Another brilliant piece of grid-filling by Brendan.
Brendan doesn’t make many appearances in the Saturday slot, but there’s always something to appreciate in one of his puzzles. The clues themselves were mostly pretty straightforward, and Timon and I polished this off quite quickly, but we were left wondering about what the digital divide was, as referenced in the clue to 8 down. After some staring at the grid, I eventually realised that all the digits (except zero) were included in the grid in a divided form. Either they were divided by letters within a clue, as in 4 across and 1 down, or they crossed the grid from one clue to another. I have highlighted all the digits in the grid (read across or down as appropriate). The letter N in 26 across is doing double duty, forming part of both seven and nine, but I think we can forgive Brendan that. It must have been a lot of work to fit them all in without having to populate the grid with a lot of obscure words. Many thanks, Brendan.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FACADE | A Conservative in decline, making phony public appearance (6) |
| A C in FADE. | ||
| 4 | FAVOUR | Sign of support rowing crew draped over a vessel’s front (6) |
| A V(essel) in FOUR (a rowing crew). | ||
| 9 | ARGO | Golden retriever’s bark? (4) |
| Cryptic definition. The reference is to Jason’s mission on the Argo to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Bark is an alternative spelling of barque. | ||
| 10 | SWINEHERDS | Drink stored in pottery pieces for those who bring home the bacon? (10) |
| WINE in SHERDS (pottery pieces, or shards). | ||
| 11 | VISHNU | Verse Hindus, with no end of dread, composed for deity (6) |
| *(V(erse) HIN(d)US). | ||
| 12 | INGRATES | They don’t appreciate empty art framed by French painter (8) |
| A(r)T in INGRES (French painter). | ||
| 13 | HEARTBEAT | Attend after male, with skill, produces vital sign (9) |
| BE AT (attend) after HE ART. | ||
| 15 | WOOD | Deal, for example, made by court with defence, initially (4) |
| WOO (court) D(efence). | ||
| 16 | SHED | Spades may be kept here, or discarded (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 17 | EDITORIAL | I led a riot astray, as leader (9) |
| *(I LED A RIOT). | ||
| 21 | MAZEL TOV | Geometrical puzzle — left with nothing in the box? Congratulations! (5,3) |
| MAZE (geometrical puzzle) L, 0 in TV. It’s a Hebrew expression literally meaning “good luck” or “good fortune”; often written as one word. | ||
| 22 | ON TIME | Chap briefly called into unit when expected (2,4) |
| TIM (chap, briefly) in ONE (unit). | ||
| 24 | JACARANDAS | Knave cut a golf club’s trees (10) |
| JAC(k) A R AND A’S. The R&A (Royal and Ancient) is the oldest golf club in the world. | ||
| 25 | IXIA | Part of calix I analyse in plant from South Africa (4) |
| Hidden in “calix I analyse”. | ||
| 26 | STEVEN | Eg Spielberg putting magnificent number in movie about time (6) |
| T(ime) in SEVEN (as in film The Magnificent Seven). | ||
| 27 | IN ESSE | Existing skill female’s lacking up front (2,4) |
| (f)INESSE. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FORGIVE | Overlook part of certain addresses put in number of letters in error (7) |
| ORG (as in internet addresses) inside FIVE (number of letters in the word error – |
||
| 2 | CLOTH | Metonym for clergy, group in church (5) |
| LOT in CH. | ||
| 3 | DISTURB | Interrupt attempt, including routines set up (7) |
| RUTS (routines) in BID (all rev). | ||
| 5 | AWEIGH | Just off the bottom, elsewhere in sound (6) |
| Sounds like “away”. Probably only now used in the phrase “anchor’s aweigh”. | ||
| 6 | OPERAGOER | Ring fan, perhaps, and old pro agree, possibly (9) |
| *(O(ld) PRO AGREE). | ||
| 7 | REDHEAD | Study about Edward, Henry and Elizabeth I, say (7) |
| ED(ward) and H(enry) in READ (study). | ||
| 8 | DIGITAL DIVIDE | Inequality of computer age discernible in this puzzle (with a single exception) (7,6) |
| No wordplay, but the definition and enumeration left little room for doubt. For the explanation, see the introduction. | ||
| 14 | REELEVATE | Put back up in tree, leave in disarray (2-7) |
| *(TREE LEAVE). | ||
| 16 | SEA BASS | In audition, pick out instrument that might be found in school (3,4) |
| Homophone of “see” and bass. Note that the homophone indication only applies to the first word; the fish and the instrument are pronounced differently. | ||
| 18 | THOMSON | Newspaper magnate once producing nothing in months, oddly (7) |
| 0 in *MONTHS. Roy Thomson was a Canadian press baron who owned The Times and the Sunday Times in the 1960s. | ||
| 19 | ARMOIRE | Queen clad in a kind of silk found in cupboard (7) |
| R (Queen) in A MOIRE. | ||
| 20 | STRAFE | Attack from air in last RAF exercise (6) |
| Hidden in “last RAF exercise”. | ||
| 23 | TAILS | Followers that may be called out, as bit of money’s raised? (5) |
| Cryptic definition, alluding to the tossing of a coin and the calling of “tails” (or “heads”). | ||
Thanks to Brendan and bridgesong. A rare experience for me. I not only spotted the divided digits theme early on but that discovery helped me with some subsequent clues. Very enjoyable.
