One for those of us who like a bit of general knowledge in our puzzles.
Pasquale has offered up a mixed bag of easy and hard clues today.
Although younger solvers may have to refer to Wikipedia to find out who Zola Budd was, most of the general knowledge required was gettable, although I did not know Mount Tabor (my excuse is that I am an atheist, however I have read the Bible and the name did not stick in my memory)
I enjoyed the puzzle and the mental battle with the Don, but I think the Aussie accent required for 16ac to work would have to be a strong one.
I have also been unable to satisfactorily parse 18dn beyond the very obvious HEAR KEN (Clarke), but maybe that is all there is to it.
Thanks, Pasquale.
Across | ||
1 | FATIMA | Daughter revered by Shiites, one cuddled by big mummy (6) |
I (“one”) cuddled by FAT (“big”) + MA (“mummy”)
Fatima (normally spelt Fatimah) was the youngest daughter of the prophet Mohammed, although Shiites believe she was his only child. |
||
4 | GEISHA | On returning, a husband, say, is caught entertaining woman (6) |
[on returning] <=A H, E.G. (“a husband, say”) with IS caught | ||
9 | GRUB | What it may be for a hungry bird? (4) |
Cryptic definition | ||
10 | HOUSE GUEST | Welcomer has installed superior musical device for visitor (5,5) |
HOST (“welcomer”) has installed U (“superior”) + SEGUE (“musical device”), so HO(U-SEGUE)ST
In music, a segue is a smooth transition from one song to another. |
||
11 | BARROW | Northern town‘s boozer by a street of houses (6) |
BAR (“boozer”) by ROW (“a street of houses”) | ||
12 | DOUBTING | Acting, but troubled inside and lacking confidence (8) |
DOING (“acting”) with *(but) inside | ||
13 | DO ONE’S BIT | Lorna’s piece of information to make a personal contribution (2,4,3) |
(Lorna) DOONE’S + BIT (in IT, a “piece of information”) | ||
15, 25 | ERIC IDLE | Norse explorer doing nothing, funny fellow (4,4) |
ERIC (“Norse explorer”) + IDLE (“doing nothing”)
Eric Idle was one of the Monty Python team. |
||
16 | TYKE | Aussie to get hold of Yorkshireman? (4) |
TAKE (“to get hold of”), but said in an Australian accent. | ||
17 | PACHYDERM | Elephant maybe taking short step before my herd goes berserk (9) |
PAC(e) (short “step”) before *(my herd) | ||
21 | BUDDHIST | Believer gives Zola greeting on street (8) |
(Zola) BUDD + HI (“greeting”) on St. (street)
Zola Budd was a South African middle distance runner, who represented Great Britain and South Africa at the Olympics, famous for running in her bare feet. |
||
22 | APTEST | Foremost of pupils in an exam must be this? (6) |
[foremost of] P(upils) in A TEST (“an exam”) and &lit. | ||
24 | BELA BARTOK | One composer surprisingly able, another satisfactory (4,6) |
*(able) + (Lionel) BART (“another” composer) + O.K. (“satisfactory”)
Bela Bartok (1881 – 1945) was a Hungarian composer, while Lionel Bart (1930-1999) wrote “Oliver!”, the 1960 musical. |
||
25 | See 15 | |
26 | STYLET | Probe filthy place occupied by tenant? (6) |
STY (“filthy place”) + LET (“occupied by tenant”) | ||
27 | ENURED | Made tough resolution to cross river (6) |
END (“resolution”) to cross (river) URE
The River Ure runs through North Yorkshire, most notably through Wensleydale. |
||
Down | ||
1 | FARRAGO | American associated with Wells, artist getting in a mess (7) |
(William) FARGO (“American associated with (Henry) Wells”), with R.A. (“artist”) getting in | ||
2 | TABOR | Call off time going up biblical mount (5) |
ABORT (“call off) with T (time) going up becomes T-ABOR
According to Christian tradition, Mount Tabor in Israel is the site of the Transfiguration of Christ. |
||
3 | MOHAWKS | Displaced natives, aggressive people after next to no time (7) |
HAWKS (“aggressive people”) after MO (“next to no time”) | ||
5 | EREBUS | Place of darkness? You wait ages ____ turns up! (6) |
ERE (“before”) + BUS completes the sentence.
