I wasn’t getting anywhere with this, so I put it aside and opened the rather nice bottle of red wine given to us by a French couple in whose house we were staying last week. An hour later I was absolutely whizzing through the puzzle. I believe this is known in the trade as “getting on your setter’s wavelength”. Thanks Paul, for the puzzle and for the excuse.
| Across | ||
| 8 | COLORADO | A shade over the pond, a complete state (8) |
| COLOR (a shade, American, over the pond) A then DO (complete) | ||
| 9 | OPORTO | European city left in the midst of floods (6) |
| PORT (left) in flOOds (middle of) | ||
| 10 | OBIT | Oddly, blonde is turning heads in story of life after death (4) |
| first letters (heads) of Odly Blonde Is Turning | ||
| 11 | JELLY BELLY | Setter describing a clanger, perhaps, as owner of large corporation (5,5) |
| JELLY (setter, something that sets) and BELLY (like a bell, describing a clanger perhaps) | ||
| 12, 22 | HUGGER-MUGGER | Friendly and unfriendly types confused (6-6) |
| HUGGER (friendly type) and MUGGER (unfriendly type) | ||
| 14 | BROMANCE | Close relationship with British and Italian church (8) |
| B (British) with ROMAN (an Italian) CE (church, of England) – a new word for me, but guessable | ||
| 15 | DEANERY | Convert yearned for clerical office (7) |
| anagram (convert) of YEARNED – very nice surface | ||
| 17 | SYRINGE | Sharp instrument, point getting round to puncture you (7) |
| S (point, of the compass) with RING (something round) inside (to puncture) YE (you) | ||
| 20 | CHARISMA | Mother does the housework? That’s attractive! (8) |
| CAHR IS MA (mother is a char, does the housework) | ||
| 22 | See 12 | |
| 23 | HURLY-BURLY | Reportedly, actress Elizabeth with strapping figure producing commotion (5-5) |
| HURLY sounds like (reportedly) HURLEY (Elizabeth Hurley, actress) with BURLY (with strapping figure) | ||
| 24 | See 2 | |
| 25 | ACCESS | Entrance, one admitting first of crew on ship (6) |
| ACE (one) containing (admitting) Crew (first letter of) on SS (steam ship) | ||
| 26 | WINGDING | Democrat in flying US party (8) |
| D (democrat) in WINGING (flying) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BOOB TUBE | Still slip to lift over top of elasticated garment that’s tight (4,4) |
| BUT (still) BOOB (slip) reversed (to lift) on Elasticated (top letter of) | ||
| 2, 24 across | ZOOT SUIT | Caged bird, perhaps, holding us up, 1940s’ style (4,4) |
| ZOO TIT (caged bird perhaps) contains US reversed (up) | ||
| 3 | JAM JAR | Vessel in difficult situation, conflict (3,3) |
| JAM (difficult situation) and JAR (conflict) | ||
| 4 | WOULD BE | Potential wife, double trouble! (5-2) |
| anagram (trouble) of W (wife) and DOUBLE | ||
| 5 | ROLY-POLY | Sweet, short and round (4-4) |
| double definition | ||
| 6 | LOVE-MAKING | Go with man like mad, embracing very intimate experience (4-6) |
| anagram (mad) of GO with MAN LIKE containing (embracing) V (very) | ||
| 7 | ITALIC | Last characters in ski lift, almost every one I see on the slope (6) |
| skI lifT (last characters of) ALl (every, almost) I C (see, name of letter) | ||
| 13 | GENERAL LEE | Hero of the South, broadly speaking? (7,3) |
| sounds like (speaking) “generally” (broadly) | ||
| 16 | ROSEBUSH | Cultivate shrubs with one hollow plant (8) |
| anagram (cultivate) of SHRUBS with OnE (hollow, no middle letter) | ||
| 18 | GRECIANS | Europeans creasing pants (8) |
| anagram (pants) of CREASING | ||
| 19 | BARROWS | More than one grave line in some music (7) |
| ROW (line) in BARS (some music) | ||
| 21 | HAUNCH | Feeling around a buttock and thigh (6) |
| 22 | MAYANS | Old people won’t necessarily answer (6) |
| MAY (won’t necessarily) ANS (answer) | ||
| 24 | SIDE | Face among images I deleted (4) |
| found among imageS I DEleted | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks PeeDee. Mainly notable I thought for the number of hyphenated or coupled words but an enjoyable and not too demanding solve. 20a was my LOI after spending some time earlier on trying for a word beginning with Ma. I don’t follow your explanation of 21d, surely it is just HUNCH around A.
