I think this is the first time I have blogged (or indeed solved) a puzzle by Moo.
On my first run-through, I thought I might not enjoy the puzzle as a couple of chestnuts presented themselves fairly readily, but gradually it grew on me, until I quite enjoyed it.
I did have some minor quibbles: the word “a” appeared unnecessarily in a few clues (necessary for surface, but superfluous for wordplay), and I think 19ac should have had “gran” in it instead of “mum”. Also, in 12ac, are I and ME ever synonymous (except in bad garammar), one being the subject and one the object?
As I say, these are minor quibbles.
I liked the semi&lit for AGAMEMNON and “wife that was” in EXAMPLE.
Thanks, Moo. I look forward to your next puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SHOUTING | Raised voices: Posh half cut on seaside jaunt? (8) |
| (po)SH [half cut] on OUTING (“seaside jaunt?”) | ||
| 5 | KETTLE | One letting off steam in police pen? (6) |
| Double definition, the second realting to the practice of “kettling” used by police to control crowds. | ||
| 9 | ESTRANGE | Alienate holy man in eastern mountains (8) |
| ST (saint, so “holy man”) in E (eastern) + RANGE (“mountains”) | ||
| 10 | HOOKED | Addicted, as Sturgeon may be? (6) |
| Refers of course to the fish, not the Scottish First Minister! | ||
| 12 | POISE | Model draped around me? That’s Grace (5) |
| POSE (“draped”) around I (“me”) | ||
| 13 | AGAMEMNON | A married man gone abroad to fight at Troy (9) |
| *(a m man gone) [anag:abroad] and semi &lit. | ||
| 14 | ATTEND | Wait on American minister nursing temperature (6) |
| A (American) + TEND (“minister”) nursing T (temperature) | ||
| 16 | EXAMPLE | Warning for wife that was large (7) |
| EX (“wife that was”) + AMPLE (“large”) | ||
| 19 | HARRIER | One hounding prince, you say – and his mum? (7) |
| Homophone [you say] of HARRY (“prince”) and ER (Elizabeth Regina, Queen Elizabeth)
Although a prince is often the son of a queen, using ER (as the setter does twice in this puzzle for Queen) is specific to queens with E as their first name, and neither Liz 1 or 2 had a son called Harry, so I think the clue should have said “gran” rather than “mum”. The question mark at the end is not enough. |
||
| 21 | SEEING | Making out with Carol, dropping some Es (6) |
| SING (“Carol”) dropping (i.e. swallowing) E E (Es) | ||
| 23 | ENCHILADA | Cook a nice dhal? Diners might enjoy it (9) |
| *(a nice dhal) [anag:cook] | ||
| 25 | AITCH | A longing often unexpressed by East Ender (5) |
| A + ITCH (“longing”) | ||
| 26 | IONIAN | Ancient Greek edition I analysed in part (6) |
| Hidden in [in part] “editION I ANalysed” | ||
| 27 | ALLSPICE | A lot of specially ground Jamaica pepper (8) |
| *(speciall) [anag:ground] where SPECIALL is [a lot of] SPECIALL(y) | ||
| 28 | LOADED | Rich Liberal provoked, losing head (6) |
| L (Liberal) + (g)OADED (“provoked”, losing head) | ||
| 29 | ETON MESS | Pudding problem at Johnson’s alma mater? (4,4) |
| MESS (“problem) at ETON ((Boris) “Johnson’s alma mater”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SLEEPY | Tired MI6 man devouring fish on way back (6) |
| SPY (“MI6 man”) devouring <=EEL (“fish” on the way back) | ||
| 2 | OUTFITTER | Couturier exposed by assembly man (9) |
| OUT (“exposed”) by FITTER (“assembly man”) | ||
| 3 | TEASE | Conclude changing leader is a provocation (5) |
| (c>T)EASE (“conclude”) changing leader (first letter) from C to T | ||
