Methuselah is here to provide our morning brain exercise.
A few tricky bits today, but I think I’ve managed to explain it all. I particularly liked 4d and 21d: both unusual constructions, and incomprehensible until they were suddenly obvious (as the best crossword clues should be).
As far as I can remember, Methuselah usually includes two references to his name in the wordplay: one to be taken as self-referential (I, ME, MY . . .), and the other referring to the long-lived Old Testament character or occasionally to the very large wine bottle size named after him. In this puzzle we have only one Methuselah, but he’s managed to hint at both meanings: the wordplay requires a self-referential “I” but also suggests he’s an ancient person.
While solving I noticed that both 8d and the classic “ancient city” in 14d seemed to be associated with 5d, but it took a while to realise how much of a theme there is here. According to the Wikipedia article on Mesopotamia, the ancient civilisation there (a few thousand years BC) was an innovator or early adopter of a lot of things: MATHEMATICS (presumably including SUBTRACTION), the WHEEL, growing CEREAL crops and brewing BEER, LITERATURE (and therefore READING), and medicine including TABLETS. They probably had quite a few military COMMANDERs too. I’m not going to work through the entire Wikipedia article but there may be more examples to find. Thanks Methuselah for a fun puzzle.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 4 | TIME |
Date leaves for tastier dinner, we hear (4)
|
| Sound-alike (we hear) of THYME (herb used to flavour food = leaves for tastier dinner). | ||
| 6 | ACRE |
Sea creature protects a bit of land (4)
|
| Hidden answer (. . . protects) in [se]A CRE[ature].
A measure of land area. |
||
| 7 | SLOTH |
Hairy swinger opening hotel (5)
|
| SLOT (an opening, for example to put coins into a “slot machine”) + H (Hotel in the radio alphabet).
A hairy animal that hangs from tree branches. |
||
| 9 | BEST MAN |
Wedding guest trashed basement after dropping an E (4,3)
|
| Anagram (trashed) of BAS[e]MENT with one letter E dropped.
Man accompanying the bridegroom at a wedding, who of course wouldn’t dream of spoiling the occasion by irresponsible behaviour under the influence of recreational drugs as the surface might suggest. |
||
| 11 | REBADGE |
Bats agreed to welcome black hawk after name change (7)
|
| Anagram (bats = crazy) of AGREED, containing (welcoming) B (abbreviation for black).
Rebadge, in the car industry = to make very minor changes to an existing car design and then market it (hawk, as a verb = sell) under a different brand name or model name. |
||
| 12 | EXPAT |
Old dad ultimately upset one’s left home (5)
|
| EX (old = former, as in ex-convict) + PA (dad = familiar term for father) + last letter (ultimately) of [upse]T.
Short for expatriate = someone living away from their home country. |
||
| 13 | MALTREATS |
Turkey gobbles behind short male bullies? (9)
|
| TR (ISO 3166 country code for Turkey, or Türkiye as it’s now officially known) + EATS (gobbles = eats quickly), after MAL[e] (short = all but the last letter).
Bullies, as a verb = dominates [someone] aggressively = maltreats. |
||
| 15 | SETTEES |
Club supporters of course part of the furniture (7)
|
| SET (club = a group of people, as in “the jet set”) + TEES (supports for golf balls = supporters belonging to a golf course). | ||
| 16 | TACHYON |
Originator of theory’s sore over hypothetical particle (7)
|
| First letter (originator) of T[heory] + ACHY (sore = painful) + ON (over = above).
Name for a hypothetical particle that travels faster than light. |
||
| 18 | COMMANDER |
Mark Antony’s second only to bloody revolutionary chief (9)
|
| COMMA (a punctuation mark) + only the second letter of [a]N[tony], then RED (bloody) reversed (revolutionary). | ||
| 19 | IDOLS |
Declaration at wedding also exposed loved ones (5)
|
| I DO (response used during a traditional wedding service) + [a]LS[o] (exposed = outer letters removed). | ||
| 20 | READING |
European plug stopping phone receiving text (7)
|
| E (abbreviation for European) + AD (plug = slang for advertisement, shortened to “ad”), inserted into (stopping) RING (phone, as a verb = contact by telephone). | ||
| 22 | TENSILE |
Stretchy Scrabble piece covers multiple spaces (7)
|
| TILE (a playing piece in the board game Scrabble), containing (covering) ENS (plural of en = a medium-width space in printing).