In Greek myhtology, Erebus was the personification of darkness and also a region of the Greek underworld where the dead pass immediately after death. |
||
6 | SHUTTERED | Having the means to exclude light, say, in hut (9) |
UTTER (“say”) in SHED (“hut”) | ||
7 | ARSENIC | As rude word, not entirely pleasant (7) |
ARSE (“rude word”) + NIC(e) (not entirely “pleasant”)
As is the chemical symbol for arsenic |
||
8 | QUADRIPARTITE | Pretty environment for a namby-pamby set of paintings, maybe in four sections (13) |
QUITE (“pretty”) environment for A DRIP (a namby-pamby”) + ART (“set of paintings, say”), so QU(A DRIP-ART)TIT | ||
14 | NAKED LADY | Plant lad yanked out (5,4) |
*(lad yanked)
According to Wikipedia, there are several plants with the name “naked lady” |
||
16 | TOURERS | Cars disturbing our rest (7) |
*(our rest) | ||
18 | HEAR KEN | Advice from Clarke-supporting Remainers? Listen! (7) |
HEAR KEN (Clarke)
There must be more to this, surely? |
||
19 | RUSTLED | Good person coming in took control and made a bit of a noise (7) |
St. (saint, so “good person”) coming in RULED (“took control”) | ||
20 | PILATE | Trial being heard — man presiding at it? (6) |
Homophone of PILOT (“trial” being heard)
The solution refers to Pontius Pilate. |
||
23 | TRIER | Top lady abandoning dog in German city (5) |
T(er)RIER (“dog”) abandoned by E.R. (the Queen, so “top lady”) |
*anagram
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick
I found most of this much easier than Pasquale usually is, though I didn’t parse HEARKEN fully, or TRIER at all (though I should have). TABOR was last in, from a wordsearch – I hadn’t heard of it as a mountain, and could’t parse it either – I was looking for T, then a 4-letter word going upwards.
Favourites were GEISHA, APTEST and ARSENIC.
Thanks loonapick and Pasquale. I too parsed 18d as Hear Ken but would be interested to know if there’s more to it. Tyke @ 16a was a bit of a stretch, and I couldn’t parse 23a – I was looking for a dog breed that included an “L” (leading lady). Favourites were Arsenic and Geisha.
Thanks both.
My favourite was EREBUS, for the awful joke in the clue.
I don’t share the doubts about HEARKEN, which seems to me a conventional (if easy) clue, with a cryptic definition followed by a straightforward one.
TYKE was stretching the homophone clue too far I thought. I also had trouble with PILATE which to me isn’t a homophone of pilot, though close enough not to be unfair.
bealieu @3
What is the “supporting Remainers” bit doing in 18d?
I liked Fatima-as much controversy over her as the translation of the word HALMA.
But there’s only one ZOLA for me and living in Australia 16 sounded more suited to Droitwich or even Dingle.
Not my favourite Don-he usually saves his best for the Graun
ta for blog.
I thought he meant Ken Livingston
What beaulieu @3 said re 18d. Those of us steeped in Brexit politics get it. Thanks to setter and blogger for the morning’s entertainment.
I don’t understand the issue with 18. The Remainers who support Ken Clarke (a pro-Remain MP) advise “Hear Ken”.
Thanks for blog.
Thanks Aoxomoxoa – that makes sense now.
I thought 18d was fine. The Brexit remainers would support Ken Clarke (a remainer) by saying “hear what he says”. If you left out “supporting remainers”, Ken would be talking to himself, or on Today or Any Questions.
