drink”) contained in (“in”) SHERD (“piece of pottery”) |
| 17d | UNDERHAND | Less than 13 given to bidder? That’s dishonest (9)
Cryptic definition: I parse this as a reference to bridge, where each player is dealt 13 cards. |
| 21d | ROMEO | One of 26 on radio, partnered with one of 13 (5)
NATO phonetic alphabet, the partner is Juliet |
| 22d | TERRA | Land part of Peter Rabbit (5)
peTER RAbbit (hidden word indicated by “part of”) |
| 23d | VIDEO | Record second half for South American city (5)
monteVIDEO (capital of Uruguay, omission of first five letters indicated by “second half”) |
Apologies to those waiting to comment–I didn’t know I had to open the post to comments. Have at it!
Thanks Brendan and Braze
Some of the 13s I still don’t understand. Why does the BAKER “understate 13”? Why is Juliet in 21d a 13? I didn’t see why CHILD was a 13 either, but that was explained on the Guardian site.
Favourite LOI VIRUS.
Thank you, Braze, for the blog – and for the info about the attractions of Philadelphia 🙂 – and to Brendan for yet another intriguing and creative puzzle. Lest there be doubt about ’13’ references in 14A and 21D, they both indicate age (of children) – Juliet was 13, nearly 14.
Thanks for stepping in Braze. Much appreciated.
Thanks for stepping in Braze. Much appreciated.
Hi Braze. Thanks for the blog. You need AS as part of the angriest for ALPHABETISING, otherwise it doesn’t work. The indicator is simply “arranged”
Thanks for the blog. I really enjoyed this puzzle and all the different ways that Brendan used his theme. I missed both the references in 14a and 21d so thanks for the explanations. I’d forgotten that Juliet was so young.
Muffin. A “Baker’s Dozen” is 13. So if a baker states dozen he is understating 13. Possibly?
This capped off a nice week of relatively easy solves for me (considering there’s usually at least one cryptic a week that completely baffles me), still gave up on a couple here but the parsing was fair. The only one I’m still somewhat stumped by is 14, I did not register the chef reference at first (only knowing that she was a chef and not in a particular cuisine) but am still struggling to understand how the second part relates to the answer. Best I can guess is that someone could be one of 13 children, but that seems quite weak. And since she was born in 1912 I’m not sure how it could relate to her age? Unless I’m misunderstanding what you meant @3 judygs?
Smudgekent#8 I’d say definitely!
Thanks, Smudgekent @8. Beat me to it.
I get a buzz when I see Brendan’s name, as I know I’m probably in for a theme-based masterclass and this didn’t disappoint. My favourites were NAMABLE, THETHERING (6+7 =13), VIRUS, VIDEO and ROUGH DIAMONDS. I don’t understand the reference to 13 in CHILD. You gotta love his puzzles
Ta Brendan & a warm welcome to Braze.
Comment #13
Very clever as always from Brendan. As well as anything else, there are of course THIRTEEN letters A SIDE in the answers around the edge. I particularly liked LORDLIEST, for the clever “like most aristocratic types” which misleadingly suggests “like the majority of aristocratic types” but really means “like the types that are most aristocratic”. Also VIRUS for the clever “Latin American”. But plenty of other ticks.
Many thanks Brendan and Braze, and welcome to the latter.
Sen#9 ‘… one of 13, possibly’ = a person aged 13 = a child.
Wonderful puzzle. I didn’t parse ‘child’ – as with the best clues, so obvious when you know the answer … .
I really enjoyed this and got stuck into it last night with 1a going straight in and then after spotting the theme got through over half before realising it was very late. I particularly liked how none of the references to 13 were to the clue/answer for 13a.
The last few took quite a while today but I got there in the end. I’ll confess I needed a word search to solve the stragglers. I was looking for ‘cuine’ to be French slang for a master chef before PDM with Julia Child.
In 26a I didn’t know ‘ruff’ as to trump in cards and was thinking along lines of flatulence. 21d ROMEO held me up for a while too before some Googling revealed/reminded me that Juliet was depicted as 13yo.
