It’s my turn to cover for Eileen today, and my first time blogging a Guardian puzzle.
As a relative novice solver and blogger this was more of a challenge than I’d hoped; I didn’t complete it unaided and I haven’t managed to parse everything completely. I did want to get the post up before bed in whatever state and I’ve at least done that.
I’m sure commenters will step in to complete/correct my attempt and I’ll update the post in the morning. (Edit: you did of course, thank you all 😊).
It’s certainly a different game to be solving a puzzle with a mind to also writing the blog for it, but this was still enjoyable to work through.
Many thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TICKLISH |
Liable to involuntary laughter in such a tricky situation (8)
|
| It’s not something I’d come across before, but Chambers includes difficult/tricky as meanings for ticklish and I’ll try to remember to use that in future conversations when such situations arise. | ||
| 5 | BICARB |
I say purchase pasta, for example, that goes in kitchen cupboard (6)
|
| Homophone/aural wordplay of BI (buy/purchase) + CARB (pasta being a good source of carb-ohydrates), for a term for bicarbonate of soda, a kitchen cupboard staple. | ||
| 9 | CONSCRIPT |
One called up to study one’s lines (9)
|
| CON (???) + SCRIPT (lines). I’m sure someone can help me with where the CON from ‘study [one’s]’ comes into it!
ETA: Thanks the the many commenters for pointing out that con for study is a crossword staple. It’ll be my first thought on future readings now! |
||
| 11 | KNOCK |
Criticise minor injury in time at the crease (5)
|
| Triple definition – knock can mean to criticise, a small or minor injury, or having your turn to knock some balls when batting at the cricket crease. | ||
| 12 | CONTAMINATED |
Possibly made radioactive, so no admittance, unfortunately (12)
|
| Anagram (‘unfortunately’) of NO ADMITTANCE | ||
| 15 | FROG |
Food for Nancy that may stick in the throat (4)
|
| Nancy is a city in France so this is referring to the association of frogs’ legs with French cuisine, as well as ‘having a frog in one’s throat’. | ||
| 16 | UNDERSCORE |
Emphasise how one’s counted as a teenager? (10)
|
| Someone aged 13-19 would be aged ‘under [a] score’ i.e. less than 20 years old. | ||
| 18 | PATRICIDAL |
Irish saint almost laid out, harbouring unfatherly thoughts? (10)
|
| PATRIC[K] (Irish saint, almost) + IDAL (LAID out/anagrammed). A quite understated definition for thoughts of murder… though as pointed out in the comments this is probably meant as ‘thinking of un-fathering’/removing one’s father. | ||
| 19 | SHUN |
Avoid attention (4)
|
| In military contexts the command for ‘attention’ may be abbreviated to attenSHUN. | ||
| 21 | TRANSPARENCY |
Lack of guile in what may be shown on the screen (12)
|
| Double definition – lack of cunning and an overhead projector slide. I suspect OHPs are rarely used these days. | ||
| 24 | INTER |
Italian team doesn’t take the lead in some three months (5)
|
| Referring to the the common name Inter Milan for Football Club Internazionale Milano. I think this is WINTER (some three months) minus the first letter (doesn’t take the lead). | ||
| 25 | EXTRADITE |
From abroad obtain more unusual diet (9)
|
| EXTRA (more) + DITE – anagram (unusual) of DIET. Requiring the mental insertion of a comma for the definition. | ||
| 26 | GADFLY |
Irritating person after wander about has to race away (6)
|
| GAD (wander about) + FLY (race away). | ||
| 27 | ALLEGORY |
Pilgrim’s Progress for example involves travel right through narrow lane (8)
|
| GO (travel) + R (right) inside (through) ALLEY (narrow lane) for the literary device, of which Pilgrim’s Progress is an example. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TUCK |
