Some relatively gentle fun-and-games from Tees this week…
…with a theme-ette involving 13D 6D and an impressively long anagram at 1A.
I glossed over 1A initially, deciding to wait until I had some crossers and some idea of 13D 6D.
Things progressed fairly smoothly – with some admiring ticks and exclamation marks in my solving notes, particularly at the use of POTATOES as partial anagram fodder for OSTEOPATHY at 3D; the ‘repeated blows’ of the KISS OF LIFE; ‘Mum’s one’, as a definition for DEODORANT; and the legend/leg end of Tees for MY FOOT at 20D!
Once 13D had fallen, and enough crossers helped with confirmation, it was a relatively simple task to find the Edward Lear poem, ‘THE DONG WITH A LUMINOUS NOSE’, at 1A. I was vaguely aware of this work, but this was a useful opportunity to revisit it. I couldn’t find any other thematic linkage – none of the other answers seem to feature significantly in the poem, or in other Lear titles, but there may be other Lear links – did he study at the SORBONNE?…or visit SOUTH DAKOTA?!
My LOI (last one in) was SORBONNE at 7D, as I spent too long trying to squeeze a U in there for ‘university’ to make a capital city; and my LOP (last one parsed), as I wrote up the blog, was 5D, when I finally twigged that the IP of IPSO FACTO was actually 1p – a small monetary amount:
I hope I haven’t missed anything else of importance…many thanks to Tees, and hopefully all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | THE DONG | & 23 & 17 & 12 Not properly two-dimensional, thus enough for 13 6 (3,4,4,1,8,4) | 13 6 (Edward Lear poem) / anag, i.e. not properly, of ‘TWO-DIMENSIONAL THUS ENOUGH’ |
|
| 5A | IMPASSE | Dead end that is restricting motorway flow (7) | dead end / I_E (id est, that is), around (restricting) M (motorway) + PASS (flow) |
|
| 9A | OVERT | Public upset when vase goes missing (5) | public / OVERT( |
|
| 10A | OBSTETRIC | Dealing with Labour, bitter, so involved with Conservative (9) | dealing with labour / OBSTETRI (anag, i.e. involved, of BITTER SO) + C (Conservative) |
|
| 11A | KISS OF LIFE | Repeated blows bringing one round? (4,2,4) | CD / the KISS OF LIFE involves the repeated blowing of air into the lungs, with the aim of bringing one round! |
|
| 12A | NOSE | See 1 (4) | see 1A / see 1A |
|
| 14A | ANTECEDENCE | Coming into hectic canteen, surrender priority (11) | priority / ANTE_NCE (anag, i.e. hectic, of CANTEEN) around CEDE (surrender) |
|
| 18A | SOUTH DAKOTA | State facts about defeat on last point in tennis? (5,6) | (US) state / SOUTH (S, last letter of tenniS, as a compass point) + DA_TA (facts) around KO (defeat, knock out) |
|
| 21A | HAIL | Salute an icy aerial bombardment? (4) | double defn / to HAIL can be to salute; and HAIL can be an icy bombardment! |
|
| 22A | CROWN DERBY | Top horse race in China (5,5) | China (porcelain) / CROWN (top) + DERBY (horse race) |
|
| 25A | DEODORANT | Mum’s one old bird without energy to join rave (9) | Mum’s one (example brand name) / D_ODO (old bird) around E (energy), plus RANT (rave) |
|
| 26A | ERATO | I’m grateful to retire in bedroom regularly finding muse (5) | muse (of lyric love poetry) / ER_O (regular letters of ‘bEdRoOm’) around AT (TA, or thanks – I’m grateful – retiring) |
|
| 27A | LESSEES | Not as much freedom from anxiety reported for tenants (7) | tenants / LESS (not as much) + EES (homophone, i.e. reported, sounds like EASE, freedom from anxiety) |
|
| 28A | ABREAST | American brute keeping right up to date (7) | up to date / A (American) + B_EAST (brute) around (keeping) R (right) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | TROIKA | Team sent north in Hirosaki or Tokyo (6) | team (of horses) / reversed, hidden word, i.e. ‘sent North in’, in ‘hirosAKI OR Tokyo’ |
|
| 2D | EVEN SO | Despite that 50/50 bet, nothing! (4,2) | despite that / EVEN S (evens, 50/50 chance) + O (zero, nothing) |
|
| 3D | OSTEOPATHY | Potatoes mashed to go with healthy skin treatment? (10) | treatment / OSTEOPAT (anag, i.e. mashed!, of POTATOES) + HY (skin, or outer letters, of H |
|
| 4D | GROWL | Deep rough sound from Greek hunting bird (5) | deep rough sound / GR (Greek) + OWL (hunting bird) |
|
| 5D | IPSO FACTO | By that cheapest possible settee, cot collapses (4,5) | by that / IP (1p, cheapest possible monetary amount – with UK coinage!) + SO_FA (settee) + CTO (anag, i.e. collapses, of COT) |
|
| 6D | POEM | Johnson’s written about Old English verse (4) | verse / P_M (Prime Minister, currently Johnson) around (written about) OE (Old English) |
|
| 7D | SORBONNE | University burning outside former capital (8) | (French) university / SOR_E (burning) around BONN (former West German capital) |
|
| 8D | ESCHEWED | Perhaps Midwest ground that’s avoided? (8) | avoided / ES (middle letters of wESt) + CHEWED (ground) |
|
| 13D | EDWARD LEAR | Author of 2 Kings (6,4) | author / (King) EDWARD + (King) LEAR – 2 Kings! |
|
| 15D | TEA BREAKS | Bear moving in woods pauses for refreshment (3,6) | pauses for refreshment / TEA_KS (wood, plural) around BREA (anag, i.e. moving, of BEAR) |
|
| 16D | ASPHODEL | Plant key seen beneath reptile house (8) | plant / ASP (snake, reptile) + HO (house) + DEL (Delete key, on computer keyboards) |
|
| 17D | LUMINOUS | See 1 Across (8) | see 1A / see 1A |
|
| 19D | ARMADA | Weapon an American lawyer ships (6) | ships / ARM (weapon) + A (an) + DA (District Attorney, American lawyer) |
|
| 20D | MY FOOT | Legend of Tees? It’s rubbish (2,4) | rubbish! / At the end of Tees’ leg is his foot! |
|
| 23D | WITH A | See 1 Across (4,1) | see 1A / see 1A |
|
| 24D | DONE | Daughter regularly taking ecstasy is finished (4) | finished / D (daughter) + ON (regularly taking) + E (Ecstasy tablet) |
|
Personally, I’m not fond of excessively long anagram clues, especially when the given enumeration is incorrect. Despite this, i found it impressive that Tees managed to construct a crossword with this theme. In 4d, I had questioned “hunting” meaning “going before” rather than “going after” and never thought of putting “hunting” with the bird in question, so thanks for correcting me on that.
