Something to do with FIDDLES from Fire this week – of the musical kind? the financial kind?…
The preamble states that:
“The unclued lights are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer.”
OK – nothing for it but to crack on and see what the crossers can tell us about the unclued entries.
The grid filled up at a reasonable pace – helped by my knowing of the artist (Georgia) O’KEEFFE, the clothing retailer HOBBS and the online RESELLer ‘Vinted’ – a few bits of GK (general knowledge) which may not have been known by all solvers.
I wasn’t familiar with the spelling of RILIEVO at 22A, lazily entering RELIEVO without checking the anagram fodder closely enough, and I had to look up BEL to confirm the entry.
At some point (can’t recall exactly which one) , it became clear that the theme must be ‘Doctors’ – and to fiddle can be to doctor something, e.g. cooking the books…
JEKYLL, SEUSS and WHO came first, with DOLITTLE and ZHIVAGO in short order. Then FEELGOOD, which raised a wry smile – certainly an eclectic mix!
I vaguely knew of Doctor PANGLOSS, but had to refer to the aforementioned Brewers to confirm, along with FELL and CALIGARI – which helped resolve the RELIEVO/RILIEVO entry:
So there we have it – nine fictional/musical/authorial doctors from television, film, pop and books.
My LOI (last one in) was Dr CALIGARI, and LOP (last one parsed) was SLIDER – I entered it from the definition, and only worked out the parsing when writing up the blog.
My thanks to Fire for an entertaining diversion, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 5 | SPOOFS | Parodies reflecting works of Shakespeare primarily (6)
SPO (Ops, multiple of Op, opus, musical work) + OF + S (primary letter of Shakespeare) |
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| 9 | ANEMOMETER | A fishy character found the lady’s not hard to gauge (10)
A + NEMO (fishy character, from the ‘Finding Nemo’ films!) + MET (found, bumped in to ) + ( [a wind gauge] |
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| 16 | RESELL | Briefly research arm’s length trade on Vinted? (6)
RES (abbreviation, i.e. briefly, for research) + ELL (measure of cloth, about an arm’s length) [an online second-hand clothes re-seller, m’lud!] |
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| 17 | TAINT | Ultimately, Hamlet is not corrupt (5)
T (ultimate letter of hamleT) + AINT (contraction of are/is not) |
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| 18 | HOBBS | Philosopher drops ‘Introduction to Existentialism’ and sells clothes (5)
HOBB( |
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| 20 | O’KEEFFE | Artist fine with payment, head over heels following exhibition’s opening (7)
O’K (ok, fine) + EEF (fee, payment, head over heels) + F (following) + E (opening letter of Exhibition) [Georgia O’Keeffe, American modernist painter] |
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| 22 | RILIEVO | Oliver and I could get relief (7)
anag, i.e. could get, of OLIVER and I [rilievo being a (mainly Italian) variant of relievo] |
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| 24 | ÉCLAIRS | Recipe inspired by Alice’s boiled sweets (7)
ECLAI_S (anag, i.e. boiled, of ALICES) around (inspired by) R (recipe, Latin, take) |
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| 25 | TOWEL | Scoop a little residue out of dryer (5)
T( |
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| 26 | LAP UP | Enthusiastically take in a Pulp set (3,2)
anag, i.e. set, of A PULP |
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| 28 | GRAPHIC | Good motoring organisation retains foreign letter for illustration (7)
G (good) + RA_C (motoring organisation) around (retaining) PHI (Greek, or foreign, from a UK perspective, letter) |
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| 31 | HOT DOGS | Fast food experts on board (3,4)
double defn – HOT DOGS are a type of fast food snack; and a HOT DOG can be an expert on a skate board! |
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| 33 | NIPPERS | Children pinch a shilling (7)
NIP (pinch) + PER (a, as in per person, a person) + S (shilling) |
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| 38 | ARGON | Earl discovered element (5)
( |
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| 39 | SLIDER | Small hamburger, fries and old, unopened salad (6)
anag, i.e. (word) salad, of ( |
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| 40 | BEL | Obelix accepts difference in power (3)
hidden word in, i.e. accepted by, ‘oBELix’ [a BEL being a logarithmic expression of a difference in the power of two electric currents(?)] |
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| 41 | LITIGATORS | Wretched trial is go – about time! See them in court! (10)
LITIGA_ORS (anag, i.e. wretched, of TRIAL IS GO) around T (time) |
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| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | DASTARDLINESS | Cowardice, miserable setback and delay overwhelm Cromwell in the end (13)
DAS (sad, miserable, set back) + TARD_INESS (delay) around (overwhelming) L (end letter of cromwelL) |
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| 2 | LEWIS | Sometimes I well up a bit, seeing Hamilton (5)
reversed, hidden word in, i.e. ‘up’ and ‘a bit’ of, ‘sometimeS I WELl’ [Lewis Hamilton, the F1 driver] |
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| 3 | TOOTLE | Drive slowly to outskirts of Oxshott and leave (6)
TO plus OT and LE (outskirts, or outer letters, of OxshotT and LeavE, respectively |
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| 4 | LEMON | Little monkey peeled fruit (5)
hidden word in, i.e. exposed by peeling, ‘littLE MONkey’ |
||
| 6 | PRESENT | Gift posted beforehand? (7)
something posted beforehand might be PRE-SENT! |
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| 7 | ONE-OFF | Exceptional Neo-Ximenean (3-3)
a cryptic, or Ximenean, clue for NEO might be ONE, OFF! |
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| 10 | TABOUR | Instrument’s mysterious rubato (6)
anag, i.e. mysterious, of RUBATO |
||
| 11 | ASTEROIDS | Organic compound found in outer atmospheres of minor planets (9)
A_S (outer letters of AtmosphereS) around STEROID (organic compound) |
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| 12 | SLEEPLESSNESS | Old PM’s up, losing head in night-time torment (13)
SLEEP (Peel’s, Lord Peel, former PM, plus contracted ‘s, all up) = LESS (losing) + NESS (headland, cape) |
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| 19 | BICUSPIDS | In the Bahamas, Cupid is grinding teeth (9)
B_S (the Bahamas, IVR abbreviation) around ICUSPID (anag, i.e. grinding, of IS CUPID |
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| 23 | ESPOUSE | Champion Elsie regularly eats blended soup (7)
ES_E (regular letters of ElSiE) around (eating) POUS (anag, i.e. blended, of SOUP) – or E_SE around SPOU… |
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| 27 | PRESELL | Take credit for page 16 (7)
P (page) + RESELL (16A) |
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| 29 | RESULT | Officer supports employer upping payoff (6)
RESU (user, employer, upping) on top of, or supported by, in a Down clue, LT (lieutenant, officer) |
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| 30 | UPTICK | Small gain from exercise welcomed by leaderless fleet (6)
( |
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| 32 | TEA BAG | Eat out and get pre-packed leaves (3,3)
TEA (anag, i.e. out, of EAT) + BAG (get) |
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| 34 | OSTIA | Organisation stops turning inwards and starts creating openings (5)
starts, or first letters, of ‘Organisation Stops Turning Inwards And’ |
||
| 35 | IGLOO | Look inside one attempt to build shelter (5)
I (one) + G_O (attempt) around LO (interjection, look!) |
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| 36 | SLOE | Dozy sounding, I’m often found steeped in gin (4)
homophone, i.e. sounding – SLOW, or dozy, can sound like SLOE, often found steeped in gin! |
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