Phi gives us a puzzle with a clearly stated theme today
The theme is defined by the entry at 3 down, PARLIAMENT,. A number of clues have a simple definition – 3, where the entry is either the name of the complete PARLIAMENT of a country or the name of one of the constituent chambers of a bicameral PARLIAMENT. I knew of all but one of the theme PARLIAMENTs. I had to do a bit of research to get the correct positions of the D, S and T in the Finnish version, EDUSKUNTA at 4 across. The entry was clearly an anagram but there were no crossing letters to help position the D, S and T.
Two or three of the legislatures fell before I got to the gateway clue at 3 down, so that was a bit of a write in at that point.
I assume the word ‘after’ in the clue at 24 down is just there to improve the surface of the clue as I can’t see how it contributes directly to the wordplay.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Understand coarse feeling to be associated with Government (5) GRASP (comprehend; understand) G (government) + (to be associated with) RASP (coarse file; anything with a similar surface; coarse felling) G RASP |
| 4 |
3 abandoned undue task (9) EDUSKUNTA (the single-chamber Finnish PARLIAMENT [3 down]) Anagram of (abandoned) UNDUE TASK EDUSKUNTA* |
| 9 |
Excited artisan or businessmen supporting charity (9) ROTARIANS (members [usually businessmen] of an international system of clubs, formed to encourage service to and within the community; businessmen supporting charity) Anagram of (excited) ARTISAN OR ROTARIANS* |
| 10 |
Be in debt while in credit? Feel oppressed, perhaps (5) COWER (crouch or cringe in fear; feel oppressed) OWE (be in debt) contained in (while in) CR (credit) C (OWE) R |
| 11 |
Started and spoke about one with spirit (10) ORIGINATED (created; started) ORATED (spoke) containing (about) (I [Roman numeral for one] + GIN [an alcoholic spirit]) OR (I GIN) ATED |
| 13 |
Newspaper dismissing variable 3 (4) DAIL (the lower house of the legislature of the Republic of Ireland [PARLIAMENT {3 down}]) DAILY (newspaper) excluding (dismissing) Y (letter frequently used to denote a variable in a mathematical equation) DAIL |
| 15 |
Some vegetables are sticking in the residue (7) LEGUMES (any plant of the pea or bean family, including lentils; some vegetables) GUM (something that sticks) contained in (in) LEES (sediment that forms during the fermentation or aging of an alcoholic liquor, eg wine; residue) LE (GUM) ES |
| 16 |
King prepared to receive information having sacked weak 3 (7) KNESSET (the one-chamber PARLIAMENT [3 down] of Israel) (K [king] + SET [prepared]) containing (to receive) NEWS (information) excluding (having sacked) W (weak) K (NES) SET |
| 19 |
Tool, small, I lost from basket (7) SPANNER (tool) S (small) + PANNIER (provision-basket) excluding (lost from) I S PANNER |
| 20 |
Complaint by squad rejecting latest health drink (4,3) BEEF TEA (drink make from BEEF stock, often given to invalids supposedly to stimulate their appetite; health drink) BEEF (complaint) + TEAM (squad) excluding (rejecting) the final letter (latest) M BEEF TEA |
| 22 |
Leaders of Senate enact justice measures in 3 (4) SEJM (the lower house of PARLIAMENT [3 down] of the Republic of Poland) SEJM (first letters of [leaders of] each of SENATE, EXACT, JUSTICE and MEASURES) SEJM |
| 23 |
Resignation and what it may be met with? (10) ACCEPTANCE (resignation in the sense of ACCEPTANCE of ones situation) ACCEPTANCE (if you tender your resignation it may be met with ACCEPTANCE by your boss) double definition ACCEPTANCE |
| 25 |
American panel ignoring Judge in extortion matter (5) USURY (the taking of [now only iniquitous or illegal] interest on a loan; a matter of extortion) US (United States; American) + JURY (panel) excluding (ignoring) J (judge) US URY |
| 26 |
A quiet spy entrapping one Conservative candidate (9) APPLICANT (candidate for a post) A + P (piano; quiet) + (PLANT [spy] containing [entrapping] [I {Roman numeral for one} + C {Conservative}]) A P PL (I C) ANT |
| 28 |
Most appropriate to involve German and on leading German 3 (9) BUNDESTAG (the lower house of the PARLIAMENT [3 down] of Germany) (BEST [most appropriate] containing [to involve] UND [German for ‘and’]) + A– (on) + G (first letter of [leading] GERMAN) B (UND) EST A G |
