A man notices a blonde sucking on the bottom of a Coke can. Curious, he asks her what she’s doing. “Duh! It says for best taste drink by date on the bottom.”
ACROSS
9 <<left out on purpose>> – simple cryptic definition (too simple?)
10 (r)OAST <<thanks to Paul for the correction>>
11 ORDER PAPER – Used in the UK Parliament (PREPAREDOR)*
12 K(OPEC)K
15 PALER-MO : Doctor is M.O, “more anaemic” is paler – thank heavens, the only thing I know about Sicily is there is a town called Palermo.
17 R-ECEIP-T : That’s “piece” reversed between R(uns) and T(ime)
20 MAKE ONES PRESENCE FELT : Not entirely convinced I’ve grasped the full meaning here <<“make ones present svelte” according to Rulei>>
22 DI(TH)ER : Wings of thrush =”th” is inspired
23 C(RY-P-TOG)RAM
25 <<left out of purpose>> – simple sound-alike
26 CON-FLI(C)T
DOWN
1 C-O-C-ACOL-A : clue of the month for me. Reading backwards we have A LOCA(l) with C(aught) O(ld) and C(onservative). It rots your teeth. Oh yes it does.
3 SH-TOOK – <<Thanks to Paul for saving me>>
4 FR(I-D)AYS
5 A-PERT-URE : Runner-up in the Clue of the Month competition : “pert” is “fresh” (sort of) and Ure is a river
6 HARAS-S(MEN)T : “sarah” backwards
7 U-N(W)ELL : Little Nell from Dickens : reference to the play “Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell”
13 ELEVE(N PL-U)S – we’ve had this one a few times recently : “Eleves” is French for students, “Nepal regularly” is “N.P.L” and U for University. Must be something about the alternating letter E’s that makes it beloved of compilers.
16 M(AN-BO)OBS – As a middle-aged man of girth, this made me smile
19 (m)OST-RICH
21 A-BRU(P)T
22 DOM-IN-O – i.e “MOD” reversed
24 PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER – trad. joke. Now we all know what Paul got in his Christmas cracker.
10ac R(oast)
3dn Sh(took)
Cheers Paul – spot on
Spot on? Rotter for Coca Cola is distinctly unhelpful, as is ‘when’ in the RECEIPT clue (aiding the surface meaning but with no structural justification).
I was happy with rotter as a definition – 🙂
Don’t get connection with liposuction in 20,18,2!
20ac present svelte !
Paul’s clues can be a bit of a strain
Omigod – MAKE ONE’S PRESENT SVELTE… I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or gnash my teeth. I actually like strained puns in crosswords, but if it turns out to have passed too many of us by, then perhaps this one didn’t work. Well done Rulei.
It seemed to me that for the crpytic reading, MAKE ONE’S PRESENCE MELT would be more apt.
I was more than happy with “rotter” for Coca Cola also. It’s one of the strengths of the Guardian daily crosswords that the setters aren’t afraid sometimes to swap a bit of accuracy for poetry. Anyone who wants a predictable challenge should take up Sudoko.
That said, 20ac. isn’t quite cricket.
Can someone please explain SHTOOK.
Shtook is a slang word for “trouble”. From silence (SH) and understood (TOOK)
Thanks. Grandma Alice doesn’t seem to recognise this word but I’ve heard the phrase ‘in shtook’.
Oddly my last clue was PLAIN which I thought was far from obvious… I kept looking for homophone given “radio” — really a clever CD I thought.
Just to confirm the list the appearances of “ELEVEN PLUS” in recent Guardian crosswords :-
19th November 2007 : RUFUS – (“team” + “advantage”)
31st December 2007 : ENIGMATIST -(VENUES-PE-LL)*
10th January 2008 : PASQUALE – >
and today 16th January 2008 : PAUL – ELEVE(NPL U)S
Yes, I’m a geek. No, I have no life.
“A good face for radio” is a cliche in media circles – guess I know more luvvies than Ilancaron
Indeed – the clue for PLAIN read to me as a straight definition, I was looking for something much more oblique.
Thanks for the stats on ELEVEN-PLUS – I’ve certainly had the feeling recently that it’s more in use in crosswords than in schools!
My latest puzzle was to have been tomorrow but I noticed ELEVEN PLUS in the previous day’s solution grid and suggested that mine be put back — the nice stand-in editor brought it forward!
9a I thought it was a homophone! I got it from the geometric term ‘plane’ indicating the face of a solid.
Just a note 3D,”shtuck” or “shtook”, in the US is used most often as a mild substitute for “f**k”.
According to http://www.absp.org.uk/words/variants%20s%20to%20z.html
“shtook” (amongst other spellings) is Yiddish for trouble or bother.
Ygor, are you sure you don’t mean “schtup”?