A nice straight-forward solve from Tyrus today…or is there more than meets the eye?…
I managed to solve most of this fairly quickly, but had to look up ASHRAF as it was a new word to me, and I had to get a little external help with parsing EARTH.
I enjoyed the AFRICAN LION anagram for CALIFORNIAN at 3D, although the anagram indicator of ‘shot’ gave it a disturbing undercurrent of trophy hunting. ‘Flaming Nora’ in 2D PANORAMIC raised a chucklesome eyebrow. Favourite was probably 20D, with the misdirection of ‘rock’ away from geology and towards music..
But there were some little niggles in the back of my mind, with some odd-looking cross-references: between SPACE LASERS at 1A,4A and CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES at 3D,18D. And what links 27A ROTHSCHILD to 1A, 4A? More to the point, what the blazes is a SPACE LASER in real life? Sounds a bit sci-fi, and doesn’t appear as a phrase in Chambers.
So I did a quick Go-ogle on ‘SPACE LASERS’ and uncovered a Pandora’s box of a Nina! It turns out that in 2018 some FRINGE American loony (Marjorie TAYLOR GREENE, Representative for Georgia – appearing in the left and right unchecked cog-teeth) was peddling online conspiracy theories about Jewish (ROTHSCHILD) involvement in space-age schemes to focus the sun’s energy and then beam it down to EARTH from SPACE LASERS. It seems she thought that these beams were somehow misdirected and ended up causing the deadly CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES that year (rather than the more scientifically-based explanation that it was climate change and environmental destruction that was causing them…).
Tyrus has picked up on this and woven it into the fabric of this puzzle. It also makes 23D a more impressive clue, with its description of an ‘unconventional’ female Republican from Georgia! Dare I suggest that he thinks she is a bit of a 30A, and is telling her to 9D?…
Many thanks to Tyrus for an entertaining romp through the world of conspiracy theorists… I’m sure many will have spotted the Nina, and some may have enjoyed the puzzle in its own right without seeing it, as I very nearly did…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | SPACE LASERS | & 4 Cause of 3,18, it’s been claimed – crass! Please go for treatment (5,6) | cause of 3, 18, its been claimed (by US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene) / anag, i.e. go for treatment, of CRASS PLEASE |
|
| 4A | see 1A | See 1A (6) | see 1A / see 1A |
|
| 10A | TORN | Rector charging hundred for rent (4) | rent / TO_N (hundred, e.g. in cricket or car speed) around (charged by) R (rector) |
|
| 11A | LAUNDERING | City junior left out what crook might be doing with money (10) | what crook might be doing with money / LA (Los Angeles, city) + UNDER( |
|
| 12A | ASHRAF | Has to move a long way back for descendants of Muhammad (6) | descendants of Muhammad / ASH (anag, i.e. to move, of HAS) + RAF (far, a long way, back) |
|
| 13A | TOUCHIER | Cry of anguish during row – becoming more sensitive (8) | more sensitive / T_IER (row) around OUCH (cry of anguish) |
|
| 15A | YLEM | Carlyle maybe covering original matter (4) | original matter / hidden word in, i.e. covered by, ‘carlYLE Maybe’ |
|
| 16A | see 28D | See 28 Down (4) | see 28D / see 28D |
|
| 17A | DAWDLE | Potter’s wife and daughter in valley (6) | potter / DA_LE (valley) around WD (Wife & Daughter) |
|
| 19A | LITCHI | Tree burning – 27 content partially? (6) | tree / LIT (burning) + CHI (letters from the middle, or partial content, of ‘rothsCHIld’ |
|
| 21A | ODE | Was due to read out lines (3) | lines (of poetry) / homophone – ODE (lines of poetry) sounds like OWED (was due) |
|
| 22A | LIFE | Force to stop misrepresentation – go! (4) | go! / LI_E (misrepresentation) around (stopped by) F (force) |
|
| 24A | ONE-LINER | Crack on, right – English runner going a long way round (3-5) | (wise)crack / ON_R (ON & Right) around ELINE (E – English – plus NILE – ‘runner’ going a long way!, all around) |
|
| 26A | MUFFIN | Cake’s smell I’m not too sure about (6) | cake / NIFF (smell) + UM (I’m not too sure) – all about, or reversed |
|
| 27A | ROTHSCHILD | One lacking attacked this rich old member of family responsible for 1,4, allegedly (10) | member of family responsible for 1,4, allegedly / anag, i.e. attacked, of THIS R( |
|
| 29A | RAGE | Romeo’s time for passion (4) | passion / R (Romeo, phonetic alphabet) + AGE (time) |
|
| 30A | SCROTE | Escort out pretty unpleasant person (6) | pretty unpleasant person / anag, i.e. out, of ESCORT |
|
