I found this a bit easier than usual for a Tramp, despite some well-concealed definitions and quite intricate constructions, including a number of anagrams where the fodder included some extra letters. Very enjoyable – thanks to Tramp
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | VANISHING CREAM | Initially retired, Michael Caine’s having to work: one goes over lines (9,5) Anagram of R[etired] M[ichael] CAINE’S HAVING |
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| 8 | RODEO | Took horse round in this? (5) RODE (took a horse) + O (round) &lit |
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| 9 | EARPLUGS | Pair of seals when swimming? Group not round seal at sea (8) Anagram of GROUP less O (another “round”!) + SEAL |
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| 11 | CHELSEA | Team golfer wearing short fleece (7) [Ernie] ELS in CHEA[t] (to fleece) |
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| 12 | ENTHRAL | Charm school finally ran the training (7) Anagram of [schoo]L RAN THE |
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| 13 | SITAR | Starting a relationship primarily around sex: strings attached to this? (5) IT (sex) in first letters of Starting A Relationship |
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| 15 | AUTHENTIC | Real gold in that case twinkling endlessly (9) AU (gold) + THEN (in that case) + TIC[k] (in a tick = in a twinkling; very soon) |
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| 17 | VALIDATES | Confirms boxer goes out after victory (9) V[ictory] + ALI (boxer) + DATES (goes out [with]) |
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| 20 | COMIC | Wag is huge, not small (5) COSMIC less S |
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| 21 | IMPOSTS | Taxes one with millions and more than one job (7) I + M + POSTS (jobs) |
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| 23 | MILKSOP | Weak person bleeds before surgery (7) MILKS (bleeds) + OP[eration] |
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| 25 | DOMINEER | Worker describing pit bully (8) MINE (pit) in DOER |
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| 26 | PLANT | Idea, given time, works (5) PLAN + T |
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| 27 | NONTRADITIONAL | Modern train at London: second from King’s Cross (14) Anagram TRAIN AT LONDON + second letter of kIng. I think I would hyphenate this word, if only to prevent it looking like nontra-ditional, but the unhyphenated version seems to be standard |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | VARICOSE VEIN | Revive casino that’s in trouble; it could cause a problem for one member (8,4) (REVIVE CASINO)* |
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| 2 | NUDGE | Wearing nothing to protect onset of golfer’s elbow (5) G[olfer] in NUDE (wearing nothing) |
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| 3 | SPONSORED | Did back hurt, day after boy carries piano? (9) P in SON + SORE (hurt) + D[ay] |
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| 4 | IKEBANA | Flower arrangement in furniture shop to cover most of store (7) BAN[k] (store) in IKEA |
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| 5 | GARMENT | Perhaps coat of fellow concealing weapon (7) ARM in GENT |
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| 6 | RELIT | Upset worker in bathroom? Fired again (5) Reverse of TILER (not the roofing sort: one who might work in a bathroom) |
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| 7 | ALGORITHM | Steps goal hit, travelling miles over run (9) R in (GOAL HIT)* + R[un] + M[iles] |
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| 10 | BLOCK CAPITAL | Hunk with money is a big character (5,7) BLOCK (hunk) + CAPITAL (money) |
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| 14 | TELEPHOTO | Long shot from footballer going over close to netting (9) Reverse of PELE (footballer) + HOT (close) in (netted by) TO |
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| 16 | EUCALYPTI | Gums cut? I pay dental practice, ultimately for treatment (9) Anagram of CUT I PAY [denta]L [practic]E |
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| 18 | TESSERA | Climbing on top of sink, laid a tile (7) Reverse of RE (on) S[ink] SET (laid), + A |
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| 19 | SAMURAI | Arm with US bombs and first-class fighters (7) (ARM US)* + A1 |
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| 22 | SWIFT | Fast broadband connection mostly in street (5) WIF[i] in ST[reet] |
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| 24 | SPAWN | Hand opening tin for produce (5) PAW (hand) in SN (tin) |
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I found this very hard, and had to cheat my way to the end using reveal after completing about half of the crossword. My worst performance for years.
