Alchemi is not a regular visitor to the Monday Indy slot, but he has turned up today with an intriguing puzzle for us.
Maybe it’s because I only ever blog the Monday Indy, where there is seldom a theme or nina, but I tend not to be on the lookout for such shenanigans. However, there is one today: a perimeter nina that reads PLEASE DON’T VOTE FOR DONALD TRUMP. That’s clear enough then. Being published in a UK newspaper, it’s unlikely to have much influence on the result tomorrow, but it’s given the setter a chance to get it off his chest, and I can’t say I disagree with him. If Trump loses, it ain’t going to be pretty.
Across
8 Trade cut affected supplier of eye drops
TEAR DUCT
(TRADE CUT)*
9 Free masks possibly included with obviously muscular physique
RIPPED
An insertion of PPE, for Personal Protective Equipment – of which masks are a sort – in RID.
10 Anxious Australian wearing nothing is very cold
NAIL-BITING
An insertion of A in NIL followed by BITING.
11 Mixture of 50% recycled oil
OLIO
A charade of O[F] and (OIL)* A word I hadn’t come across before, but Chambers has ‘a mixture, a medley, a miscellany’. It’s also a savoury dish of different sorts of meat and vegetables.
12 Awards no marks
OSCARS
A charade of O and SCARS
14 I need job, possibly as vice-president
JOE BIDEN
(I NEED JOB)* for the man who was a VP but may well be inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America in a few weeks’ time. Alchemi is clearly hoping so.
15 Is breaking current record
DISC
An insertion of IS in DC for the electrical ‘current’.
17 Chase round area as ghosts do
HAUNT
An insertion of A in HUNT.
18 Odd characters in? I got that Greek one
IOTA
The odd letters of I gOt ThAt.
20 Naughty Kelvin leaves a lot of washing-up
SINFUL
SIN[K]FUL K is the abbreviation for Kelvin, the temperature scale, named after William Thompson, First Baron Kelvin.
22 Step down, not about to give autographs
SIGN
[RE]SIGN
23 Sick sort of film director taking concessions back
INDISPOSED
An insertion of SOPS reversed in INDIE and D.
26 Required from kleptomaniac, a plan to return high-end fabric
ALPACA
Hidden reversed in kleptomamiAC A PLAn.
27 It’s filled with melted cheese, as is Antarctica
ICE SHEET
An insertion of (CHEESE)* in IT.
Down
1 Vehicles carrying, say, those on a diet
VEGANS
An insertion of EG for ‘say’ in VANS. VEGANS, while not necessarily trying to lose weight, could certainly be said to be ‘on a diet’.
2/19 I’ve cleared no new in-person testimony
ORAL EVIDENCE
(IVE CLEARED NO)*
3 Sheep eat oddly-laid flowers
TULIPS
An insertion of LI for the odd letters of ‘laid’ in TUPS.
4 Case of online tuition
ETUI
Hidden in onlinE TUItion.
5 Bit newspaper people in foot
FRAGMENT
An insertion of RAG and MEN in FT.
6 Enemy workplace
OPPOSITION
A bit of lift and separate required: ‘work’ becomes OP and ‘place’ becomes POSITION.
7 Respond, replacing a terrible forward
REDIRECT
Alchemi is inviting you to replace the A in REACT with DIRE.
13 Maybe flat road north is blocked by hundreds of teeth
ACCIDENTAL
An insertion of CC for ‘hundreds’ in AI (for which read A1, the road) followed by DENTAL. Often ‘north’ will be an instruction to reverse a word; here it just tells you that the A1 goes north. Except if you live in Edinburgh, of course. But it is also called the Great North Road, so fair play. An ACCIDENTAL in this musical context is a note that does not form part of the scale indicated by the key signature. It could be a sharp, a flat or a natural, which is why it is clued as ‘maybe’.
14 Physicist, one sparkling in interviews
JOULE
A homophone (‘in interviews’) of JEWEL. James Prescott JOULE, who gave us the SI unit of energy
16 Persuade somehow, believing book is missing
INVEIGLE
([B]ELIEVING)*
17 Golf’s two followers limit what a player can have
HANDICAP
You need to think ‘golf’ in the phonetic alphabet sense (although it also hints at the solution). The following two letters are H AND I, to which you need to add CAP to get your answer.