Friar stabbed, not the first (4)
|
| [S]TUCK meaning stabbed, minus the first letter, for the ubiquitous religious chap. | ||
| 2 | CONE |
Calorie associated with single ice-cream (4)
|
| C (abbreviation for Calorie) + ONE (single) | ||
| 3 | LECTOR |
Reader in church sounds like Hannibal? (6)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay of Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal from the book & film series. | ||
| 4 | SPITTING IMAGE |
Emitting gasp, I staggered to see my double (8,5)
|
| Anagram (‘staggered’) of EMITTING GASP I | ||
| 6 | INKINESS |
Gathering family I head for black state (8)
|
| I + NESS (head[land]) surrounding (gathering) KIN (family)
Thanks KVa for clearing that up! |
||
| 7 | APOSTROPHE |
Mark address wrong too, perhaps (10)
|
| Anagram (wrong) of TOO PERHAPS. |
||
| 8 | BAKED BEANS |
Something on toast for hotheads? (5,5)
|
| BAKED (hot) + BEANS (heads/brains – ‘use your bean’), referring to the the under-appreciated (IMO) British delicacy. | ||
| 10 | TEMPERAMENTAL |
Moody secretary taking age without using any paper (13)
|
| TEMP (secretary) + ERA (age) + MENTAL (i.e. performing some task in one’s head, so ‘without using any paper’) | ||
| 13 | OFF-PUTTING |
Disconcerting, to be away on the golf course? (3-7)
|
| Cryptic definition, one may be OFF (away) PUTTING (playing golf/on the golf course). | ||
| 14 | CONTRACTED |
Signed up, but got less (10)
|
| DD – signed a contract/shrank. | ||
| 17 | MINSTREL |
Singer in large church lifting one hand, then the other (8)
|
| MINSTER (a large church) with the R shifted up (lifting one hand), + L (the other hand) | ||
| 20 | SCRAPE |
Bad scare about parking: a scuff (6)
|
| Anagram (bad) of SCARE + P (parking) | ||
| 22 | LIDO |
Cover over swimming pool (4)
|
| LID (cover) + O (over, in cricket scoring) for the type of outdoor swimming pool. | ||
| 23 | DEWY |
Married over a year, so eyed as naive (4)
|
| DEW (wed, i.e. married, reversed – ‘over’) + Y (year). |
Thanks Vulcan for the nice puzzle.
Welcome and congratulations to simonbyc on their great first blog.
CONSCRIPT
I think
one’s lines=SCRIPT
study=CON
Or we can take the whole thing together (study one’s lines).
INKINESS
my reading
gathering KIN (I+NESS)—->KIN is gathered by I NESS
PATRICIDAL
The def should include the word ‘harbouring’.
Thanks very much for the blog, a very clear exposition for your first (or any!) outing.
In 9ac CON is a chestnut for study. It is so long since I learned it – at least 60 years – I have forgotten the origin of it.
I agree about WINTER 2ac and I had the same parsing as you for 6d. In 2d, the definition needs underlining.
I found this a toughy for a Vulcan. DEWY eyed my LOI.
Thanks V too
APOSTROPHE
As a literary figure of speech, apostrophe is an address to an inanimate object etc.,
Maybe that’s the reference in the clue as the second def.
Great job simonbyc! I thought the puzzle was very enjoyable and pretty straightforward, certainly more straightforward than its’ FT brethren today. Thank you to Vulcan! My favorites were FROG, GADFLY and BICARB.
Well done Simon. I found it a tricky Vulcan too. CON means study as in I conned the script. I’ve seen it written in books, but in older books.
You’ve got the same troll we had on the Quiptic the last two weeks I’m afraid, so will have to unapprove any dodgy comments (it’s only you or ken can do it).
Thank you to simonbyc and Vulcan.
Surely PATRICIDAL is ‘harbouring unfilial thoughts’, while similarly extreme unfatherly thoughts would be infanticidal? And EXTRADITE should be defined as ‘to abroad, provide’: to obtain someone from abroad, a nation requests the subject’s country of residence to do the extraditing?
