Independent 11,117 by Vernon

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This is Vernon’s second Indy puzzle.

The clue at 13ac gives the gateway into the theme which we were on the look out for as it is Tuesday. We had to check the definition of a heteronym, and then found eight of them placed around the outside of the grid. However, if it hadn’t been for their placement we would not have noticed 8d.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Someone who says no – how thick (6)
DENIER

Double definition

5. Possibly bent, as a candle might be said to be (6)
WICKED

Double definition – as a candle has a wick, you could say that it is wicked

10. Stylish, wearing wig? Having second thoughts? (5)
RUING

IN (stylish) inside or ‘wearing’ RUG (wig)

11. Relax, everyone – don’t start to differ (9)
ALLEVIATE

ALL (everyone) dEVIATE (differ) without first letter or ‘start’

12. Sacked heads can retain a religious profession (10,5)
ATHANASIAN CREED

An anagram (‘sacked’) of HEADS CAN RETAIN A. A new one on us – our LOI when we had all the crossing letters.

13. Short song about flowery tree – no examples of this round here (9)
HETERONYM

HYMn (song) missing last letter or ‘short’ around an anagram (‘flowery’) of TREE NO. There are 8 heteronyms in the final grid.

15. In magazine we oldies read about Hollywood composer (5)
LOEWE

Hidden and reversed (‘read about’) in magazinE WE OLdies

17. Inhale at start of lecture and speak slowly (5)
DRAWL

DRAW (inhale) L (first letter or ‘start’ of lecture)

19. Inordinate diatribe about daughter with bare back (9)
REDUNDANT

RANT (diatribe) round a reversal (‘back’) of D (daughter) NUDE (bare)

21. UK record label’s coverage in Canada (7,8)
BRITISH COLUMBIA

The record label is COLUMBIA so its coverage in the UK could be described as BRITISH COLUMBIA

24. Speaks about a youth ultimately untrained – in these? (5,4)
SALAD DAYS

SAYS (speaks) about A LAD (youth) and D (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of untrained)

25. Door half-centred initially in Corinthian order of architecture (5)
DORIC

DOoR (losing half its centre) and I C (first or ‘initial’ letters of In Corinthian)

26. Rebel’s imperfection (6)
DEFECT

Double definition

27. Support alternative (6)
SECOND

Double definition

DOWN
2. What about opening with film title? (7)
EPITHET

EH (what) about PIT (opening) + ET (film). We had to check that PIT = OPENING but it was there in Chamber’s Thesaurus

3. Usually e-learning is suspect (2,7)
IN GENERAL

An anagram (‘suspect’) of E-LEARNING

4. Ways to place plug in the middle of prose (5)
ROADS

AD (plug) inside ROS (the middle of pROSe)

5. Thoroughly intended – such barbs are accurate (4-5)
WELL-AIMED

WELL (thoroughly) AIMED (intended)

6. Twice as many finally in non-religious community (5)
CIVIC

CIVIL (non-religious) with the last letter L (50 in Roman numerals) changing to C (100) hence being twice as large

7. Stand up before opening (7)
ETAGERE

A reversal (‘up’) of ERE (before) GATE (opening)

8. Inspired article in “Money” (8)
BREATHED

THE (article) in BREAD (money)

9. Ask to remove top? Go ahead! (4)
LEAD

pLEAD (ask) missing first letter or ‘removing top’

14. And not the last (but not the first) direction (9)
NORTHEAST

NOR (and not) THE lAST (missing first letter or ‘not the first’)

15. With difficulty go and clue this dialect (6,3)
LANGUE DOC

An anagram (‘with difficulty’) of GO AND CLUE

16. Transport lobby, maybe (8)
ENTRANCE

Double definition

18. Foul – a cleaving chop – the pits (7)
AXILLAE

ILL (foul) A inside or ‘cleaving’ AXE (chop)

20. A taxi service supported by Waugh? (7)
AUBERON

A UBER (taxi service) ON (supported by)

21. Broadcast vulgar singer (4)
BASS

A homophone (‘broadcast’) of BASE (vulgar)

22. At first Edward follows endless country music (5)
INDIE

E (first letter of Edward) after INDIa (country) missing last letter or ‘endless’

23. A haven in Monaco, as I suspected (5)
OASIS

Hidden in MonacO AS I Suspected

 

23 comments on “Independent 11,117 by Vernon”

  1. Having blogged a crossword with several heteronyms recently, I did notice the ones in this crossword before I’d actually solved 13a.

    Thanks to Vernon and B&J

  2. To pass the time until the Guardian blog is up, I had a look at this one (thanks Bertandjoyce). I had to look up heteronym as well, and am now puzzled by SECOND – it has different meanings, but aren’t they pronounced the same way?

  3. I didn’t notice the theme, but very clever. Although at 8D, I’m struggling to find a viable use of ‘brethd’, and couldn’t see ‘breath’ as a verb in my dictionaries. Thanks Vernon and B&J.

  4. muffin@2 If you’re seconded to e.g. a different job then the emphasis is on the second syllable of the word, as in seCONDment. (I’m waiting for the Graun too. 🙂 )

  5. [Thanks crossbar. Not as distinct as the others. Like Tatrasman, I’m struggling to see when “brethd” might be used – “he was short of breath” = “he was short-breathed” perhaps?]