Thanks bridgesong. Once again I had all but finished before the theme dawned on me; I wasn’t awfully impressed, it seemed a rather elaborate fabrication. It didn’t much matter, even if the penny had never dropped there were plenty of good clues which made it another enjoyable session and I would only have been left with a bit of a question mark over 8d. Had to look up the Jewish congratulations, doubted that ARGO was a bark, or even a barque and never did come to terms with ‘number of letters in error’ in 1d.
You may have missed NINE in your highlighting, the bottom line does double duty.
Well I was clearly on a different wavelength to you and Timon Bridgesong as I wrote “I always saw Brendan as relatively benign, but this was the toughest solve for a long time.” And despite staring at it I didn’t see the DIGITAL DIVIDE – nor had I heard the expression before. I was even less convinced when it gave a T_V word and then MrsW said “is there a Jewish or Eastern European phrase that means congratulations” which cracked it. I thought ARGO was the best of an outstanding set of clues – I hadn’t come across that version of BARQUE before. Many thanks to Brendan for a very welcome appearance in the prize slot and to Bridgesong for the equally welcome blog and enlightenment.
Apologies, I should have read your preamble more carefully, you have indeed accounted for NINE.
Bridgesong, I think Brendan’s intent in 1d is that five is the number of letters in the word ‘error.’
This was a joy from start to finish, with clear clues (as attested to by the fact that I managed to parse everything, a rarity for me) and lots of smooth surfaces. I’m not generally a fan of purely cryptic definitions, but ARGO is a great example of how to do one: concise, clever, gettable from crossers and raising a smile when the penny drops. I also enjoyed the mini-puzzle of trying to make sense of the DIGITAL DIVIDE, which I figured out about halfway through.
Thanks to Brendan and Bridgesong.
One of those to wrap up soon and then wonder: What was that about? Digital divide in FAVOUR, FORGIVE and STEVEN – but where else? The 8D ‘single exception’ did keep me pondering on and off afterwards, maybe there was a plus in that. All my fault though: I never write the answers in so missed the clever grid crossing. Thanks B & b.
A tale of two sittings here. In the first one I breezed through 3/4 of the puzzle, and came back later to polish it off but spent ages getting the stragglers.
For a while I thought 1d couldn’t be FORGIVE because it just isn’t the same as overlook, but I then remembered the use in forgiving a debt, which is (potentially at least) not fraught with emotion like the other sense, so overlook comes a lot closer.
“number of letters in error” is brilliant, btw (agree w/Dave@5). Also brilliant is ARGO, which I guessed in sitting/phase I, but took way too long to recognise the alternate spelling to barque in order to write it in. Also totally missed the theme. Apparently not on the ball last week.
Bridgesong — there are how many letters in the word “error”?
Well, gosh. I had no idea what was meant by digital divide and, despite all the above, I still don’t. Sigh. I got that solution fairly early on but didn’t write it in because of the t_v in 21. Which was my last in because it is not in English and I’d never heard it before. That’s no complaint, incidentally. This took me a while to complete, by no means easy for me, but very satisfying when I got Argo – what a cracker of a clue! Thank you Brendan. And thank you Bridgesong of course.
@9
Three
Tails was my loi, took ages for the penny to, er, fall, which is a bit thick given that two-up schools are part of Oz legend (not that I’ve ever been to one). Otherwise, yes, a pretty cruisy solve, nice clues wth plenty of wit, though I didn’t have the wit to see the divided numbers. Oh well, enjoyed it anyway, thanks B & B.