I have never heard the TYKE as a Yorkshire dialect or Yorkshireman despite having lived the first 18 years of my life less than 15 miles from the Yorkshire border.
I thought I couldn’t explain several of the clues, but coming here, I found it was only a couple I needed help with, 8d being one of them.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick
You must have had fun googling “Naked Lady”, loonapick!
The “Naked Lady” flowers I know are Autumn Crocuses, so-called because the flowers appear at quite a different time from the leaves.
Thanks, loonapick – I enjoyed this, too: the GK required was within my comfort zone, apart from STYLET, where the cluing was meticulous.
[Niltac @2 – I don’t think you would find Pasquale using the ‘leading lady = L’ device: see the precise wording of 22ac.]
I don’t often find much to laugh at in Pasquale’s puzzles but I did smile at BELA BARTOK and EREBUS and QUADRIPARTITE was fun to work out from the wordplay. I also liked PACHYDERM and PILATE – and HEARKEN, where I agree with beaulieu and others.
Thank you, Pasquale, for an entertaining puzzle.
Damn, my post just disappeared! What did I say? Enjoyably chewier than yesterday, not too hard to finish but with several unparseds. Enjoyed the Strine-ism at 16ac but dnk tyke as Yorkshireman; took a while to remember the barefoot Budd (not Emile); forgot Bart the musical maestro; dnk stylet but gettable; always spelt harken as such; didn’t subtract ER from terrier, and still have no idea how Erebus works. Neverending education, this hobby. Hope it’s preventing the amyloids!
Thanks to the Don and Loonapick.
Why “displaced” in 3d? Some groups of Mohawks certainly were forced to leave their homes, but they typically relocated within their historical territory, and (especially compared to other indigenous groups) displacement is hardly a salient characteristic of the group as a whole.
Grantinfreo@14. Have you never stood at the stop waiting ages before (ere) the bus turns up? Usually followed by two more!
Yes Iroquois, wondered about that. Displacement, to a greater or lesser degree, is commom to all indigenes in ‘the new world’; an ongoing issue here in Oz.
Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick. Doh a DNF for me. I could not see 5d for the life of me, though I do not really know why now. Most of this went in quite readily but the last few (NW last) seemed to take for ever. I liked do ones bit, and Bela Bartok, and thanks again to Pasquale and loonapick.
“TYKE” for “take” – that’s not how I talk! (16a)
Left hand side easier than the right. I failed on 23d TRIER, an unfamiliar German city, and I also got 27a ENURED wrong as I put INURED without parsing it fully. So a bit of a bad ending for me today, as I somehow missed 22a APTEST too, putting in an unparsed ATTEST. On the LHS I also couldn’t compete the unfamiliar STYLET at 26a. I also didn’t get the joke in 5d EREBUS at all. Now that I see the wordplays, I can’t believe I was so thick.
I did like 9a GRUB, 10a HOUSE GUEST, 15/25a ERIC IDLE, 21a BUDDHIST and 7d ARSENIC.
Thanks to Pasquale, loonapick and other contributors.
Don’t see why those natives in particular are displaced. I think the Remain supporters are there to tell us which Clarke we’re looking for.
Enjoyed this more than I usually do with Pasquale, though I didnt know STYLET or ENURED. An appreciative OUCH for EREBUS, and an unappreciative one for TYKE – has Pasquale been listening to Dick Van Dyke?
I think the “maybe” is superfluous in 8d QUADRIPARTITE (which btw is missing a final E in the explanation).
I get amused by discussions of GK. The fact is that just about EVERY clue requires it, but in most cases it’s too automatic to be very conscious of.
This takes the prize for the most GK-heavy cryptic that I have ever done. I could not have fully parsed many clues without the aid of google, for example:
Erebus
Fargo/Wells
Barrow (Alaska?) or is there a town in UK with this name too?
Fatima
Lorna Doone
Zola Budd
Ken Clarke
Lionel Bart
Eric (Norse explorer)
some of whom I had not heard of, and some I had.