  6. HETERONYM: Excellent stuff. I have the same doubt as muffin@2 about SECOND.

    Also liked WICKED and CIVIC.

    Thanks, V and B&J!

  8. muffin@5 & Tatrasman@3 BREATHED bothered me too, but I think your short-breathed explanation works, muffin.

  9. Finished correctly though with some difficulty, eg I couldn’t parse CIVIC. Glad I’m not the only one who didn’t know exactly what a HETERONYM was. Clever to have included the examples around the periphery of the grid, not all of which I saw.

    Never heard of 12a either and ETAGERE was just remembered from previous appearances. I had 21a as ‘UK’ (=BRITISH) + ‘record label’ (=COLUMBIA) and the def as ‘coverage (?= an area of land) in Canada’ as the def but wasn’t sure.

    Thanks to Vernon for your SECOND and to B&J

  10. I originally compiled a long list of heteronyms and included BREATHED, thinking of how a classical musician, a clarinettist or an oboist say, controls their breath as they play — that is surely pronounced ‘brethd’ — but when I came to write the clues saw that this definition wasn’t in the usual dictionaries. Muffin @5 gives a possibility, but I think that breathed = inhaled, and breathed = spoke in a sort of whisper, does the trick, albeit not as originally intended.

  11. Very neatly done and I took ‘brethd’ as my second (that’s second with the emphasis on the first syllable, muffin) pronunciation. I had the same unknowns as WordPlodder and admit to revealing the CREED (nho), allowing EPITHET to finally solve. AXILLAE was also unknown but turned out to be a Jorum.

    I liked WICKED a lot and would also add SALAD DAYS, LANGUE D’OC, ROADS, DORIC and DENIER to my list.

    Thanks Vernon and B&J

  12. SECOND

    lexico.com has this entry…

    second3
    Pronunciation /s??k?nd/

    VERB
    [WITH OBJECT]
    British
    Transfer (a military officer or other official or worker) temporarily to other employment or another position.

    ‘I was seconded to a public relations unit’

  13. The pronunciation aid hasn’t got copied properly.

    It’s more like si’kond with the ‘o’ pronounced like the ‘o’ in ‘bottle’.

    It’s the same as what muffin@4 has said. Right?
    Sorry. Didn’t get it earlier and so ended up repeating something already explained.

  15. Thanks both. Personally this was too difficult to be enjoyable, with many unknowns and obscure definitions – also went astray having entered ‘well-meant’ instead of WELL-AIMED which I recognise as less often used, and have to admit to still not fully understanding how the clue takes us there

  16. Didn’t realise this is Vernon’s second offering, must look back for his first. The heteronym theme was interesting although I wasn’t overly convinced by BREATHED.
    Favourite here was NORTHEAST – really made me laugh.

    Thanks to Vernon and to B&J, particularly for their help with the parsing of 13a & 6d.

  17. Parts of this were quite tricky but I enjoyed it on the whole, and thought the theme was clever.

    Inordinate seems to me to be a bit of stretch for REDUNDANT, and I thought ATHANSIAN CREED was rather obscure. The second word of the the two word French phrase is D’OC not DOC so, whatever others may think, the enumeration (6,3) is wrong.

    NORTHEAST was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Vernon and to B&J.

  18. Thanks Vernon and B&J. A very nicely put together puzzle. I was scratching my head for ages wondering how a “HONYM” was a “short song”, and why Vernon would be telling us there were no heteronyms here when there were clearly several… what a blethering idiot I am!

    TFO @15 – I also hastily entered WELL-MEANT, then got confused when the crossers wouldn’t tally… had to go back and read the clue properly… clearly not on my game this morning at all.

  19. Thanks Vernon, B&J
    I am a bit puzzled as to why it is necessary to shoehorn BREATHED into a category where it seems not to fit just because it’s on the perimeter of a crossword grid. I’ve never heard anyone say brethd, in a musical context or otherwise, but even if such a pronunciation exists, it’s still just part of the verb breathe, so doesn’t meet the ‘different meaning’ requirement for heteronyms.

  21. We enjoyed this, particularly as we twigged the theme early on. We did need a wordfindwe for ÉTAGÈRE, though.
    As for BREATHED, Chambers tells us that the ‘brethd’ pronunciation is used in phonetics for ‘pronounced without voice’ (i.e. without resonance of the vocal cords). But it’s still related to ‘breath’ so we think it’s a borderline case as a heteronym.
    Thanks, though, to Vernon and B&J.
    PS: If anyone wants another heteronym there’s one in today’s FT.

  22. Thanks Vernon for the challenge. I eventually finished this but without complete parsing and without catching the theme. (I keep forgetting that Tuesday is theme day.) I still enjoyed this with REDUNDANT, LEAD, and AXILLAE being particular favourites. Thanks B & J for the much needed blog.

  23. Nice blog, B&J. Well done with the parsing. Almost everything perfect, except the BC clue, where WordPlodder@9 has it right. And pit = opening is not only in Chambers Thesaurus, but also in the real dictionary, which is the one that matters, in the first entry for pit.

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