20 Heartless spy sat on space organisation
SYSTEM
A charade of S[P]Y, S[A]T and EM for the printers’ ‘space’.
21 Channel‘s picture termed incomplete
URETER
Hidden in pictURE TERmed. The tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder.
24 Swim across river, feeble one!
DRIP
An insertion of R in DIP.
25 Island off Australia has useless leaders
OAHU
The initial letters of the second, third, fourth and fifth words of the clue. It’s a US island, part of the Hawaiian chain.
Many thanks to Alchemi for today’s puzzle. We’ll see in a couple of days if he gets his wish (hanging chads and bad loser arguments from the Donald notwithstanding).
That was fun. My last two, OLIO & REDIRECT took just about as long as the rest put together but all the more pleasing for getting them. I won’t be voting for Donald Trump but that’s not surprising given that I’m not American. Thanks to Alchemi and Pierre.
Prompted by a couple of comments last week, my co-solver and I have decided to de-lurk after years of enjoying this site.
Thanks to all setters, bloggers and commenters!
This was good fun, with 7d being our last to fall, and 11a needing a check as we hadn’t come across that meaning. Lots of great surfaces, such as 20a, 27a and 5d.
Welcome, David and co-solver. I’m glad you enjoyed this one and hope you’ll continue to comment.
Thanks to Alchemi and Pierre.
A nice steady solve with a timely NINA which I totally failed to see. Some very good clues. I particularly liked 5d, 23a, 9a and 6d. I couldn’t parse 7d so thanks for helping with that.
A lovely start to the day and the week.
Almost every day I look for a theme or nina, when there isn’t one., or at least I couldn’t see it Today I forgot to do so and there it is in plain sight around the perimeter. After a breeze around the rest of it, I too was held up in the NE corner and had to come here for an explanation of ‘redirect’. Thanks Alchemi and Pierre.
as Tatrasman said re Nina! one day…. but also had difficulty in explainng the whys n wherefores of 23a(sops?), 13d(not familair with that musical term), 17d (just too clever for me), 20d(entirely forgot about that little printers thing)…. last to fall was OSCARS, blindingly obvious once seen…but obviously not obvious enough as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it before.. looking back its a miracle I finished. lets hope Alchemi’s hopes are realised… another 4 years of the DTs is more than most normal people can tolerate..
thanks to Pierre and Alchemi
this was a very welcome puzzle for those of us who aren’t fans of the “thanks for a nice, gentle start to the week” vanilla cryptic club…not that it was especially hard but it was most enjoyable. I’m very impressed by the gridfill, inasmuch as there aren’t any dodgy words generated by the Nina restriction and who doesn’t like an etui every now and again? Bit of a shame that olio=oil in Italy but there we are. Many thanks to Alchemi & Pierre
Thanks Pierre and Alchemi. Was a bit surprised by the overtly political Nina, not that I disagree with it.
The Nina was both topical and helpful for the solve. I’d never heard of OLIO, which admittedly wasn’t too hard given the wordplay but the Nina provided extra reassurance and REDIRECT, also my last in, would have been even more difficult without knowing the first letter.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings in the US. Fingers firmly crossed.
Thanks to Alchemi and Pierre
What Hovis said.
27 made me smile which is always nice on a Monday
A nice crossword, but I don’t like 7d. “Replacing A B” doesn’t seem to me to be an adequate indicator for “replacing A with a word meaning B”. The crucial point is the absence of “with” – granted the surface wouldn’t work with it in, but that’s no excuse.
Secondbass @11. I think you make a fair point. Certainly, it was primarily the wording for 7d that held me up for as long as it did. However, in the end, I convinced myself that it worked if you put a pause between “a” and “terrible” – essentially giving “replacing a [we have] terrible”. Works for me but appreciate it won’t work for everyone.