Thanks Andrew for explanations – there were many I needed.
Thanks, Tramp
9ac Isn’t “when swimming” part of the definition? “at sea” being the anagram indicator
I believe the definition of 9ac includes ‘when swimming’, Andrew.
Quite right, Dave & PostMark – now corrected.
Also the + M from ‘miles’ in 7dn ALGORITHM needs to be at the end of your explanation, rather than R. Thanks Andrew, and thank you Tramp for an enjoyable crossword.
Splendid gridfill – I’m beginning to see how hard that step can be – with only a couple of unusual words and those were gettable from clueing/wordplay. I did like the anagrams for VARICOSE VEIN and VANISHING CREAM (is Tramp feeling his age?) and NONTRADITIONAL was clever, though I misled myself by assuming ‘train’ was the anagrind and ‘cross’ part of the fodder at first.
Favourites include RODEO for simplicity, VALIDATES and SPONSORED for their construction (and the definition of the second), SITAR for the surface and COTD TELEPHOTO which combines surface and construction brilliantly.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
I parsed EARPLUGS as others above.
Never really understood ALGORITHM so bifd this.
Several others went in impara ed so many thanks for the blog, Andrew.
Found this tricky but, after a struggle, worth it.
Thanks Tramp.
…unparsed.
Loved it! Some wonderful words. I think my Cotd was EUCALYPTI for the surface but there were so many to choose from such as EARPLUGS and NONTRADITIONAL and TELEPHOTO (though I need Andrew’s help to parse this).
I must have met IKEBANA in a previous life: it arrived from the murkiest corners of my mind and I just knew it was right whilst at the same time not having any idea how I’d ever heard of it.
Many thanks, Tramp and Andrew.
Some toughies and a real challenge. Favourites were EARPLUGS and SPONSORED.
IKEBANA was new to me and whilst the IKEA bit was obvious, not sure that BANK for store is the first synonym that comes to mind. Needed a search to find the word. Otherwise I enjoyed teasing out the clues, though most of the parsing came after guessing the answer with the crossers. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.
For me, the definition of a good crossword is one that initially looks very difficult but gradually reveals itself and therefore feels very satisfying when completed. An example of a good crossword would therefore be today’s Tramp. On first pass, nothing seemed obvious but after a while Varicose Vein stood out (so to speak). Slowly but surely I worked my way around the grid from there. I particularly liked the misdirections which all worked on me!!
Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
Very tough but easier after the lovely VANISHING CREAM went in. I had to do the same as you Tomsdad @11, with IKEBANA and same favourites as you yesyes @9. Nice to see Pele getting a reference still
Ta Tramp & Andrew
I was unhappy about bleeds as a synonym (?) for milks in 23a. I suppose if you bank money you are storing it but I thought that a bit of a stretch too. In any event Ikebana was unknown to me so choosing bank as the word for store was going to be unlikely. 16d was excellent.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
Like JerryG above, this looked very difficult at first, but after a few went in it progressed steadily. I didn’t parse TESSERA or TELEPHOTO (apart from PELE); I would equate “close” with humid rather than HOT.
Lots to like, but I would also pick the neat RODEO as favourite.
Ch-els-ea was an excellent clue as indeed was Eucalypti.
I went BARGE not NUDGE for 2d. Slowed me down considerably.
Hard. But fun (I was up a gum tree for ages…). Couldn’t parse IKEBANA or TESSERA and too exhausted to parse NONTRADITIONAL. In hindsight, for BANk = STORE, think of sperm bank?
blaise @18 – and (Chambers): any store of material or information, eg blood bank, databank.
What JerryG @12 said. I found this really tough going to start with but it gradually came together in a very satisfying way. Some delightful bits of cluing – RODEO, EARPLUGS (lovely misdirection), NONTRADITIONAL (superb surface), VARICOSE VEIN, TELEPHOTO (beautifully precise clue), EUCALYPTI.
