Like the last Indy I blogged, Raich’s 10,678, I started this at a canter in the top half, but ground to a halt further down – and was eventually flummoxed by one bit of fairly specialist GK, and a cunning wild cat…
There were so many wonderful clues here:
- the punning ‘vocal encouragement’ for AT(T)A-TURK!
- the CAMEL as an ‘occasional drinker’, arriving at an oasis and then leaving, without a trace in the sand
- the Mormons in UTAH ‘making do’ with one husband (I think the polygamy there is very male-centred and one-to-many?!)
- the cinematic ‘high spot’ when (B)RIDGE(T) Jones stripped off (I must have missed that bit in the film(s)?!)
- the two-pronged Dickensian references for BUMBLE
- the French alto singer carrying his CELESTA in a case
- the Cyclops-ean 16D, with its ‘aroused’ Greek character…ooo-errr missus!
- the RECIPIENT at 26A getting 11 percent ‘off’
- the corpulently UN-THIN KING at 21A
- the divided nation of KOREA being subject to sanctions
- I could go on…well, actually, I have…!
My next-to-LOI’s were NEOPLATONIC and INAUTHENTIC, both needing all the crossers I could get, and not helping myself with the latter by lazily entering UNAUTHENTIC, until I re-checked the anagram fodder.
I then became stuck on the ‘general’ at 13D – fairly clearly an anagram of I DEAL BASIC, and I narrowed it down to probably being between ALBICIADES and ALCIBIADES, but had to guess (wrongly, as it turned out) and then look him up.
And I was completely stumped by NOTONECTA – some cunning wordplay that I only unpicked (NOT ON = off!) after using a pattern-matcher to find those pesky back-swimming bugs…
Thinking about it, ATATURK is also fairly specialist GK. I always remember him from the Monty Python ‘Fish Licence‘ sketch, where John Cleese justifies having a series of unlikely pets, all called Eric, by pointing out that ‘…there’s nothing so odd about that: Kemal Ataturk had an entire menagerie called Abdul!…’, before launching into the ‘Eric the Half-a-Bee’ song. (‘Diddle-de-dum, diddle-de-dee, Eric the half-a-bee…‘ will be earworming me all day now!)
The MacGuffin at 5A could also be classed as GK – I was vaguely aware of ROSEBUD in Citizen Kane from a previous puzzle, but just assumed there was a character called Rosebud MacGuffin in the film, until I looked it up later. But, like ATATURK, ROSEBUD could reasonably be expected to be got from the wordplay, whereas the straight anagram for 13D meant you really had to know your Greek history to get that one.
Many thanks to Wiglaf, for a puzzle that was enjoyable to solve (or try to solve, given that it was a rare DNF for me, with those two external look-ups), and even more enjoyable to unpick and analyse for the blog!
Hopefully all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | ATATURK | Vocal encouragement for a Eurasian statesman (7) | (Turkish) statesman (Kemal Ataturk) / homophone, i.e. vocal – the prefix ‘atta-‘ is usually attached to a noun and used as an encouragment – i.e. ‘attaboy/girl!’, meaning ‘that’s the boy/girl!’. If you wanted to encourage a Eurasian person, specifically a Turk, you might say ‘atta-Turk’, which sounds like (Kemal) Ataturk! |
|
| 5A | ROSEBUD | MacGuffin in Citizen Kane got out of bed and returned call (7) | MacGuffin, in Citizen Kane / ROSE (got out of bed) + BUD (dub, call, returned). A MacGuffin is a cinematic plot device, e.g. the ‘Rosebud’ motif in Citizen Kane. |
|
| 9A | RECLAIMED | Recovered soldiers made an allegation (9) | recovered / RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) + CLAIMED (made an allegation) |
|
| 10A | CAMEL | Occasional drinker arrived, then left (5) | occasional drinker(!) / CAME (arrived) then L (left) |
|
| 11A | POSE | Present writer adopts son (4) | present / PO_E (Edgar Allan, writer) around (adopting) S (son) |
|
| 12A | ESPECIALLY | Pieces composed by partner in particular (10) | in particular / ESPECI (anag, i.e. composed, of PIECES) + ALLY (partner) |
|
| 14A | NEOPLATONIC | One devastated without sex, following a particular philosophy (11) | following a particular philosophy / NEO (anag, i.e. devastated, of ONE) + PLATONIC (without sex) |
|
| 18A | INAUTHENTIC | That university in Nice, unfortunately, is fake (11) | fake / anag, i.e. unfortunately, of THAT + U (university) + IN NICE |
|
| 21A | UNTHINKING | Tactless, corpulent monarch? (10) | tactless / UNTHIN (if someone is corpulent, or fat, then they are logically un-thin?!) + KING (monarch) |
|
| 23A | HERO | Lecherous boxing champion (4) | champion / hidden word in, i.e. boxed in by, ‘lecHEROus’ |
|
| 25A | BROOD | A lot of children ponder morbidly (5) | double defn. / a BROOD can be a number of children (human or animal!); and to BROOD can be to ponder morbidly |
|
| 26A | RECIPIENT | I get 11 per cent off (9) | I get / anag, i.e. off, of II (eleven) + PER CENT |
|
| 27A | CELESTA | Instrument this French alto carries in case (7) | instrument / CE (this, in French) + A (alto), around (carrying) LEST (in case) |
|
| 28A | ARCHAIC | Very old chief meets foreign agents from the east (7) | very old / ARCH (chief, principal) + AIC (CIA, foreign – to anywhere non-US – agents, reversed, or from the east) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | ATROPINE | Left in denial after losing case over drug (8) | drug / ( |
