It is Phi-day again today and this week it has fallen to me to blog our Friday stalwart’s latest offering.
I found this to be a relatively straightforward Phi puzzle and made steady progress through it. I faltered towards the end over the parsing of 4, but I eventually realised that I had missed the (obvious) link to the previous grid entry at 3. 1A in this particular sense was new to me, as was the spelling at 7.
Phi often has a theme going on his puzzles, which more often than not your humble blogger fails to spot. All I can come up with today is the names of American cities, which feature very clearly in a number of clues and grid entries (20, 21, 25). I have also found at least two others by pairing some grid entries: Little Rock (in Arkansas), by combining 15 and 6A; and Grand Rapids (in Michigan), by combining 24 and 18. Perhaps Phi has spent his summer across the Pond?
My favourite clues today were 6D, for (misleadingly) maintaining a drinks theme across definition and wordplay; and 10, for concision and smoothness of surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | TIDAL WAVE | Cleverness around boy returning greeting, getting upturn in public response
TIDALW (LAD (=boy) in WIT (=cleverness); “returning” indicates reversal) + AVE (=greeting); a tidal wave is a widespread demonstration of public opinion |
| 06 | ROCK | Really make a show of frontless dress
<f>ROCK (=dress); “frontless” means first letter is dropped; cf. “let’s rock!” |
| 08 | ERUPT | Recalled perfect tense for “break out”
ERUP (PURE=perfect; “recalled” indicates reversal) + T (=tense, in grammar) |
| 09 | HYDE PARK | Stop after radio’s covering London location
Homophone (“radio’s”) of “hide (=covering, skin)” + PARK (=stop, e.g. a vehicle) |
| 11 | COLLEGE | Part of university cricket side tucking into cabbage
LEG (=cricket side, i.e. onside) in COLE (=cabbage, as in coleslaw) |
| 12 | STATION | Heart drug found round about old place
O (=old, as in OT) in STATIN (=heart drug); cf. to know one’s place/station |
| 13 | METEORIC | Very quick describing rhythm, capturing return of Old English
EO (O.E=Old English; “return of” indicates reversal) in METRIC (=describing rhythm, of verse); cf. a meteoric rise to fame |
| 15 | LITTLE | Not often illuminated, section of roof conceals one
LIT (=illuminated) + T<i>LE (=section of roof; “conceals one (=I)” means letter “i” is dropped); cf. I go there very little these days |
| 18 | RAPIDS | River apparently is filled with dead stretches of water
D (=dead) in [R (=river) + AP (=apparently) + IS] |
| 19 | ROUGHAGE | Refuse estimate of demographic quantity?
Cryptically, a “rough age” is an estimate of demographic quantity; the roughage is the bran, coarser part (or refuse) of the grain |
| 21 | ATLANTA | Soldier, getting through some maps, almost making US city
ANT (=soldier) in ATLA<s> (=some maps; “almost” means last letter is dropped |
| 23 | BIGOTED | One’s caught after infiltrating plot associated with discrimination
[I (=one) + GOT (=caught, e.g. a fish)] in BED (=plot, in garden) |
| 25 | BROOKLYN | Part of US city stream only diverted, after source blocked
BROOK (=stream, rill) + <o>NLY; “after source blocked” means first letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “diverted” |
| 26 | APRON | Article wrapped around for a form of protection
PRO (=for) in AN (=article, in grammar) |
| 27 | FORT | Secure building not enough for 2?
FORT<y> (=double-top (=40), i.e. entry at 2); “not enough” means last letter is dropped |
| 28 | SHELDRAKE | Son’s kept a grip on garden tool – duck!
S (=son) + HELD (=kept a grip on) + RAKE (=garden tool); a sheldrake is a male shelduck! |
| Down | ||
| 01 | TRENCH MORTAR | Weapon beginning to take top off Parisian cement
T<ake> (“beginning to” means first letter only) + <f>RENCH (=Parisian; “take top off” means first letter is dropped) + MORTAR (=cement); a trench mortar is a small mortar that throws large shells short distances, useful in trench warfare |
| 02 | DOUBLE TOP | Upper body garment, needing work, in a 40?
