Seeing Brendan’s name on a puzzle that I’m down to blog arouses rather mixed feelings…
… there’s the pleasant prospect of an enjoyable solve, combined with the dread of missing the theme, especially after Brendan’s recent brilliant lipogram tour de force.
The actual solve was quite straightforward, with a mix of easy clues to keep things going and some gems like14dn to hold the interest. The SELF-absorption of the puzzle was soon apparent and soon became really tantalising, as I couldn’t exactly put my finger on just what was going on. I wondered if Brendan had a new book out but couldn’t find anything about that – and then there was the red herring at 3dn, suggesting something in the grid, which led me up the garden path for a while. Later, I spotted, in the last three columns, ‘Each Spoonerism, from top to bottom, speaks for itself’. Not for me, it didn’t – and there was Brendan astride the left and right halves, with a reference to the left in 7dn but I still couldn’t make anything of it.
I think I’ve stared at this long enough [too long?] so I’m going to hand over to you and prepare to kick myself.
Many thanks to Brendan for the work-out.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 One’s not self-sufficient creating work that’s bound to be finished (2-6)
CO-AUTHOR
Cryptic definition, with reference to the binding of a book – the whole clue can be read as the definition
9 Page in article, very dry and short (6)
ABRUPT
P [page] in A [article] BRUT [very dry]
10 Fish around end of jetty as test (3,3)
TRY OUT
TROUT [fish] round [jett]Y
11 He repeatedly gets involved with main book in old collection (8)
NEHEMIAH
Anagram [gets involved] of HE HE + MAIN – NEHEMIAH is one of the books of the Old Testament
12 Spirit originally from Persia, mostly (4)
PERI
I’m not sure about this: a peri is a Persian spirit and most of the letters of PER[s]I[a] are there but that seems a bit loose – I must be missing something
13 Detention facility not recommended for stoners (10)
GLASSHOUSE
“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” – I learned from Chambers that the name comes from the detention facility at Aldershot, which has a glass roof
15 Staying out — it’s hellishly dark (7)
STYGIAN
An anagram [out] of STAYING – lovely definition
16 Bridge as card game (7)
PONTOON
Double definition
18 Is inspiring brain excited with these (8,2)
BREATHES IN
An anagram [excited] pf BRAIN and THESE
19 Edge attached to side of boater? (4)
BRIM
B[oater] + RIM – with an extended definition
20 Person exploring below porthole, moving right (8)
POTHOLER
PORTHOLE with the first R [right] moving [right!]
22 Setter’s anagram subject to further examination (6)
RETEST
As it says on the tin, an anagram of SETTER
23 Producers of serpentine dreads? (6)
ADDERS
An anagram [producers – or serpentine doing double duty?] of DREADS
24 Robs special facility, splitting diamonds and paintings (8)
DESPOILS
ESP [extra-sensory perception – special facility] between [splitting] D [diamonds] and OILS [paintings]
Down
1 Text like this many deem tabu (4-6,5)
FOUR-LETTER WORDS
As are all the words in the clue – with an extended definition
2 Lives created in self-reliant way (15)
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
Cryptic definition
3 Numbers of solutions including old slang turned up in print (10)
PHOTOGRAPH
This took a while to parse: I was sure it must refer to numbers of solutions in the puzzle but finally realised it’s PH PH [the numbers indicating the acidity / alkalinity of a solution] round [including] O [old] + a reversal [turned up] of ARGOT [slang]
4 Self-reference in book published without purpose (7)
BRENDAN
B [book] + RAN [published] outside [without] END [purpose]
5 A head among teachers (4)
EACH
Contained in tEACHers – as in something costing so much a head / each
6 Completely normal way to enter answer like this (4,3,2,6)
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM
Literal definition: I thought it might be a double / cryptic one but it means ‘thoroughly’, rather than ‘normally’
Edit: thanks, all, for your comments – of course it’s a double definition, the first being ‘completely’: the trees got in the way again!
7 Requires no explanation from small summits, since left is represented (6,3,6)
SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
S [small] PEAKS [summits] + FOR [since] + an anagram [re-presented] of ITSELF – what is it in this puzzle that is speaking for itself that I’m failing to see?
