Today’s lockdown entertainment is provided by Slormgorm.
I found this puzzle a bit too easy for my taste, but it would be an OK puzzle for beginners.
For me, it was almost a write-in, with only two passes required to complete the puzzle. Although the clues were all fair, and in the main, the surfaces clean, I found the whole a little uninspiring, especially the almost straight definitions at 10ac and 22ac. (Thanks to Grant Baynham in the comments, I now see that 22ac is actually a bit cleverer than I originally though, having put in DRAB at first).
Thanks, Slormgorm.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BEHEMOTH | Giant live insect chases after man! (8) |
| BE (“live”) + MOTH (“insect”) chases after HE (“man”) | ||
| 6 | BRANCH | British and American farm department (6) |
| B (British) and RANCH (“American farm”) | ||
| 9 | ERASED | Bit of smut editor on Times deleted (6) |
| [bit of] S(mut) + ED (editor) on ERA (“times”) | ||
| 10 | LANDLORD | Host who might give others some digs? (8) |
| (Not very) cryptic defintion | ||
| 11 | TRAP | Republican tucking into milk and gin (4) |
| R (republican) tucking into TAP (“milk”) | ||
| 12 | ADOLESCENT | Spotty youth once slated wrongly (10) |
| *(once slated) [anag:wrongly] | ||
| 14 | FLOUNDER | Go to the bottom to catch large fish (8) |
| FOUNDER (“go to the bottom”) to collect L (large) | ||
| 16 | MACE | Club Med primarily has great service (4) |
| M(ed) [initially] has ACE (“great service”) | ||
| 18 | IBIS | Bird one’s seen on incoming boat at front (4) |
| I’S (“one’s”) seen on I(ncoming) B(oat) [at front] | ||
| 19 | SCOURGES | Firm admitted to sudden rises in misfortunes (8) |
| Co. (company, so “firm”) admitted to SURGES (“sudden rises”) | ||
| 21 | ARMAGEDDON | Old fellow pursuing Member for Battle (10) |
| AGED (“old”) + DON (“fellow”) pursuing ARM (“member”) | ||
| 22 | DEAD | So uninspiring! (4) |
| If one is not inspiring (as in inhaling), one is likely to be dead. | ||
| 24 | STURGEON | Sort of bones on the outside of head of tropical fish (8) |
| SURGEON (“sort of Bones”) on the outside of [head of] T(ropical) | ||
| 26 | CAREER | Health worker without energy for the job? (6) |
| CARER (“health worker”) without E (energy) | ||
| 27 | ADVERT | Plug a duke found by green in Paris (6) |
| A D (duke) found by VERT (“green” in French, thus “in Paris”) | ||
| 28 | ELEMENTS | He and I, say, could be factors (8) |
| He and I (Helium and Iodine) are chemical elements. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ERROR | Don’t start great panic, it’s a mistake (5) |
| [don’t start] (t)ERROR (“great panic”) | ||
| 3 | EAST PRUSSIA | Former region US parasites ruined (4,7) |
| *(us parasites) [anag:ruined] | ||
| 4 | OLD MAIDS | Veteran helps to collect bit of milk for spinsters (3,5) |
| OLD (“veteran”) + AIDS (“helps”) to collect [bit of] M(ilk) | ||
| 5 | HALL OF RESIDENCE | Student dwelling on if she recalled revising (4,2,9) |
| *(on if she recalled) [anag:revising] | ||
| 6 | BONNET | Posh bloke turned over by rake in hood (6) |
| <=NOB (“posh bloke”, turned over) by NET (“rake in”) | ||
| 7 | AIL | Detective losing head could create trouble (3) |
| (t)AIL (“detective”) [losing head] | ||
| 8 | CHRONICLE | Account of severe gale missing first two parts (9) |
| CHRONIC (“severe”) + (ga)LE [missing first two parts] | ||
| 13 | CAMARADERIE | A dream I care about is the brotherhood of man (11) |
| *(a dream i care) [anag:about] | ||
| 15 | LIBERATED | Floor of hovel I carpeted for free (9) |
| [floor of] (hove)L + I + BERATED (“carpeted”) | ||
| 17 | CORNICHE | My husband blocks pleasant cliff-top road (8) |
| COR (“my!”) + H (husband) blocks NICE (“pleasant”) | ||
| 20 | DECENT | Wearing clothes is polite (6) |
| Double definition (for the first, think of the question: “Are you decent?”) | ||
| 23 | AGENT | A man or a mole? (5) |
| A + GENT (“man”) | ||
| 25 | ROE | Animal eggs (3) |
| Double definition, the first referring to the roe deer. | ||
*anagram
Glad you wrote that introduction loonapick. I rarely comment on Slormgorm puzzles these days as I find them somewhat 22a. Completely different from his independent puzzles which are full of humour and tend to contain several tricky clues. Not really a criticism since they are well-written clues and are ideal for the beginner.
