The Observer crossword from Feb 16, 2020.
Once more some enjoyable Sunday morning entertainment.
Last week, Ted said something about an overdose of anagram clues.
I had, once again, the same feeling when solving the top half.
But it didn’t strike me as ‘an overdose’ when writing the blog, despite 6,7,8 down.
All quite enjoyable and clever at places.
Still one or two questions waiting for an answer.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WALTER MITTY | Perusing change, daydream ultimately internalised by comic character (6,5) |
| ALTER (change) + [daydrea]M, together inside [internalised] WITTY (comic) The very first word in the very first clue (‘perusing’) doesn’t contribute to the wordplay does it? It is probably just there to enhance the surface or am I missing something? See some comments below. Here is more about Walter Mitty, indeed a daydreamer. |
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| 7 | ALP | Where a slope is regularly seen? (3) |
| Regular choice of letters (in this case the odd ones) in: A sLoPe Everyman likes to write &lits – here’s another effort, the reason why I didn’t underline anything. |
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| 9 | LIMBO | Bishop in fancy car, finding borderland of Hell (5) |
| B (bishop) inside LIMO (fancy car) | ||
| 10 | IN OUR TIME | Routine I’m rewriting for Radio 4 show (2,3,4) |
| Anagram [rewriting] of ROUTINE I’M I am not a talk radio man but the answer to this clue was easy to get. Here is more about this BBC radio show, one presented by Melvyn Bragg since 1998. |
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| 11 | TOP-SECRET | Violent protest about von der Leyen etc being privileged (3-6) |
| Anagram [violent] of PROTEST, which then goes around EC (von der Leyen etc, i.e. the European Commission (of which Ursula is the president)) | ||
| 12 | OINKS | ‘Noise of geese not hard,’ Everyman accepted, producing noise of pigs (5) |
| HONKS (noise of geese) minus H (hard), with I (Everyman) inserted | ||
| 13 | DESIRED | Yearned for title, ‘knight’ included (7) |
| DEED (title) with SIR (knight) going inside | ||
| 15 | REAL | ‘Sincere’ earl corrupted (4) |
| Anagram [corrupted] of EARL | ||
| 18 | ACRE | Ignore extremes in Holy Land’s measure (4) |
| [S]ACRE[D] minus the first and last letters Nice clue but some purists may question the ‘apostrophe s’ as part of the definition. |
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| 20 | ROE DEER | Cockney’s come to us on a horse, they say (it’s another animal) (3,4) |
| Homophone [they say] of RODE HERE (‘s come to us on a horse), dropping the H as Cockneys would do Another clue in which ‘apostrophe s’ plays a role. Here it should be taken in combination with that what follows: ‘has come to us on horse’. Otherwise ‘rode’ wouldn’t make sense. |
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| 23 | REUSE | Don’t just throw away waste, avoiding fine (5) |
| REFUSE (waste) minus F(fine) | ||
| 24 | RE-ELECTED | Staggered around drunkenly, etc, and returned to office (2-7) |
| REELED (staggered) around an anagram [drunkenly] of ETC | ||
| 26 | PANAMA HAT | Both parents touring North Australia, energy fading in heat, getting protection from sun (6,3) |
| PA, MA (both parents) around N (North) A (Australia), followed by HEAT minus E (energy) | ||
| 27 | GROVE | Run into Brexiteer in wood (5) |
| R (run) inside GOVE (Brexiteer, Michael, that one) | ||
| 28 | SAP | Step back, idiot (3) |
| Reversal [back] of PAS (step) One of those clues that some people do not like because of it being ambiguous. Here, I think, the comma does the trick. |
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| 29 | NITTY-GRITTY | Lousy granular brass tacks (5-6) |
| NITTY (lousy) + GRITTY (granular) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WELL-TO-DO | Rich, healthy stew (4-2-2) |
| WELL (healthy) + TO-DO (stew) | ||
| 2 | LAMP POST | The French politician to put online support for Enlightenment (4,4) |
| LA (the, in French) + MP (politician) + POST (to put online) | ||
| 3 | ERODE | Wear down the Queen with dedicatory verse (5) |
| ER (the Queen) + ODE (dedicatory verse) Dedicatory verse? Ode to Billy Joe, Ode to Joy. |
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| 4 | MAITRE D | Confused mediator ignoring old hotel employee (6,1) |
| Anagram [confused] of: MEDIATOR minus O (old) At first I thought ‘hotel’ is missing (from the solution) but then I looked it up in Chambers (and it’s all right). However, the ‘d’ is followed by an apostrophe which perhaps some solvers think should have been indicated by the enumeration. |
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| 5 | TROTTER | Walk unsteadily with end of skewer stuck in foot (7) |
| TOTTER (walk unsteadily) around [skewe]R | ||
| 6 | YARD OF ALE | ‘Much beer ordered for lad?’ ‘Aye’ (4,2,3) |
| Anagram [ordered] of FOR LAD AYE | ||
| 7 | AMIENS | Inseam tailored in city near Lille (6) |
| Anagram [tailored] of INSEAM | ||
| 8 | PLEASE | A sleep, for a change – I’d like that (6) |
| Anagram [for a change] of A SLEEP | ||
| 14 | ROCKET MAN | Number one coming down to 20? (6,3) |
| Double definition As to the first definition, one should think of a musical number. There are lots of them but this is the one Everyman wants us to listen to: Elton John’s 1972 hit (not a number one, though, just missed out). Also a nod to last year’s movie which the man himself quite liked. For the second definition one has to think of astronauts (or cosmonauts) coming back to Planet Earth. I don’t think this is a clue you can solve without any crossers. But it’s a crossword, isn’t it? |
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| 16 | BEETROOT | Soundly thrashed, English batsman visibly embarrassed (8) |
| Homophone [soundly] of BEAT (thrashed), followed by ROOT (English batsman, Joe Root) | ||
| 17 | DRUDGERY | Dickens’ protagonist entered into dreary monotonous labour (8) |
| RUDGE (Dickens’ protagonist, Barnaby Rudge) inside DRY (dreary) | ||
| 19 | EARSHOT | Hearing indication you’re being talked about! (7) |
| I don’t know what to underline here as the definition and therefore I didn’t underline anything. When your ears are burning (EAR’S HOT or EARS HOT) you can hear them talking about you and so you will be within EARSHOT. Something like that, I’m sure. Double definition, sort of, yes. |
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| 20 | RE-ENTRY | Perhaps rocket wanting gravity to attempt return to atmosphere (2-5) |
| GREEN (rocket, think: salad) minus G (gravity), followed by TRY (attempt) | ||
| 21 | CREPES | With essential ingredient missing, recipes made dodgy French food (6) |
| Anagram [made dodgy] of RECIPES minus the I in the middle [essential ingredient] | ||
| 22 | TURNIP | Puritan zealously rejected a root crop (6) |
| Anagram [zealously] of PURITAN, then minus A Using the past tense in cryptic devices is one of my pet hates. And so, for me, ‘rejected’ should be seen as a past participle – and that’s fine. |
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| 25 | EDGAR | King Ethelred garrotted (to some extent) (5) |
| Hidden answer [to some extent]: EthelrED GARrotted King Edgar the Peaceful. |
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I forgot to keep my notes on this one, but I recall that I enjoyed it.
