Happy New Year 2021 folks. My first blog for 2021 and a solid challenge from BRADMAN to get things going, thanks to whom for this intellectual treat.
There may be some improvements possible in the parsing so inputs would be welcome.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | DEAD TREE EDITION | Do I need it, read it, ultimately averse to change? (4-4,7) |
| i think technically a semi &lit; [ DO I NEED IT READ IT E (aversE, ultimately) ]*; if the anagram fodder is correct, then there is an extra I that needs to be discounted. | ||
| 10 | RECTO | Page in directory (5) |
| hidden in “..diRECTOry” | ||
| 11 | MAINLINER | User of ship going by sea (9) |
| &lit; MAIN ( sea ) LINER ( ship ) | ||
| 12 | SPANIARDS | Europeans in south with awful rain penetrating homes? (9) |
| S ( south ) { [ RAIN ]* in PADS ( homes ) } | ||
| 14 | REHAB | Graduate female’s suffering setback – restorative treatment needed (5) |
| reverse of BA ( graduate ) HER ( female’s ) | ||
| 16 | EPIDEMIOLOGISTS | They deal with medical problems sorting out oldies with impetigos (15) |
| [ OLDIES IMPETIGOS ]* | ||
| 19 | SACKS | Gets rid of jazz instrument’s sound (5) |
| sounds like SAX – jazz instrument | ||
| 21 | FORMULATE | Plan supporting Greek character with others given backing (9) |
| FOR ( supporting ) MU ( greek character ) LATE ( reverse of ET AL – others ) | ||
| 23 | LED ASTRAY | New deal on street – fellow deceived (3,6) |
| [ DEAL ]* ST ( street ) RAY ( fellow ) | ||
| 25 | SINIC | Chinese wickedness – something very cold putting English off– (5) |
| SIN ( wickedness ) ICe ( something very cold, without E – English ) | ||
| 26 | WIND INSTRUMENTS | Music-makers come first with awful noise, play badly – gents no good! (4,11) |
| WIN ( come first ) DIN ( awful noise ) STRUM ( play badly ) gENTS ( without G – good ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ADDRESSEES | Getting sadder, possibly notices people getting the message? (10) |
| [ SADDER ]* SEES ( notices ) | ||
| 2 | FASCIA | Is a cafe almost falling apart? Look at this above its window (6) |
| [ IS A CAFe ( almost ) ]* | ||
| 3 | ATROPINE | Poison can make you a bit upset before long (8) |
| A TRO ( reverse of ORT – bit or scrap ) PINE ( long ) – strictly speaking ATROPINE is not a poison ( unless you overdose ), its used to fight poisoning | ||
| 4 | PERM | Hairstyle of supermodel (4) |
| hidden in “..suPERModel” | ||
| 5 | PENINSULAR | Writer having restricted outlook from Iberia? (10) |
| PEN ( writer ) INSULAR ( having restricted outlook ) | ||
| 6 | PILLAR | What you expect to find written round bad monument? (6) |
| PAR ( what you expect to find, norm ) around ILL ( bad ) | ||
| 7 | DIANTHUS | Sunhat I’d chucked, something flowery (8) |
| [ SUNHAT ID ]* | ||
| 8 | ONER | Guerrilla can also appear with this remarkable person (4) |
| double def | ||
| 13 | RAINFOREST | One may be losing too many trees as frontier is shifted (10) |
| [ AS FRONTIER ]* | ||
| 15 | BASKET CASE | Having two things to carry makes one unbalanced (6,4) |
| cryptic def, BASKET and CASE are two things that can be used to carry | ||
| 17 | INCIDENT | Violent event? As one of the detectives, gets dispatched first off (8) |
| IN CID ( one of the detectives) sENT ( dispatched, without first letter ) | ||
| 18 | GRUESOME | Being nasty increased a great deal, we hear (8) |
| sounds like GREW SOME ( increased a great deal ) | ||
| 20 | SISKIN | One’s in hide to see bird (6) |
| IS ( one’s ) in SKIN ( hide ) | ||
| 22 | AWNING | A number in camp getting shelter (6) |
| A [ N ( number ) in WING ( camp ) ] | ||
| 23 | LAWN | Legislation has finally taken what should be green (4) |
| LAW ( legislation ) N ( takeN, finally ) | ||
| 24 | YORK | Royal house delivery when Queen is out (4) |
| YORKer ( delivery – a type of a ball bowled in the game of cricket, without ER – queen ) | ||
Another curate’s egg for me. Why oh why can’t the FT check their puzzles? Spent far too long trying to find some way of obtaining 15 letters for an anagram in 9a. Eventually gave up. In the end, I guessed the answer (new to me) and determined the erroneous extra I messing things up.