|
| 2D | ANCESTOR | Participator in your descent or ascent, oddly (8) | participator in your descent(!) / anag, i.e. oddly, of OR ASCENT |
|
| 3D | UTAH | Place with Mormons making do with one husband (4) | Place with Mormons / UT (do or doh, musical, note) + A (one) + H (husband) |
|
| 4D | KAMA SUTRA | Mad as a Turk, mother admitted illustrating Hindu text (4,5) | (graphically illustrated!) Hindu text / KA_ SUTRA (anag, i.e. mad, of AS A TURK) around (admitting) MA (mother) [I think ‘illustrating’ just a linking/ancillary word, rather than part of the wordplay or definition?] |
|
| 5D | RIDGE | High spot when Miss Jones stripped off (5) | high spot / ( |
|
| 6D | SUCCINCTER | Curt and concise but lacking nothing, somehow more to the point (10) | more to the point / anag, i.e. somehow, of CURT + C( |
|
| 7D | BUMBLE | Dickensian beadle, beginning to behave like Uriah Heep? (6) | Dickensian beadle / B (beginning letter of Behave) + UMBLE (humble, as pronounced by Uriah Heep) |
|
| 8D | DELAYS | Stalls of French poet’s works (6) | stalls / DE (of, French) + LAYS (poetic works – poems or songs) |
|
| 13D | ALCIBIADES | I deal with basic training in general (10) | (ancient Athenian) general / anag, i.e. training, of I DEAL + BASIC |
|
| 15D | NOTONECTA | European wild cat, chasing off bugs doing the backstroke? (9) | bugs doing the backstroke? / NOT ON (off!) before (chased by) E (European) + CTA (anag, i.e. wild, of CAT) |
|
| 16D | ET CETERA | Greek character stays erect when aroused, and that’s not all (2,6) | and that’s not all… / ET _A (Greek character) around (restraining, or staying) CETER (anag, i.e. aroused, of ERECT) |
|
| 17D | ACROSTIC | Angry for the most part being grabbed by a jerk? That’s puzzling! (8) | (something) that’s puzzling / A + TIC (jerk, spasm) around (grabbing) CROS( |
|
| 19D | QUEBEC | A little clique became a province (6) | a (Canadian) province / hidden word in, i.e. a little of, ‘cliQUE BECame’ |
|
| 20D | STROLL | Constitutional state, initially being linked with Scandinavia (6) | constitutional / S (initial letter of State) + TROLL (mythical Scandinavian monster, as opposed to online bully!) |
|
| 22D | KOREA | Sanction lifted on a divided land (5) | divided land / KO (OK, or sanction, lifted) + RE (on, regarding) + A |
|
| 24D | EPIC | Heroic subject having to give way to English (4) | heroic / ( |
|
My experience was similar to that of our blogger today: a puzzle of two halves. 13D was impossible for those like me who’d never heard of that particular general, without searching online, and I also needed wordlist confirmation for 15D. But two more words to add to my vocabulary, so thanks Wiglaf and McRapper.
I thought this very tricky, but generally fair. The Greek general was a bit of a stretch. I liked 16 down, ET CETERA, among others. Thanks Wiglaf and McRapper, the latter for a very full blog.
Thanks Wiglaf and mc_rapper67
I think ‘illustrating’ is indeed part of the definition in 4 as it’s a graphic/illustrating text
Great fun. Loved the un-thin king and the lest in celesta. No problems with the General, but I had to check that notonecta was actually a thing. 6d perfectly fine clue but succincter is one ugly word. Many thanks to Wiglaf and especially to mc_rapper67 for the very entertaining and informative blog.
As above… except too much guesswork and looking up to make it truly enjoyable… I’d add CELESTA to specialised knowledge list – no way I could get it from the clue… given that ‘this’ in French could be CE, CEL, CET, CETTE etc .. on brighter note ROSEBUD was a write-in!! CAMEL n UNTHINKING also…swings and roundabouts
thanks to Wiglaf and mc_rapper67
As undrell@5 says, too much guesswork and looking up to make it truly enjoyable. For instance we only got 13dn from an anagram solver and then had to google to confirm. But we liked the Dickensian beadle, the partner’s pieces and the well-rounded king.
Thanks, Wiglaf and mc_rapper67.
I’m always pleased when I find it hard that more experienced solvers do too – I did enjoy the ones I got – UNTHINKING and BUMBLE my favourites
Thanks to Wiglaf and mc_rapper67
Like most of the other comments, parts of this were outside my GK – not just the general and backswimmer, but also the drug, and the use of UT as an equivalent to DO, but many of the clues compensated for this – ATATURK, UNTHINKING and BUMBLE. And MacGuffin for ROSEBUD was one I understood straight away.
Very enjoyable, although I was stumped by NOTONECTA and had to resort to Wikipedia. I think I’ve seen UNTHINKING before, or something like it, which is a good thing because otherwise the SW would have been pretty difficult. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Tombsy #7 I’m with you. I consider myself an inexperienced setter and one of the best things I get from this blog is the thoughts of people more expert and just let’s face it, cleverer than I am
Thanks to all those who commented and to mc_rapper67 for the wonderful blog. In 4D, ‘illustrating’ was indeed intended to be a link word
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – especially Wiglaf, for your kind words, and for confirming on ‘illustrating’.
Sounds like most enjoyed this one – a few struggled on some of the GK, but they aren’t complaining too much…an educational journey!