For 8d I parsed the definition as including ‘part of US’ otherwise those words seem redundant. In the blog for 11a the H of flight should be capitalised. Agree 17d is a reference to contract bridge.
Many thanks to Braze for the blog (and Philadelphia tips!) and Brendan for the puzzle. Wishing everyone a lucky day!
Comment #18
@15 judygs Aha, thanks – seems so obvious when you point it out. Thankfully seems like I’m not the only to have overlooked such an obvious parsing, so I don’t feel quite so silly as I might have…
Thanks for the attempts to explain the “understates” in 4d, but there’s nothing that refers to “dozen” in the clue, and if it is assumed it is a baker’s dozen it is 13, not an understatement.
Thanks Braze, and firstly I hope all is well with Eileen.
I thought this was classic Brendan: inventive and challenging (but not excessively) with a 13/26 theme appearing throughout the clues in different guises, appropriate for today’s date.
I didn’t really get either part of CHILD (the 13 or the cookery expert); hadn’t heard of SHERD before (or if I have it was probably on this site, but I have forgotten it, being myself old enough to be discovered in an archaeological dig like an ancient piece of pottery).
I was also defeated by ROMEO’s partner Juliet being “one of 13”, and could’t quite see why the FT is one of “London’s papers”, as I’m sure I’ve seen it on sale here in Brighton.
But overall, lots of fun clues, with favourites perhaps SHED A TEAR, RED CARD and OUTBACK.
Thanks to B&B.
Sorry muffin @20, I don’t follow you. A BAKER “understates 13” because he or she describes it as a dozen, as in a baker’s dozen. Quite amusing I thought.
Comment #23
Impressive that Shakespeare knew that Juliet had a Scrabble score of 13.
Lord Jim @22
But a “baker’s dozen” is 13, so not 13 understated. Someone else’s dozen would be “understated 13”, but not a baker’s!
I was thinking of the Hunting of thecSnark for the baker, but Braze has it right
A Brendan puzzle is always a delight. VIRUS is brilliant; other favourites include NAMABLE, LORDLIEST and BAKER (which I couldn’t parse but, when explained, liked a lot). Thanks a lot Brendan, and Braze and others here who helped explain the parsing
Thanks Brendan for a cleverly themed crossword. Many of the clues were very satisfying with my favourites being VIRUS, SHED A TEAR, NO-FAT, and SOUTH CAROLINA. I found the SW the most difficult portion of the puzzle and I felt a few of the words reflected a bit of ‘grid-fill panic’. I guess that’s the trade-off in a heavily themed crossword so I won’t complain. Thanks Braze for the blog and for promoting Philadelphia’s art scene. [BTW, if you like beer and Belgian style food Monk’s cafe is a must.]
According to onelook.com, apparently CHILD is also the thirteenth Lenormand card in cartomancy.
??
Lovely puzzle with lateral use of a topical theme and some clever misdirections, enveloped in some splendid surfaces. Favourites : SLIDE RULE, VIRUS, SWINEHERD.
CHILD was my LOI: I took the clue to read ‘cookery expert from France’ until I realised it should be read as ‘expert in French cookery’ (like the misdirection in the clue for LORDLIEST which Lord Jim @14 observes).
Many thanks to B&B – have a cheese steak on me
muffin@20: If this baker packages a loaf he/she will put in 13 slices to avoid any risk of being accused of underselling. If asked how many slices there are in the loaf the baker will say ‘a dozen’. Hence ‘understating’, no?
(Just seen I am echoing Lord Jim’s comment, sorry)
Buddy@24 I wish there was a “Like” button on this site! Brilliant!
I was initially held back by trying to link the “13” references to 13ac, but soon got the hang of it. I was completely oblivious to today actually being Friday 13th till I came here, so the appositeness of the theme passed me by while solving.
Thanks Braze and various commenters for the enlightenment on why CHILD is a “13”; I’d not heard of Julia Child (famous TV chef) before, so it was a bung-and-hope for me.
I very much liked all the variations on 13-ness (dekatriacism?) in the long clues on the edges.
