It’s Phi-day again!
We have to say that, as a solve, we found this rather ‘vanilla’ – not unenjoyable, but not really very challenging.
Phi’s choice of entries for the four-letter words at 4d and 7d, being only one letter different, seems to suggest that there may be a theme, but we can’t see it. does anyone out there have any ideas?
A note from Joyce – Why is it that VANILLA is seen as bland (see 24d)? In my opinion it is a superb flavour and certainly could never be described as ‘bland’. It is my first choice for ice cream and is fantastic added to home-made custard!
| Across | ||
| 9 | Early Russian space traveller left excellent openings for Kiev astronomers (5) | |
| LAIKA | L (left) AI (first class – excellent) + first letters or ‘openings’ of Kiev and Astronomers – Laika was the dog sent into space by the Russians in Sputnik 2 in November 1957, paving the way for human space flight | |
| 10 | One narrative about one source of crisis is identifying stress in some way (9) | |
| ITALICISE | I (one) TALE (narrative) round I (one) C (first letter or ‘source’ of ‘crisis’) IS | |
| 11 | Wild acre i.e. filled with excellent heathery plants (9) | |
| ERICACEAE | An anagram of ACRE IE (anagrind is ‘wild’) round or ‘filled with’ ACE (excellent) | |
| 12 | Try to follow hint of short cut (5) | |
| SHEAR | HEAR (try) after S (first letter or ‘hint’ of ‘short’) | |
| 13 | Keen on hosting monarch for a start (5) | |
| INTRO | INTO (keen on) round or ‘hosting’ R (monarch) | |
| 14 | Endlessly allow endless choice, foolishly over-indulging? (9) | |
| ALCOHOLIC | An anagram of ALLO |
|
| 16 | Work with data being limited by corrupt money has extreme importance (7) | |
| GRAVITY | IT (Information Technology – ‘work with data’) in or ‘limited by’ GRAVY (corrupt money) | |
| 17 | Range of colours shown by East London artist? (7) | |
| RAINBOW | RA (artist) IN BOW (East London area) | |
| 20 | Mexican food in Cambridge area available in underground locations (9) | |
| CATACOMBS | TACO (Mexican food) in CAMBS (Cambridgeshire) | |
| 22 | Crowd beginning to dine in Hard Rock (5) | |
| HORDE | D (first letter or ‘beginning’ of ‘dine’) in H (hard) ORE (rock) | |
| 23 | Absolutely no energy in political event (5) | |
| RALLY | R |
|
| 25 | Speculative article or quote rejected (9) | |
| THEORETIC | THE (article) OR + CITE (quote) reversed or ‘rejected’ | |
| 27 | Fellow in ballet, say, missing initial provision of money (9) | |
| FINANCING | F (fellow) IN |
|
| 28 | Marriage, say: the ultimate in torture, and so on, on reflection (5) | |
| NOOSE | E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter or ‘torture’) SO ON all reversed or ‘on reflection’ – not a word we would associate with marriage! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Blasted evidence of injury (8) | |
| BLEEDING | Double definition – ‘blasted’ being a mild expletive similar to BLEEDING | |
| 2 | Attendant skirts tirade about termination of servant (10) | |
| MINISTRANT | MINIS (skirts) RANT (tirade) round T (last letter or ‘termination’ of ‘servant’) | |
| 3 | A vehicle on entering major road is dandy (8) | |
| MACARONI | A CAR (vehicle) ON in or ‘entering’ MI (major road) – we’re familiar with the pasta and the penguin, but not the dandy! | |
| 4 | Immoral behaviour very supported by murder in US (4) | |
| VICE | V (very) ICE (American word for ’murder’) | |
| 5 | Mounted troops constant in function, turning up in military stations (5-5) | |
| CAMEL CORPS | C (constant) in ROLE (function) reversed or ‘turning up’ in CAMPS (military stations) | |
| 6 | Trashy uniform of a sort supplied by school (6) | |
| KITSCH | KIT (‘uniform of a sort’) by SCH (school) | |
| 7 | Supplier of wine: there’s five in Spain (4) | |
| VINE | V (five) IN E (Spain) | |
| 8 | US opera house mostly opulent regarding rhythm (6) | |
| METRIC | MET (Metropolitan Opera House in New York) RIC |
|
| 14 | May’s unfortunately ahead of predecessor in displaying no balance (10) | |
| ASYMMETRIC | An anagram of MAY’S (anagrind is ‘unfortunately’) ‘ahead of’ METRIC (solution to the previous clue) | |
| 15 | Queen tucking into drink, expressing freedom (10) | |
| LIBERATION | ER (Queen) ‘tucking into’ LIBATION (drink) | |
| 18 | Native names will encapsulate this place in it (8) | |
| INHERENT | N and N (names) round or ‘encapsulating’ HERE (this place) in IT | |
| 19 | Dreadful heartless war permanently incised (8) | |
| WRETCHED | W |
|
| 20 | Worry about a fine flask of wine (6) | |
| CARAFE | CARE (worry) round A F (fine) | |
| 21 | Showing unhappiness is unknown in college circle (6) | |
| CRYING | Y (unknown) in C (college) RING (circle) | |
| 24 | Vanilla beans initially dumped in country (4) | |
| LAND | ||
| 26 | Extract of weed generating irritability (4) | |
| EDGE | Hidden in or an ‘extract of’ weED GEnerating | |
Re 3 down think Yankee Doodle
I think someone is being a little harsh on Phi today.
As for vanilla-it really applies to music-it means devoid of any soul-even more so than the antonym for black.
Probably goes for most popular music today
Vanilla pods are another kettle of spices altogether.
Agree with Joyce about vanilla, although I fear it’s another of those lost linguistic battles. And you could say there’s theme, at a pynch…
There is a theme, and it’s literary and American. A couple of successive across answers should trigger recognition.
As for vanilla, I haven’t heard it applied to music, but often to sex. I think it’s just that it’s so much the default for ice cream, when there are many other interesting flavours available.
Thanks for the tip-off…..
For those of you who are interested, the novels by Thomas Pynchon that we have found in the grid are – Gravity’s Rainbow, Vineland, Vice Inherent, Bleeding Edge and we also have Crying (but not the rest of the title).
Jointly solved with my apprentice – we only needed help for CAMEL-CORPS. Missed the theme as, if we had heard of Thomas Pynchon, we certainly didn’t know anything about him. Actually we thought there might have been a theme of Roman numerals when we saw all the M’s and V’s etc in the top row of unches. Checking in Chambers all the other top and bottom unches can be Roman numerals as used in the middle ages (e.g. B = 300), but we suspect that in that case every letter of the alphabet may have been used as a numeral so no joy there!
Lots of likeable clues, but no real favourite.
Thanks, Phi and B&J
Got a bit stuck in the top right, having entered OMNEITY for 16ac. It’s in Chambers and it fits with the clue. If I’d spotted the theme earlier… I did spot it, but only on completion, just as I was coming here. I’ve even read Gravity’s Rainbow. A big book, but fun (and a bit disgusting in places).
I meant top left, of course.
Dormouse @7 – snap on the ‘omneity’ front. Not so much of a snap on the B&J easy front though, for I found this tricky in places and got beat by the plant and the camel unit (which is something one doesn’t say every day) in the end. Missed the theme, but didn’t feel too bad as although I have a couple of Pynchon books in me library, I’ve yet to break their spines. Many thanks to Phi for the puzz and to B&J for the blog.