Independent 10,895/Skinny

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Skinny starts off the Indy week for us, with a puzzle that’s unusual because …

… it has a theme. I only blog the weekday Indy on a Monday, and it’s very seldom that a theme crops up (we normally have to wait for Tuesday to get our fix of that). But Skinny has requested this slot because today, 13th September, is the birthday of the author Roald Dahl. He makes an appearance at 10dn and 23ac, and scattered around the grid we have references to his work. You will find CHARLIE, CHOCOLATE and FACTORY, MATILDA, WITCHES and TWITS. For good measure, there’s CHITTY at 1ac, referencing CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG: Dahl co-wrote the screenplay. Contributors to the blog will no doubt spot any other references that I’ve missed.

I discovered that 13th September is also International Chocolate Day, and I so wanted to tell you that date was chosen because it’s Dahl’s birthday and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is one of his most famous works. Sadly that’s not true. It’s because it’s also the birthday of Milton Hershey, who founded the Hershey Chocolate Company in 1894.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Bill‘s extremely chubby, scoffing last of dessert after buffet
CHITTY
An insertion of HIT and T for the last letter of ‘dessert’ in CY for the outside letters of ‘chubby’. The insertion indicator is ‘scoffing’.

4 Supplies workforce to county
STAFFS
A dd.

8 Ring shortly to collect bread in Cairo, perhaps
CAPITAL
An insertion of PITA in CAL[L] with ‘to collect’ as the insertion indicator.

9 Fascinating women with desires
WITCHES
A charade of W for ‘with’ and ITCHES. ‘Fascinating’ in this sense is very much a secondary definition nowadays, but etymologically, it’s the root of the word. It comes from the Latin fascinare, ‘to bewitch’, related to fascinum for ‘spell’ or ‘witchcraft’.

11 Instrument controls gas blasted with protons
ORGAN STOPS
(GAS PROTONS)* The anagrind is ‘blasted with’.

12 You’ve got me skinned – it hurts!
OUCH
[T]OUCH[É]

13 Family taking drug – or not?
CLEAN
An insertion of E for the setters’ drug of choice in CLAN.

14 Fearless detective’s lead at the end is fair game
LUCKY DIP
The ‘fearless detective’ would be a PLUCKY DI. Skinny is inviting you to move the first letter, P, from the beginning to the end.

16 Quarrel about opening of motorcycle club – it’s a source of bitterness
WORMWOOD
A charade of ROW reversed, M for the first letter of ‘motorcycle’ and WOOD for the golf club. WORMWOOD, Artemisia absinthium, is a moderately poisonous plant that is used to add bitterness to drinks such as absinthe, and is also used medicinally.

18 Take place of child originally next to dog
OCCUR
A charade of OC for the initial letters of ‘of’ and ‘child’ and CUR.

20 Run out of fish market
TOUT
T[R]OUT

21 Colourless like benzene, which contains carbon and hydrogen
ACHROMATIC
Benzene is an AROMATIC compound (cf aliphatic, for lapsed scientists in the audience). Insert C and H into that and you’ll end up with ACHROMATIC, which means ‘colourless’. A nod to a science clue (more, please) and the surface, which is entirely accurate: benzene is colourless and contains carbon, hydrogen and nothing else.

23 Today’s theme is about a bunch of flowers
DAHLIAS
Today’s puzzle is based on Roald DAHL, who appears at 10d. It’s a charade of him, and A inserted into IS.

24 Random way to deliberately lose in archery?
AIMLESS
A cd cum dd.

25 Go by some label – a pseudonym
ELAPSE
Hidden in labEL A PSEudonym.

26 Skilful boxing starts to explain another pasting
DEFEAT
An insertion of E and A for the initial letters of ‘explain’ and ‘another’ in DEFT. The insertion indicator is ‘boxing’.

Down

1 Convener, one coming in daily
CHAIR
An insertion of I in CHAR. The insertion indicator is ‘coming in’.

2 Current partner takes it to reproduce
IMITATE
A charade of I for the symbol for electrical ‘current’ and IT inserted into MATE. The insertion indicator is ‘takes’.

3 Unstable nitrates – central ingredient of explosive to produce slates
TEARS INTO
(NITRATES O)* with ‘unstable’ as the anagrind.

5 Gulls – birds eating whatever’s left
TWITS
W is the leftmost letter of ‘whatever’. Insert that into TITS and you’ve got a word that, like ‘gulls’, means ‘deceives’. We don’t use ‘gull’ very often in this sense, except when we call someone ‘gullible’. The insertion indicator is ‘eating’.

6 Fine performer sitting on unknown works
FACTORY
A charade of F, ACTOR and Y.

7 Winter athlete bags score that’s not so perfect
SKETCHIER
An insertion of ETCH in SKIER. The insertion indicator is ‘bags’.

