Independent 10,872 / Dill

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Dill is occupying this week’s Tuesday slot. Dill is a compiler whose work I have limited experience of blogging and solving, so I wasn’t quite sure what lay in store for me today.

I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzled, finding it to be of medium difficulty, so just right for a mid-week solve. Today is Tuesday, so one expects a theme, perhaps a quotation from Dryden, but I haven’t found anything. I look forward to being enlightened by fellow solvers shortly. I would also be grateful for confirmation of my parsing at 29 – I am not totally sure whether I have plumped for the right initial letter!

My favourite clues today are 13, for its deceptive surface and its topicality; 15, for originality; 18 and 25, both for smoothness of surface. The entry at 19 was new to me, as indeed was the term “lawmonger”.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across  
   
01 MISSPENT Young female writer before detox essentially wasted

MISS (=young female) + PEN (=writer, author) + <de>T<ox> (“essentially” means middle letter only)
   
05 DRYDEN Study follows boring old writer

DRY (=boring, of style) + DEN (=study); the reference is to English writer John Dryden (1631-1700)
   
10 LUNATIC Mad idiot picked up a jerk

Homophone (“picked up”) of “loon (=idiot)” + A + TIC (=jerk, twitch)
   
11 IMPOSER Promise breaking taxman

*(PROMISE); “breaking” is anagram indicator; an imposer is someone who levies a tax
   
12 EDISON Inventor lacking edge retrospectively

(having) NO SIDE (=lacking edge); “retrospectively” indicates reversal; the reference is to US inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
   
13 FURLOUGH Leave coat beside Irish lake

FUR (=coat) + LOUGH (=Irish lake, i.e. the Irish version of the Scottish loch)
   
15 TRAINSPOTTER Anorak wearer possibly teaches at Hogwarts

Cryptically, one who possibly teaches at Hogwarts “trains (Harry) Potter”!
   
19 PETTIFOGGERS Global traveller detained by more insignificant society lawmongers

FOGG (=global traveller, i.e. Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days) in [PETTIER (=more insignificant) + S (=society)]; pettifoggers are lawyers who deal, often deceptively and quibblingly, with trivial cases
   
22 ALARMIST Worried ram tails one crying ‘wolf’

*(RAM TAILS); “worried” is anagram indicator
   
24 SWARMS Masses of text describing conflict

WAR (=conflict) in SMS (=text, in mobile telephony)
   
26 TAKES ON Adopts appropriate child

TAKE (=appropriate, seize) + SON (=child)
   
27 ROMANCE Date an Italian chef regularly

ROMAN (=Italian) + C<h>E<f> (“regularly” means alternate letters only; to romance is to woo, court, hence to “date”
   
28 RED-EYE Communist spy’s early flight

RED (=Communist) + EYE (=(to) spy (on); a red-eye is an overnight plane journey
   
29 DWINDLED Became less fooled when son replaced first daughter

SWINDLED (=fooled); “when son (=S) replaced first daughter (=D)” means “s” would replace first letter “d” in word
   
Down  
   
01 MILDEW Picked up plant expected to produce fungus

Homophone (“picked up”) of “MILL (=plant, factory) + DUE (=expected)”
   
02 SYNDIC Legal representative’s brief coordination interrupted by senior investigator

DI (=senior investigator, i.e. Detective Inspector) in SYNC<h> (=coordination, as in to be in synch; “brief” means last letter is dropped); a syndic is a person chosen to transact business for others, hence “legal representative”
   
03 POTPOURRI Serve into, or tip out, fragrant mixture

POUR (=serve (out)) in *(OR TIP); “out” is anagram indicator
   
04 NICE Some vegan ice-cream is quite pleasant

Hidden (“some”) in vegaN ICE-cream”
   
06 REPEL Drive off revolting social outcast

LEPER (=social outcast); “revolting” indicates vertical reversal
   
07 DISGUSTS Offends underworld boss with emotional outbursts

DIS (=underworld boss, in Greek mythology) + GUSTS (=emotional outbursts)
   
08 NORTHERN Arctic // underground line

Double definition
   
09 MINUS SIGN Mathematical indicator of negative balance perhaps

MINUS (=negative) + SIGN (=balance perhaps, i.e. of zodiac)
   
14 LIMOUSINE I’m getting round America on board stock car

[I’M + O (=round, i.e. pictorially) + US (=America, i.e. United States)] in LINE (=stock, descent)
   
16 OARSWOMEN A news room broadcast for lady athletes

*(A NEWS ROOM); “broadcast” is anagram indicator
   
17 SPLATTER Southern dish for pepper

S (=southern) + PLATTER (=dish); to pepper is to splatter, sprinkle
   
18 ATTACKED Changed course after Ascot extremely harshly criticised

A<sco>T (“extremely” means first and last letters only) + TACKED (=changed course, in sailing)
   
20 URINAL Place where men go when river floods home

IN (=(at) home) in URAL (=river); the “go” of the definition refers to weeing, peeing
   
21 ASCEND Get high through exotic dances

*(DANCES); “exotic” is anagram indicator
   
23 MUSKY Sexy smelling like a Tesla owner?

Cryptically, musky could mean “like a Tesla owner”, referring to Elon Musk (1971-)
   
25 DRAW Attraction of up and coming protégée

WARD (=protégée); “up and coming” indicates vertical reversal
   
   

 

12 comments on “Independent 10,872 / Dill”

  1. Yes for 29A as written – the definition has to be at the beginning or the end of the clue. Solving online with the ‘D’ popped up 100% correct.

  2. 29A is correctly parsed I’d say,

    6D I thought was a reversal revolting being uprising rather than an anagram, though both obviously work.

    2D I’d parsed as DI in SYNC and the brief referred to the definition SYNDIC(ATE) – I think your parsing is better tho RR

    Not too difficult but just right for a Tuesday

    Thanks Dill and RR.

  3. This was not too tricky and good fun, although it was bit of a shame to find “picked up” used twice as a homophone indicator, and I think RED-EYE is an American term.

    I took 9d to be a “semi &lit” where the whole clue is the definition but only part is the wordplay.

    My top two were PETTIFOGGERS and FURLOUGH.

    Many thanks to Dill and to RR.

  4. I ‘Became’ more, rather than ‘less fooled’ by 29a, and just about entered ‘swindled’, but opted for DWINDLED because of the position of the def in the clue, as pointed out by mw7000 @1. I hadn’t heard of a SYNDIC and although I’d come across PETTIFOGGERS before, I didn’t know it had specific legal connotations.

    Further to Blah @2’s comment, I parsed ‘revolting’ in 6d as a reversal, rather than anagram, indicator; otherwise it would mean a (supposedly) verboten indirect anagram.

    Thanks to Dill (and welcome back for your first 2021 Indy puzzle) and to RR

  6. So far in the SKY I can see a bit of MIST – no FOG Maybe the GUSTS of WIND have blown away the RAIN altogether it’s MILD. Just like the crossword.
    Many thanks.

  9. Struggled to think of the global traveller and hadn’t come across a SYNDIC previously but all became clear eventually – another entry for the theme?
    Top three for me were FURLOUGH, TRAINSPOTTER & MILDEW.

    Thanks to Dill – after all the work you had done on the house I do hope you’re not now battling with mildew! – and thanks to RR for the review.

  12. Yes, I agree with Blah and WordPlodder about the vertical reversal at 6D, and I have amended the blog accordingly. What clinched it for me was needing to avoid the forbidden indirect anagram!

    Well done to all those who have spotted weather terms – I can’t believe that I didn’t see them!

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