I found this fairly light by Alchemi’s standards but very enjoyable with SINFUL my favourite. I’ve never heard of OAHU but is was easily derived from the clue.
Many thanks to Alchemi and to Pierre.
Nice crossword as ever from Alchemi.
I am still not sure whether setters should write such outspoken ninas or not.
I had the same feeling a long time ago when Philistine in The Guardian had “Bollocks to Brexit”.
If this were a crossword in a BBC publication, the setter could easily lose their job nowadays!
As to 7dn (my LOI), I am just about ok with it, reading it as “replacing a, terrible”.
I am less convinced by the use of “is” in 10ac – looks totally out of place to me.
But apart from that, excellent clueing with, for me, 14ac as a particular highlight.
Many thanks to Pierre & Alchemi.
A satisfying solve of medium difficulty. The grid suggested a nina but it was a while before we saw it; it helped us to finish, though, once we got 7dn with the help of a wordfinder. LOI was RIPPED – we didn’t know that meaning; it’s not in our dead-tree Chambers but we found it in Collins.
We particularly liked SINFUL, ACCIDENTAL and INVEIGLE.
There’s a minor error in the blog for 27ac – it should be “an insertion in IT of (CHEESE)*”
All went swimmingly well until I got stopped short by 11a and 7d which took as long as the rest of the puzzle put together.
Needless to say, I completely missed the Nina but it will be interesting to see whether our setter gets his wish. One just has to wonder whether 14a has the strength of character demanded by that top role.
Thanks to Alchemi and to Pierre for the review.
re the comments about the Nina…surely the gag is that Alchemi intended that most of us would start to read it from the top left hand corner?
Thankfully we noticed the nina as we were stuck with about 3 unfilled grid entries. No worries here about the overt message – needless to say we agree with the sentiments.
Thanks to Alchemi and Pierre.
Speaking as a lifelong resident of Wilmington, Delaware (Joe Biden’s hometown), as a progressive Democrat who’s been living in despair since the night of November 8, 2016, and as an avid fan of cryptic crosswords, I want to thank Alchemi for an ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL puzzle. I almost didn’t do today’s but thought it might relieve some anxiety — and, whaddya know, it did!
To jane @16, I can assure you that Joe Biden has more strength of character, more basic human decency, than most people who run for high office. All Trump has is the empty bluster and bravado of a born bully.
Thanks for your comment Dorothy. We certainly hope that you won’t be living in despair much longer!
Thanks Pierre and everyone else, particularly Dorothy.
There were times, say about five to ten years ago, that I was here every single day.
That has hanged.
Nowadays I am only here when I really want to give my opinion on something or to raise a question.
A major reason for not being here is nowadays that my questions go often unanswered.
In my comment @14 I questioned the use of “is” in 10ac but, once again, nobody seems to be bothered, nor makes clear to me that I got it wrong.
Anyone out there?
hanged? Changed! (I hope)
I’m with baerchen@17 – when it started to emerge I thought “Surely not…”!
Guessing the nina part-way in did make solving some of the remaining clues rather easy, but that’s a minor price to pay for it.
Sil@22: well I see what you mean; I suppose we kind of allow setters a bit of license but all have a threshold for how far it’s reasonable to push an envelope (yes, {insert setter here}!)
I did enjoy the 20s, 5 and 6 down but especially 17d. Cheers Alchemi, and may all your wishes come true.
I suppose we kind of allow setters a bit of license but all have a threshold for how far it’s reasonable to push an envelope (yes, {insert setter here}!)
Don’t get that.
Oh, as I was writing that sentence the thought of a particular setter popped into my mind. I imagined other readers might have their own thoughts.
Sil. I have wondered in the past about replying to some comments at a late stage. I once wondered if one of your comments was due to not knowing Occam’s razor is also known as the Law of Parsimony for example. Here, I take “is” as “equals” and feel that “wordplay” equals “answer” is acceptable but, as is often the case, can see why others wouldn’t.
