My apologies for slight lateness today: computer problems and I’ve had to use an old version of the software I normally use for my blogs. Let’s hope it’s working all right (at this stage, before I click the ‘Publish’ button, everything looks fine) and the various things I’ve tried to do (like underlining the definition, which should be in maroon) appear as they should. Anagram indicators in italics.
An excellent crossword from Radian. All the clues run smoothly, with nice surfaces, and there are no wasted words so far as I can see.
There is some connection with Christmas here: Dickens is alluded to in the two long down answers, and there is also Nicholas. But evidently stronger is the Dickensian connection, with Mr Bumble the beadle, the Artful Dodger, Adventures, Tale, Bleak [House], Nicholas [Nickleby], and no doubt others that people will point out. But that’s all I can see; there may be more going on.
| Across | ||
| 9 | UNWELCOME | New column we put in close to mine’s not liked (9) |
| *(column) round (we), then {min}e | ||
| 10 | STOIC | Patient, small one in bed, having a turn (5) |
| s, then 1 in (cot)rev. | ||
| 11 | MANSARD | Nip back across a new style attic (7) |
| (dram)rev. round (a NS) | ||
| 12 | DREDGER | Drive trimmer that clears beds (7) |
| dr. edger — it clears beds of rivers etc. | ||
| 13 | TALE | Almost incredible English fiction (4) |
| tal{l} E | ||
| 14 | ADVENTURES | Exploits appearance on American screens (10) |
| advent U(re)S | ||
| 16 | ALREADY | A woman has received note by now (7) |
| a l(re)ady | ||
| 17 | SYNONYM | Sonny hurt writer’s back – or rear, say? (7) |
| (Sonny)* (my)rev. — back and rear are examples of synonyms | ||
| 19 | FLACCIDITY | Cops in Florida town showing lack of vigour (10) |
| Fla c(CID)ity | ||
| 22 | ACTS | Book when holding court (4) |
| a(ct)s — the Acts of the Apostles | ||
| 24 | INTENSE | Great stylish present for one (7) |
| in [stylish] tense [present, for example, as is past, future, imperfect etc] | ||
| 25 | ROSEOLA | Lose oar at sea? That’s rash (7) |
| (Lose oar)* | ||
| 26 | NOUNS | Sisters gather round for parts of speech (5) |
| n(O)uns — the round (noun, not adverb or whatever, nothing to do with the answer) is a circle and it’s gathered | ||
| 27 | DESPERADO | Outlaw some French for each disturbance (9) |
| des [some in French] per [for each] ado [disturbance] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | OUR MUTUAL FRIEND | Book distressing a dutiful mourner (3,6,6) |
| *(a dutiful mourner) | ||
| 2 | SWINDLER | Con man left in second part of watch (8) |
| (s wind(L)er) | ||
| 3 | BLEAK | Grim black hole (5) |
| b leak [hole] — early on I had confidently entered BLACK here since it fits perfectly well: a hole is a lack. But it led to problems with 11ac. Some would say that for any answer you just have to wait for the checkers to be sure, but others (me included) would say that the answer should be unequivocal. | ||
| 4 | SORDIDLY | Special troops fooled fall guy finally using foul means (8) |
| s OR did [fooled] {fal}l {gu}y | ||
| 5 | BEADLE | Notice large worker’s collared parish officer (6) |
| be(ad L)e — the bee has done the collaring | ||
| 6 | ASSENTING | Idiot coming in without monarch’s blessing (9) |
| ass ent{ER}ing | ||
| 7 | DODGER | He evades magistrate jailing Democrat and Republican (6) |
| do(D)ge R | ||
| 8 | A CHRISTMAS CAROL | Book translates it as ‘Lorca’s Charm’ (1,9,5) |
| *(it as Lorca’s charm) — MER (mild eyebrow raise, an acronym from another site) at ‘translates’ when it’s surely the imperative of ‘translate’ | ||
| 15 | LARCENIST | Thief initially lambasts another criminal on radio (9) |
| l{ambasts} “arsonist” | ||
| 17 | SATIRIST | One who ridicules It Girl in Times (8) |
| SA [sex appeal; ‘it’; a crossword staple but that I think is all] t(Iris)t | ||
| 18 | NICHOLAS | Short pleasant vacation entertaining a saint (8) |
| nic{e} hol(a)s | ||
| 20 | ARTFUL | Crafty revolutionary paper cuts a limited order (6) |
| (FT)rev. in (a rul{e}) | ||
| 21 | DREADS | Fears having to deal with old man’s trousers (6) |
| re [having to deal with] in dad’s — ie ‘dads’ is doing the trousering | ||
| 23 | ASKEW | Not straight, like some gardens (5) |
| as Kew [Gardens] | ||
*anagram
Thanks John and Radian, a gentle, obviously themed puzzle for Christmas Eve. I can’t add to John’s list of themed answers, but it would be nice if all the down answers could be included. Maybe someone can draw our attention to where Swindler, Sordidly, Assenting, Larcenist, Dreads, Satirist and Askew occur in Dickens.
Thanks, John, for the blog and Radian for another enjoyable puzzle.
I can’t add to John’s list, either but I like Tatrasman’s idea. My favourites were LARCENIST, SATIRIST and SYNONYM [I had STERNUM to begin with – but couldn’t quite parse it! – then 6dn set me right.
A very Happy Christmas to all.
Excellent.
When it’s Tuesday and Radian is the setter look for a literary theme. Today it’s Dickens and we spotted ARTFUL DODGER first which helped us to the two long answers, got from the enumeration. All very enjoyable.
Thanks, Radian and John.
And a Merry Christmas to all – setters, bloggers, commenters and lurkers.