Even so, I failed to solve 2d and 9a. I also could not parse 16a (even though I am Australian) and 5d (still don’t get it).
I parsed 18d as HEAR KEN / a Brexit clue.
Thank you blogger and setter.
I found Ericson on Google, but not Eric. Any ideas?
Michelle
Yes, Barrow in Cumbria
NNI
Eric the Red? (Leif’s father,as I remember)
I’d have spelt him as Erik.
Thank you, gladys. That’s why I couldn’t find an Eric.
Surely “hearken” is a funny crossword-setters unusual spelling of “harken” = listen?
Thanks both,
I was another with ‘attest’ which I broke up as ‘a t-test’ (a test for difference of means) but not fully parsed. I also had ‘Jarrow’ for the northern town, which almost works.
I had Inured in for 27 across, as in inured to pain or hardship, but couldn’t parse the IND around the river of course. For whatever reason have not come across enured before, so sadly and truly a DNF today
As so often with Pasquale, this was a mixture of the easy and the educational.
Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick
Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick. As to GK issues, I knew Lola Budd and Mount TABOR but not Lionel Bart and BARROW (though the latter was gettable from the clues) and finally got TYKE.
Geoff Cleasby @ 27
On the contrary: Collins online gives harken and hearken, with the former as a variant (esp US) and far less commonly used.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick.
I particularly enjoyed ARSENIC, BELA BARTOK and BUDDHIST, but eyebrows wiggled at the chances of younger clientele remembering the estimable Zola; I (somewhat antique these days) just about remember her joust with Mary Decker
All very enjoyable with a delicious pdm for GRUB.
Alan Swale@16, sorry, much later but yes, thanks, clunk, teatray hitting very dense head. Fun clue.
Alphalpha,
There was a joke at the time of Zola Budd which ended in “it’s a long way to trip a Mary”.
Had to come back to this after an early start. A good mix of clues from the Don.
I particularly enjoyed tussling with QUADRIPARTITE and liked the idea of a dripart movement – a bit like shoegazing indie rock memorably dismissed by dear old Lemmy as ‘bedwetters’.
Spent too long going through all of Emile’s possible greetings for 21a until I remembered la Budd
I anticipated the TYKE discussion from our Aussie chums – I can just about hear Shane Warne saying ‘toik’ which is close enough for my ears.
Many thanks to both.
I’m another dnf today as I cheated to get GEISHA and came here without PILATE. It’s a while since we’ve had an element to misleadingly start a clue and I’d completely forgotten the device so ARSENIC only went in after the cheat. I’m with Dr Whatson@21 on the GK front – I didn’t know STYLET ENURED or BELA B today – the latter could just have easily been LEBA B to me. I got TABOR because we used to live near Mount Tabor Road just outside Halifax – although I don’t know why it was so named. I also didn’t parse TRIER so thanks to loonapick for this and the rest of the blog and to Pasquale for the puzzle.
Thank you to the Don and to Loonapick, who, I think, should forgive himself
for not remembering Tabor from his reading of the bible. As far as I remember
the mountain was not specified further than it being a very high one.
Hmm. Time to abandon Budd as a definition for Zola maybe? Just a bit too obscure after all this time. And “tyke”? To describe a person from Yorkshire? Surprised the Graun let that one through. Never get away with that in the playground.
From MY FAIR LADY:
You sir, did you go to school?
Man Wadaya tike me for, a fool?
Henry No one taught him ‘take’ instead of ‘tike!
Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?
Perhaps the Australian should have been a Cockney.
Alphalpha. Not sure I would describe Zola Budd as estimable. In my recollection, she was encouraged to run for Britain by the Daily Express and Margaret Thatcher as a way of circumventing the anti-apartheid boycott of South African athletes. Otherwise a fairly typical Pasquale, slightly too much obscure GK for me, but thanks to setter and blogger both
Beaten by TABOR( Wrote TUBER) and TYKE(Wrote TAKE) but consoled myself that l got the rest in this toughie. FOI 14a.