Last couple in were TESSERA (which I couldn’t quite parse, thanks Andrew) and IKEBANA (once the crossers have shown where IKEA needs to be, dredge the memory banks a bit…).
Thank you Tramp and Andrew
Food bank, bottle bank… it took me a while to think of BANK too. Failed to parse my loi EARPLUGS but I do like the definition. I can see why the surface needs “did back” rather than just backed for SPONSORED, but it feels clumsy.
Slow but steady progress on this: I was so pleased to spot Pele that I unthinkingly put in TELEPHONE rather than TELEPHOTO, which didn’t help. Also failed to parse TESSERA, though it helped to identify the bathroom worker for RELIT. Thank you Tramp and Andrew.
Another endorsement for the comment of JerryG @12.
Enjoyable puzzle. I parsed the “store” in 4d as BA(R)N. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
Splendid puzzle from Tramp which yielded slowly but steadily for me. Some great misdirections and wonderful surface readings: EUCALYPTI and TELEPHOTO especially.
I agree completely with the highlights suggested by PostMark @6.
revbob @14: ‘bleeds’ = ‘milks’ in the metaphorical sense of extortion.
Thanks to Neil and Andrew
muffin@15 – for close=hot, think “hunt the thimble”.
Liked SITAR and NUDGE, but like Dave Ellison @1 I gave up halfway through – defeated by too many DNKs, e.g. vanishing cream, imposts, ikebana.
Also never heard ‘in a twinkling’ used to mean ‘in a tick’; there’s ‘in the twinkling of an eye’, but that doesn’t mean ‘very soon’.
Surprised at nontraditional not being hyphenated (my browser is giving it the wiggly red line!)
Also, how does hot = close? Close can mean humid, but not really hot, I’d have said.
Ah, rullytully @25 explained ‘hot’ whilst I was typing. Doh!
Another steady slow yield here, so satisfying. Similar favs to others. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew
@27 Steve the pirate. I too went for barge. Wasted half an hour vibrating.
@17 not 27.
Oleg @30 I did wonder why you were calling me a pirate!!
I’m with PostMark,and NeilH as far as highlights go. I read ‘bleeds’ as Gervase @24 did.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned 22dn SWIFT (apologies if I’ve missed it), which I thought was a little gem and I also enjoyed IKEBANA.
Many thanks to Tramp and to Andrew.
Not heard vanishing cream since childhood… schoolyard joke, definition of hope, pregnant schoolgirl rubbing tummy with it… odd what emerges from the depths. Some gnarly clues in a fun puzzle, ta V and A.
Another BARGE here, which got in the way of getting the fodder for 1ac. In retrospect, I wish I had persevered before giving in to the wordfinder for TELEPHOTO.
Andrew, I think you have too many Rs in your working for 7d ALGORITHM
Splendid crossword, thank you Tramp
Thanks also to Andrew
I agree this was very good and all the better for being challenging but not as impenetrable as I sometimes find Tramp. In the end, I couldn’t parse TELEPHOTO and also wondered about the hyphen-less NONTRADITIONAL.
I liked the ones others have pointed out, but the appearance of two ‘golfer(s)’, one of whom was not ELS, happened to take my fancy.
Thanks to Tramp and Andrew
Was not on the setter’s wavelength at all today. Ended up revealing most and just having fun parsing and chuckling at the excellent surfaces. Slight quibble over ‘Wi-Fi’ clued as ‘broadband connection’, but that was one of the few I got so I suppose it did the trick! Thanks Tramp and Andrew.
rullytully@25: I’m thinking Hunt the Thimble — and close is warm; very close is hot.
… or I’m thinking ‘weather’ — and close is humid, not hot (Steve69@26).
The swimming seals was a great misdirectional def. A knotty puzzle, I thought, and fun to solve.