| 31A | OF USE | Liberal not present – that’s handy (2,3) | handy / ( |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | PANORAMIC | One flaming woman – Marjorie – initially kept in picture? That’s taking a broad view (9) | taking a broad view / P_IC (picture) around (keeping) A (one) + NORA (from ‘flaming Nora’, a mildly vulgar interjection, expressing frustration) + M (Marjorie, initially) |
|
| 3D | CALIFORNIAN | Statesman shot African lion (11) | statesman (person from a US state) / anag, i.e. shot, of AFRICAN LION |
|
| 5D | see 28D | See 28 (11) | see 28D / see 28D |
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| 6D | EARTH | Cycling race at home ground (5) | ground / EART (the letters of TEAR, or race, cycling round) + H (at home, indicating a home ground sporting event) |
|
| 7D | SAND EEL | Swimmer in northern city upset about article (4,3) | swimmer / S_DEEL (Leeds, Northern – in the UK – city, upset) around AN (article) |
|
| 8D | MORSEL | Little bit extra? Son’s grabbed 50! (6) | little bit / MOR_E (extra) around (grabbing) S (son), plus L (50, Roman numeral) |
|
| 9D | BUTTON YOUR LIP | Bit loopy, endlessly untrue rambling – best say no more! (6,4,3) | best say no more / anag, i.e. rambling, of BIT LOOPY + UNTRU( |
|
| 14D | UNDREAMED-OF | Crazy dame found defending subject never previously considered (9-2) | never previously considered / UND_AMED-OF (anag, i.e. crazy, of DAME FOUND) around (defending) RE (Latin, re, thing, or subject) |
|
| 18D | WILDFIRES | Dead tree involved in trickery with others ultimately – ecological disaster (9) | ecological disaster / WIL_E (trickery) around D (dead) + FIR (tree), plus S (ultimate letter of otherS) |
|
| 20D | IGNEOUS | Kind of rock music essentially gone weird (7) | kind of rock (geological, not musical!) / anag, i.e. weird, of (M)USI(C) (essentially) + GONE |
|
| 23D | FRINGE | Female Republican in Georgia’s unconventional (6) | unconventional / F (female) + R (Republican) + IN + GE (Ge, International Vehicle Registration abbreviation for Georgia the country – whereas the ‘unconventional female’ in question is from Georgia the state – GA) |
|
| 25D | LEHAR | Scorer Henry cuts a tragic figure (5) | (musical) scorer (Franz Lehar) / LE_AR (King Lear, tragic figure) around (cut by) H (Henry, SI unit) |
|
| 28D | CUT AND RUN | & 5 & 16 Share a new doctor – French one didn’t hang around (3,3,3) | didn’t hang around / CUT (share, ration) + A + N (new) + DR (doctor) + UN (French, one) |
|
Chapeau for the spot mc. I was aware of the conspiracy theories and thought the three or four solutions clearly pertaining thereto was as afar as the them went. You have revealed a whole new layer and I agree with your suspicions about other clues that could be linked. Very clever indeed.
Quite a few unknown words for me but they all solved from the clueing: ASRAF, YLEM, LITCHI, SCROTE (though I could guess at that one) and LEHAR is a composer I’ve only ever encountered in crosswords. I loved LAUNDERING, DAWDLE, ONE-LINER (beautifully disguised definition), PANORAMIC and CALIFORNIAN in line with our blogger, SAND EELS, WILDFIRES and FRINGE. I did feel the past tense clueing of CUT AND RUN possibly should have been reflected in the final word but I guess it’s one of those occasions where the grammatically incorrect is tolerated because it’s part of a phrase.
Thanks Tyrus and mc_rapper67
Thanks mcr, tyrus is a master grid filler that’s for sure. I saw the side Nina coming early on which helped a lot but took ages to fully get OF USE.
Tyrus/Vlad is one of my favourite setters and this didn’t disappoint. Saw the nina but didn’t bother googling to find the details and so left ROTHSCHILD as parsed but with the definition unexplained.
Couldn’t parse EARTH though. I’m sure I’ve seen H for “home” before but I didn’t think of it.
Didn’t know ASHRAF and YLEM. I’m particularly surprised that I’ve never met the latter.
I found this easier than usual for Tyrus, whose challenges usually defeat me – but not this time. Great fun, though the screwball MTG had somehow evaded my attention heretofore. At 23D my first thought was the US postal code version of Georgia (GA), then remembered the international vehicle codes. Thanks Tyrus and McRapper.
Pretty much everything Hovis@3 said goes for me as well. Except I did look up the nina and got rather depressed.
Thanks mc_rapper67
A lot of unknown words (same as postmark@1), an unwillingness to accept ge as Georgia, and absolutely no awareness of the conspiracy theory made this tricky for us.
Doh! I managed to get the story, when SPACE LASERS emerged as the only possible fit for 1/4, so I googled them, thus opening everything up. I had wondered, while solving, why Tyrus had chose Marjorie for the initial in 2dn – nice touch. But – I completely failed to see the Nina!!
Brilliant puzzle and splendid blog. Many thanks to both.
Had choseN!
