Independent 9,941 by Daedalus

by

Not the easiest. I’m embarrassed to say how long it took, even with all sorts of aids. But no real complaints — one or two things that seemed at the time to be stretching things a bit but which in retrospect are probably fair enough, and some very good clues. And help needed with 28ac, please.

Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

I was so relieved to finish that the task of finding the Nina, if any, is left to you, dear reader.

Across
1 MEDIUM Daedalus’s Dictum: forget the beginnings of crosswords. That means … (6)
me Di{ct}um, the ct being the beginnings of ‘crosswords That’
4 ABSTRACT … ignoring the material in a pamphlet about nonsense (8)
a (BS) tract
9 NOURISH Feed on sour fish after starters are gone (7)
{o}n {s}our {f}ish
11 SUCCOUR Mark called for help (7)
“sucker” — that sense of mark — Collins has ’14. slang a suitable victim, esp for swindling’
12 PUT ONES FOOT IN IT Err, being tactless, how does one use a shoe? (3,4,4,2,2)
The wordplay is the literal sense of putting one’s foot in it
13 ALLUSION Mention a beast nursing endless desire (8)
a l(lus{t})ion
15 ASSENT Approval for top grades issued (6)
A’s sent
19 NOBODY Pipsqueak and bigwig today taking prime positions (6)
nob {t}od{a}y — the prime numbers being 2, 3, 5, …, the prime positions of the letters in ‘today’ are the 2nd, the 3rd and the 5th
20 NEONATAL A gas, a gas almost suitable for the very young (8)
neon a tal{k}
22 MEAT AND POTATOES A mandate to stop European meddling in America’s fundamentals (4,3,8)
(a mandate to stop E)* — an American expression for fundamentals — I’m not convinced by the anagram indicator, since ‘meddling’ doesn’t mean something like ‘being rearranged’ — surely the wordplay needed something along the lines of meddling with a mandate to stop European, which of course makes no sense
25 NOISOME Horrible racket drowns sacred chant (7)
nois(om)e
26 ATISHOO I’ve got a cold and I’ll tell you what I need (7)
“a tissue”
27 RENMINBI Mr Benn, one wandering round Italy’s eastern capital (8)
(Mr Benn 1)* round I — the Chinese currency which is always news to me, although it shouldn’t be; I was looking at lists of capital cities.
28 UNTRUE False starter making east turn twice (6)
(U [as in U-turn] turn E)* I sort of think, but if so then how does one account for ‘starter’?  And anyway if this is how it is then there is an anagram of something that has to be deduced (U), which is I’m sure untrue. Also, the anagram indicator is rather unconvincing. Help please.
Down
1 MANSPLAIN Bits of nude sex in diagram set to tell woman what’s what (9)
ma(n{ude} s{ex})p lain [= set] — not a word I knew
2 DOUBT Act recklessly but be sceptical (5)
do (but)*
3 UNIONISED Represented by an organisation without charge (9)
unionised and un-ionised — the latter is not in either Chambers or Collins and seems to be a made-up word, although a plausible one
5 BESTOW Give wallop that’s painful (6)
best [as in a pint of best] ow!
6 TACIT Returning elasticated corsets without speaking (5)
Hidden reversed in elasTICATed, corsets the hidden indicator
7 ADORNMENT Trimming navy crew’s ration of tea after brouhaha (9)
ado (RN men t{ea})
8 TAROT Fortune tellers love pastry crusts (5)
tar(0)t, crusts the inclusion indicator
10 HESIOD Assault is what upset an ancient poet (6)
(do is eh?)rev.
14 LIBRARIAN Bookkeeper’s sign represented rain (9)
Libra (rain)*
16 SENSATION Feeling a nose isn’t out of joint (9)
(a nose isn’t)*
17 TELESCOPE In supermarket, the French exercise and collapse (9)
Te(le)sco PE
18 FEDORA Coiffed or attired in a hat? The reverse (6)
Not as in the clue, but the reverse, ie ‘a hat in coiffed or attired’, so a hidden: coifFED OR Attired
21 ADVERB 1. … d5: queen’s bishop follows soon, perhaps (6)
a [= 1] dV ER b — soon is an example of an adverb — good clue
22 MINER Daedalus’s Rule: I might be found boring (5)
mine r
23 AIOLI It’s said Daedalus should pay Bruce for dressing (5)
“I owe Lee” — Bruce Lee — the word ‘aioli’ must arise a disproportionately large number of times in crosswords and cause the setter headaches in finding a new way of clueing it, so Daedalus can be excused for referring to himself for the third time in this crossword
24 OTHER The invading yellow alien (5)
o(the)r

*anagram

14 comments on “Independent 9,941 by Daedalus”

  2. Thanks for blog.

    I didnt like this. Difficult in an annoyingly obscure way with no humour whatsoever.