| 29 |
Hint, say, dull colour should be rejected (5) NUDGE (prompt; hint) (EG [for example; say] + DUN [dull colour]) all reversed (should be rejected) (NUD GE)< |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Rainwater spouts getting real soggy in a storm (9) GARGOYLES (grotesquely carved heads or figures, projecting from a roof-gutter and acting as rainwater spouts) Anagram of (in a storm) REAL SOGGY GARGOYLES* |
| 2 |
Inexplicable antipathy under a Liberal 3 (7) ALTHING (the Icelandic PARLIAMENT [3 down]) A + L (Liberal) + THING (slight obsession or phobia; inexplicable antipathy) A L THING |
| 3 |
Post taken up in superior political body (10) PARLIAMENT (an assemblage of the political representatives of a nation, often forming the supreme legislative body) MAIL (post) reversed (take up; down entry) and contained in (in) PARENT (superior, in the sense of being further up the ancestral chain) PAR (LIAM<) ENT |
|
4 |
Some other age? (3) ERA (series of years reckoned from a particular point; some other age) ERA (hidden word in [some] OTHER AGE) ERA |
| 5 |
Indescribably bad? Maximally so, when clad in a French fur (11) UNSPEAKABLE (indescribably bad) PEAK (point of maximum activity) contained in (when clad in) (UN [one of the French forms of ‘a’] + SABLE [type of fur]) UN S (PEAK) ABLE |
| 6 |
Boost one chapter in 2 Kings (4) KICK (an extra spurt of speed or power; boost) (I [Roman numeral for one] + C [chapter]) contained in (in) (K [king] + K [king] giving 2 kings) K (I C) K |
| 7 |
Unreformed men in lands we converted (3,4) NEW LADS (young men who unashamedly pursue a lifestyle characterised by hedonism, materialism, macho attitudes and interests, and open defiance of political correctness; unreformed men) Anagram of (converted) LANDS WE NEW LADS* |
| 8 |
Feel bad about pair for 30 days (5) APRIL (a month of 30 days) AIL (feel ill or bad) containing (about) PR (pair) A (PR) IL |
| 12 |
Summary section missing page? It’s not representative (8,3) ABSTRACT ART (visual language of shape, form colour and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world; it’s not representative of reality) ABSTRACT (a summary to represent the essence of the original) + PART (section) excluding (missing) P (page) ABSTRACT ART
|
| 14 |
Maladroit President may keep America unexciting (10) PEDESTRIAN (prosaic, uninspired, unexciting) Anagram of (maladroit) PRESIDENT containing (may keep) A (American) PEDESTRI (A) N* |
| 17 |
Wooden bench not initially seen as brewing tool (3-6) TEA KETTLE (a KETTLE for boiling TEA [one of Chambers’ more pedestrian definitions]; brewing tool) TEAK (type of wood; wooden) + SETTLE (long high-backed bench) excluding the first letter (not initially) S TEA K ETTLE |
| 19 |
Put off a nightclub employee taking our name (7) ADJOURN (put off to another day) A + DJ (disc jockey; nightclub employee) + OUR + N (name) A DJ OUR N |
| 21 |
Regulation US city set up introduced by member of 13 in 3 (7) TYNWALD (PARLIAMENT [3 down] of the Isle of Man) (LAW [regulation] + NY [New York; US city]) reversed (set up; down entry) contained in (introduced) TD (designation of a Teachta D’ala, Deputy to the DAIL [Irish parliament; entry at 13 across) T (YN WAL)< D |
| 22 |
Lampoon succeeded with British after pound out of depth (5) SQUIB (lampoon) S (succeeded) + QUID (slang for pound sterling) excluding (out of) D (depth) + B (British) S QUI B |
| 24 |
Tense after blocking extra quantity of information (4) BYTE (a set of usually eight binary digits [bits] considered as a unit of data; quantity of information) T (tense) contained in ([after] blocking) BYE (extra run in cricket where the ball passes the bat and the wicketkeeper without being hit by the bat or touching the batter’s leg on the way through) BY (T) E |
| 27 |
Advert not featuring large dog (3) PUG (small short-haired dog) PLUG (advert) excluding (not featuring) L (large) PUG |
I too struggled with EDUSKUNTA (Finland) but eventually found it online. For the record, the other PARLIAMENTS are DAIL (Republic of Ireland), KNESSET (Israel), SEJM (Poland), BUNDESTAG (Germany), ALTHING (Iceland) and TYNWALD (Isle of Man). I couldn’t see why, but 12D had to be ABSTRACT ART. Another tour de force from Phi, so thanks to him and Duncan.