As in “tensile strength” = strength of a material when stretched. |
||
| 23 | ASSES |
A bunch of seamstresses sabotaging spinning jennies? (5)
|
| Hidden answer (a bunch of letters from . . .) [seamstres]SES SA[botaging], all reversed (spinning).
Jenny = common name for a female ass (donkey). |
||
| 24 | MARS |
Military sphere supposedly sending third of weapons to the front (4)
|
| ARMS (weapons), with the third letter (M) sent to the front.
Planet (sphere) named after the Roman god of war, and (for example) associated with war in Holst’s musical suite The Planets. |
||
| 25 | UNIT |
Regiment kept in the dark loses heart (4)
|
| UN[l]IT (kept in the dark), without the middle letter (heart).
Regiment = unit = a group of soldiers working together. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ECONOMISED |
Those inside second home misspend now and then cut back (10)
|
| Inner letters (those inside) from [s]ECON[d] [h]OM[e], then alternate letters (now and then) of [m]I[s]S[p]E[n]D.
Cut back, as a verb in the past tense = made financial savings = economised. |
||
| 2 | BEER |
Stingy individual back on cheaper booze (4)
|
| BEE (an insect that stings = stingy individual) + last letter (back) of [cheape]R. | ||
| 3 | WHEELS |
Rolls with wedges, maybe? (6)
|
| W (abbreviation for with) + HEELS (wedges maybe = an example of a type of shoe heels). | ||
| 4 | TABLETS |
Many characters of a certain age put on these (7)
|
| Double cryptic definition. Ancient writing may consist of characters engraved on stone tablets; or “characters” (people) “of a certain age” (euphemism for old) may be “put on tablets” (prescribed regular medication). | ||
| 5 | MESOPOTAMIANS |
Ancient people some spot playing around – is Methuselah one? (13)
|
| Anagram (playing) of SOME SPOT, around AM I AN (as our crossword setter Methuselah might say: “Am I an ancient person?” = is he one of them?).
Ancient people in a region corresponding roughly to modern-day Iraq. |
||
| 7 | SUBTRACTION |
One charged after boosting of two vehicles initially tried taking off (11)
|
| ION (an electrically charged particle = one charged), after CART + BUS (two vehicles) reversed (boosting of . . . = upwards in a down clue) followed by the initial letter of T[ried].
Taking off = taking away = common name for mathematical subtraction. |
||
| 8 | OLD BABYLONIAN |
Perhaps Benjamin Button arranged loan in obscure language (3,10)
|
| OLD BABY (perhaps Benjamin Button = fictional character, from a story by F Scott Fitzgerald, who is born with the appearance of a 70-year-old man and gradually becomes younger throughout his life), then an anagram (arranged) of LOAN IN.
A language used by the 5d a few thousand years ago. |
||
| 10 | MATHEMATICS |
A couple of postgraduates penning article on movement’s figure study (11)
|
| MA + MA (a couple of MA = abbreviation for someone with a Master’s postgraduate degree) around THE (definite article in grammar), then TIC’S (tic = involuntary muscle movement).
The study of figures (numbers). |
||
| 14 | LITERATURE |
Ancient city infiltrating large state again works on paper (10)
|
| UR (city-state of the ancient 5d, and the usual “ancient city” in crosswords), inserted into L (abbreviation for large) + ITERATE (state again = say again). | ||
| 17 | NOSIEST |
On sites for puzzling, most like the Inquisitor (7)
|
| Anagram (for puzzling) of ON SITES.
Nosy = slang for inquisitive. The surface refers to the “Inquisitor” barred crossword puzzle, published in the i newspaper on Saturdays. |
||
| 18 | CEREAL |
Popular breakfast show on the radio (6)
|
| Sound-alike (on the radio) of SERIAL (a radio or TV show consisting of multiple episodes).
Processed grains, commonly eaten with milk (or alternative) for breakfast. |
||
| 21 | GAME |
I spy it go snap or squash? (4)
|
| Multiple definitions by example. I SPY is a guessing game; IT (otherwise known as tag) is a children’s playground game; GO is a board game, SNAP is a card game; and SQUASH is a racket sport. |
Comment #1
Lots to like, especially TABLETS and OLD BABYLONIAN. I wondered if ACRE was thematic, but it’s too far West.
Superb from the old man. ‘Receiving text’ for ‘reading’ took my fancy, along with the self-referential nod with EXPAT, the quirky clueing for ECONOMISED, and those kinds of TABLETS which was my loi. The detail unearthed around the theme of MESOPOTAMIA very interesting. Had to Google Benjamin Button for 8d. Thanks Quirister for a super thorough blog and Methuselah for a super duper puzzle.