We thought this was a bit of a toughie today from Tyrus
The gateway clue at 16ac eluded us for some time, and even with some crossing letters we had to check it, as it was a word we’d not come across before. The thematic entries then fell in reasonably quickly, although the clues were still rather convoluted and took quite a bit of parsing once we had guessed the answer.
Still, we do expect Saturday puzzles to be at the tougher end of the scale, and Tyrus has made us think a bit more about some of the grammatical errors commonly made in our wonderful language.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Songs of enchanting female (8) | |
| CALYPSOS | Double definition – we had to check this – apparently CALYPSO was a nymph in Greek mythology who enchanted Odysseus with her singing – the second definition relies on an apostrophe ‘s’ | |
| 6 | Reject berth on ship and get off (6) | |
| DEBARK | BED (berth) reversed or ‘rejected’ ARK (ship) | |
| 9 | Seeing that country going back on promise (6) | |
| ASSURE | AS (seeing that) US (country) reversed or ‘going back’ RE (on) | |
| 10/26 | 16 sign for shoppers of sorts – one element’s wrong (3,5,2,4) | |
| TEN ITEMS OR LESS | An anagram of SORTS I (one) ELEMENTS – anagrind is ‘wrong’. The correct version as Kathryn’s Dad has reminded us on occasions on fifteensquared is ’10 items or fewer’. | |
| 11 | Fancy Ant alone of new arrivals (8) | |
| NEONATAL | An anagram of ANT ALONE – anagrind is ‘fancy’ | |
| 12 | God welcomes each song of praise (5) | |
| PAEAN | PAN (God) round or ‘welcoming’ EA (each) | |
| 14 | Get in essentials taking uniform in case (4) | |
| ETUI | ||
| 15/13 | Day ahead: detention…cane – duo, frustrated, make 16 claim (2,4,4,2,9) | |
| WE DON’T NEED NO EDUCATION | WED (Wednesday – ‘day’) ON (ahead) + an anagram of DETENTION CANE DUO – anagrind is ‘frustrated’. A great reminder of the Pink Floyd classic track from ‘The Wall’ which we have had the good fortune of seeing Roger Waters perform live at the Manchester Arena. An example of a double negative solecism. | |
| 16 | Breaking the rules, one army leader’s first to go in (10) | |
| SOLECISTIC | SOLE (one) CIC (commander in chief – ‘army leader’) with IST (first) inserted or ‘going in’ – a new word for us, but the gateway clue to the theme | |
| 19 | Touch one’s bottom when talking (4) | |
| ABUT | A (one) + a homophone (‘when talking’) of BUTT (bottom) | |
| 20 | Say John Lennon’s old name out loud (5) | |
| SPEAK | A homophone (‘out loud’) of SPEKE (the former name of Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport) | |
| 21 | Are after man from capital (8) | |
| ATHENIAN | A (are) THEN (after) IAN (man) | |
| 23 | Control party underling (8) | |
| DOMINION | DO (party) MINION (underling) | |
| 25 | Not yet out, largely impress (6) | |
| INSTIL | IN STIL |
|
| 26 | See 10 across | |
| 27 | 4 diners turned into others perhaps (5-3) | |
| DRIVE-INS | An anagram of IV (four) DINERS – anagrind is ‘turned’. We’re not too happy about the definition here as we tend to think of ‘drive-ins’ as open air cinemas, not eateries – fast food outlets tend to be ‘drive-throughs’. However, Chambers describes a drive-in as ‘a refreshment stop, store, cinema etc where patrons are catered for while still remaining in their cars’ so perhaps we’re just not worldly-wise enough to have come across drive-in restaurants. | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Boast: sent in to mobilise uncommitted voters (11) | |
| ABSTENTIONS | An anagram of BOAST SENT IN – anagrind is ‘mobilise’ | |
| 3 | See 7 down | |
| 4 | See 19 down | |
| 5 | Group with tenor was first to get paid (7) | |
| SETTLED | SET (group) T (tenor) LED (was first) | |
| 6 | Assume I can’t possibly keep quiet and remain calm (4,5) | |
| DON’T PANIC | DON (assume, as in ‘wear’) + an anagram of I CANT (anagrind is ‘possibly’) round or ‘keeping’ P (quiet) | |
| 7/3 | Live nude – one way it aroused 16 in private (7,3,3,1) | |
| BETWEEN YOU AND I | BE (live) + an anagram of NUDE ONE WAY IT – anagrind is ‘aroused’. This one should obviously be ‘between you and me’. | |
| 8/24 | Talk of sport – manager missing second half (6) | |
| RUMOUR | RU (Rugby Union – ‘sport’) MOUR |
|
| 13 | See 15 across | |
| 15 | They’re old stories – slippery surface mentioned previously (9) | |
| WRINKLIES | LIES (stories) with a homophone (‘mentioned’) of RINK (‘slippery surface’) in front or ‘previously’ | |
| 17 | Child succeeds before becoming recluse (7) | |
| EREMITE | MITE (child) after or ‘succeeding’ ERE (before) | |
| 18 | Prepared to be drawn? Not initially (7) | |
| TRAINED | ||
| 19/4 | Say, Peter’s head’s dropping – he’s little time for 16 song (4,3,5) | |
| AIN’T SHE SWEET | SAINT (Peter, say) with the ‘s’ (first letter or ‘head’) ‘dropping’ to the end + HE’S WEE (little) T (time). A reference to the 1927 song possibly made more famous than it deserves by the Beatles before they hit the big time. Is ‘ain’t’ a solecism – please discuss. We ain’t sure! | |
| 22 | Country militia had to show up (5) | |
| HAITI | Hidden (‘shown’) and reversed (‘up’) in milITIA Had | |
| 24 | See 8 down | |
My brain hurts. Managed to finish once I’d used a word fit to get that pesky 16a. Fortunately I’ve seen the use of ‘a’ for ARE, as in the unit of area, before, as used in 21a. Only seen 14a in cryptics. Not sure I’ve seen DEBARK for DISEMBARK before, but this was my FOI. The old name for John Lennon airport was in a crossword a few months back so that helped me get 20a. Kudos to anybody who finished this without word-fitting/revealing. Think I need a lie down.