Thanks, Everyman and Sil
When I start a crossword, I go over the grid marking the breaks in multi-word answers. I’ve noted that in this puzzle, the previous weeks’, and indeed the one today, close to half the answers are multi-part. Some people like that, but it’s not my cup of tea. Having said that, there are always bright spots, and I liked the totality of the puzzle.
Thanks to Everyman and Sil
re EARSHOT, it’s a double def: if you’re within “hearing” (Def1) youre within earshot, and having your ears hot is the “indication you’re being talked about” (def2). We used to say your ears were burning because someone was gossiping about you.
19d took me far too long to parse. It came to me out of the blue only yesterday!
You might want to re-correct the autocorrect in your explanation: you can “here” them talking about you
1a Maybe ‘perusing’ is a misprint of ‘pursuing ‘ ? (daydrea) M pursuing ‘alter’ insude ‘witty’
…and ‘insude’ was not a deliberate typo !
I like nonymouse’s suggestion. I agree with the observation that “perusing” has no role in the cryptic reading, but I’d add that it doesn’t make for a good surface reading either!
Like Sil, I had the feeling there were a lot of anagrams while solving the top half, but overall the number is quite a bit lower than last week and doesn’t seem excessive to me.
I found this puzzle a bit easier than the average Everyman, but quite enjoyable. Thanks to Sil and Everyman!
The rhyming pairs at 1/29 helped me with nitty-gritty. I’d say tin tacks, not brass.
Thanks for all the comments so far.
I completely forgot to mention the link between 1ac an 29ac.
Indeed, their solutions rhyme and Everyman must be happy that it was helpful to at least one solver.
I have now put a colour to the rhyming bits.
Skinny @2 says something about the number of solutions that have multiple parts.
I did notice that too.
I am more a paper solver than a digital one, and as such one marking the breaks in solutions with a red line. And once more there was a lot of red!
Gladys @3, EARSHOT (19d) might be a double definition.
But I think the definitions are really not well-defined enough to be underlined in the clue.
Lin @4, ‘here’ now changed into ‘hear’, nothing to do with autocorrect – just me being in a hurry.
To those who thought ‘perusing’ (in 4ac) should perhaps be ‘pursuing’, I would like to say: yes, that’s much better. But it does not feel like a typo, so who knows what Everyman really meant.
Finally, Ted @7, a while ago Everyman made clear that he deliberately used a lot of anagrams, mainly because many solvers like them and because it’s good for newbies.
I am pretty sure that next week’s blogger, PeterO, will use the word ‘anagram’ even more …….
Sil, I don’t know if you’ll ever see this at this belated stage but here goes.
First time I’ve seen one of your ‘blogs’ and I wish to commend you on the thoroghness of it. Also the use of highlighting and colours makes it so much easier to see what is going on.
Thank you.
I didn’t know sap meant idiot so that is my Tilt. Enjoyed this, no complaints. The two homos 19 and 20d were fun.
I didn’t know sap meant idiot so that is my Tilt. Enjoyed this, no complaints. The two homos 19 and 20d were fun
Make that 19d and 20a
Enjoyed most of this. Not very familiar with Gove or Root, but I don’t expect that Everyman is familiar with Ardern or Southee.
Liked lamp post and earshot and limbo.
Kia kaha everyone in these difficult days.
Another pleasant puzzle in all. Seems I made up a few answers (map instead of alp, some made up French city instead of Amiens and Rye Deer?!). So I was proud of myself until I saw the solution but it was enjoyable all the same. Better luck next time. Particularly enjoyed earshot and the various theories around Walter Mitty.
Thanks to all
Found this one tough; needed to use wildcard dictionaries to get 16 down, 19 down and 18 across. But then did the old slap-forehead thing!
There were as usual several answers that I got, correctly, but could not parse. Thanks to Sil for the explanations.
And thanks to Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle.
Good puzzle. Had a couple of queries which as always became “aah” moments once I read this. Thanks for this blog. Now on to Kropotkin for my fellow Kiwis!!
Well I enjoyed that! Hope everyone is keeping safe and well.
Well this has taken me almost a week which is probably a good thing. Missed 28ac as never hear of either the forwards or backwards definition. Thanks Sil & Everyman. Stay safe everyone.