I’m afraid grumpy old me is going to damn this with faint praise. Quite a lot to like (ALGORITHM, SITAR, NUDGE, VARICOSE VEIN etc), but too much rather tortuous parsing for my taste. Particularly IKEBANA – I don’t like having to find a synonym and then modify it, especially in an obscure solution. For some reason MFI came to mind but not IKEA, but if I had thought of IKEA it would have left me little nearer the solution.
Moan, grumble, tsk.
I notice a subtle theme/commentary about surveillance society and online censorship.
Nudge, Sponsored Plugs, Algorithm, Vanishing Posts, Block, Plant, Ban non-traditional, Validate, Authentic.
Hard but satisfying. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew
I did struggle through to the end – not helped by entering EUCALYPTS (check the fodder!) – though some were BIFD. Interesting to see the different reactions. I am more in the ‘some tortuous parsing’ and ‘clunky surfaces’ camp. Sorry, Tramp, and thanks, Andrew for the enlightenment.
Splendid crossword with attention to detail on surfaces and (misleading) definitions.
My picks were VANISHING CREAM, VARICOSE VEINS, SPONSORED, ALGORITHM and EUCALYPTI. I’m still not sure about close=HOT despite rullytully@25 (see pserve@39), although the surface for TELEPHOTO was brilliant.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew.
Thanks for the blog, slow start but very helpful grid once I had put in the Downs, lots of first letters.
Anagrams were very well hidden today.
Will add to the praise for EARPLUGS, essential for me, and TELEPHOTO, I also liked the use of TWINKLING.
I found this very hard to solve, but enjoyable, thank you Tramp, and thank you Andrew for the helpful blog.
Perhaps there is a subtle theme as Andy Doyle suggests @43, he could add Telephoto to his list..
TT @45; interesting comment; which surfaces did you think were clunky?
Thought this a great challenge…on first pass I only had NUDGE written in, then managed to get the excellent VALIDATES. And after painfully revealing VARICOSE VEIN (getting my other leg sorted out 27 years after the first one was done, early next month) this meant I steadily unlocked the puzzle in an anticlockwise direction thereafter. IKEBANA was an unknown, but many of the other clues ENTHRALled. Needed Andrew to explain exactly how SPONSORED was put together. Enjoyable and fun, thanks Tramp and Andrew…
Solved 8 clues and gave up. My mind is not on puzzles at the moment. The beautiful view from the window is too distracting!
I enjoyed reading the blog.
Thank you Andrew for the SER of TESSERA and the TIC of AUTHENTIC, enjoyed winkling out the rest and I couldn’t afford to be lazy eg to confirm CREAM vs possible Creme for 1A (as I had toyed with a vague and unparsed Momentum for 7D), ending with same feeling as JerryG@12. I delayed myself early on by writing LARGE CAPITAL down the rhs – we had “small capitals” recently so I assumed that was the opposite, and then was ready to gripe, thinking a “BLOCK” letter just meant not-joined-up writing, but anything written in capitals is childishly in “big” letters so I came round. Thanks Tramp, many excellent clues as mentioned above.
This blog comment looks pretty full but I must record my appreciation of Tramp for quality and consistency
Thanks Tramp, a slow but steady and satisfying solve. And thank you Andrew for the blog.
I agree with Andy Doyle@43 about the possible commentary, especially now that Algorithmic Nudging is a thing. Perhaps Artificial Intelligence is masquerading as ‘first-class’ in Samurai. And maybe there’s a reference to non-traditional financial transactions, with BLOCK (chain) supplanting SWIFT?
Certainly, SPONSORED PLUGS and the central pairing of AUTHENTIC and VALIDATES are hard to miss.
I had the same experience as Dave Ellison@1. Perhaps if I’d had more time I’d have enjoyed it as others did. TILT (there’s always a silver lining) was IKEBANA – now to introduce it into a conversation….
But I did think the surfaces were uniformly excellent (with the gong going to SPONSORED), with a slight cavil about “strings attached to this” in SITAR which clearly identifies the definition – I’d have thought “there are strings attached” might have been sufficient and slightly more subtle. But I’m no setter (unlike, it seems, an increasing number of contributors).
