Klingsor, a compiler whose work I am more used to seeing on Thursdays, is occupying the Wednesday slot this week.
I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable, medium-difficulty puzzle, with plenty of lovely surfaces. I am satisfied with my parsing, perhaps with the exception of 10 – now corrected, thanks!
My favourite clues today were the concise quadruple definition at 1A; 5, for the unexpected use of “Spooner”; 6, for the & lit. component; 19, for the clever use of “stocking”; and 1D, 25 and 27, both for surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | POST | Send // Pole // to announce // appointment
Quadruple definition: to post is to send, mail AND a post is a pole, stake AND to post is to announce, e.g. a vacancy AND a post is an appointment (to a position) |
| 03 | REFLECTION | Republican fellow in vote shows consideration
R (=Republican) + [F (=fellow) in ELECTION (=vote)]; consideration is reflection, thinking about |
| 09 | STROPHE | Female pens revolutionary opening lines
TROP (PORT=opening, in the side of a ship, or a USB port; “revolutionary” indicates reversal) in SHE (=female) |
| 11 | DERANGE | Violent genre leads to attention deficit disorder
*(GENRE) + A<ttention> D<eficit> (“leads to” means first letter only); “violent” is anagram indicator; to disorder is to disturb the balance of the mind, hence to “derange” |
| 12 | IN ONE’S ELEMENT | One copper perhaps gathers nobody’s at home
NONE’S (=nobody’s) in [I (=one) + ELEMENT (=copper perhaps)] |
| 14 | ENEMA | Chaps in A&E returned for medical treatment
MEN (=chaps) in A + E (A&E); “returned” indicates reversal |
| 15 | STAMPEDED | Rushed to print by two editors
STAMP (=print, brand) + ED (=editor) + ED (=editor) |
| 17 | COMMISSAR | Soviet official giving order to young woman in taxi?
[OM (=order, i.e. Order of Merit) + MISS (=young woman)] in CAR (=taxi) |
| 19 | NOBEL | Christmas stocking originally bought for chemist
B<ought> (“originally” means first letter only) in NOËL (=Christmas); the reference is to Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833-96) |
| 21 | TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE | Eating duck, unfortunately no diet health dish
O (=duck, i.e. zero score in cricket) in *(NO DIET HEALTH); “unfortunately” is anagram indicator |
| 24 | PUDDING | Turned up, extremely disappointed by trendy golf course
PU (UP; “turned” indicates reversal) + D<isappointe>D (“extremely” means first and last letters only) + IN (=trendy, fashionable) + G (=golf, in radio telecommunications); pudding is a course of a meal |
| 25 | ESTONIA | Country dancing is not easy? Not half!
*(IS NOT + EA<sy>); “not half” means 2 of 4 letters are dropped from anagram, indicated by “dancing” |
| 26 | SPRINGTIME | Time of year bound to unite swallows beginning to migrate
SPRING (=bound, jump) + [M<igrate> (“beginning to” means first letter only) in TIE (=unite)] |
| 27 | PEKE | Dictator’s top dog
Homophone (“dictator’s”) of “peak (=top)”; a peke is a Pekinese dog |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PESTILENCE | Introduce steps to change pandemic
STILE (=steps, i.e. over a fence) in PENCE (=(small) change) |
| 02 | SCROOGE | Massage egos or start to criticise mean fellow
*(EGOS OR + C<riticise>); “start to” means first letter only is used in anagram, indicated by “massage” |
| 04 | ELEVENSES | Just tucked into additional small snack
EVEN (=just, level) in [ELSE (=additional) + S (=small, in sizes)] |
| 05 | LADLE | Some salad leaves a requirement for Spooner?
Hidden (“some”) in “saLAD LEaves”; cryptically, a ladle is a requirement for a spooner, i.e. someone serving with a spoon! |
| 06 | CORRESPONDENT | Send report on onset of conflict possibly, being this?
C<onflict> (“onset of” means first letter only) + *(SEND REPORT ON); “possibly” indicates anagram; semi- & lit. |
| 07 | IGNITED | Break in? I’d get fired
*(IN I’D GET), “break” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | NEED | Want to work on radio?
