Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 25, 2018
Gaff signals that this is another of his anniversary-themed puzzles but, as in at least one previous case, the actual theme is not the person whose birthday it is but something associated with them. The birthday this time is the one hundredth of Leonard Bernstein and the theme is his most popular work, West Side Story. And I hold this as a very just cause for celebration. The theme is involved in 4,9 (WEST SIDE STORY), 10ac (TONIGHT), 13ac (gramMARIAn), 28ac (AMERICA), 17dn (SOMEWHERE), 27dn (COOL) and, perhaps incidentally, in 30ac (aNYbodys). And several more hidden ones that I missed — see comment #1 below. By the way, I once lived on the [Upper] West Side.
My first-in was 21ac (ALUMNA) in spite of the fact that the clue may be faulty. I found some clues fairly challenging, notably 30a (ANYBODYS) and 22dn (BANANA). My clue of the week is 26ac (WWII).
| Across | ||
| 1 | ACTION | Business suit (6) |
| Double definition…and a very good one | ||
| 4, 9 | WEST SIDE STORY | Sets off in very spacious gold yacht to start production (4,4,5) |
| Anagram (off) of SETS in (in) WIDEST (very spacious) + OR (gold) + Y[acht] | ||
| 10 | TONIGHT | Count keeps close to number (7) |
| NIGH (close) in TOT (count), with the definition referring to a song in West Side Story | ||
| 11 | DOCKAGE | Deduction of landing fee (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | NUMB | Blunt military leader in essence (4) |
| M[ilitary] in (in) NUB (essence) | ||
| 13 | GRAMMARIAN | With good memory, lover has name of word expert (10) |
| G (good) + RAM (memory) + MARIA (lover, in West Side Story) + N (name) | ||
| 15 | MENIAL | Humble setter turned prostrate (6) |
| ME (setter) + LAIN (prostrate) backwards (turned) | ||
| 16 | SCENES | Act parts with fierceness partially rewritten (6) |
| Anagram (rewritten) of [fier]CENESS | ||
| 20 | SCARAB | Beetle starts to support cockroach race (6) |
| S[upport] C[ockroach] + ARAB (race) | ||
| 21 | ALUMNA | Old girls’ training manual (6) |
| Anagram (training) of MANUAL. We have a curious issue with this clue because the definition, “old girls”, appears to be plural while ALUMNA is singular and its plural, ALUMNAE, would not fit. My understanding is that the definition part of a clue should not be disguised syntactically. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) So the clue should have been, “Old girl’s training manual”, which reads just about as well. Then again, may it was just a typo! | ||
| 24 | ANTECEDENT | Bet landowners are about to give up prior (10) |
| ANTE (bet) + CEDE (to give up) + NT (landowners, i.e. the National Trust) | ||
| 26 | WWII | Conflict of cake makers among themselves (1,1,2) |
| WI (cake makers, i.e. Women’s Institute) in (among) WI (themselves) | ||
| 28 | AMERICA | Number 1 camera problem (7) |
| Anagram (problem) of I CAMERA, with the definition referring to a song in West Side Story | ||
| 29 | CHOLERA | Rent in credit with a complaint (7) |
| HOLE (rent) in CR (credit) + A (a) | ||
| 30 | ANYBODYS | A city organisation’s wanton (8) |
| A (a) + NY (city) + BODYS (organisation’s). This is an interesting case because the answer is a perfectly common term that fits the definition well but which one would never find in a thesaurus. Should the enumeration perhaps indicate that the answer effectively contains an apostrophe? I do not recall ever seeing an enumeration that did. | ||
| 31 | SLEEPY | White companion in shelter – watch out! (6) |
| LEE (shelter) in (out) SPY (watch). ‘White’ in the definition refers to Snow White and ‘companion’ to one of the seven dwarfs. I have to thank P.G. for help with this one. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ANTONYMS | Man’s confused about lover of opposites (8) |
| TONY (lover, in West Side Story) in anagram (confused) of MANS | ||
| 2 | TENEMENTS | Convictions overwhelm people in poor housing (9) |