I enjoyed this, including the theme. It was fun post completion searching them all out. ARGO fav clue.
Camilla @9 that’s an excellent parsing of 1ac, though Dansar@11 is also correct?.
Thanks to Brendan for the fun and Bridgesong for the blog.
Living in the US since 2000, “digital divide” is a familiar term and concept, and I guess I assumed it would be better known over there than it appears to be. Surely the phenomenon to which the term refers is not lacking, namely that poorer people tend to have less access to IT?
I was late to see the theme of divided numbers – very clever.
Could not fully parse 26a (did not think of the film The Magnificent Seven)
New words: IXIA, and also Roy Herbert Thomson (never heard of him).
My favourites were jacarandas, heartbeat.
Thank you Brendan and bridgesong
DIGITAL DIVIDE came early but I never did see the split in the numbers — nonetheless I got plenty of enjoyment from this crossword with MAZEL TOV, FORGIVE, and TAILS as favorites. Thanks to Brendan and to Bridgesong.
Another masterpiece.
I spent a good few minutes on completion looking for ways in which synonyms for zero might have fitted in.
Then I came to the conclusion that zero should mean zero and left it at that.
The concept of the “digital divide” is indeed well known, but the term is not (to me, anyway – I looked it up to make sure it was a Thing), and I never did spot all the clever-clever stuff with the numbers in the grid. I also never managed to solve TAILS – as laborious a cryptic definition as ARGO is elegant. Loved the “number of letters in error” and the swineherds bringing home the bacon.
Thanks Brendan and bridgesong
I needed help to see STEVEN as I had the perfectly reasonable SEA CARP at 16d (SEEK ‘ARP!). ARGO was my favourite too.
Im not quite sure what @11 and @13 are saying but in case Camilla @9 is serious, the word “error” clearly has 5 letters; the word FIVE being required for the solution. (No wonder i leave the blog to bridgesong). Thanks to him for frequently enlightening me and Brendan for wonderful compilation.
D’oh! Meant to say “FIVE is the word Bridgesong is enumerating, not ERROR”. Apologies to all for stating the obvious.
Thank you, bridgesong, in particular for explaining the theme, which I never saw, even though I completed the puzzle, wondering what 8d was all about. I think DIGITAL DIVIDE is indeed more US than UK, as Brian@14 suggests – not in Chambers, but easy to find online.
‘Bark’ may be the less usual spelling nowadays, but it used to be more common, particularly in poetry. In sonnet 116, Shakespeare (not an authority on spelling, I concede) describes love as ‘the star to every wandering bark’, among much navigation imagery.
I enjoyed the extra surface in SHED, falsely suggesting a reference to playing cards.
To Brendan, bridgesong and all, MAZEL TOV (which I had to look up as well).
Mostly pretty good, I thought. A dnf as for some reason I failed to get OPERAGOER, which I now like as a clue. But I can’t share the praise for ARGO, which I thought a bit too contrived (though clever). I did work out the theme, having already vaguely registered that FORGIVE and FAVOUR contained digits in word form, and then seen DIGITAL DIVIDE.
Those who think “error” isn’t a five-letter word: would you call 999 a single-digit number?
Thanks Bridgesong and brendan.
Even though it is not there in the same way as the others, I thought Brendan managed to get very close in maZEl tOv and the R from strafe. I’m sure that’s not an accident. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle.
I’ve amended the blog to correct the parsing of FORGIVE, with thanks to Dave @5, who was the first to point out my error.
I didn’t think it necessary to explain DIGITAL DIVIDE, which I thought was a pretty well known concept, but apparently not as well known as I thought. Incidentally, many thanks to Brendan (Brian Greer) for dropping by (@14).
I saw digital divide early on but refrained from putting it in as I couldn’t think of a word that fitted with the v of 21ac. I have never heard of mazel tov so it was left unfinished. I spotted several of the numbers but was clearly not clever enough to spot some of the others.
Clever stuff Brendan!
Really enjoyed this one. Loved FORGIVE and ARGO, didn’t get the latter until Tuesday when I had a flash of inspiration and filled in the last two blank squares.
The theme was a bit weird, because it worked in two different ways, but that doesn’t detract anything from the cluing
@24
I suppose you can also see it as mazeLtOVontimE, LOVE of course being a synonym of ZERO
I think I need to stop now.