Thanks to Paul and Peedee. Too tough for me. Over the course of a week I got much but not all of it. ROLY-POLY, JAM JAR, and BOOB TUBE defeated me, though I did late in the game guess correctly HUGGER-MUGGER and HURLY-BURLY.
I liked the rhyming “couplets”.
Thanks PeeDee. Some lovely Paulian clues here like 1, 4 and 6D. No idea why OPORTO was last in. Agree totally with Biggles on 21D.
I absolutely love what I call “Echo Words”, as I call them, and, assisted by family and friends, have compiled a list of over 200 of these over the years, ranging from “Ab Fab” and “Acca Dacca” through to “Zoot Suit” and “Zowie Bowie”.
So I was delighted when some of them turned out to be a pattern in Paul’s Prize Puzzle!
(BTW 3D JAM JAR does not appear, as the words must form a perfect rhyme to qualify. Rehabs there is another list I could begin with jam jar, tip top, Tim Tam etc following that sort of pattern. I have phrases like “heebie jeebies”, “thrills’n’spills”, and “over the shoulder boulder holder” on an ancillary list , as they too are imperfect rhymes.)
11a JELLY BELLY was not on my list, though I solved it here from the clever wordplay. I guess Paul is referring to the US sweets firm, or am I missing something?
Aside from the echo words, like Molonglo I had 4d, WOULD-BE and 6d LOVE-MAKING as other favourites, along with 20a CHARISMA, and the homophone at 13d, GENERAL LEE. Though now that I am revisiting, what was there not to like?
I think 5d ROLY-POLY was my favourite LOL moment.
Many thanks to Paul and PeeDee (clearly it was a good red, or RED NED, as Paul might have said). I also like the fact that PeeDee is an echo, so am adding that to my list now – it comes in between “pec deck” and “peewee”.
P.S. I thought I had corrected all my typos but somehow “perhaps” in that post became “rehabs”!
Fortunately I found “homophobe” when I meant to type “homophone” for 13d GENERAL LEE. That slip did raise a laugh too.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. I have had a lot of experience solving before and after a bottle of French red, but unfortunately it doesn’t usually help me! This was fun and not too difficult especially when the second rhyming pair popped up and I was on the lookout for more.
Your explanation for 21d is ingenious, but I agree with Biggles A@1 that it is unwarranted. It is just HUNCH around A with “buttock and thigh” being the definition.
I must have been nearing the bottom of the bottle by the time I wrote up 21dn. My explanation is nonsense, though in fairness closer to Paul in spirit than the rather prosaic corrected explanation. Thanks to all who pointed out the error.
We got through this without too much struggle – the echo word theme helped once spotted. Thanks to JinA for her naming of this and sharing her interest in it – I wonder what triggered it? Lots to enjoy as another Paul without surfaces beyond my grasp – favourite after the echoes was the GENERAL LEE made even more enjoyable by JinA’s typo :-). Thanks Pee Dee.
Julie @5 – I had not heard of Jelly Belly as a sweet before. I just assumed that a jelly belly is a fat stomach, aka having a large corporation. I have never heard the phase used and now that I check I can’t find jelly belly in either Chambers or the Oxford Dictionaries. Must be right though.
PS Do you have helter-skelter on your list? One of my favourite words.
Great fun this with a bit of street cred. thanks PeeDee and Paul
The only time I have heard jellybelly is on the Aussie soap Neighbours (guilty secret time!). It was a nickname for Harold used by Lou.
