Thanks to Yank for a Good Friday puzzle.
Not a particularly American flavour, except perhaps for the instrument at 22a and the biscuit at 24d, but a couple of European references with a German film and “pastry”.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | HALF HITCH | Knot tied in less-than-committed marriage? (4,5) In an uncommitted marriage you might be only HALF HITCHed |
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| 6 | MEDOC | Wine tossed back during Cinco de Mayo (5) Hidden in reverse of cinCO DE Mayo |
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| 9 | LEANT | Favoured dictator’s time to give up (5) Homophone of “lent” (a time to give up vices or luxuries), and if you favour somemthing you lean towards it |
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| 10 | CHICKPEAS | Spooner’s to opt for dairy product, hummus ingredient (9) Spoonerism of “pick cheese” |
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| 11 | ORAL HEALTH | It requires brushing hale harlot off (4,6) (HALE HARLOT)* |
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| 12 | ASHE | Legendary court figure that was seen all over Herculaneum, reportedly (4) Homophone of “ash”, which covered Herculaneum and Pompeii, and tennis player Arthur Ashe |
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| 14 | SUTURES | Repairs ruptured uterus, opening surgically (7) UTERUS* + S[uture] |
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| 15 | DEADPAN | Without expression: ‘Improv rock band is dreadful’? (7) The Grateful Dead were famous for improvising in live performances, so such a criticism could be a DEAD PAN |
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| 17 | TARTARS | Two turncoats left skinhead’s horde once (7) RAT (turncoat) reversed (to the left) + the “head” of Skin |
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| 19 | DINE OUT | Geraint’s beloved returns to South Central to visit restaurant? (4,3) Reverse of ENID (legendary lover of Geraint) + the centre of sOUTh |
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| 20 | ROAN | Dappled horse in river, did you say? (4) Homophone of “Rhone” |
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| 22 | SOUSAPHONE | Tosspot taking up a largely synthesised instrument (10) A PHON[y] (synthesised) in SOUSE (drinker, tosspot) |
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| 25 | CIGARILLO | Garlic oil turned into smoke (9) (GARLIC LIL)* |
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| 26 | TENOR | Singer, major part of Ronettes’ comeback (5) Hidden in reverse of RONETtes |
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| 27 | LASSO | Young lady with not a single way to catch horse (5) LASS + O (zero, not a single) |
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| 28 | NOTORIETY | Ugly tie picked up by avowed liberal getting unwanted attention (9) TIE* in NO TORY (avowed liberal) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | HELLO | Conclusion of Moor’s pick-up line? (5) The ending of otHELLO (the Moor of Venice) |
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| 2 | LEAD ACTOR | Star of heavy metal, needing no introduction or finale: Plant (4,5) LEAD (a heavy metal) + [f]ACTOR[y] |
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| 3 | HIT THE ROAD | To begin journey, addled Edith Wharton losing direction, first and last (3,3,4) Anagram of EDITH WHARTON, less the initial and final W and N from the surname |
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| 4 | TIC TACS | AI trade-off in methodology producing sweets (3,4) TACTICS (methodology) with the A and I swapped or “traded off” |
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| 5 | HOISTED | Picked up off-site, collected by brick-and-mortar tool (7) SITE* in HOD (bricklayer’s carrying device) |
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| 6 | MOKE | Equine owned by Jomo Kenyatta (4) Hidden in joMO KEnyatta |
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| 7 | DIETS | Legislatures, losing propositions (5) Double definition: diets are ways of losing weight |
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| 8 | CASHEW NUT | Johnny, you and I stand on head for snack item? (6,3) CASH (Johnny Cash, singer) + reverse of WE (you and I) + NUT (head) |
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| 13 | SAINT PETER | Ten pirates slaughtered early Pope (5,5) (TEN PIRATES)* |
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| 14 | SATIRICAL | Like Swift, awfully racialist (9) RACIALIST*, with Swift being the satirical writer of Gulliver’s Travels etc |
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| 16 | PRONOUNCE | I, for one, pursued by religious institution, say (9) PRONOUN (of which “I” is an example) + CE (Church of England) |
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| 18 | STOLLEN | Laptop dropped into hot pastry (7) The top of Lap in STOLEN (hot). Stollen is more a bread than a pastry, I would say |
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| 19 | DAS BOOT | Turning Down Wellington: movie with sub-plot? (3,4) Reverse of SAD (down) + BOOT (Wellington). Das Boot is a film about a German U-boat, so it has a “sub[marine] plot” |
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| 21 | ARGUS | Guardian is sugar-free (5) SUGAR* |
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| 23 | EARLY | Primitive, like a peer? (5) A peer could be EARL-Y |
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| 24 | OREO | Biscuit switcheroo (4) Another lift-and-separate to give an anagram (“switch”) of EROO |
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Mostly unchallenging, but failed on TARTARS – having assumed the Tarbacs must be some historical horde with shaven heads, that I’d not heard of before. Also didn’t parse TICTACS though it’s obvious now I see it. I’m pretty sure I’d have got both of these with a bit more thought, but to be honest I wasn’t very inspired by this puzzle – maybe it’s just me – I’ve liked previous Yank offerings.
STOLLEN is indeed technically a bread, but if slices were on sale in a coffee shop I think they’d qualify as ‘pastries’.
Favourites PRONOUNCE, DAS BOOT.
Thanks Andrew and Yank.
Thanks Yank and Andrew!
Liked CHICKPEAS, DEADPAN, TIC-TACS and DAS BOOT.
Beaulieu @1. It wasn’t just you. Can’t put my finger on it, but something just didn’t quite work for me with this. I agree about the stollen. It’s not pastry, but a slice would be A pastry.
A very enjoyable Good Friday puzzle. Thanks Andrew for the parsing of SOUSAPHONE, which I was stuck on, having tangled myself in thinking UP A must feature in an anagram of something or other… I was also initially puzzled by parsing of LEANT, not helped by misreading ‘dictator’ as ‘director’ and going down a David Lean-related rabbit hole. Hey ho. Thanks to Yank for the fun.
HALF HITCH
I think it’s a cryptic (whimsical) def. If we take it as a DD, the second one
seems to face a part-of-speech mismatch.
I thought PRONOUNCE was very good and DAS BOOT, whilst an unconvincing surface, has a delightful definition. Same faves as @1. The puzzle felt quite anagram-heavy, particularly in the lower half.
Thanks both
Sub-plot! 🙂 Worth all the hard work on the others! TYVM, Y and A.
Very tough puzzle.
Favourites: CHICKPEAS, ASHE, DAS BOOT, NOTORIETY, STOLLEN, HELLO.
New for me: ENID = Geraint’s beloved (19ac); SOUSAPHONE.
Re 15ac it took me a while to work out that it was a reference to the Grateful Dead. I don’t know their music at all and cannot name a single song or album!
I needed to come here to find out why it was HELLO (but obvious now) and how you got SOUSAPHONE, tosspot being SOUSE wasn’t something that I considered.
Thanks Yank and Andrew
Eleven question marks – near record!
I tried LAVA at 12a first (Rod Laver), but I would have complained about it if it had been right.
PRONOUNCE my favourite too.
[TIC TACS reminds me of the apocryphal David Beckham – England football captain – story. Being interviewed before a match, he said “They’re small and minty, and Victoria says they have less than a calorie each”.
The manager intervenes “I asked you to talk about tactics, David”]
Quite easy for me, but share the opinions of @1 and @3. Never thought I’d see DAS BOOT as an answer in a crossword. Best submarine film ever. Liked NOTORIETY.