Homophone (“on the radio”) of “knead (=to work, e.g. dough)” |
| 10 | PREVARICATION | Quibbling before departure about college
C (=college) in [PRE- (=before) + VARIATION (=departure, deviation)] |
| 13 | ADULTERATE | Cut price of drug for grown-ups?
Cryptically, the “adult E (=ecstasy) rate” could be the “price of drug for grown-ups”; to cut is to dilute, adulterate |
| 16 | AIRSTREAM | Current plan to conceal bungled arrest
*(ARREST) in AIM (=plan); “bungled” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | MATADOR | Dispatcher of bull from Rome mostly carrying information around
DATA (=information) in ROM<e> (“mostly” means last letter is dropped); “around” indicates reversal |
| 20 | BROWNIE | Fairy // cake
Double definition: a brownie is a benevolent creature who may help with domestic work, hence fairy AND a (square piece of) rich chocolate cake |
| 22 | INGOT | Elected to leave on time for bar
IN (=elected, voted in) + GO (=to leave) + T (=time) |
| 23 | OPUS | Ring up about special work
O (=ring, i.e. pictorially) + PU (UP; “about” indicates reversal) + S (=special) |
I had departure meaning variation about c(ollege) in 10d
Very enjoyable. I think 10D is PRE + C inside VARIATION.
Agreed on 10. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks to Klingsor.
Thanks to flashling and Alliacol for correcting my parsing at 10 – I couldn’t get beyond seeing “departure” as the beginning of a journey or holiday. The blog has been corrected accordingly.
My parsing for 10d is C=college, in [PRE- (=before) + VARIATION (=departure from the norm)
Thanks RatkojaRiku, I hadn’t parsed 6D (which you have labelled as an extra 7D in the blog above) after entering it from crossers and the &littish definition that you noted.
I eventually came to the same conclusion as you re PREVARICATION having also thought that C may be College and VARIATION may be a kind of departure in the sense of a change to a usual theme or standard approach. Thinking about it now I am 50/50 but at least they both lead to the same answer!
I thought there were a lot of anagrams here where the fodder took a while to assemble, needing some cryptic work rather than just “spot the anagrind adjacent to fodder and get permutating”, so this was a nice challenge (6D a good example that I missed entirely).
But the real mark of a good puzzle for me was STROPHE, never heard of the word (any connection with ‘apostrophe’ or ‘catastrophe’?) but with all the crossers the answer was clear from the wordplay, and google confirmed it afterwards while teaching me something too, so hats off to Klingsor for a fine and fair puzzle.
Thanks for spotting the typo at 6D, Gazzh, which has now been corrected.
Thought this was an absolute cracker of a puzzle. Favourites were PESTILENCE & CORRESPONDENT with IN ONES ELEMENT & ADULTERATE as runners up. More please!
An absolute cracker indeed – as always from Klingsor.
I agree with all your favourites, RR, for the same reasons as yours, especially for the Spoonerism which, mercifully, wasn’t – but I can’t stop there.
I had ticks, too, for STROPHE, REFLECTION, PUDDING, SPRINGTIME, PESTLIENCE, AIRSTREAM and INGOT – all for the lovely surfaces (although there wasn’t a dud one anywhere).
Gazzh @6 – “STROPHE, never heard of the word (any connection with ‘apostrophe’ or ‘catastrophe’?” Yes, indeed – a very good explanation here
Many thanks to both for a lovely puzzle and blog.
PESTILENCE, of course.
DNF by a long way , having read through this there was nothing that in principle we couldn’t do – we just couldn’t do it!
PEKE annoyed us for hours having got the crossers we still had no idea and now it’s obvious we were not looking for a dictator!
Thanks Klingsor for the challenge and to RR for putting us out of our misery!
We seem able to get on to Klingsor’s wavelength, so this was a relatively gentle exercise for us. Plenty to enjoy – we particularly liked LADLE for the ‘non-spoonerism’.
Thanks, Klingsor and RatkojaRiku
Nice challenge.. enjoyable throughout..
Thanks Klingsor n RatkojaRiku
Thank you Eileen@9 for a very interesting link – shame he seems not to have posted for a while.