I parsed LANDLORD as a double definition with “host” referring to a (pub) landlord. I feel that something must be going on with 22a. I stared and stared at it but cannot see what it is (so perhaps this is a tricky clue?). Why “so” and why the exclamation mark?
I think 22 is DEAD, ie. ‘very’ & ‘dull’.
…. with a possible further 3rd def of ‘therefore not breathing’, hence exclamation point.
Actually it could be DEAD, as in not inspiring, not breathing in.
Grant Baynham @ 3 – our comments crossed. I have amended the blog in light of the “inspiration” you provided.
Yes that makes a lot more sense.
To loonapick:
As I said, I think ‘therefore not breathing’ is only the 3rd def: it’s ‘so’ as in ‘very’ (which is dead clever) and ‘uninspiring’ as in a a rather ‘dead’ performance. A much better clue than either of us thought (I had ‘drab’ at first as well).
As others have said a relatively straightforward puzzle but, clearly, with the odd gem hidden away. I too had drab for 22D and had to come here for the parsing of 7D – I had not thought of detective as tail.
One other minor amendment to the explanations required. The first E in the solution to 13D needs to be replaced with an A to make use of the anagram fodder provided.
Thanks to Slormgorm and Loonapick.
Sorry to go on about 22 but it now strikes me that it is both a double def (‘so’ = ‘very’ = DEAD, ‘uninspiring = DEAD) and a double &lit (‘so uninspiring’ = both ‘therefore not breathing’ &lit). So well worth the shriek.
I know, I should get out more, Ah…
I’m impressed with the many layers of ‘So uninspiring!’ uncovered by Grant. Just hoping that I was DEAD right was about as far as my parsing went.
Not too difficult, but I couldn’t work out exactly what ‘head’ the ‘Detective’ had lost in 7d. I liked the ‘Sort of bones’ in 24a, the ‘He and I’ in 28a and my highlight 14a, which would go close to qualifying as an &lit, FLOUNDER being a bottom dwelling fish.
Thanks to loonapick, (Grant) and Slormgorm
Thanks L and S. Pretty easy but a welcome relief after the previous two this week. I too was in the “drab” camp and the one that couldn’t parse “ail”.
Thanks to Slormgorm and loonapick. I’m another who opted for drab, but I did get TAIL though I had to go through the alphabet to get the first letter.
Minor confusion starting off, with eras satisfying times and bill for police giving ill for trouble, but soon fixed. Surprised I managed to see dead before drab. Liked ELEMENTS and SCOURGES.
Thanks Slormgorm and loonapick
Thanks Slormgorm. There was a lot I liked here — MACE, ARMAGEDDON, AGENT, and esp. ELEMENTS. Thanks Loonapick for parsing — I had “drab” which I first thought described 22a but DEAD is much more inspired.
We went for ‘drab’ at first before re-considering to get DEAD. And we thought 16ac was more convoluted than it was and initially had ‘moss’ (as in ‘club moss’) parsed as M + OS (outsize = great) + S(ervice) so that held us up till our LOI, 8dn, had to be CHRONICLE. Not that ‘chronic’ really means ‘severe’ but it’s one of those errors which have become common usage. We’re reminded of an old limerick:
An illiterate lady from Staines
claimed she had very close veins.
But much worse by far
was her chronic guitar
which caused her abom’nable pains.
An enjoyable puzzle. Our favourite was our first one in, BEHEMOTH.
Thanks, Slormgorm and Loonapick
Same as some of the others here, couldn’t get the T in TAIL. Funnily enough, I had DEAD first of all, then changed it to DRAB.
Catching up — I actually did see the DEAD &lit double definitions which I quite liked. However, thanks for the blog since fell down parsing CHRONICLE and embarrassingly ELEMENTS (note to self: he and I are often symbols).
Thanks Slormgorm and loonapick
Finished in under average time, but there was still enough little queries to keep it interesting. Took a while to for the full meaning of DEAD to sink in – and then thought that it was one of the better clues in the puzzle – didn’t consider DRAB at all. Initially had an unparsed BANKER in at 6d and only picked up the error when going through the last parsing check before coming here – also ticked that one as I head-slapped myself for taking so long to see it ! It was the last one in for me after getting LANDLORD, which I didn’t find so easy – ‘digs’ is not so commonly used down here and it took a while and all of the crossers for the penny to drop.