| 4 | NIGGARD | Miser moving slowly along, briefly upset (7) |
| <=DRAGGIN(g) (“moving slowly along”, briefly, upset) | ||
| 6 | EXONERATE | Clear one interrupting former judge (9) |
| ONE interrupting EX (“former”) + RATE (“judge”) | ||
| 7 | TOKEN | Evidence of ghetto Kenya largely erased (5) |
| Hidden in “ghetTO KENya” [largely erased] | ||
| 8 | ENDANGER | Threaten corrupt grandee? Not at first (8) |
| *(grandee n) [anag:corrupt] where N is N(ot) [at first] | ||
| 11 | BARE | Naked bishop about to embrace one? (4) |
| B (bishop) + RE (“about”) to embrace A (“one”) | ||
| 15 | ELIMINATE | Delete a timeline that’s inaccurate (9) |
| *(a timeline) [anag:that’s inaccurate] | ||
| 17 | PINSTRIPE | Puts on rubbish suit, type favoured by Rees-Mogg (9) |
| PINS (“puts”) on TRIPE (“rubbish”) | ||
| 18 | SHOEBILL | Bird that might be presented to you at Jimmy Choo’s? (8) |
| One shopping at a Jimmy Choo’s boutique would be presented with a BILL for SHOEs | ||
| 20 | REAR | Look after one’s bottom (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | SCARLET | Little mark left by wound, but very red? (7) |
| As -let is used to indicate a smaller version of something (as in notelet, or streamlet), a small scar (“little mark left by wound”) could be a SCARLET | ||
| 22 | CHEERS | Applauds revolutionary society locking up Her Maj (6) |
| CHE (Guevara, “revolutionary”) + S (society) locking up ER (the Queen, so “her Maj”) | ||
| 24 | CONGA | Steps taken to deceive a heartless geisha (5) |
| CON (“to deceive”) [heartless] G(eish)A A bit pedantic, but the “a” in the clue is superfluous | ||
| 25 | ARSON | Crime of a penniless priest (5) |
| (p)ARSON (“priest” with no P (penny), so penniless)
Again, the “a” is superfluous |
||
*anagram
The second outing for Moo and, I have to say, nowhere near as good as his(?) first. Not bad, mind you, except for that bad boo-boo at 19a. I was pretty sure the answer wasn’t HARRIDI 🙂
Thanks to Moo and loonapick.
On the subject of 19a, you could, at a pinch, argue that “and his mum?” refers to “a prince’s mum” with the QM helping signify that it is not the same “prince” as in the first part. Still think it an error though.
Thanks Moo and LP! isn’t there a teacow setter and/or blogger? so perhaps thematic.
I didn’t notice the mistake at 19a– I actually said to myself “oh, of course, she has a son called Harry”.
When I was solving this I thought ‘his mum?’ in HARRIER was OK, as the question mark indicated that a ‘prince’ could be, though not necessarily was, the son of a queen, but I see what you mean about the ‘E’ making it specific to Elizabeth.
Pleasant solve. Went in quickly for a start, but then held up by a few including KETTLE, which we have had in this sense as a verb before. I liked finding out what a SHOEBILL looks like (extraordinary) and AGAMEMNON.
Thanks to Moo for number two and to loonapick.
HARRIER didn’t trouble me as much as it evidently did some. You could say that HARRIE is the homophone and R therefore = any old Regina.
I liked the ‘dropping’ bit of S.EE.ING, once explained here. I’d taken it as a reverse clue, i.e. ‘would = SING if you dropped the Es’. And I liked REAR, just for the snigger.
Slow start, only hit me rhythm on the down clues, but enjoyed it.
Thanks to Moo & the loon.
I agree with the objection to ‘I’ in 12 ac, but doesn’t ‘pose’ indicate ‘model’, and not ‘draped’? My first Moo, and I enjoyed it.
And, btw, who thinks that ‘me’ can sometimes be nominative? Me, Sir!