Hmmm. If you don’t know about the conspiracy theory you wouldn’t get ROTHSCHILD, without which you’ve got no hope with LITCHI. (And you’d only get SPACE LASERS because it’s the only possible anagram.) A shame because some of the other clues were brilliant.
It being a Tyrus puzzle, we expected a struggle but having solved 3 and 18 as a preliminary to 1/4 we also got SPACE LASERS as the anagram and, like Eileen, googled that term whereupon the whole theme opened up – although we didn’t spot the nina till we’d finished. We had to check YLEM and SCROTE in Chambers but had no problems with the rest.
IGNEOUS was our favourite.
Thanks, Tyrus and mc_rapper67.
Good fun this morning! And a new conspiracy theory on us. We spent longer than two musicians care to admit playing the game of ‘footballer or composer’ for 25. New words were LITCHI, YLEM and ASHRAF and we had a high unparsed rate with 11, 22, 24, 31 and 6.
Call us immature but our favourite today was SCROTE which we shall now attempt to weave into our daily parlance.
I’m surprised at the number of comments on GE for Georgia, as this has cropped up many times in the past. GA for the US state is normal, but GE for the country is also normal.
Keith @9. Obviously, given my comment @3, I would have to disagree. I got ROTHSCHILD from the wordplay alone. LITCHI was my loi but I have seen this variant spelling before.
I also got Rothschild from the wordplay, idly wondered what it had to do with anything, and even more idly knew the blog would reveal all. Which it did, and then some, so thanks to mc_rapper67! Ylem was new to me. Loved laundering, dawdle, panoramic and Californian, among many others. Have loved the word scrote since I first heard it on Porridge years ago. Thanks and respect to Tyrus for a brilliant crossword.
Thanks for the various comments and feedback – looks like this was generally well received, except for those that aren’t too bothered about Ninas?… As I tried to make clear in the blog, there are some (several!) clues where the theme is helpful/necessary to make sense of the solution/definition, although I think most of them are gettable from the wordplay/crossers.
Eric W at #6 (and others) – for 23D FRINGE I probably should have indicated the misdirection of Ge = Georgia the country, while the reading/theme is more about Georgia the state. Have updated that.
Hovis at #3 – I certainly wouldn’t have parsed 6D EARTH on my own – I spent ages trying to make ‘race’ part of a subtractive anagram. Spoiler alert – but we bloggers do get advance sight of the puzzles, and hidden in the depths of the .JPZ file there is often the setter’s/editor’s explanation of the parsing of each clue. I have written a small macro to extract the clues and the grid from the .JPZ, and chanced upon this extra information in the process. I usually only refer to post-solving, or in extremis to help with the blog, and certainly wouldn’t use it to complete a grid if this was still a Prize puzzle…
Jayjay at #14 and Labradoodle at #11 – yes, it was nice to be reminded of the word SCROTE, and thanks for the Porridge reference – I probably remember it (subconsciously) from there as well!
Fantastic puzzle and blog. Mr. Rothschild, if you’re out there, I can think of a good target for your space laser.
Magnificent stuff from Tyrus, chortle.
many thanks to him and to mc_rapper
I chose a good day to do an Indie. My social media feed was full of Jewish space lasers about two months ago, as most everyone I know (*especially* most of my Jewish friends!) found the whole thing quite a hoot. So I was onto Tyrus’s game, and I found this highly enjoyable as a result. I didn’t see the Nina though–I never see those. New to me were Ylem and Ashraf, so that corner went in last, but it was a case of Google-to-confirm, not Google-to-solve, so the clues were utterly fair.
[Rep. Taylor Greene is an extreme example, but is still sadly emblematic of what the modern Republican party has become. (There always have been batty people, of course, but what’s different now is that they are getting themselves elected to Congress.) Farther than that I shan’t go, except to say that we’ve already moved on to another Republican congressman enmeshed in scandal and embarrassment: when, do you suppose, can we expect a Matt Gaetz-themed puzzle? Though that one’s more sordid than silly.]
That was tough. I’d not heard of the conspiracy theory and I, too, got 27ac solely from the word play. So, I didn’t spot the Nina. ASHRAF isn’t in Chambers, and for some reason I never got round to googling it.
Great start but came unstuck after a few and ground out some (including the aforementioned ROSTHCHILD) from wordplay and then the final few were down to our old mate Reveal Letter
No idea on theme or Nina so thanks mc_rapper for making sense of the linked clues and thanks Tyrus
Many thanks to mc_rapper for a super blog and to others who commented.
Once more a crossword that was, what I call, inspirational.
[and Ms B (my solving partner) has Tyrus/Vlad now as her favourite setter – hurrah1]
My comment @22 might suggest there is a ‘hurrah2’.
No, just a typo [‘hurrah!’].
Of course, thanks to mc_rapper67 too.
Tyrus at #21 – thanks for popping in, and for your kind words.
Sil at #22/23 – I thought you might be suggesting this puzzle deserves [hurrah * 3] ?
Great blog as well as puzzle.