Thanks Tramp and Andrew (TESSERA – wow).
Thanks Andrew for the super blog, as always. Thanks to all for the comments.
I wrote this in September 2020. I don’t think there is a theme, unless I’ve forgotten something, which is possible.
IKEBANA, on reflection, is a little difficult. A bank is a store, as in blood bank.
Neil
Thx to Tramp – for one of his more accessible puzzles, despite some challenging clueing. Thx also to Andrew for parsing of IKEBANA and the rest of his blog.
IKEA is less a shop than a chain, so I never parsed that one, just popped in IKEBANA when it finally popped into my head.
muffin@15 I’d think of close as “stuffy” rather than either “hot” or “moist.”
And I forgot — thanks to Tramp and Andrew. I got all of the puzzle in bed last night (no computer access) except EARPLUGS, which I got this morning, so a totally non-electronic solve. Great fun!
What Andrew said.
TELEPHOTO is a bit of a weird one – it clearly means the same as “long shot”, but any attempt to come up with a sentence where they’re interchangeable results in one where one or the other is strongly preferred. Maybe that’s just me.
Another one barging in wrongly at 2d, but got there in the end. Great fun. Thanks both.
NUDGE was my FOI, but I think BARGE is nearly as good, though it implies rather more force!
Excellent puzzle with impeccable surfaces.
A mixed bag for me — I really enjoyed 1d, ENTHRAL, VALIDATES, SWIFT, and SPAWN but I found some of this to be a slog with clues like IKEBANA (impossible wordplay), EUCALYPTI (did not know they were “gums”), TELEPHOTO (more impossible wordplay), EARPLUGS (strange definition), and 27a (cross to indicate an anagram would never occur to me). Thanks Andrew for explaining it all and to Tramp for dropping by.
Tony@64 , I swim in the sea nearly everyday , I need EARPLUGS – a pair of seals when swimming – or I will continually get ear infections.
Hard for me, perhaps because the clues seemed to have a tendency to smash their victim-words to pieces! There were one or two good ones as well, so by no means a wasted sitting.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew.
Thanks Andrew and Tramp. I had serious wavelength issues today but got there in the end, with a little assistance, and enjoyed it very much for all the reasons already mentioned by others.
[Roz @65 – I also wear earplugs, not so much for infection prevention but because the cold water gives me vertigo without them. Long term, there’s also the risk of surfer’s ear. Don’t look it up – it’s not pretty.]
[When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I was told that the only thing you should ever put in your left ear was your right elbow (and vice versa). Since then I’ve not been able to put anything in my ears, not even trendy earphones!]
[ I do not like anything in my ears either , certainly not earphones, but moulded earplugs are a must if you swim in the sea a lot. I have not heard about the cold water and vertigo before. ]
Loved it. Some great surface misleads eg gum, seals.
Many thanks tramp and Andrew
First time we’ve posted here. We’ve been doing the Guardian for some months now and gradually getting the hang of the lingo.
We generally get most of them but have a low threshold for asking Crosswordgenius when we’re stuck!
We always come here afterwards to lick our wounds and enjoy the banter.
Only slight grumble from me was that an algorithm is made up of steps, but it isn’t steps. As a house is made of bricks but a house isn’t bricks. Just my pennyworth.
I like chewy cluing and this fitted the bill nicely. Lots of fine surfaces as others have said, but I enjoyed the beautifully simple and effective one for PLANT the most.
TimW @23, excellent Nontraditional parsing. Conventionally, “most of [a word]” ends up meaning all but the last letter, but there’s no logical reason why it shouldn’t mean all but one random letter. I’m not convinced that’s what Tramp intended, but he is all for pushing the envelope!
Thanks, Tramp, Andrew and all.
(Soooo jealous of Michelle’s distractions. Glad you’re enjoying!)