14 Something said by self-described birdwatcher? (10)
SPOONERISM
Dr Spooner might call himself a ‘word-botcher’ – I’ve seen this device a couple of times before but it’s very clever and I like it: it’s so refreshing to find SPOONER[ISM] as the answer rather than an indication of the wordplay
17 A way to travel on horseback (7)
ASTRIDE
A ST[reet] [way] + RIDE [travel on horseback]
21 Stand test of time, like this clue (4)
LAST
Double definition
Didn’t like this puzzle, I’m afraid. Found it rather simplistic. But then, I didn’t read into it the things which our blogger did.
Some of the clues, like CO-AUTHOR, GLASSHOUSE and AUTOBIOGRAPHIES were barely cryptic.
‘Persia mostly’ for PERI is just lazy.
Some of the definitions were a bit odd too. For BRENDAN to work, ‘published’ has to be -RAN-. Well, OK, I suppose I can think of a sentence where you can substitute one for the other. But what about PHOTOGRAPH? Here, we must read ‘numbers of solutions’ as their pH values. Hmm. I don’t understand the red herring??
Sorry if I am just being more thick than usual this morning.
On the positive side, I quite liked 22 ac, where the word anagram really did mean an anagram. Also liked 1 dn, and 14 dn.
Thanks to Brendan and Eileen
Ashamed to be an early contributor with no elucidation of the theme to offer.
A steady solve but no write-in, for me.
Loved the ‘inverse’ spoonerism and, notwithstanding Eileen’s reservations, the &lit-ish PERI.
Not so keen on the def of pH as a number of solution but the answer yielded readily so I suppose it’s fair enough.
Many thanks, Brendan, look forward to having the theme pointed out to me!
Nice week, all.
Anna@1: Apologies for repeating your pH observation – we crossed.
12a Perhaps, if you take the first (‘original’) letter of spirit away from Persia you get Peria, which is ‘mostly’ peri? Not convinced.
I think that the “peri” clue is intended as an &lit – take S (Something initially) from most of PERSIa.
Thanks for the blog and parsing of 14d, which passed me by.
A nice puzzle I thought, fresh and inventive with generally elegant surface readings.
Oh, and as I remember my bible there is no book of Nehemiah in the AV OT (there is Jeremiah) – it is however in the Hebrew bible and probably in the Apochrypha.
CynicCure @4 [and andysmith @5 – I think you meant ‘spirit’ rather than ‘something’] I’m sure you’re right – thanks for that.
I liked “number of solution”, most original. Bit of a literary cast, with authors and books and biographies. Glasshouse new, but it was straightforwardly there in Roget. Still looking for the spooners…
andysmith @6 – well, it’s in my AV – between Ezra and Esther – see here
I’m with chinoz @8 in liking ‘numbers of solutions’ – once I saw it! [Anna, my ‘red herring’ is explained in my comment on the clue in the body of the blog.]
Eileen@9 yes you are quite right, should have googled it before opening my mouth, apologies. Long time passing I had memorised all the books of the bible, this one has fallen down a crack …
Tantalizing is right, but I don’t think there’s anything more than a lot of the clues being self-referential in different ways. &lits (of which I count 5: 12, 19, 23, 14, 17) are self-referential, CDs (8, 13, 2) are self-sufficient, + the thematic solutions.
6d I took the def to be completely, + a cryptic definition
Thanks Brendan, Eileen
I thought the same re peri, with spirit as def while its ‘s’ is subtracted…hmm. Didn’t know glasshouse as prison (must have missed it in all the wartime shows beloved of Mrs ginf, eg [the boxed set of] Foyle’s War which I can almost recite). Wondered, as did Eileen, about adders as producers, and 8a too was a hmm. Loved wordbotcher, not seen before, must have been earlier than my time. All in all quite fun from the self-refering (or is it double r?) Brendan, and thanks as always Eileen.
… oh yes and liked the bookending pH’s as numbers of (pertaining to) solutions.
andysmith @10 – you’ve reminded me that my headmistress’s punishment for not having all our clothes name-taped at the beginning of the year was to memorise all the books of the Bible or the kings and queens of England from 1066.
Thanks Brendan and Eileen.