This was nasty. Many thanks for the parsing the John Lennon clue.I thought it might have something to do with the airport but didnt know its original name.
Cracking puzzle. Great idea and use of theme. I found it hard; it took me ages to get ASSURE, but, I think that’s my favourite clue.
Thanks B&J, and to Tyrus for his usual exhilarating ride.
Maybe a touch of pedantry too far (pace K’s D)at 10/26 but I’m not complaining.
Great stuff from Tyrus as usual. The crossword kicked my arse, of course – but what a crossword it was. Took me half an hour to get a couple in, then I found a chink in the armour with 7/3 and got a few more. When I got 15/13 I thought I’d broken the theme, but oh no – Tyrus too deceptive for me even in the thematics and had me looking for Pink Floyd all over the place. I continued bravely on and finally retired bloodied and beaten with about 7 to go. Honours today go to the sheer challenge of the thing so thanks to Tyrus for the fun and torture and also to B&J for the blog.
Yes, quite a toughie. In fact the gateway clue was one of my last ones in after getting all the ones it referred to – I’d figured out what was going on but couldn’t think of the word to describe it. Favourites, though, were non-themed ones – NEONATAL and ATHENIAN.
Thanks, Tyrus and B&J
Thanks to B&J for the blog and to others for their comments.
Surely the less/fewer grammatical error is built cleverly into the clue: one element of the sign is wrong.
Completely defeated me. Started it on a train journey and I was only able to get a handful. (Fortunately I also had a book to read.) When I got home I was able to get a couple of the theme answers with a word search and then get a couple more answers, but 16ac eluded me, and I think I only got about a third of the whole thing.
This crossword needed more than one session but I actually didn’t find it as hard as others.
7,3 and 15,13 came very quickly and opened up the grid significantly.
One of my last ones in was the gateway clue at 16ac.
I assumed there had to be a word for what happened here but I’d never heard of it.
After I looked it up somewhere I still couldn’t parse SOLECISTIC.
Completely my ‘fault’ as the construction is quite easy.
Many thanks to Tyrus (for a good workout – well worked out, I should say) and B&J for the blog.
As to B&J’s question about why AIN’T SHE SWEET (19,4) is a themed one, I am in the dark too.
I was hoping someone would come up with an explanation.
Surely Tyrus himself will know the answer to the question.
Enjoyable puzzle!
Dictionary says it’s a contraction (inter alia) of IS NOT, which makes it grammatically okay. A whoopsie from Tyrus?
Though the genre has all but disappeared, drive-in restaurants hold a special place in the memories of Americans of my–and my parents’–generation. They can be seen in many old movies and television shows; American Graffiti immediately come see to mind.
So, that clue was easy for me, but the rest of this puzzle was really hard, and I had to reveal a word several times to keep going to the finish. Finally stumped by the airport, which I had forgotten.
Comes to mind. Auto-correct gremlins.
Forgot to add: a very popular television show here is called “Diners, drive-ins and dives.”
And I did fill “speak” in; I just couldn’t parse it.
The word originally was used by the Greeks for what they perceived as grammatical mistakes in their language. Ancient Athenians considered the dialect of the inhabitants of their colony, Soli, in Cilicia to be a corrupted form of their own pure Attic dialect, and labelled the errors in the form as “solecisms”. Therefore, when referring to similar grammatical mistakes heard in the speech of Athenians, they described them as “solecisms” and that term has been adopted as a label for grammatical mistakes in any language. Ex: 1- “Ain’t she sweet?” is a solecism – ain’t it? 2- the solecism of asking one’s hosts how much something in their house cost them
https://api.memrise.com/mem/5962002/the-word-originally-was-used-by-the-greeks-for-wha/
Wiki describes ‘ain’t’ as a perennial subject of controversy whose usage is often highly stigmatized and used by the general public as a marker of low socio-economic status or education level. Its use is generally considered nonstandard by dictionaries.
The ‘perennial controversy’ probably means we’re never going to agree but several sources do seem to classify it as solecistic. Don’t think it’s worth arguing about though.
Well, it’s a non-standard contraction. But it’s not mistake in the use of language, breach of syntax or grammar, which is what a solecism is defined as these days!
Think it’s dangerous to speak of ‘correctness’ in language, which is a fluid construct, but some would surely classify ‘ain’t’ as wrong, hence the controversy.