    Whereas Stephen Dedalus provided much more entertainment.

    Sorry. Roll on Phiday.

  3. I think Daedalus is a great setter that we don’t see enough of. I seem to be able to get on his wavelength and solved most of this fairly quickly, but with lots of enjoyment along the way. I did get stuck in the bottom left though and ended up having to use a word fit to get RENMINBI, which I have seen before but couldn’t recall it. Didn’t know HESIOD though.

    Thanks to Daedalus and John.

  4. No, not an enjoyable solve.  Never heard of MANSPLAIN – it’s not in either Chambers or Collins.  As copmus said, roll on Phiday.

  5. I’m on the side of the enjoyers, though it was certainly drier than the puzzles I like most, and I thought the clued were generally well constructed. Mind you, I did have two vaguely parsable shots at 22D, until crossers told me what 22A must be.

    I think the anagrind in the latter is ‘just’ OK. Chambers has
    “transitive verb and intransitive verb (archaic)
    To mix”, and I’m sure I’ve come across that meaning somewhere in a culinary context.

  6. This was fine by me, though I had no hope parsing 28a – well done to Hovis @1 for working it out. Didn’t know MANSPLAIN – not guilty of course (I hope, maybe, probably) – and HESIOD was only half recognised.

    ADVERB by itself made this worth doing and I also liked the surface for NEONATAL.

    Thanks to Daedalus and John.

  7. Surprised that MANSPLAIN is not in Chambers or Collins. Thought it was a well-known, albeit fairly new, word. Pretty sure it will be in the OED, since that keeps more up-to-date with modern slang.

    It would be a boring world if we were all the same. I preferred this to any Phi I’ve done, great though he is.

  8. Thanks to both, and it’s a “like” from me. In BESTOW I had ‘to wallop’ as ‘to best’ as in ‘to defeat’ and I’m still quite happy with it. I didn’t think of drink but ‘wallop’ for alcohol (and paint) implies – to me anyway – the workaday as opposed to ‘best’ stuff, although the distinction seems to have disappeared since the days when one ordered ‘a bag of scratchings and a pint of cooking, please’.

  9. Thanks for the blog John, and glad most people liked it. To those @2,4 whose sense of humour the puzzle didn’t tickle, bad luck! I can only admire your dutifully slogging through it anyway. (At least perhaps you appreciated 22d.) If a few solvers learnt something new, so much the better.

    I had intended ‘wallop’ like Grant @8, but funny that it’s kind of a synonym twice. I agree that ‘meddling’ was a bit of a stretch; thanks to Simon @5 for giving it the benefit of the doubt.

  10. I’m with Hovis.  Favourites were ABSTRACT, BESTOW (the more for the double wallop), SENSATION and SUCCOUR.  I only know mark from The Sting, though I thought the mark was the target, who might or might not turn out to be a sucker.

  11. I did this whilst waiting for a flight at San Francisco airport.  It was a bit of a slog, but that was what I needed.

    I’m surprised that UNIONISED isn’t in Chambers.  Many years ago I read an essay by Isaac Asimov (and he died about 25 years ago) where he reckoned you could tell if someone was a chemist by asking them to pronounce “unionized”.

    MANSPLAIN is certainly a word that is current.  A recent episode of the TV show The Magicians had a courtier telling the Queen Margot of Filory something.

    “Let me mansplain it to you.”

    “You do know mansplaining is a bad thing?”

    “But I’m a man and I’m explaining it!”

  12. Add me to the list of admirers of this crossword and one surprised by those critical of it – “roll on Phiday” a little rude I thought.

    Many thanks to Filbert.  I failed on MINER though managed all the others after several visits, most of them more difficult than MINER.

    I look forward to more of Filbert and thanks to John for the blog.

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