| MEN (people) in TENETS (convictions) | ||
| 3 | ORGY | Revel in extreme over- generosity (4) |
| O[ve]R G[enerosit]Y | ||
| 5 | ENDEMICS | Local complaints send mice scattering (8) |
| Anagram (scattering) of SEND MICE | ||
| 6 | TV CHANNELS | 4 or 5, say, that get changed on set (2,8) |
| I am not sure how to categorize this clue. Maybe it is intended to pass as a cryptic definition or maybe a double definition but I would call it merely a tricky definition — a good one though. I also wonder about the enumeration; I think it arguable that it should be (1,1,8) instead of (2,8). | ||
| 7 | IRAQI | National movement to raise level of brightness (5) |
| IRA (movement) + IQ (level of brightness) backwards (to raise) | ||
| 8 | EXEUNT | They leave part of annexe untouched (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 9 | See 4 | |
| 14 | MARASCHINO | Liqueur with no charisma, sadly (10) |
| Anagram (sadly) of NO CHARISMA | ||
| 17 | SOMEWHERE | Correct cry with female athlete’s finishing number (9) |
| SO (correct, as in “that’s so”) + MEW (cry) + HER (female) + [athlet]E. With ‘number’ referring to a song in West Side Story. | ||
| 18 | LANDLADY | Woman of letters? (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 19 | SANITARY | Clean nasty air sick (8) |
| Anagram (sick) of NASTY AIR | ||
| 22 | BANANA | Plant died out from trapping of crown (6) |
| BANDANA (trapping of crown) with the ‘D’ (died) removed | ||
| 23 | ENACT | Screen actor’s part in play (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 25 | TEENY | Still half-done on the inside – turn it over for minute (5) |
| [do]NE in YET (still) backwards (turn it over) | ||
| 27 | COOL | Composed number (4) |
| Double definition, the second referring to a song in West Side Story | ||
Thanks Gaff & Pete.
In 17 down think of “That’s so” meaning “That’s correct”.
There are several references to West Side Story hidden in the solutions:
ACTION, ANITA, ANYBODYS, ARAB, CHINO, DOC, MARIA, and TONY are characters. AMERICA, COOL, SOMEWHERE and TONIGHT are “numbers”. GYM (hidden in orGY Maraschino) is a location. MENIAL describes the employment available to the TEENagers, who live in TENEMENTS. And SCENES, ENACT and EXEUNT are elements of the show!
In 17 down maybe “So” could be used in the sense of “It is so”.
Well no wonder I couldn’t make any sense of the clues. Had no idea about West side story, so number in the clues didn’t help. Did get America for 28ac, but couldn’t work out what it had to do with number!!!!
Yow! I missed a lot. Thank you, psmith, for completing the list of West Side Story references.
Many thanks for blogging this. I struggled for a while before noticing the theme signal. Still failed to get a few, including ANYBODY’S which I really like. Resisted putting in ALUMNA for some time as the plural in the clue didn’t parse for me either.
Colin_M, Thanks for commenting. ‘Correct’ cluing SO is something I do not recall seeing before. Good one to keep in mind.
Hi Alton, Thank you for contributing. I have missed theme signals before now. ANYBODY’S may be my favourite here.
Thanks Gaff and Pete
What a fascinating piece of work to contain so much of WEST SIDE STORY in a theme that washed completely over me. This meant that a much higher ‘number’ of clues went through not completely parsed. In fact, with AMERICA, I was able to sort of justify it by using the international dial code for the US to be “1”.
Apart from the songs, WWII went through only 3 parts parsed – understanding that the word play involved WI in WI but not taking the next step to equate WI = Women’s Institute = ‘cake makers’.
Was still able to enjoy the puzzle because the word play was clear enough to construct an answer (even if I couldn’t fully understand what it was supposed to mean). A great effort by Gaff to provide such a puzzle, Pete for identifying the theme and psmith@1 for fully fleshing out all of the details of it !