Apologies! The enumeration is correct. It’s me who marked it up incorrectly.
I really enjoyed this crossword, especially with a Lear favourite included in the solutions
Thanks to Tees and mc_rapper67
Great stuff, thanks Tees and McRapper. I didn’t realise that 1A etc was an anagram until I’d worked out that it was a work by Edward Lear. There are quite a few plain or hidden, direct or indirect, references to parts of the body: nose, kiss, crown, ear, arm, breast, foot, chew, dong….sorry, I’ll get my coat.
Hmmm…some fun here but the anagram was unsolvable without cheating and looking up Edward Lear poems, unknown to me. I also felt that Mum deodorant was very obscure but my wife tells me ignorance this reflects on my personal hygiene!
Me: That sounds like pornography to me
Author: you have a disgusting mind
Me; ME! Its you writing all this filth
Hey. Im OK with slithy toves.
I am enjoying the guess the setter this week. Tees is a fair bet if it’s not Friday but I thought the Guardianism in 8d ruled him out. Then in 20d the double bombshell of leg-end and Tees in the same clue! And it’s a Guardian grid!! My Weetabix ended up all over the table.
I have noticed that the freezing that occurs in Indy grids when there are linked solutions is triggered by entering the last letters of down solutions on the bottom row, and can be avoided by leaving those squares blank.
Thanks Tees & mc_rapper67
In-deed, I am not completely averse to Grauniadisms. I like to QM them though, even where the ism doesn’t fall at the end of the clue. I’ve set another today actually, which really, really is appalling, so if it gets past the Magisterium you can look forward to that humdinger sometime soon.
Not so daunting as puzzles with long multi-light anagrams accessed via a gateway clue can be (especially from setters other than Tees). In fact it was quite a pleasant stroll for us and we learnt the correct title of the poem – it’s frequently referred to as “… with the luminous nose” even in respected works of reference. And we wondered if the opening words of the clue to 1ac etc were inspired by Lear’s There was an old man of Thermopylae.
Plenty of non-themed entries to enjoy too, such as CROWN DERBY, IPSO FACTO and SORBONNE.
Thanks, Tees and mc_rapper67.
James@7 Thanks. I managed to get this one to freeze on numerous occasions. I thought it was a programmer’s response to me putting in the Bong with the luminous nose. Very nice puzzle though. I have to admit I liked ESCHEWED.
Never heard of the EDWARD LEAR POEM but eventually managed to assemble the title with the help of the anagram fodder and crossers. A pretty good effort to construct a 24 letter anagram.
Lots to like especially MY FOOT and SORBONNE with ‘University’ not being U, as pointed out, or a famous British or American institution more usually found in crosswords.
‘Mum’s one’ (second appearance in the last few weeks) was my favourite, bringing to mind Alf Garnett’s pronunciation of DEO DORANT.
Thanks to Tees and mc_rapper67
Great fun, finished with breakfast coffee this morning.
Once I had LEAR (lovely clue by the way) I had to look up his poems to find 1a. The other clue I really liked was 8d.
Thanks to both.
Didn’t have a clue about the Lear poem so it’s as well there’s plenty of info about his work online!
Top two here were DEODORANT & CROWN DERBY.
Thanks to Tees and to mc rapper for the review.
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – especially Tees for popping by… I managed to avoid any skoolboy sniggering re. the ‘dong’, but I’m sure I was as guilty as some here when I first encountered the poem,,,
As per some comments, I also mis-remembered the ‘A’ as a ‘THE’ in the thematic work’s title, briefly confusing me on enumeration.
Ericw at #5 – I was vaguely aware of Mum deodorant, and it turns out it has been ‘rolling on’ for 100+ years, but I always assumed it was a ladies’ product – we real men prefer macho words like Brut(e) and Old Spice (;+>). Anyway, this made me think about the classic ‘Swedish Chemist’s Shop’ sketch from Not the Nine O’Clock News…
Not sure I get the references to ‘Grauniadisms’ in 8D – one for the purists maybe?…