[Roz @65: I’m well acquainted with EARPLUGS — I worked with patients who needed them to protect their hearing during very noisy MRI’s but I never thought of them as a “pair of seals.”]
By the way: the “dates” in VALIDATES was clued as “goes out” as in “becomes old-fashioned/goes out of fashion” not as “goes out (with)”
Neil
Tramp @74
Interesting. I don’t think “goes out” means “dates” by itself. “Goes out with” is less wordy than “goes out of fashion”.
Go out = date = become old-fashioned
Mmmm – what would you classify that clue as? Two steps to get from wordplay to charade. Your explanation works, though 🙂
VICTORY + BOXER + GOES OUT = V+ALI+DATES
Your explanation is going backwards, Tramp. 76 nearly convinced me, but 78 doesn’t – “goes out” by itself isn’t “dates”.
They both mean “to become old-fashioned”.
I’m just not seeing “goes out” to mean “to become old fashioned”. Your explanation @76 worked better.
Becomes old-fashioned = dates = goes out
sorry for being stupid.
Neil
Thanks Neil. It certainly works that way round.
This was one of those crosswords that I enjoyed only in hindsight. I thought I would never get anywhere near finishing but managed it in the end, albeit with a couple unparsed (thank you Andrew). I think that makes it a very good crossword. Thanks Tramp.
Only one thing I’m still unsure about and that’s why, for DOMINEER, does “describing” mean go around?
muffin and Tramp,
I agree that parse works, but I see no reason why the more traditional dating of a person, used intransitively, doesn’t work,. E.g. “We’re dating = we’re going out”. And if it’s synonymous in one form, I reckon it’s synonymous in all of the forms/tenses.
AndyS@71 – hello and welcome, hope to see you again BUT… i’m going to disagree re your quibble on the equivalence of algorithm with steps: for me, an algorithm is a series of steps, like a staircase. There is a staircase from my house to the street. Go down the staircase to get to the street. Go down the steps to get to the street. Steps = staircase = algorithm. I think it’s a fairly cryptic definition but I don’t think it’s unfair. If you are that way inclined I would be interested in your and others’ thoughts on WIFI = broadband as queried by LovableJim@38, it raised my eyebrows at the time but the intent was clear and I am insufficiently expert to know if it was justified.
Lots to like in this including 9a and 16d for the surfaces. The label left on our eucalyptus by the previous owners gave “sweet gum” as an alternative name.
Not so sure about CHELSEA. There are at least another 19 teams in the English Premier League alone and although Ernie is still playing on the Seniors’ Tour ELS is unlikely to spring to mind if asked to name a golfer – unless you set
crosswords, that is in which case he’s a godsend! I definitely needed the crossers.
I had a hip replacement this morning so I’m relieved that my brain doesn’t seem to have been affected by the 20 or so pills I’ve taken since.
Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
An enjoyable experience. Only my lack of interest in sport held me up a bit. Nice not to be thwarted by unfamiliar UK initialisms or geography!
Agree with Andrew … quickly finished, except I had some word blindness at EUCALYPTI
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
I managed to parse everything except 14dn, having finally internalised that “crossword golfer” is probably ELS (a man that I have never heard of in any other context). Incidentally, how did crossword compilers clue ‘ET’ before 1982?!
[phitonelly@72
It is so beautiful here in the Lake District. I find that I actually want to get out of bed while it is still dark so that I can watch the sun rise over the roling hills just across the valley]
Tramp @74 – thanks for the extra insight into your thinking. That works better for me than the “going out [with]” interpretation. Nice clue.
phitonelly @85 – it would work in the plural as you suggest but “dates” is third person singular.
michelle @91 – Sounds idyllic!
Considering all the nitpicking that goes on here, I’m amazed that only two people have mentioned the equating of “WiFi” with “broadband connection”. WiFi connects your device to the router. The broadband connection connects the router to the internet. It’s a bit like cluing “taxi” as “train” because you get a taxi to the station to catch your train. Except it’s not because I did solve the clue … with much harrumphing
I am always surprised at the plural ‘eucalypti’ in crosswords when I have only ever heard ‘eucalypts’. It seems TassieTim@45 has the same experience!
