Chewy, occasionally very chewy.
Although it was one of those where when I came to write up the blog I wondered why I had found it so tricky. Solving crosswords is all about a meeting of minds, and perhaps mine and Kairos’ were struggling to meld today due to neither of us having pointy ears.
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 Finished run around lake
COMPLETE
An insertion of L in COMPETE
5 Leader of social elite becomes comedian
SCREAM
A charade of S for the initial letter of ‘social’ and CREAM.
9 Opera group’s paper read back in interval
SEMITONE
A reversal of ENO for English National Opera and TIMES.
10 Get rid of some Hindi spellings
DISPEL
Hidden in HinDI SPELlings.
12 Exaggerate report of eggs condition
OVERSTATE
A charade of a homophone (‘report of’) OVA and STATE.
13 Harangue one leaving employment …
TRADE
T[I]RADE
14 … and replacing American in top basketball team?
FIVE
Kairos is inviting you to replace the A in FAVE for ‘top’ with I. The instruction to do that is carried over from the previous clue, so for once the ellipses do have to be read.
16 Leader’s first performance is curtailed
PREMIER
PREMIER[E]
19 A cop let off old prostitute
POLECAT
(A COP LET)* An archaic, Shakespearean word. From The Merry Wives of Windsor:
Out of my door, you witch, you hag, you baggage, you polecat, you runyon! out, out! I’ll conjure you, I’ll fortune-tell you.
21 Regularly applauds bonus
PLUS
The even letters of aPpLaUdS.
24 Nice time for opening breadbasket
TUMMY
You need to replace the first letter of YUMMY for ‘nice’, with T, I think, unless someone wants to persuade me otherwise.
25 Cold drink in summery Spain is sweet
CHOCOLATE
A charade of C, COLA inserted into HOT, and E for ‘Spain’.
27 Refugees from Corsica and Réunion after sea-levels rise!
EXILES
Well, if we don’t get a grip on climate change, then Corsica and Réunion will be EX ILES. Tuvalu would be more appropriate for the surface, but wouldn’t work, of course, because it’s not French – we need that to get to ÎLES
28 Disinfect sister ingesting a louse egg with drug
SANITISE
An insertion of A NIT in SIS, followed by E.
29 Special ceremony summons goblin?
SPRITE
A charade of SP and RITE.
30 Maybe house rival briefly in temporary accommodation
TENEMENT
An insertion of ENEM[Y] in TENT. The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the removal indicator is ‘briefly’.
Down
1 Regular business tax on goods
CUSTOM
A dd.
2 Fellow‘s trendy idea about British rule
MEMBER
An insertion of B in MEME followed by R. The ‘trendy idea’ usage for MEME is recent, spurred mostly by the dreaded internet. The term was originally coined by Richard Dawkins in his seminal 1976 work The Selfish Gene. Here, for the record, is what he wrote:
We need a name for the new replicator, a noun which conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. ‘Mimeme’ comes from a classical Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene’. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to ‘memory’, or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with ‘cream’.
3 Instruments left on vehicles in Darwin
LUTES
A charade of L and UTES, which are, in Australian English, ‘utility vehicles’ or pick-up trucks (cue Australian contributors who are going to tell me that is not the correct definition). Whatever, that’s what Darwin in doing in the mix.
4 Duty before news time
TONNAGE
A charade of TO (‘a quarter to/before five’), NN and AGE.
6 A nice tour around liqueur manufacturer
COINTREAU
(A NICE TOUR)*
7 Stress online speed’s unaltered
EMPHASIS
A charade of E for the multi-purpose prefix for ‘online’, MPH and AS IS.
8 Fashion company‘s happy to stock ugly little baby’s tops
MULBERRY
An insertion of ULB for the initial letters of ‘ugly’, ‘little’ and ‘baby’ in MERRY. The insertion indicator is ‘to stock’.
11 Drug controlled by Turkish Empire
HEMP
Hidden in TurkisH EMPire.
15 Wanderlust of tetchy wife heading off travelling
ITCHY FEET
(TETCHY [W]IFE)* with ‘travelling’ as the anagrind.
17 Clean area on the French ship
SPOTLESS
A charade of SPOT, LE and SS.