Thanks to both. I had trouble with this and do wonder about the displaced bit in 3D, but the answer was very gettable.
Old fakir @39 – TYKE. is defined as a Yorkshireman in my electronic Chambers (definition 5) but how people would react to that is another question.
Dafydd@41
I didn’t at the time feel that much blame could be apportioned to Ms Budd who, a superb natural athlete, found herself in a political maelstrom not of her own making. She leapt on board a life-raft – who wouldn’t? The subsequent scenario was tragic in the extreme for all concerned. Who was it said that if you want to make the gods laugh tell them your plans? From a crossword perspective I suppose there are those who would say that she tried to put one across and ended up putting one down. A dnf at any rate.
A very mixed bag and I was defeated by TABOR. Never heard of the mountain and couldn’t parse it. I managed the rest though. I knew TYKE as a Yorkshire man even though the Aussie part is a bit of a stretch,TRIER, I knew as it was Karl Marx’s birthplace,and I’m not sure how I knew EREBUS but I did. I wouldn’t have immediately thought of ZOLA BUDD but the answer to 21ac was so easy that it blocked out the J’Accuse chap. I liked BELA BARTOK.
Thanks Pasquale.
Pasquale showing us his erudition (again!). Or perhaps his lack of judgement? 😉
Normally an editor’s decision.
WhiteKing@37 – I lived in Winston-Salem, NC not too far from Mount Tabor (public) High School (and road, like you) and I remember looking it up at the time because it seemed unrelated to anything geographic within the city – so accidental GK. Could not have imagined that pronunciation of Tyke, but in NC my friends would have said “young’un”.
The village on the north slope of Alaska has long been called “Utqiagvik” by the native Inupiaq people, but was named “Barrow” by outsiders of European descent. “Barrow” was the official name until December 1, 2016, when changed back to “Utqiagvik.” Good luck with that one in a crossword. The nearby northern coastal point is still Point Barrow.
Can’t help with the Barrow in Cumbria.
And I am another who tried for far too long to fit Emile into the ZOLA clue at 18.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick.
Barrow in Furness
I’m a TYKE, more specifically a loiner, and wouldn’t object to being called one, though no one ever has to my face.
TOURERS was probably last in current use to decribe a car about the time that Zola Budd was running.
I solved TABOR and PILATE without parsing them.
I too put in an unparsed INURED.
Muffin, if you’re still around. You asked if anyone had followed your link on yesterday’s Quiptic. I have and have commented there.
Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick.
What a corker of a puzzle. PILATE was my last one in – after I trusted the wordplay for the unknown STYLET – and perhaps the pick of a fine crop. HEARKEN was also very good, though, as an expat who doesn’t follow the Brexit mess (no-deal for me), I didn’t realise Ken Clarke was still extant!
To the tune of Lola by the Kinks…I’m not that smart but I can’t understand how she claims to be British but speaks Afrikaans Zola
Thanks to the Don and Loonapick
Jaw
Am new to this but semblance and I a beginning to enjoy the posts and learning a lot.
Hope you see this, Geoff@52, just so you know someone really appreciated your revamped “Lola” lyrics! Thanks for the laugh!
JinA@54, Geoff@52,
Me too. My own poor attempt at wit fades by comparison.
We came to look at this today as we could see no way to tell whether it was ‘tyke’ or ‘tike’ as both are given in our Chambers and pronounced the same. We still don’t get it. Nobody seems to have explained why.
@56 – Chris and Fiona, loonapick’s explanation is about as good as it gets. A tyke is an informal name for someone from Yorkshire. I have only heard it used in a derogatory fashion. So, you get ‘take’ from the clue ‘To get hold of’, and then say it like Kylie Minogue.
@57 I agree except that it also applies to ‘tike. Same meaning, same pronunciation.