I didn’t see a problem with 19a – well apart from the telegraphed homophone indicator – and still don’t to be honest. The clue itself doesn’t name the ‘prince’, so the only familial connection being made is derived from the answer, but where is the rule saying that has to be taken into account? In fact, going back to the homophone indicator, if Moo had perhaps used ‘outspoken’ before prince the surface would have alluded to Charles and most here, I think, would be praising it as a nice misdirection.
I concur with the other criticisms and praise. I agree this wasn’t quite as good as Moo’s first outing, but there was still plenty to enjoy. I particularly liked ‘wife that was’ for EX in 16a, but my favourite clue was the semi-&lit 13a AGAMEMNON.
Thanks to all.
Thanks Moo and loonapic. I enjoyed a quick solve but failed on 2d having confidently entered SHELLING (seaside jaunt) for 1ac. Justified by SH (posh half cut) YELLING (raised voices)!
Thanks to Moo and loonapick. Enjoyable. I did not know ALLSPICE or the second meaning of KETTLE. As to NIGGARD, a few years ago a production of Macbeth in race-conscious Washington, DC became controversial when MacDuff urged Rosse “be not a niggard of your speech.”
Failed on KETTLE, SHOEBILL, and HARRIER but still found a good bit of fun. ATTEND, REAR, and ARSON were particularly amusing. Thanks Moo and Loonapick.
Thanks Moo and loonapick
I think that if “setter’s” can become “I’ve” then “me” can become “I”.
Don’t think that follows, Simon. The point is that ‘setter’ can be subject or object, so setter’s can be “I’ve” or “mine” or etc. As has been said, people say “it’s me” or “it is I” but whether that justifies it is debatable.
Understand your POV, Hovis, and that others may share it. That’s why I started with “I think” – it’s fine by me, but not for others.
To Hovis @13:
I’d certainly debate it. Would the ‘#MeToo’ movement be the same if hashtagged as ‘#I Also’? Sometimes – not always but sometimes – ‘Me’ is the correct form of the nominative and ‘I’ is plodding and just wrong.
(Or is it just me?)
Just to drag the argument on – even if “me” can be nominative, wouldn’t we want a situation where “I” can be justifiably interchanged with “me” for the clue to work. I should, perhaps, add that I’m not one of those that objected to the clue in the first place but do feel that it is a bit iffy. Many setters would probably never use this construction.
Hovis (if you’re still here)
I’ll take the bait…
How many times does hear something like “Our friends gave my partner and I a great meal yesterday”?
It may not be justifiable, but it happens regularly.
Belated thanks to loonapick for the blog. Thanks also to everyone who’s commented.
Apologies for the error in 19a. We are not amused 🙂
Can’t even spell my own name now 🙂
Simon @18. I’m ok with both “it’s me” and “it is I”. Grammatically, the latter is correct but the former is more common, especially in speech. However, I do hate expressions like the one you give even though I hear such almost on a daily basis. Why do people say this when they would never say “My friends gave I a great meal”? It just seems weird to me.
Re #22 and #18, I think it’s developed partly because if someone said “John and me are going to the match” they might be told off and explained to, that they should have said be “John and I are going to the match”. Then without knowing all the ins and outs of grammatical cases, they make the same change in the “My friends gave …”
Re 5, I feel compelled to point out that current Prince ‘Harrie’, if that is the Harry in question, did not have a Regina as a mother. I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to discover whether or not any other Harrys (i.e. Henrys) had queens as mothers, without success, though it is Friday, and alcohol has been consumed. HARRIE/ R: can it be rescued?
Paul @23. The setter has already apologised for the error (using a pun pseudonym) @19.
Gurney @22. Agree completely.
Thanks Moo and loonapick
Interesting puzzle, notwithstanding the skipped generation at 19a, a clever concept nonetheless. Missed the trick with the little scar at 21d, but all the rest went in without a problem and fully parsed. Had to double check that Boris had gone to Eton and to look up who Mr Rees-Moog was (hmm … I’ll hold my tongue).
Was another who liked the ‘wife that was’ ‘large’ (it was the third last in), followed by PINSTRIPE and the tricky SEEING.