I guess the reason that no-one initially responded to your comment, Sil, is that no-one is that concerned that it’s such an egregious error, or – as Hovis says – whether it’s an ‘error’ at all. I understand why you want to raise the point – as Dalibor, you are an established setter of Indy crosswords and are looking at it from a compiler’s point of view. You have often commented in the past (either as a blogger or a commenter) that ‘I wouldn’t have done that’. Fair enough. But this is a blog for solvers, who most of the time aren’t that interested in the minutiae of a discussion about whether [A] plus [B] inserted into [C], or whatever, can actually work like that. If you really want to initiate a conversation about whether or not you ‘got it wrong’ about bits of cryptic grammar like this, then sitting with a table of fellow setters at the next S&B is probably the best forum. Whenever that will be.
Didn’t know Sil was Dalibor. His puzzle from Feb 1 is one of my favourites of the year. Not that the following ones were anything short of excellent, I should add.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable, in general terms, to debate whether a particular clue is fair, so I don’t see anything wrong with the type of question Sil posed. I didn’t bother to answer this one myself, partly because I obviously approve of the clue since I wrote it, and partly because it was an example of the type of footling nitpickery which bores me to tears.
Alchemi @30 Boo. Sil is interested in the quality of the crosswords and made a good point.
Sil, I agree with you, and like that you continue to question iffy clues.
I see myself first and foremost as a solver.
A solver who wants to enjoy crosswords (which I nearly always do) but also a solver who likes to understand clues.
In the past, I always asked questions if I couldn’t fully parse a clue.
In that sense, nothing has changed – although some seem to think it should have by now.
Thanks, Hovis @27, to try and answer my question.
Unfortunately, I still don’t see how it works.
Time to go into hibernation, then.
I found this mostly straightforward and enjoyable, though didn’t manage to parse REDIRECT (thanks Pierre!). I liked the subtractions of INVEIGLE and SINFUL, and FRAGMENT for it’s concise surface and accurate wordplay.
Not sure that JOULE is really pronounced JEWELL: I would say JOOL, but a friend who comes from Staffordshire (where Joule’s brewery is) says JOWL. Anyone who says JEW-ELL for JOULE is probably saying it wrong.
Interested to see Sil @14 querying the use of “is” in the clue for 10a: “Anxious Australian wearing nothing is very cold”. I assumed it was just there to smooth the surface. Surprised to see such a churlish answer from the setter, saying he thought it’s ok because he wrote it. I think Sil raised an interesting question about this clue, and for him to be told that it was “an example of the type of footling nitpickery which bores [Alchemi] to tears” was very rude.
A query that I have, which I’m a little surprised has not been raised by either Sil or baerchen, is 20d: “Heartless spy sat on space organisation”. I didn’t have any problem solving the clue, but did wonder about the lack of an indication that both spy and sat were to have their middle letters removed. I’ve been badly beaten up a couple of times over on the Guardian blog for saying, “we all solved it so what’s the problem”, so I won’t say that this time!
[Sil – I completely agree with you and offer my sympathy for the dismissive way you’ve been answered by one or two here, including the setter. Hovis@27 didn’t address your query; his explanation fits clues where ‘is’ separates wordplay and definition. This is not the case here. Perhaps setter made similar mistake but, in any case, to describe your question as “footling nitpickery” is not only rude – and ignorant – but just plain wrong. Sil – you give much to 15² (certainly in the seven years I’ve been commenting!) and should not be insulted baselessly. Respect]
I am here extremely late, as I solved this on the train Friday after sheffield hatter recommended it elsewhere and having had the same experience at the end as Hovis@1, to thank Pierre for a very clear explanation of everything, especially the definition of OLIO which I see on Italian menus all the time in the sense given by baerchen@7, and ACCIDENTAL which is a new meaning to me – but pretty much all was clearly and entertainingly clued.
Thanks Alchemi, my favourite was HANDICAP and I will look out for your various incarnations in future but I am going to add to the chorus of disapproval after your dismissal of Sil van den Hoek’s perfectly reasonable quibble: bearing in mind your NINA I hope that this was down to the timing of the post (everything was still very much in the balance early last week, unexpectedly) and that you are now suitably relieved and relaxed with a more amenable disposition towards fair challenges.