10 Liberal Lord had a bit of luck – today’s his day
ROALD DAHL
A charade of (LORD HAD A)* and L for the first letter of ‘luck’, with ‘liberal’ as the anagrind. Today’s theme is the author and his works, and his birthday is today – 13th September.

13 Brown songbird raises cuckoo inside middle of reserve
CHOCOLATE
An insertion of LOCO reversed in CHAT, followed by E for the middle letter of ‘reserve’. The reversal indicator is ‘raises’ (since it’s a down clue) and the insertion indicator is ‘inside’.

15 Recoil, struggling to eat fish – a snapper?
CROCODILE
An insertion of COD in (RECOIL)* The anagrind is ‘struggling’ and the insertion indicator is ‘to eat’.

17 Upset first man getting hold of drunk girl
MATILDA
An insertion of LIT in ADAM, all reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘upset’ and the insertion indicator is ‘getting hold of’. LIT for ‘drunk’ I have only ever heard in crosswords.

19 I got mixed up with Rachel – I’m an idiot
CHARLIE
(I RACHEL)* with ‘got mixed up with’ as the anagrind.

21 Collect a pound, possibly
AMASS
A charade of A and MASS. ‘Pound’ is a measurement of MASS.

22 Subsidiary illustration of butterfly maybe not caught
INSET
INSE[C]T

Many thanks to Skinny for this Monday’s puzzle, and don’t eat too much chocolate. There are only 103 sleeps till Christmas and it’ll do you good to wait.

19 comments on “Independent 10,895/Skinny”

  1. This was good fun with a theme that even I could spot. As a chemist in the dim and distant past, ACHROMATIC was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Skinny and to Pierre.

  2. Maybe it’s a good idea to try to solve a prominent central row or column first, as this could well be the theme and help with other answers, but for me 10D was one of the last to yield, so only then did I look for other theme-related answers. Great stuff, so thanks Skinny and Pierre.

  3. Nicely done, Skinny. RD also wrote The Enormous CROCODILE and Matilda’s surname is WORMWOOD. My favourites were OUCH, ELAPSE and CHARLIE.

    Thanks Skinny and Pierre

  4. Thanks for those additional references, Charlie. I was pretty sure there would be others in there that I hadn’t clocked.

  6. Surely TEARS INTO is what Charlie does to his bar of chocolate, and as anyone who has visited the Dahl museum can confirm, CLEAN CHAIR is the note left on his writing board by Mrs Dahl every morning.
    I thought after solving 1ac we were in for a puzzle about contract law, but sadly not.
    Thanks Skinny, Pierre

  7. Charlie (of Chocolate Factory fame) and James (of Giant Peach fame) are the ones giving us the extra Roald Dahl links this morning. Is there something else they want to tell us?

  9. You’re a hard act to follow, copmus @8.

    Picked up the theme thanks to the cross references in the puzzle despite only a superficial knowledge of the author’s works. Theme or not, I found this more difficult than the usual Monday. CHOCOLATE was hard and I couldn’t parse LUCKY DIP.

    Still, a theme, a challenge and good fun. No complaints.

    Thanks to Skinny and Pierre

  11. Couldn’t for the life of me work out how ‘you’ve got me’ became OUCH but then neither did I latch onto the theme before solving 10d, obviously having a bad day!
    Perhaps now is not the right time to say that I really don’t like chocolate very much? OK – a basic choc ice or a Cadbury’s Flake in an ice cream are acceptable but that’s about the height of it.
    Struggled a bit with the ‘pound’ in AMASS and also the science involved in 21a but otherwise no real problems. Think I appreciated STAFFS as much as anything else.

    Thanks to Skinny and to Pierre for the review.

  13. I had no idea he’d worked on the Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang screenplay, and once I’d got 10d, I was nonplussed by 1a. Thanks for clearing that up, Pierre, as well as for parsing OUCH, which I filled in without confidence.

    And a lovely puzzle, Skinny.

  14. Many thanks to Pierre for the blog and to all who commented with kind words, it’s greatly appreciated.

    I think all the references have been got save one – TROUT – but it is obscure – Mike Teavee’s name was originally going to be Herpes Trout. I did at one point have herpes in my list, but thought that a little too much

    Thanks again,

    Skinny

  15. It’s a hard life for non-scientists: I only know achromatic in its musical sense. Enjoyed this more than I expected, not knowing much of Dahl’s work. Favourites were the succinct 20a, the ‘left’ bit of 5d and 24a for the fun, but it was all good, so thanks to Skinny. Thanks also to Pierre for the informative blog and the parsing of ouch and lucky dip. But something’s wrong – gulls, tits and a chat, and no obligatory bird pictures?

  16. Ah, Jayjay, I would have loved to. But the rule is that the answer has to be the bird, the whole bird and nothing but the bird for me to include the OPBL. But Skinny entertained us very well without any links today. Good call on excluding herpes, btw.

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