Only just understood 8d. The first part is a reference to the fact that GUERRILLA can be spelt with one R.
Didn’t care for 15d and thought the IN CID was a bit weak in 17d. Why should that refer to just one of the detectives?
Despite the editing slip-up, I enjoyed this Bradman grid with SISKIN, RAINFOREST and WIND INSTRUMEMTS my picks of the day.
I only found DEAD TREE EDITION after speculatively googling ‘dead tire edition’ so though I found the solution, the extra ‘i’ had me scratching my head. The expression was new to me but describes my preferred reading experience. Also new was ATROPINE. My LOI was ONER, a lucky guess.
Thanks to Bradman and to Turbolegs – Happy New Year to you both.
8d ONER was the pick of the day for me for its cryptic def, and like others I was disappointed by the apparent error in 9a. I also gave *s to 15d BASKETCASE and 11a.
I had a different parsing of 11a MAINLINER – to Mainline is to take drugs intravenously, so I had the definition as just “User”. Arguably semi &lit.
Thanks Bradman & Turbolegs!
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I enjoyed this one, but I did not parse ONER, did not know DIANTHUS, did not know the link between wing and camp for AWNING, and had never come across DEAD-TREE EDITION.
FWIW, I parsed 11a the way je4d did, and was disappointed with the apparent error in 9a. I didn’t know about yorker as a cricket clue, but figured York had to be the answer for 24d.
In 17d, could “one of” be the clue for “IN”, as in “he’s in that group of students“?
Otherwise I enjoyed the puzzle a great deal.
Enjoyable puzzle. 8d is very clever now I know what’s going on there – ONE R. I also had an ‘I’ left over, but just carried on assuming I’d parsed it wrong. Liked 16a and 13d.
Apologies for the extra I in 9A. The editor spotted it in August when I submitted the puzzle and I corrected the clue to ‘Do need it …, but the correction must have slipped through the net.
My fault. I noticed the error and forgot to update with correction. It was a hot summer….!
Bradamn @7 & Colin @8. Thanks for the comments – much appreciated (shame no such apologies for yesterday’s mishaps). Nice to know the error was noticed and corrected even if the correction didn’t make it. Easily done and I’ve done worse. Both puzzles had many great clues which is the main thing.
Minor Typo in 16
EDIDEMIOLOGISTS should be EPIDEMIOLOGISTS
Thanks Bradman for the challenge. I liked MAINLINER and FORMULATE; I missed SINIC and AWNING. SISKIN and RAINFOREST were both in recent crosswords if my memory’s correct. Thanks Turbolegs for parsing and to Hovis @1 for pointing out the cleverness of ONER.
Thanks all, for stopping by.
Hovis@1 – Thanks for the enlightenment on 8d, and Je4d@3, for the same for 11a.
Mark@10 – I fixed the typo. Thanks for highlighting it.
Colin, Don – Nice of you to comment on the unfortunate error.
Once again, happy new year folks. Stay safe.
Regards,
TL
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Enjoyed this and nearly got it completed in a single session but did need a second quicker one to close it out. Noticed something funny with the anagram fodder at 9a and ended up opting for the naughty double use of ‘ultimately’ to indicate the T of ‘it’ and the E of ‘averse’.
Had to revisit a number of clues, including the spelling of EPIDEMIOLOGISTS to get it to fit, change a spurious INTENT to AWNING and change my original CHER to an at first unparsed ONER (which took an age to see the really clever use of the dual spelling of ‘guerilla / guerrilla).
Liked the apt surface of 25a – they are certainly putting we Aussies off too at the moment – reminiscent of actions of somewhere else in the late 1930’s ! 🙁
Finished in the NE corner with PILLAR (the definition didn’t immediately fall for me), the previously unknown DEAD TREE term and that ONER as the last one in.