I quite liked this puzzle and enjoyed solving 11a NEHEMIAH, 15a STYGIAN, 14d SPOONERISM and 21d LAST. I am afraid I can’t see any more to the theme than some bookish references. The “detention facility” reference in 13a GLASSHOUSE was unfamiliar, understandably once I read what Eileen found in Chambers. I felt I had solved 22a RETEST and 17d ASTRIDE in other puzzles not so long ago as they felt strangely familiar.
Many thanks to Brendan and Eileen.
PPS .. and I knew Nehemiah, amazingly.
[William yesterday: great pun, even if the hat is a bit loose phonetically]
(Crossed with posts from gif@12 onwards.)
PS: I’m expecting a friend for coffee any minute and then we go out to lunch [it’s hard work being retired] so I may not get back here until this afternoon – thanks in advance for any further help / support.
Thanks for the parsing of PHOTOGRAPH and EACH Eileen, and for the rest of the blog and head-scratching. PERI could be seen as a bit loose but it worked for me because a PERI is a Persian spirit. Like others I loved SPOONERISM and enjoyed the puzzle overall – for which thanks to Brendan.
grantinfreo @17: Ha-ha! Glad someone liked it.
WhiteKing @20: Agreed re PERI, the Persian aspect was what I was referring to as &-lit-ish @2.
The definition in 6d is “completely”.
Can’t see any hidden spoonerisms yet, but the instruction in 22a to shuffle BRENDAN might suggest more Oulippo: D BANNER. Maybe this needs to be combined with something else. Including ASTRIDE might bring INSTEAD to the mix. Looking for more instructions…
I found this a bit of a mixed bag – some lovely clues and some I just did not appreciate. I started with the tempting long ones and chuckled at “four-letter words” (very nicely signalled with the odd spelling of tabu) and “speaks for itself”, although both were write-ins. “from top to bottom” seemed to lack a definition until I saw the hidden “completely” had to stand alone. Neat. 2dn I wrote in “parthenogenesis” but apparently that’s not a cryptic answer as the crossers soon told me!
Others came too quickly, with some simple anagrams rapidly filling the grid, but also some very nicely built clues like “despoils” and “glasshouse” which would not have been out of place in a Quiptic. I was not sold on “peri” for the ambiguity of the wordplay, or “adders” as only a partial &lit (contrast with “brim” which is fully so, though perhaps too easy because of the similarity of rim and brim?) or “co-author” and “each” for weak definitions. “potholer” was a clever idea and quite well disguised I thought, and “last” made me smile.
“spoonerism” put me in mind of a Bill Oddie story I heard long ago. Interviewed on local radio he was asked “I understand you are something of an orthinologist (sic)?”. He related this and said that only on the drive home did he think of the perfect response…”that’d be a word-botcher then?”
Thanks Brendan and Eileen
I didn’t like PERI or FROM TOP TO BOTTOM (even if it’s “completely”, PeterJohnN @22, what is the “normal” doing?) Favourite was STYGIAN.
I found this to be a mixed bag, as some others have said. I’m in the “not sold on PERI” camp, perhaps because it prevented me from claiming a complete solve, and there were several other “well, I guess that works” answers. On the other hand, I did enjoy several others, in particular 1d and 14d.
Muffin@25, I think “from top to bottom” can be regarded as the “normal” way to enter a down answer.
Thanks to Brendan and Eileen.
Thanks both.
muffin@25: I read 6d as a dd: ‘Completely’ and ‘normal way to enter answer like this’. After all, you could enter the answer starting at the bottom, but that might be considered not to be normal.
I liked this, my only resevation being about pH, as others have said.
William@21 – I saw your comment@2 and guessed that’s what you meant. I’m sorry I should have referenced it – I didn’t think of it when writing mine.
I enjoyed this but am going mad looking for some deeper meaning in “each Spoonerism from top to bottom speaks for itself”.
An autobiography speaks for itself. Brendan is himself. Beyond that I’m bewildered.
Thanks to Brendan and Eileen. Although it was not overly difficult, I am in the camp of liking this a lot. I am sure there must be something going on but I have no idea what. Last ones for me were co-author and Brendan. I liked all the long down clues, particularly 1d, along with spoonerisms and photograph. Thanks again to Brendan and Eileen.