To expand on/repeat others’ comments, CON as a verb can mean to examine or study (maybe a somewhat arachaic use.) The definition of DEWY is ‘so eyed as naive’ referring to the expression ‘dewy-eyed’. Agree with KVa@1 regarding INKINESS.
What a pointless comment @3!
Thanks both.
Thank you simonbyc, an excellent blog! I too found this somewhat trickier in parts than I’d expect for a Monday or a Vulcan, let alone a Monday Vulcan… Yes, con/study is one of those things that only every seems to crop up in Crosswordland. Thanks to KVa for the second def for APOSTROPHE, which I failed to twig while solving. And thanks to Vulcan too.
Yes, I found this trickier than the usual Monday Vulcan, and likewise couldn’t see what “address” was doing in APOSTROPHE (thanks KVa@4). I liked the chap who was OFF PUTTING, but surely the PATRICIDAL thoughts would be unfilial rather than unfatherly?
Thanks simonbyc.
Welcome and thanks for the blog simonbyc
I always assumed con for study came from becoming conversant with the subject, but have no proof of that
And thanks to Vulcan for thr fun challenge
Many thanks, simonbyc, top effort.
Nho GADFLY, and i still don’t understand EXTRADITE. I only know it as a transitive verb, as in to return an undesirable to his or her original state. How does this fit “from abroad” or “from abroad obtain”?
I agree with others that “unfatherly thoughts” doesn’t really fit PATRICIDE. Incidentally, just learnt the sisterly version of fratricide – sororicide. Gotta love crosswords!
A fine first blog, Simon – well done and thank you for stepping in.
CON is a crossword staple, but others are right that it’s archaic. Shakespeare has Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream say, after handing out the parts to the play within a play:
“But masters, here are your parts, and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you to con them by tomorrow night…”
It has the sense of study, or learn. It’s cognate with French verbs for ‘know’ like connaître or the German kennen. Or with the northern English/Scottish ‘ken’: ‘Do you ken John Peel, with his coat so grey?’
Excellent puzzle as always from Vulcan – thank you to him too.
SHUN made me smile. Last two in the intersecting INKINESS and BICARB. Good Vulcan Monday fare throughout, I thought…
I felt this rather tough in places for a Vulcan. Couldn’t parse my last three in (INKINESS – though it made me laugh, GADFLY and KNOCK) and some others. Thanks Vulcan for the puzzle, simonbyc for the blog – and KVa for complementing it. I liked UNDERSCORE, OFF-PUTTING, BAKED BEANS (though I don’t really understand how people put them on their toast without them sliding from it) and TRANSPARENCY – my teachers used those in the ‘90s, but I never did. On PATRICIDAL I had the same thoughts as beaulieu #7 and gladys #9, but then I thought that “unfatherly” might have been intended whimsically as “against the father” (?)
Very pleasing crossword. Great blog. I thought this was going to be just a tad too easy at first but. hang on, some sneaky misdirection held me up at the end – LIDO, (I tried an anagram of pool), INKINESS (not Arkansas then), DEWY, TICKLISH. I wasn’t too keen on BICARB but there was lots to like, especially OFF PUTTING, which made me smile.
Thanks to Vulcan and welcome and thanks to simonbyc.
Thanks Pierre @13. That was very interesting re. con.
Agree with Layman @15 on unfatherly: it’s a playful way of saying “without a father”
Thanks Vulcan and Simonbyc
I didn’t see the second definition for SHUN, so thought it was just a very weak cryptic definition – thanks for that.
GADFLY reminded me of this. You may well have heard it without knowing what it was called.
I can’t see any problem with PATRICIDAL, I see “harbouring unfatherly thoughts” as meaning wanting to kill your father.