It’s a good point, Paul
Paul, t.o.o. @93 Despite Tramp’s gracious acknowledgement of your point, I’m going to defend the indefensible 🙂 I write this knowing few, if any, will read this the day after the crossword!
Last week, my neighbour knocked on my door and told me his “internet is not working”. When I looked, his internet connection was fine: it was Chrome (the web browser) that was not working. In the popular imagination, Wi-Fi, a browser, or the icon with an e are the internet.
Quite often here, as you said, people nit-pick about the meanings of words. In particular, there is the specialist nit-pick: an expert in a field will object to the way a term has been used. The setter’s audience, I suggest, is not the expert but the generalist. Setters must appeal to the science-y type with a vague idea of haute couture, soap operas and art deco (speaking for myself) as well as the humanities type with a vague idea of algorithms, genes and the workings of the internet. They have only about 15 words to provide a definition and wordplay. I think the way they do this is by pointing us in the right direction with more or less precision. Someone (possibly NeilH) pointed out that crossword clues are just that: clues. They are ways of leading us, perhaps after some reflection, to an answer. If they do that, they have succeeded. And maybe they’ll make us smile sometimes too; they are, after all, for recreation.
Thank you Tramp for providing a masterclass in accessible misdirection (if that’s not a contradiction 🙂 ).
I found this so difficult that I put it away with only about a quarter solved. Brain not flexible enough for the synonyms, and surfaces too smooth (not clunky in my opinion, TassieTim @45) for me to identify the wordplay. Much better today and did all but three – suffering from brain fade on two that I might otherwise have got, but even though I identified IKEA in 4d, I had never heard of IKEBANA. Felt quite pleased with myself for getting as close as that, but seeing Andrew’s “easier than usual” cut me down to size. 🙁
Alphalpha @55: “strings attached to this” in SITAR which clearly identifies the definition – so why was I thinking of APRON? This illustrates how badly out of sync my brain was yesterday. I see from some (have not read all!) of the 96 comments that some others who normally seem to finish had to cheat or give up, so at least I’m not alone in finding this much harder than Tramp used to be.
Thanks for the work out!
IKEBANA had a minor role in Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, only time I have seen it I think .
sh @97 – I take the bloggers’ grading with a pinch of salt. I found this difficult. Sometimes when this is the case the clues are so long, I can’t see the wood for the trees. But here the clues are terse. When that is the case the possible meanings are more limited and, therefore, there is some hope for me!
Tramp@95, pdp11@96 I was being rather facetious and meant to be critical of nitpicking comments rather than the clue!
pdp11, I agree completely. I can’t say the wordplay helped me get the solution but I didn’t think “oh no, that can’t possibly be the answer because a WiFi connection isn’t a broadband connection”.
pdp11 @99. I get your point about long clues being difficult, terse clues holding out more hope.
On the other hand, with a very short clue there is only so much to go on, and if I am not on the setter’s wavelength the only way of getting on is to completely put the clue out of my mind for quite a long time – several hours, maybe. Whereas with a longer clue there’s a chance of spotting a word that is part of the wordplay rather than part of the definition (or vice versa) which then sheds a new light on the rest of the clue, so I keep on plugging away at the clue until it reveals itself.
Anyway, that’s how it feels like it works for me. And then on another day it doesn’t.
Paul, t.o.o @100 – lol. It’s difficult to tell here. Some may have said exactly the same thing and meant it!
sh @101 – yes, that is true too: more words = something in the clue may trigger a thought. BTW, I saw your comment the other day about being veggie. I have learnt far more about meat/game doing crosswords than will ever be useful for me in daily life!
I’m surprised that IKEBANA is unfamiliar. To me it’s as well-known as ORIGAMI – indeed, I think I encountered both words at the same time!