As usual, it is a Phi puzzle on a Friday
I’m always on the lookout for a theme or message in Phi’s puzzle. Today the unchecked letters in the top and bottom row spell out NOTHING DOING so I’m interpreting this as meaning that there is no theme elsewhere in the entries.
There were three towns or cities in the grid – OAKHAM, OSLO and LONDON even though LONDON wasn’t clued as a city. There were also two entries with similar meanings OAFISH and the fairly uncommon IDIOTISH
It was slightly odd to see ‘received’ used as a containment indicator in two consecutive clues.
I may be missing something in the parsing of POINT BLANK at 22 across as I can’t relate POINT wholly to the phrase ‘conclusion of argument’; The T of POINT is the end letter (conclusion of) ARGUMENT but that leaves POIN unreferenced, so that can’t be right.
I liked the clues for PERIOD, OSLO and NATION It took a while for the penny to drop in the clue for NATION.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 7 |
Icy expanse escaping first shot (8) POLAROID (photograph [shot] taken using a POLAROID camera) POLAR (very cold; icy) + VOID (emptiness; space; expanse) excluding the initial letter [escaping first] V) POLAR OID |
| 9 |
Tricorne that’s corny? (3,3) OLD HAT (three cornered hat, mainly seen in olden times) OLD HAT (old-fashioned; trite; corny) double definition OLD HAT |
| 10 |
Stop a satellite beginning to decay (6) PERIOD ([full] stop in punctuation) PER (a) + IO (moon of Jupiter) + D (first letter of [beginning to] DECAY) PER IO D |
| 11 |
Fail to apprehend drunk accompanying one regretful lady (4,4) MISS OTIS (reference the 1934 Cole Porter song ‘MISS OTIS regrets …’ It is a song about a lady who is unable to lunch today following the murder, by her, of her unfaithful lover) MISS (fail) containing (to apprehend) (SOT [drunk] + [accompanying] I [Roman numeral for one]) MIS (S OT I) S |
| 12 |
Coping badly with heat, leading to disease (10) PATHOGENIC (causing disease) Anagram of (badly) COPING and HEAT PATHOGENIC* |
| 14 |
Some raucous noise reflected current elements (4) IONS (electrically-charged particles with current referring to a flow of electricity) IONS (reversed [reflected] hidden word in [some] RAUCOUS NOISE) IONS< |
| 15 |
Religion accordingly includes suggestion (6) SHINTO (the indigenous religion of Japan) SO (accordingly) containing (includes) HINT (suggestion) S (HINT) O |
| 17 |
Certainly poor performer is touring a county town (6) OAKHAM (county town of the England’s smallest county, Rutland) (OK [yes; certainly] containing [touring] A) + HAM (a poor actor or performer) O (A) K HAM |
| 20 |
Old players returning for City (4) OSLO (capital city of Norway) (O [old] + LSO [London Symphony Orchestra; players]) all reversed (returning) (OSL O)< |
| 22 |
Nonplussed after conclusion of argument, having no leeway (5-5) POINT BLANK (at very close range; with no leeway) POINT (main element in the structure of an argument or discourse; conclusion of argument [?]) + BLANK (nonplussed) POINT BLANK |
| 24 |
Flying of crane interrupted by large bird handler (8) FALCONER (person who hunts with, or who breeds and trains [handler], falcons or hawks [birds]) Anagram of (flying) OF CRANE containing (interrupted by) L (large) FA (L) CONER* |
| 25 |
Loves calls for attention, keeping working (6) HONEYS (anything sweet or delightful such as darlings or loves [of one’s life]) HEYS (calls for attention) containing (keeping) ON (working) H (ON) EYS |
| 26 |
With higher award initially received, medal is to be neglected (2,4) GO HANG (to be forgotten or neglected) GONG (medal) containing (with … received) HA (first letters of [initially] each of HIGHER and AWARD) GO (H A) NG |
| 27 |
Part of Scotland cheerful, having received grant (8) GALLOWAY (region of South West Scotland) GAY (cheerful) containing (having received) ALLOW (grant) G (ALLOW) AY |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Numbers say – and say rudely – "There aren’t many flowers here" (8) NOSEGAYS (posy; small bunch of flowers; there aren’t may flowers in a NOSEGAY) NOS (numbers) + EG (exempli gratia; for example) + an anagram of (rudely) SAY NOS E G AYS* |
| 2 |
Stupid fellow is blocking most of Hawaiian island (6) OAFISH (idiotic; stupid) (F [fellow] + IS) contained in (blocking) OAHU (one of the islands of Hawaii) excluding the final letter (most of) U OA (F IS) H |
| 3 |
Temperature from historic times had an effect (4) TOLD (had an effect) T (temperature) + OLD (from historic times) T OLD |
| 4 |
Work done at home source of concern for the USA, possibly (10) HOUSECRAFT (skill in domestic management and presumably the domestic management [work done at home] itself) Anagram of (possibly) C (first letter of [source of] CONCERN) and FOR THE USA HOUSECRAFT* |
| 5 |