18 More insubstantial theory raised in leaflet
FLIMSIER
An insertion of ISM reversed in FLIER. The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the reversal indicator is ‘raised’.
20 Trust Mark
TICK
A dd.
21 Secular expert’s to make an impression on the radio
PROFANE
A charade of PRO and a homophone (‘on the radio’) of FEIGN.
22 Hatred of West African country church
MALICE
A charade of MALI and CE.
23 Lack of excellent treatment
DEFECT
A charade of DEF and ECT for Electroconvulsive Therapy. Struggling with DEF for ‘excellent’? You need to get down with the kids more.
26 Dwell under old tree
OLIVE
A charade of O and LIVE.
Many thanks to Kairos as always for the Sunday morning entertainment.
Thanks, Kairos and Pierre!
An interesting puzzle and a lovely blog.
FIVE: quite clever.
EXILES: brilliant.
TUMMY: T in place of Y (as explained in the blog) seems ok to me.
‘to’ was ‘near’ the other day. Now… it is ‘before’. 🙂
No respite from yesterday’s toughie. If anything this was even harder. All in correctly after a long time but with TUMMY and PROFANE unparsed; thanks for the explanations. I found MEMBER, SEMITONE, TONNAGE and CHOCOLATE especially difficult to unravel. Last in was FIVE, for which the ellipsis did mean something as you say and which helped in solving the clue. The EX ILES was great.
Yes, I think there is a difference between a UTE and a “pick-up truck”, but whatever it is, I’m one Antipodean who’s not bothered.
Def. A big thanks to both Kairos and Pierre
Corsica, at risk from rising sea-levels? That is so perverse that I suspect it was selected just to provoke some pedant into saying ‘Corsica, at risk from rising sea-levels? That is so … ‘ Nice clue, though.
Agree generally with the above, interesting and chewy puzzle. I liked COMPLETE and CHOCOLATE. I didn’t understand where the fane in PROFANE was coming from – doesn’t feigning imply dissembling? There’s an ‘is is’ in 16a, but I guess these days ‘is is’ is standard English.
Thanks Kairos, Pierre
Blimey, if Corsica and Réunion get submerged we really are in trouble! Some of these were far too obscure for my poor brain, so a DNF for me, and thank goodness I’m not a blogger. Thanks anyway Kairos and Pierre.
James @ 3 Surely if you’re feigning you’re giving an impression not a reality?
Thanks Kairos and Pierre
Found this one really hard going and the NW corner was the worst – couldn’t get 1&2d which left me with no hope for 9a.
Ho hum – better luck next time!
Thanks to Kairos and to the redoubtable Pierre who didn’t even get a bird opportunity today!
This was very tough. I expect Kairos’ puzzles to be challenging, but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I usually do.
I did however manage to complete it apart from the parsing of DEFECT. “Def” = “Excellent”? Not in my world. Thanks for the explanation, Pierre, and for the rest of your review. Thanks too to Kairos.
The def in defect held me up for a bit too, but I’m familiar with it so it was an ‘of course!’ moment when I got it.
I was idiotically trying to fit LSO into 9a, even though I know very well it’s an orchestra not an opera company – just stupid absent-mindedness due to lack of sleep is my feeble excuse.
Apart from that I happily didn’t find anything particularly tough, and I especially liked the concision of the clues, most of them shorter than average I think. Favourite was EXILES, nice amusing idea.
So I could call this a Def puzzle and blog? Mali has become the setter’s favourite country, so it was generous to narrow it down to West African.
Just couldn’t get “DEFECT”, never having heard of DEF in that sense. Looking at the NW corner at first I felt like a climber confronted with a wall of ice. Every clue there except LUTES and OVERSTATE is hard, at least for me. On the other hand EXILES was wonderful! Thanks to Kairos for the workout and to Pierre for explaining everything so clearly.
Just as tricky as yesterday and equally good. Technically a DNF as for some reason show errors was toggled on, and some early wrong possibles showed up in red (I wondered what was going on until I realised only incorrect letters were red).
Thanks Kairos and Pierre.
Morning all . Many thanks to Pierre for the blog and to all for your comments.