…and I always imagine triple meanings – à la KNOCK – must be particularly difficult to set, with the clue needing to make perfect, fluent sense. Aren’t England and Scotland about to play one another in a game of cricket very soon, with the dust having just settled on another encounter on the rugby field?
[ronald @21
They played on Saturday – by coincidence (I assume) in Kolkata, which used to be Calcutta!]
I took ‘unfatherly thoughts’ to be about wishing one were ‘un-fathered’.
Interesting puzzle, which I found rather knotty for a Monday – more Imogenous than Vulcanic, I thought. ALLEGORY, APOSTROPHE and SPITTING IMAGE were my pick of the bunch.
I missed the ‘SHUN sense, so (like muffin) it seemed to me just a straight definition. I usually think of a MINSTREL as an instrumentalist, with the singing being optional, but then I remembered the Black and White ones of unhappy memory. I take the point of the apologists for PATRICIDAL, but it was an overstretch for my taste.
Thanks to Vulcan and simonbyc
[England are currently having a knock against Italy, and making rather a hash of it so far.]
I have felt Vulcan has been a bit chewier the last couple of times and this was no different. A few chewy clues in here.
Enjoyed PATRICIDAL, MINSTREL and UNDERSCORE.
GADFLY was new to me so was glad the F and Y were checked.
Thanks Vulcan and Simonbyc
[PS less of a hash than I was misled to believe by the G’s cricket ball-by-ball which said they were 21 for 3; as you were.]
I agree with the latter comments about PATRICIDAL, which made perfect sense to me. This was a tougher Vulcan so required much more thought in places. My favourites were INKINESS, KNOCK, CONTAMINATED, FROG, BAKED BEANS, MINSTREL and the nice juxtaposition of INTER and EXTRA(DITE).
Ta Vulcan and well done Simonbyc.
Thanks, Vulcan and simonbyc! Like others, I’m not entirely convinced by PATRICIDAL but it’s near enough, and MINSTREL is a lovely clue. You know you’ve been doing crosswords too long when you see the word Nancy (15a) and hear it in your head à la française!
Thank you all for the kind, helpful comments and corrections/improvements. I’ve updated the post accordingly and will watch out for any more. Too many of you to name everyone individually but KVa especially, I’ve often seen your helpful and early contributions, and Pierre that detail on ‘con’ should help it stick in future!
[Sarah @27. But still a bit of a hash!]
I don’t seem to be able to print the cryptic crossword off. Helpline won’t rely. Any answers?
…oops, getting my days and countries mixed up…
I initially wondered whether there could be a team in Italy called “ember” but it always seemed unlikely. Speaking as somebody with only a passing interest in football, even I have heard of Inter, so it should have been obvious.
Many thanks for your clear and helpful blog this morning, simonbyc, much appreciated. I see you’re also ‘doing’ Cylops in the Eye, so keep up the good work! Thanks to Vulcan for a bracing start to the week.
Excellent blog, thank you simonbyc, & thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle. Like a few other commentators, I found this a bit tough for a Monday Vulcan, but managed to complete and parse nearly all of it.
Regarding 21a TRANSPARENCY, I took this as referring to the term commonly used for 35mm film slides that were supported in card or plastic frames and fed into a projector typically from a carousel or cartridge, rather than OHP slides which in my experience were usually called ‘acetates’.
Enjoyed this: somewhat perversely in that I found the SW corner a bit sticky: the rest had gone in too quickly to properly appreciate them. It’s good to have something to chew on for a bit.
Although PATRICIDAL went in without too much thought (once I’d got it into my head that Patrick has a “k” on the end and so I wasn’t trying to find a non-existent missing letter, having truncated it to PATRI- …), I agree with the various comments above about its reversal.
I was held up for a bit trying to see what adjustments could be made to put in WIDE where DEWY was needed at 23D.
My thanks (as with Anne@16) to Pierre@13 for his thoughts on con for “study”: nice to see another link between Scots and French: the Auld Alliance is with us yet! (“ashet” for “plate”, etc.)