What a curious puzzle. From the sublimely ingenious to the ridiculously simple. 20 and 16 ac barely cryptic,while 1,6 and 7 down all raised a wry smile. Well done Eileen for spotting the sentence at 5,14,6 and 7 down. So wish I could be the stygian potholer to unearth an explanation.
Oh and thanks for the fun Brendan!
Muffin, it’s actually a d/d “normal way to enter answers etc”
Brendan Nehemiah is one of the co-authors of “The Stygian Glasshouse”, an examination of public swearing (four-letter words), that yesterday came out as an audio-book (speaks for itself).
Isn’t “edge” doing double duty in 19a? And I can’t make the bits of ADDERS work right — what is the definition? If DREADS is the anagram fodder
I suppose that ADDERS excite snake phobia?
I found this devilish hard. I got only a few answers without the check button. But good fun — thanks, Brendan and Eileen. I hope you’re enjoying your lunch out. Commiseration on the hard work of being retired — a friend of mine said, “I think I’m going to have to retire from my retirement.”
Dr Whatson. I believe yesterday was April Fool’s Day?
I suppose that ADDERS excite snake phobia?
Isn’t “edge” doing double duty in 19a? And I can’t make the bits of ADDERS work right — what is the definition?
I found this devilish hard. I had only a few in before I had to resort to the check button. But good fun — thanks, Brendan and Eileen.
And I hope you’re enjoying your lunch, Eileen. Commiseration on the hard work of being retired — a friend of mine said, “I think I’m going to have to retire from my retirement.”
Surely 23A is an &lit? So the definition is the whole clue.
23a Can’t producers be the definition? As well as the &lit with serpentine also indicating the anagram?
I enjoyed this puzzle.
My favourites were SPOONERISM + BRENDAN.
Thanks B+S
@38 @39 I read it as “semi &lit” (aka a near-miss). I don’t see how “producers” and “adders” are the same – one starts something, one adds to it. As an &lit it’s not quite right as “producers of” is unnecessary for the fodder as “serpentine dreads” would be sufficient to clue “adders” for wordplay. “brim” is fully &lit as it is “edge” (rim) “attached to side of boater” (added to B) to make something that is, in whole, an “edge attached to side of boater”. These semi &lit clues seem to annoy some posters, and I can see why, but they are usually unambiguous, which is an important starting place for clues to my mind, and fit with a more flexible interpretation of cluing style.
Thank you to Brendan and Eileen. I enjoyed this, with many smiles along the way.
The wonderful 14dn made me think of the late, great Humphrey Lyttleton, referenced in the first bullet here:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Humphrey_Lyttelton
He repeated the story on a later “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue”, which is where I remembered it.
I found this trickier than Brendan often is, but very entertaining.
Thanks to Brendan and Eileen
I thought my post hadn’t taken, so I reconstructed and reperpetrated it. Sorry.
For 5d I had teACHErs, as in ‘I’ve got a bit of a head this morning’ – as indeed I did after struggling with this.
I enjoyed this a lot. I don’t recall ever seeing so many &lits and semi-&lits in one puzzle before.
I’m also feeling quite smug for knowing GLASSHOUSE – a write-in with no crossers on my first pass, no less! – when so many here apparently didn’t. To be fair though I had a distinct advantage because my home town had one of the worst in wartime Britain by all accounts. The town’s cricket pitch now occupies the spot where the barrack’s parade ground was. An old-timer there once told me it used to be a local “entertainment” to watch the inmates being put through gruelling exercises, with the crowd cheering and jeering if anyone collapsed through exhaustion. Nice lot around here.
Thanks to all.
Dr. WhatsOn @34: What larks! Nice try.
Yes, Dr Whatson @34 – thanks for the smile. if I hadn’t been out when your comment appeared, I think I might have fallen for it, hook, line and sinker! If you google ‘Brendan Nehemiah, “The Stygian Glasshouse”, you’ll find yourself at the top of the page. 😉
Like Anna @1, I liked 1d and 14d very much. I enjoyed Dr Whatson’s comment @34 equally.
Thanks to Brendan and Eileen.