DOUBLET (=upper body garment) + OP (=work, i.e. opus); double top is a score of 40 (=2 x 20) in darts |
| 03 | LITHE | Eschewing calories, Henry tucked in, becoming agile …
H (=Henry, as in HR for Henry Rex) in LITE (=eschewing calories, low-calorie, i.e. of foodstuff) |
| 04 | ATHLETIC | … thus moving amongst trainee pilots displaying fitness
*(LITHE, i.e. entry at 3) in ATC (=trainee pilots, i.e. Air Training Corps); “moving” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | ELDEST | Spanish article that is ousting one from earliest days?
EL (=Spanish article, i.e. a Spanish word for the) + <i>D EST (=that is, in Latin; “ousting one (=I)” means letter “i” is dropped) |
| 06 | REPEATING | Providing several shots, agree pint would be out of order
*(AGREE PINT); “out of order” is anagram indicator; the reference is to a gun, providing several shots without needing to be reloaded |
| 07 | CARDI | To comb wool, I should be woolly?
CARD (=to comb wool) + I; jumpers and cardies (=cardigans) are woollies |
| 10 | INDEPENDENCE | This publication reduced church freedom
INDEPENDEN<t> (=this publication, i.e. Indy; “reduced” means last letter is dropped) + CE (=Church, i.e. of England) |
| 14 | ODD ONE OUT | Nothing gets completed in confusion – book dismissed as peculiar item
O (=nothing) + [DONE (=completed) in DOU<b>T (=confusion; “book (=B) dismissed” means letter “b” is dropped)] |
| 16 | TRATTORIA | Cunning held up riot at dilapidated restaurant
TRA (ART=cunning; “held up” indicates vertical reversal) + *(RIOT AT); “dilapidated” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | SORBONNE | Parisian institution unhappy about German city
BONN (=German city) in SORE (unhappy) |
| 20 | DALLAS | US city completely surrounded by uprising of dispirited
ALL (=completely) in DAS (SAD=dispirited; “uprising” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 22 | LARGO | Piece of music left on old ship
L (=left) + ARGO (=old ship, in Greek mythology) |
| 24 | GRAND | Noble but not upright?
A grand piano is not an upright piano |
A DNF for me, I’m afraid. Failed to get ROCK or CARDI. Didn’t know that spelling either and didn’t know ‘card’ for combing wool, so a double failure on that one. I also couldn’t see ROUGHAGE for the life of me and cheated with a word fit. 1d rings a vague bell but was clear from the wordplay.
Wasn’t convinced by AP for apparently in 18a but confirmed in Chambers. So thanks to Phi and to RatkojaRiku.
Thanks Phi and RR
I wondered tooabout the US cities theme, but wonder if 7 is enough?
I saw H = Henry in 3 simply as the abbreviation for the SI unit of inductance.
Thanks RR for spotting LITTLE ROCK and GRAND RAPIDS.Shame there wasnt a WORTH to go with FORT.
I only got CARDI by process of elimination-I hadnt heard of CARD in that respect and I should have hard of STATIN
Another Phiday!
We did finish, but needed a word finder for ROUGHAGE, our LOI, and even then it took a while to see the parsing. In fact several parsings were difficult to see, particularly 4dn. The latter was one of those comparatively rare cases where ellipses linking clues actually contribute to the solution rather than just helping the surfaces.
Lots to like, though. Favourites were DOUBLE TOP, TRATTORIA and SORBONNE.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Don’t forget these:
Hyde Park, New York
Independence, Missouri
College Station, Texas
possibly Sheldrake, and there may well be a Fort [something — Roughage would be amusing.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Didn’t spot the theme as usual, final cheated for LOI, ROUGHAGE. Some fairly tricky wordplay. Only seen Cardy.
Minor typo in parsing I think in 14D – I think it’s O + (“gets”) DONE in DOU[B]T.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
I was in the US earlier this year, in Kansas City, and I picked up a leaflet about the Harry Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri. It listed all the others, which include Grand Rapids, College Station, Hyde Park, Little Rock, Atlanta and Dallas. (Not Brooklyn – that’s just a consequence of filling the grid.). A good selection of words, I thought. I think the ones listed are Ford, Bush Snr, FDR, Clinton, Carter and Bush Jnr,, respectively.
Thank you to gwep for pointing out the typo (now corrected) and to Phi for telling us the background to the puzzle – I never knew that such a thing as a presidential library even existed! We live and learn, as they say, partly thanks to crosswords 🙂