I had never heard of JELLY BELLY either and had to look it up. As Julie @5 indicated, Paul must surely have been referring to the US-based Jelly Belly Candy Company.
Google “jelly belly stomach” for plentiful examples.
Thanks Paul and PeterO
Sorry, PeeDee
I found “jelly belly” meaning “fat person” in the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang. It gives it as first used in 1896, so it has being been trying to get into the mainstream dictionaries for a long time. I also noticed that Collins rejected it as a suggestion for inclusion in 2010.
Sorry, that was 2012 not 2010.
I’d never heard of JELLY BELLY as a sweet. I first encountered it on an old RnB record by Larry Williams- of Bony Moronie fame – called Jelly Belly Nelly!
I enjoyed the puzzle and managed to complete it without alcoholic aid.
Thanks Paul.
PeeDee@q10 and WhiteKing@9, Funnily enough, it was the Beatles’ song and the Charles Manson link that first got me interested, and then if ever I was stuck for an English lesson when I was teaching, I would put up definitions for the Echo Words on the blackboard/greenboard/whiteboard, and get the class to respond. So lots of young people came to know about quaint pairs like niminy piminy, namby pamby and helter skelter! Though I did not inform them of such phrases as shaggin’ wagon (panel van), cock rock (Mick Jagger) or booger sugar (cocaine), some of which came to me later.
I do like the idea of JELLY BELLY as in corporation/stomach (especially the visual!), and also love the Neighbours link, Alison Copeland@12 (though “Neighbours” was not a soap I followed). I was with AlanB@13 on the Candy Company as Paul’s intention, but still not 100% sure that’s what he meant.
Thank you Paul and PeeDee.
I had not heard the term “echo word” before, thank you Julie @5, and, as you say, what fun that PeeDee blogged this puzzle!
I managed to finish last Saturday, but needed to google WINGDING, luckily I remembered BROMANCE cropping up in February (27,110 Pasquale). SYRINGE was my last in.
Apart from imbibing red wine, what are the means by which we can get on a setter’s wavelength? Suggestions welcome.
I hadn’t heard of JELLY BELLY before, either. I think corporation is definitely used in the sense of “a belly, esp. a pot-belly (coll.)” (Chambers), something I only know from other crosswords.I thought “describing a clanger, perhaps” for BELLY was reminiscent of the game of Oxbridge English Dictionary in BBC R4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, where, for a recent example, shell-fish was defined as “a bit like a shelf”.
HUGGER MUGGER was also a term I had vaguely heard of without knowing the meaning and pleasing when it popped up in my head.
WINGDING was also only faintly familiar, but well gettable from the wordplay.
Overall, an enjoyable solve, with a good dose of Paul’s trademark smut.
@Rishi (one above)
Perhaps, in the case of a Paul puzzle, go out and run until it hurts?
I enjoyed this and not just because I solved it. The surfaces were less convoluted than is often the case with Paul. I hadn’t come across JELLY BELLY as a phrase before but it made sense from the clueing without help from crossers (I start by trying the across clues first). I trust that Paul didn’t expect us to be familiar with American confectionery companies or he would have included it in the definition.
Quite enjoyed this one.
One plea. “Corporation” for fat tummy is like “pi” for very good. Never encountered anywhere except in cryptic crossword land. Time for both to be retired in my view. Corporation is particularly irritating, in that once you’ve been doing these a while a phrase like “owner of large corporation” immediately makes you think it’ll be about salad dodgers.
PS. Thanks to Paul and PeeDee.
Andrew B – my mother used to use “corporation” frequently to describe someone’s expanding waistline. But she retired from crossword solving many years ago, so I think you may have a point.
@me, 4 above
Uxbridge English Dictionary on ISIHAC, of course
Thanks, Paul and PeeDee.
In the US the boob tube is the TV, so it took a long time to get that one in.
Brilliant puzzle. Thanks, JH.
I remember ‘jelly-bellied flag-flapper’ from a Kipling story (in Stalky & Co) about a jingoistic character.