I liked SHUN, invoking not-too-fond memories of CCF drill in the school yard, and the neat anagram for SPITTING IMAGE. Much more to like, but I will stop hogging the channel.
Thanks Vulcan, and to simonbyc for stepping in and rising to the challenge.
Every time your first thought runs STUDY = CON, it’s DEN, and vice versa. 🙂
Looked to be straightforward at first but there were some tricky clues in there. Like William @10, I couldn’t make EXTRADITE work unless abroad is a verb. Favourite clue OFF-PUTTING.
I took ‘mark address ‘ to refer to the use of apostrophes as quotation marks where the address was something spoken.
I shared the same general vibe as most here, I had to chew over GADFLY and MINSTREL, I still can’t make EXTRADITE work, and I loved PATRICIDE for the whimsical thoughts about un-fathering, making it COTD for me.
Well done to Simonbyc for the detailed blog, and thanks to others for filling in a couple of gaps, including that use of apostrophe. And of course thanks too to Vulcan for the hearty fare.
[It seems comment numbering is awry again – my criticism @6 referred to a now-disappeared trollish comment that was #3, and not to the current #3 by KVa.]
Tim Chard @#31 – go to the main crossword page, and along the top you will see the link. Enter /print after it, and click the enter key.
The crossword can then be printed using the normal print button.
You can adjust the size to fit the page
Wow. I bought a coffee and croissant at my local Cornish but had finished the crossword before I left, which I think is a first. And with no questions apart from what seems to be the obligatory cricket reference
[beaulieu @41
That’s odd. The troll comment was replaced by the “deleted or awaiting moderation” message last time I looked, but now it has gone altogether.]
KVA – thank you for the explanation of apostrophe/address, that is new to me.
I found this tough for a Monday Vulcan with just a handful on the first pass, but got there in the end. Nothing unfair or obscure so I suppose just my brain being slow this morning.
LOI FROG. I assumed the reference was to France/French immediately, but still took a long time to get the rest of the way there.
muffin@44, beaulieu@41: my guess is that the comment numbering relies on the removed comment being marked as “deleted” but being left as a placeholder. Removing it entirely is probably what caused the numbering to change.
Good Monday challenge; I got a bit stuck in the NE corner. I liked the BICARB that wasn’t pasta, the teenagers’ UNDERSCORE, EXTRADITE, where a rearranged ‘obtain from abroad’ seems to make sense, the good anagram for SPITTING IMAGE, the TEMPERAMENTAL secretary, and the MINSTREL lifting one hand after another.
Thanks Vulcan and simonbyc for stepping in.
Like other commenter I’m a little dubious about PATRICIDAL – I was mulling around UNPATERNAL without seeing how it fitted. Finally passed it into the correct answer followed by an “are you sure that’s what it means?” reaction before deciding to go for it.
With the other apparently contentious answer EXTRADITE I didn’t have any misgivings. While maybe not meeting the strict legal definition, I’m sure that colloquially one may extradite a suspect either to or from another jurisdiction.
Thinking some more about French cuisine and their preference for FROG’s thighs amongst other delicacies, I remember some years ago now visiting Pithivier, and being rather taken aback by the town or area being particularly (in)famous for its consumption of skylark’s tongues…
Interesting discussion about PATRICIDAL. One argument requires making up the action of “unfathering”, then making a pun of that to get “unfatherly” – two steps. The alternative is that the setter goofed. I generally go for Occam’s razor.
Excellent first blog, Simon. Thanks.
NHO GADFLY = Irritating Person, or GAD = Wander, so a NHO for me, though I find Vulcan one of the hardest setter due to the number of cryptic and double definitions.
Thanks V.
Dr. WhatsOn@53, I can’t find fault with your argument; all I can say is that it was so clearly a whimsical pun to me that it didn’t even cross my mind that it could be interpreted literally (or as a mistake of inversion). As out blogger said, unfatherly – or unfilial – would be quite the understatement if taken at face value!