Speech cut? This looks bad, stupid (8) IDIOTISH (stupid) IDIOM (linguistic usage natural to native speakers of a language; speech) excluding the final letter [cut] M) + an anagram of (looks bad) THIS IDIO TISH* |
| 6 |
Country making no progress has to ditch male in leading position (6) NATION (country) STAGNATION (descriptive of a position where no progress is being made) excluding (has to ditch) the first four letters [leading position] STAG [male]) NATION |
| 8 |
Party debut for miss in old cloak (6) DOMINO (long cloak of black silk with a hood, used at masked balls) DO (party) + M (first letter of [debut for] MISS) + IN + O (old) DO M IN O |
| 13 |
Refuse to remain with enterprise (3-2-3-2) GET-UP-AND-GO (energy; enterprise) GET UP AND GO (refuse to remain) sort of double definition where the answer is hyphenated but the wordplay of similar constituent words is not hyphenated GET-UP-AND-GO |
| 16 |
Old warship, smooth around shore, avoiding North (8) IRONCLAD (ship covered with IRON plates; old warship. Wikipedia lists the names of many IRONCLAD warships from the 19th century) IRON (press; smooth) + C (circa; about; around) + LAND (shore) excluding (avoiding) N (North) IRON C LAD |
| 18 |
Individual, by turning up, interrupting magazine? Its content is ready (5,3) MONEY BAG (a BAG for MONEY [ready cash]; it’s content is ready) (ONE [individual] + BY [reversed [turning up; down entry]) contained in (interrupting) MAG (magazine) M (ONE Y B<) AG |
| 19 |
Reduced European capital to support work, heading off drilling site (3-3) OIL-RIG (drilling site) TOIL (work) excluding (off) the first letter (heading) T + RIGA (capital city of Latvia [European country]) excluding the final letter (reduced) A OIL–RIG |
| 21 |
Sailor heads off upwards, securing a lanyard’s end (3,3) SEA DOG (old or experienced sailor) GOES (heads off) reversed (upwards; down entry) containing (securing) (A + D [last letter of [end] LANYARD) SE (A D) OG< |
| 23 |
Just the one academic doing for English or American writer (6) LONDON (reference Jack LONDON [1876-1916], American novelist known for works such as The Call of the Wild and White Fang) LONE (just the one) excluding (doing for) E (English) + DON (academic) LON DON |
| 25 |
Hot boiling oil in Indian festival (4) HOLI (Hindu spring festival characterized by boisterous revelry) H (hot) + an anagram of (boiling) OIL H OLI* |
There is more to it than NOTHING DOING. All solutions contain the letter O.
You could argue that all the clues also contain O but that’s probably down to chance.
Os throughout Hovis mentions not spotted, also forced to employ buttons to show solutions, so poor effort today.
I saw the Nina but not the ubiquitous Os. GO HANG could also be construed as ‘nothing doing’, but this may be accidental. Refreshing to see ‘gay’ used in its original sense for a change. Many thanks Phi and Duncan.
Uni days spent in Leicester when Ruddles and Everards reigned so nice to be reminded of OAKHAM-and the Ruttles!
I found this hard and failed and on OAKHAM and IDIOTISH, which seemed an unlikely word. I couldn’t convince myself about POINT BLANK either. Well done to Hovis for picking up the significance of the Nina.
Favourite was the ‘regretful lady’ at 11a; love the song.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan
Agreed, Hovis deserves a pat on the back today for correctly identifying the theme – a real dash of ozone in this one. Nice try James @ 3. Or should that be ‘Good go’?
Refreshing to see ‘sailor’ used differently and, like duncan, I enjoyed NATION once I realised I was meant to be dropping a stag from the beginning rather than a king from the end. And I’m with WordPlodder in loving MISS OTIS. Fairly clued, but isn’t IDIOTISH an ugly word and I’m not sure why we have it when we have the far better ‘idiotic’.
Thanks Phi and duncan
Along with others, I find IDIOTISH an ugly word. I feel sure Phi would have slotted in ADMONISH had that not interfered with the nina. Indeed, it was that unlikely word that initially led me to suspect a nina was forthcoming.
We guessed/worked out the nina fairly early and just thought it could be a sort of April Fool (Looking for a nina? Nothing doing!). It did help us complete the bottom half of the grid, though – but we too failed to spot the ubiquitous O’s.
Favourite was MISS OTIS with PERIOD and FALCONER as runners-up.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan.
This started out as simply NOTHING DOING in the top and bottom rows with the cluster of Os in the centre. A sort of self-defeating Nina. Then I noticed that most answers contained O, and tweaked the last few to match. And then I noticed the date originally assigned and shifted it to the first of the month, as it was the only remotely April Foolish idea I had: sort of, you spot NOTHING DOING, and I say ‘Ah, but what’s nothing doing?’
Just to confirm: I have not been impounded on order of Grant Shapps.
To argue is to make a point