I suspect the Finnish one will be the stumbling block for most posters; new to me as well and I’ll confess to pressing Reveal once I had all the crossers. From the anagram fodder, there were still several possibilities. An intriguing little theme which certainly needed a bit of GK.
I liked the double definition for ACCEPTANCE, the anagram for GARGOYLES and the construction/surface of UNSPEAKABLE. Without wanting to post a spoiler, I’ll just note an interesting sense of deja vu that will be experienced by anyone who also does the Guardian today.
Thanks Phi and Duncan
Ouch. We hadn’t heard of 5 of the parliaments and also found a lot of the parsing hard so this puzzle involved a lot more googling an cheating than usual. LOI was TYNWALD which we had to reveal because we didn’t realise that it needed a specific member of the Welsh parliament.
Apart from that there were some really enjoyable clues like 10 and 23.
Thanks Phi and Duncan!
I assumed 4a was an anagram, but anagram-solver.net was no use. I used oneacross.com instead. Didn’t know what TD was in my LOI, 21d, but of course these letters were already in place. Didn’t know KNESSET or SEJM either.
By a stroke of luck I managed to get the unchecked three consonants in the previously unknown EDUSKUNTA in the correct order. I did manage to remember ALTHING after a recent appearance but needed the wordplay for the forgotten TYNWALD and never heard of SEJM.
PEDESTRIAN did not describe the high quality of the clue itself. I wonder which one(s) Phi is referring to?
Thanks to Phi and Duncan
The deja vu certainly helped. I couldn’t say whether PostMark’s reference to it made a difference. I find that, on the rare occasions when I get the theme, I go looking for answers that are not there. I was sure DIET would be one. Congratulations also to Phi for a Parliament-themed puzzle without any owls. Thanks, both.
Enjoyable puzzle, though I was no nearer than anyone else in getting 4a without help. I did learn a few new abbreviations from the blog – W for weak, A for on and PR for pair.
Thanks to Phi for the puzzle and Duncan for expanding my knowledge.
Thanks both. All is fair in the world of crosswords, I guess, where this became a test of general knowledge quiet often, where we had strayed in many instances from the English language
We decided 4ac had to be an anagram and our anagram solver solved it; when we then looked it up we got 3dn and were well away. Incidentally, all the parliaments are in Chambers. Plenty of non-themed entries to enjoy too. We particularly liked GARGOYLES but our CoD was for COWER for the paradoxical surface.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan
The two parliaments I didn’t know were SEJM and EDUSKUNTA. The former I worked out easily from the obvious word play. The latter, I had the first, third and fifth letters so I looked in Chambers, guessing what the second letter would be and D was the first one I tried.
Ironically, when I was in Helsinki a few years ago, I was staying nor far from the parliament building, but I didn’t know what it was called.
My limited knowledge does not include the names of parliaments so KNESSET was the only “write-in” for me. Despite that, I was able to deduce the rest of them from the wordplay and I used a dictionary to confirm my answers. All in all this was both an enjoyable and educational exercise for me. My favourite was PEDESTRIAN with its very funny surface. Thanks to both.
I really enjoyed this one. Re-reading clues there are several quite funny surfaces. PEDESTRIAN of course (such a tragedy of our times given the appalling alternative) and TEA KETTLE another. I love the idea that a wooden bench could somehow be useful in a brewing process. I was another solver left floundering with the letters of 4A. Thanks to Phi and duncanshiell as always.
As allan_c @9 notes, they’re all in Chambers. And they’re mostly in Europe, too, though it may be Brexit-related that the actual names of the other parliaments aren’t well-known in the UK. It was coming across Eduskunta in a BBC article that made me think it might be an interesting theme using words that should (perhaps) be better-known than they are.