HIYD @54
“Gad about” is the usual expression.
hoofit. @51, there is a lovely suite by Shostakovich called The Gadfly suite.
Pierre @ 12 and
‘…Checked like a bondman, all his faults observed,
Set in a notebook, learned and conned by rote
To cast into my teeth.’ (Cassius in Julius Caesar)
I’d read transparency as being the computer graphics design term for an effect, often used in games design.
Until now I’d assumed (with no evidence) that con came from construe, as both the interpretation meaning and the grammatical meaning have some link to study. The one above seems more plausible.
Donalog @54
I posted a link to the most well-known movement of “The Gadfly” @18.
I read transparency as the 35mm colour transparencies of old…. let me show you my holiday slides…
Nice puzzle and blog, thank you both.
@Pierre 12, I’d be surprised if the French ‘connaitre’ is related to ‘kennen’, ‘ken’ and ‘con’. The former comes from Latin ‘cognosco’, whose prefix ‘con-‘ (spelt by assimilation as cog-) has the meaning ‘with’ or ‘together’.
Thanks Vulcan, and well done simonbyc! I join the “pros” on PATRICIDAL: just a standard WP-cum-defn, where the latter happens to be a wry CD, hence the QM. Vector @46 has correctly diagnosed the off-by-one numbering. With the system Admin has put in place, the “Delete Forever” link should not be clicked on a comment that has been “trashed”. The “Comments” panel could easily be modified to remove that link.
TitusCarus @59: Pierre @12 is partly correct, I think. The Latin (and Italian) cognosco is a contraction of con-gnosco, and the ‘gnosco’ part is cognate with con, ken, know, all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ǵneh₃-, to know.
Muffin @53 – I had heard of GADABOUT meaning a “habitual pleasure seeker”, but not GAD on its own.
Donalog @54 & Muffin @57 – I was at the Royal Festival Hall a couple of weeks ago to listen to Shostakovich, symphony no 10 as per the RPO – just wonderful, I shall give The Gadfly a listen.
Thanks both
Thank you for stepping in to blog, simonbyc — looking forward to more from you! This was a fun puzzle with lots of smiles, including 19a SHUN (excellent, concise surface), 10d TEMPERAMENTAL (“without using any paper” = MENTAL), 13d OFF-PUTTING (“away on the golf course”)
NE was tricky, and last to fall. LOI 11a KNOCK, I couldn’t figure out the “crease” reference. In ice hockey, the area around the goal is called a crease, but the term doesn’t seem to be used in football (soccer). Didn’t know about the cricket crease
What a lovely blog and discussion. It’s good to see that parsing isn’t always straight forward to virtually everyone! (It makes me feel a little less slow.)
I enjoyed this one, and was in the de-fathering camp, so I was happy with that one.
FROG, however, totally defeated me, despite being only two letters short. I forgot that Nancy might be French – and spent an age wondering what female goats might eat.
@TitusCarus 59, you may well be right. English is unusual in that to know a fact and know a person employ the same verb. In many European languages, the two concepts use separate verbs (connaitre/savoir, kennen/wissen, conocer/saber, kennen/weten).
Why does secretary = temp? Could the same be used for any job?
Protase@61: thank you for that tasty slice of PIE!
Temporary Secretary
Like Ace@45, I find Vulcan trickier than other Monday setters, and Vulcan trickier than other weekday setters, but they don’t seem that tricky after the fact. I put it down to wavelength, by which I mean that the Vulcan uses synonyms that for some reason don’t jump out at me, and ditto for his constructions. I call it “cranial compatibility”.
Favourite today was 18a PATRICIDAL, for the whimsical pun as AP@40 and 52 has pointed out.
Thanks Vulcan, simonbyc, and KVa and others for the excellent puzzle, blog, and commentary.