9a ARGO is one of those clues where you could argue about whether it is entirely fair and whether it strictly works (is a person who retrieves something golden really a golden retriever?) but it is so clever and witty that it deserves to go into the crossword hall of fame. In that respect I rank it with Crucible’s “He wrote the Ancient Mariner (6)” (27,144).
Many thanks to Brendan for a brilliantly clever puzzle as always and to bridgesong.
For once I got the theme and used it to help me complete the crossword. I could see that EIGHT would fit in nicely at the end of 5d (and start of 18), so that gave me AWEIGH, then FOUR had to be in 4a, so that gave me FAVOUR.
Thanks to Brendan for an innovative idea and Bridgesong for the blog.
[There’s a respectable theory that golden fleeces actually existed. Some streams flowing into the Black Sea carry flecks of gold. Fleeces were fastened down in the streambeds to trap these particles, which could be obtained by drying the fleece and then shaking it.]
Thank you Brendan and bridgesong.
We really enjoyed this puzzle. It took us some time to parse FORGIVE and DISTURB, but got there in the end. We didn’t get the theme, so needed bridgesong’s assistance to explain it.
Not a lot to add – well done to those who spotted the theme early as it took me ages to see it even after I’d finished filling the grid! Very smart work by Brendan, a really neat puzzle with lots to enjoy. Jewish family gatherings made “mazel tov” a tad more familiar (I’m still waiting for “oy gevalt” to appear…) and “bark” was sheer genius. Captain Jack Aubery freqeuntly refers to his ship as “the barky”, which helped.
Interesting use of a homograph (bass vs bass) alongside a homophone too.
Many thanks Bridgesong and Brendan for a fun no-prize.
Thanks for the blog, bridgesong [and for your input, Timon, even if you didn’t help write it].
Not much to add to the praise for this puzzle.
Lord Jim @27 – ARGO is now in my little book of classic clues, joining the Crucible clue that you mention, which I’ve used several times to try to convert friends to cryptic crosswords.
I also liked 12ac INGRATES,, 6dn OPERAGOER and 7dn REDHEAD.
Many thanks to Brendan for an enjoyable and absorbing puzzle.
It’s impossible to not enjoy a puzzle by Brendan, in my experience, and this was good fun. Have never come across DIGITAL DIVIDE before but saw the theme first. (In fact, after the first D crosser, I was briefly trying to justify ‘digital device’ as the solution!)
Many thanks, both and all.
I see that I wrote “theme ?” next to the completed puzzle and I meant to go back and see if I could find it. I forgot so the theme remained undiscovered.
I enjoyed the puzzle though.
Thanks Brendan
can someone explain the ‘He wrote the Ancient Mariner (6)’ to me, please
I found the answer but I don’t understand it
ignore my comment above
I think I get it now
Thanks Brendan and bridgesong.
It was a week ago that I did this crossword and I remember wondering about the digital divide, but never gave it another thought after completion. My main concern was that I must have made an error as my LOI included a three letter word T_V. I’m afraid MAZEL TOV was a phrase I’d never heard before
I thought this was a fab puzzle – entertaining and challenging. Several of you have clearly not seen the musical Fiddler on the Roof where every other line seems to be a “mazel tov” in response to the many engagements: “A blessing on your house mazeltov, mazeltov…”
Greg Smith @40 Whatever you do, don’t mention musicals!
I saw the application of the ‘digital divide’ early on, but I’m not sure it helped very much in the solving. And since we were told that one digit was missing, I stopped looking once I’d fitted in numbers 2 to 9, assuming that 1 was the missing one (after all, the instruction does say that there is a single exception). It took me a long time to realise that the absentee was zero; (I’m still not sure that that’s really a digit (I don’t have a finger 0).
But overall, I thought this was a great weekend unprize crossword, and the theme was very ingenious and satisfying. The only obscurity for me was MAZEL TOV, Fiddler on the Roof being one of the musicals I don’t like (harking back to discussions earlier in the week).
Thanks to Brendan and bridgesong.
TheZed@41 – Sorry, we crossed, so the mention is out there!
Brilliant puzzle. ARGO’s certainly a hall of famer. Thanks, Brendan, both for the entertainment and for dropping in. Is it a coincidence that most of the odd digits appear on the left of the divide, while the evens are on the right (ONE and NINE being the exceptions)?
Thanks, bridegesong and Timon, for the blog.