I enjoyed this a lot but then I didn’t try to read as much into it as some of you have. As Julie says “bookish references” did me for the theme. GLASS HOUSE was my FOI. PHOTOGRAPH held out for quite a while until I saw the reversed ARGOT. I didnt bother to check whether NEHEMIAH actually was part of the Bible but it seemed plausible that it was,and the answer couldn’t be anything else. BRENDAN was LOI.
Good puzzle.
Thanks Brendan.
I saw stoners, and immediately clued in GRASSHOUSE – which a) isn’t a word and b) doesn’t work with the rest of the clue. But it got me over 50% of the way there…..
ccmack @ 51: from Chambers
glass?house noun
1. A house made of glass or largely of glass, esp a greenhouse
2. Military detention barracks (from one with a glass roof at Aldershot; slang)
3. A glass factory
Nowt wrong with it
Me @ 52: in the original, the ? is a sort of small ‘, presumably to indicate s-h rather sh
Thanks to Eileen and Brendan
I read the blog, saw lots of “selfs” and the like about the place, thought “aha” PHOTOGRAPH/SELFIE, but got no further.
I enjoyed some of the smooth surfaces, but nothing too fiendish here.
Dr Whatson @34, Have a care man! I was halfway to Waterstones before I twigged.
Thanks to Brendan and Eileen. Nothing to add, other than, like Eileen, I was too busy in my “retirement” to get to this site until now.
An enjoyable solve in spite of a few loose clues as mentioned above. Haven’t we had 17d in the same or very similar words quite recently?
Thanks to Brendan and Eileen.
In late so only just finished. Needed the blog to parse PHOTOGRAPH which I now think’s pretty good. Thanks to Brendan and Eileen (and DrWhatson@34 for the laughs).
A highly original and enjoyable puzzle. Kicking myself that I didn’t get ABRUPT or SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. A pity B couldn’t somehow crowbar Douglas R. Hofstadter into a puzzle about self-reference.
Can’t see what all the fuss is about with 12 and 23. A PERI is originally from Persia and the wordplay has been clearly explained by other commenters. Perhaps “mostly” is a bit loose in the clue-as-definition. ‘ADDERS’, when written, produces an anagram of ‘dreads’. Perhaps there is a singular/plural clash, as the literal is ‘a producer’ of serpentine dread, while the referents are producerS of same. Still both admirable clues, imo.
@Marienkaefer,
It’s unlikely you heard the word-botching anecdote on a “later” episode of ISIHAC as your link was was to a BBC report about Lyttleton’s death in 2008, I believe, but I did hear the man himself (and not Oddie, @thezed, although it’s possible he appropriated the story) tell that anecdote. As I recalled it, though, it was not in a formal interview but a conversation with someone at a function.
I used the same pun in a different way in an as yet unleashed puzzle I made last year and was tipped off about the coincidence by someone who test-solved it. I will have to keep it under wraps till everyone’s forgotten about this one now, which may be quite some time!
Thanks Tony – I think it was on a tribute programme after his death.
That’d be it. Great fellow, the Humph. I was a big fan of ISIHAC when he chaired it. Happily. Jack Dee is one of my favourites too, so I still am.
[Hear hear, Tony! It’s almost as though the Jack Dee mien (and wit) was designed with ISIHAC in mind! Humph a hard act to follow, yet I remain as much a fan as when it started. I shall miss Jeremy Harding’s bel canto!]
William, have you visited http://isihac.net/jeremy-hardy/
As the man himself might have said, bless!
[Thanks Tony. Prompted to return here as I’ve just heard him mentioned (by Ben Elton) on the radio. Wanted to check my spelling. I should have written Hardy of course. He deserves the respect of having his name written correctly. Not least because, apart from his talent, I understand he was a very decent person (and taken far too early, of course). Thanks again for link.]
It took me a long time to see how PERI worked, but once I got it I thought it was a lovely clue, which I would describe as fully &lit, not merely &lit-ish. “Spirit originally” is S. “Persia mostly” is PERSI. S from PERSI is PERI. The construction seems perfect to me.
I agree with thezed that BRIM is fully &lit, but the construction of ADDERS is flawed.
I also appreciated the PDMs at 1d and 4d.