Congratulations to simonbyc on a fine debut. A typically enjoyable Monday puzzle from Vulcan. Thought LIDO was super.
Thank you so much. Much appreciated. I would be so daunted trying to do blog. Brilliant.
Thanks both,
A couple unfinished for me. Eoink @56, the box of blank OHP slides on my shelves is called ‘transparency film’ by the makers, 3M.
The. OED is pretty clear that ‘con’ has Germanic roots and not Latin or French ones.
Not quite happy with the analysis for KNOCK. I can’t see how it is a triple definition. ‘time at the crease’ isn’t synonymous with the answer. However the phrase ‘minor injury in time at the crease’ seems to refer to the batsmen being struck by the ball. Surely that is the second of only two definitions? (BTW those injuries occur quite often resulting in bruises etc).
One other minor observation. I thought TUCK was ‘friar Tuck’ the Robin Hood character, not some ubiquitous term for a religious person.
Thanks anyway Simonbyc and Vulcan. I did enjoy it.
Apologies for my remarks about KNOCK above. Ive since learned that ‘Knock’ is a batter’s innings. (Should have checked before posting). A triple definition is a new one on me which made me think that something was wrong.
Great moniker Tony Orlando. Thanks for the earworm (not).
Tim Chard 31,
If you visit the crossword site as normal, but add /print to the url and then enter, then I find that takes me to the print version.
They got rid of the Print option last year. Instead, all you need to do is load the crossword, right-click on it (outside the actual grid), select “print”. It prints just the puzzle and clues, without any of the surrounding adverts etc.
Kirsty @71:
Honestly it’s my pleasure, 6 months ago I would have been very daunted, and this was the first blog I’ve done ‘live’.
I can recommend having a go at writing out the parsings yourself, even if you’ve had to reveal solutions or use other aids, as well as of course coming here for any you can’t work out, common references you don’t know yet (ahem ‘con’).
Having to show your working does help clarify things and prime the mind for future puzzles. Also, as I’ve been working backwards through the Guardian archive I’ve noticed that some solutions and very similar or identical clues recur – today’s 16a is in Tuesday Paul from last April which I mostly try/checked my way through!
iStan @75&76:
Thanks for the comment and follow-up. I meant ‘ubiquitous’ for Tuck in that he’s commonly seen in (I think) crosswords. And new knowledge of meanings and clueing techniques is exactly the sort of thing I’m talking about above!
Muffin, they got rid of the link, but not the page.
Here’s today’s.
Thank you Vulcan and simonbyc! This was also trickier than I expected going into it, and involved a lot of staring at a mostly empty grid on my part! Apostrophe took me ages, but it was one of my favorites once the penny dropped. Lido was my LOI because despite being stumped by that, I assume, Briticism, before, it hasn’t stuck in my mind yet.
In #23 the idiom referenced is “dewy-eyed”, meaning naively innocent. The “so eyed” is odd phrasing to be sure.
Thanks ratushebarl@82, as well as Dave Ellison@2 & beaulieu@6 for pointing out the same which I missed – blog updated now.
Thank you to Vulcan for the puzzle, I solved lots, so am very pleased. Thank you simonbyc for the blog.
Very nice puzzle. Liked UNDERSCORE and BAKED BEANS very much.
On a different note, I saw several comments about #3 by KVa. Honestly, I felt that the hostility towards it appears to be misplaced. Can someone explain why #3 is trollish, so I can avoid committing whatever crime KVa supposedly committed! 🙂
Shafar @85 – #3 was originally a pure spam/troll comment, not by KVa, which was removed. Usually when these are dealt with a placeholder remains so comment numbers stay the same, but this one was removed completely, leaving KVa as #3 and subsequent comments referencing #3 as they are.
I read INTER as a triple definition, with “not taking the lead” and “in ter[m]”, where I supposed a school term is about 3 months. Don’t think it quite works.