I still have my British Thornton SLIDE RULE. It’s labelled on its case as “‘DTS’, X13 Queens’ “, so I must have still been using it at University – in fact I now remember having the scale all visible at once was very useful in “on sight” indexing of X-ray diffraction data.
SLIDE RULE is also the title of Neville Shute’s autobiography, relating to his time as a “calculator”, as one of the many such doing the design calculations for the R100 and R101 airships – yes, using slide rules. Worth reading.
Thanks Brendan and Braze, and hoping Eileen is on the mend.
Ah, Doodlebugs.
Only 80 years since the Flying Robots attacked London, and already, we forget.
But I must keep from droning on…
A Baker hands me 13 buns. How many buns are there, Mr. Baker? A dozen. [which for the rest of us is less than 13, hence understated] Great puzzle.Sorry others have already made the same point..
[For it is he…]
(I emailed Eileen, who is back at home. Her convalescence seems to be going well and she hopes to be back blogging in a few weeks’ time)
Ah. No comments were up when I posted (me@21), and a quick peruse of those who got in ahead of me has answered most of my queries.
CHILD being “one of 13” is a definite smack my head moment, and a quick google of the esteemed cookery expert of the same name reveals that although American (which I knew), she was an expert in French cookery (which I didn’t): nice deception. Now I understand what Brendan was up to, that is actually another favourite clue.
I try to ignore the fact that Shakespeare’s Juliet was 13: yikes! Absolutely no connection whatsoever to Trump turning up in the same puzzle.
muffin @20: as I understand it, if asked for a dozen loaves or whatever, the baker historically gave 13, in order to escape a flogging (the punishment for selling underweight bread: different times). Thus, if the baker said “here’s a dozen” while offering 13, it was an understatement. Neither the butcher nor candlestick maker operated in such a way, and “baker’s dozen” meaning 13 is well known. I don’t think the clue needs a reference to “dozen”: 13 and baker are enough
When I started cooking, for a couple of years I had only two cookery books – Good Housekeeping and Julia Child et al.. It wasn’t until I acquired more that I realised what an unusual book the latter was.
Not convinced about the baker!
D the S @33: triskaidekacism is the barbarism you’re looking for!
Outstanding.
It took quite a while to understand some (yeah, ROMEO’s Juliet, I mean you in particular), which was part of the fun. As for the BAKER’s understatement- I did get that one straight away, and it made me laugh aloud!
Also, there was a great penny drop moment when I stopped trying to link to the 13th clue.
I thought the whole puzzle was witty, clever and enormous fun.
Lots of thanks to Braze for the blog.
Late to the party but worth spending time on this one. Like some others, I failed to see the (now) obvious parsing of CHILD, although I didn’t know the chef. My picks were TWELFTH for being nicely hidden, VIRUS for the man in Latin America (I spent ages trying to put an L into the answer), TETHERING and THIRTEEN-A-SIDE for great anagram spots [and the latter referencing the grid].
Thanks Brendan for an entertaining puzzle and Braze for stepping into the breach.
Gervase@36 Thank you for your post – very best wishes to Eileen for a speed recovery.
muffin@38
Let’s try it with muffins…
I visit my local baker and ask for a dozen muffins. The baker (mindful of the firm views of Trading Standards on members of their trade if they are caught underweighing their bread and similar products, and the strict enforcement thereof which involves a dozen or so lashes), deliberately sorts me out 13 and says “here, a dozen of my finest muffins”.
When I get home I count the muffins and realise that the baker’s “dozen” is in fact 13, and that the baker has understated the number supplied.
I enjoy an extra muffin, and the baker escapes a flogging, so everyone wins, except possibly the butcher and candlestick maker who don’t really play a role in this scenario.
[MCourtney@34: it’s when you stop droning on that we should run for cover!
Bobsie-Pie@39: that is quite a barbaric mouthful… I was making something up direct from Greek (thank you, Duo) – I had forgotten, if I ever knew, of that word.]
If you include 13ac as a 13 reference then there are exactly 13 clues that reference 13 in the crossword. Great stuff, very enjoyable