Peter @36 After completing this crossword I began searching for the theme — I first went down the Roman numeral rabbit hole and I found that many answers had I, V, X, L, C, D, or M in them but more than one did not; that path was a dead end so I put the puzzle aside intending to look at it later but never did.
Jason, on returning from his quest, ran aground in the bay, and on surveying the damage was heard to say that his barque was worse in his bight.
I’ll get my coat.
I enjoyed this. Only finished yesterday, writing in ARGO when I finally worked out what ‘bark’ can mean, despite having suspected that “Golden retriever” might refer to Jason & co. Great clue. I had heard of the Digital Divide and was encouraged to write it in, in the absence of wordplay by having already got FAVOUR. It helped with FORGIVE (I also sussed that it was the number of letters in the word ‘error’ that was meant), but the clue seemed to suggest that digits would be divided in all the answers but one, and I never managed to reframe the idea correctly, so thanks, bridgesong, for revealing what went on.
There were some unfamiliar items: I didn’t know ‘R and A’ and in fact didn’t realise I hadn’t fully parsed the clue having filled in the answer, once I realised JAC[K] was intended. Thanks again for the explanation, bridgesong. I wasn’t familiar with IN ESSE, but had some Latin so worked it out. Didn’t know moire, either, but got ARMOIRE from the def and checked it.
Not that it matters a great deal but the R&A (1754) is not the oldest golf club in the world. St Andrews is the oldest course but Royal Burgess(1735), where I have been privileged to play, is the oldest club.
Nobody has written this yet for this puzzle, though it’s been said elsewhere — “ye” is not now and never has been a word for “the.” The English alphabet used to contain two letters it hasn’t got now, both pronounced like “th”, and the one that was used to spell “the,” called “eth,” looked something like a y. (The other was called “thorn” and looked slightly like a small d with a line through its upstroke. Imagine a small d trying to look like a backward 6.)
Valentine @49: nobody has written it for this puzzle, because the clue containing “Ye” comes from a different puzzle! But your point is valid.
Biggles A @48: I stand corrected – I took my assertion from Wikipedia!
Another work of art from Brendan. Took a while to grasp the theme fully even though I had the key clue early. ARGO took much longer than the whole of the rest of the puzzle, and even after getting it I struggled to convince myself it could be a bark/barque and Google didn’t help.
bh @51
It’s in Wiki.
Valentine @49: the “ye” matter was indeed one of the reasons why I think the Crucible clue is potentially open to criticism (me @29). Other reasons are that “He wrote” to indicate Pope and “Mariner” to define POPEYE are both extremely vague! But I’m prepared to allow the setter to take some liberties when a clue is so clever and witty, and it was in this way that I felt 9a ARGO was a bit similar.
Having said all that, I’ve just had a look in the SOED, and it says that although the written “ye” for “the” originally arose from the mistake you refer to, it was “extensively employed in manuscript in the 17th and 18th centuries”, and is “still often used pseudo-archaically or jocularly, and vulgarly pronounced as ye“. So perhaps Crucible wasn’t so far out after all!
muffin @52 – I wasn’t doubting that barks/barques have a long history, but even that article doesn’t specifically mention the Argo – I was searching for both together…
Ah, I see. I misunderstood your point. Does anyone know what sort of ship the Argo was supposed to be? What’s the earliest reference? Some Greek poet, I expect.
The SV Argo was a barque/bark, so if you take the clue as a double definition, Jason’s Argo doesn’t need to have been one.
Re: barks/barques. The online Collins 2nd definition of barque is “poetic: any boat, esp a small sailing vessel”. Given that the story is from the epic poem Argonautica, describing the Argo as a bark seems quite accurate. The clue is very good in that, once the idea of the Golden Fleece story popped into my mind, I knew I had the answer.
I’m very confused by the references to Crucible, The Ancient Mariner and ‘ye’. Are some comments referring to a different puzzle?
Val, see Lord Jim @29
Once again I am late but would like to thank bridgesong and the many contributors for explaining so much that I had missed, including the hidden numbers (even though I got 8D and was in any case looking for something extra because it’s Brendan). I am another ARGO fan and also enjoyed 21A. Had to google a lot (eg 12A, 25A, 27A,18D) but only to check that I had the right word, which I take as a sign of a sound clue. However I would never have got 2D without looking up “Metonym” – presumably the clue would have been fine without the first two words, but much harder, so thanks Brendan for giving me a chance to complete this enjoyable puzzle.