It looks like the regular blogger is unavailable so I’ve hastily put this together.
Apologies for the brevity and apologies in advance for errors.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 |
One member to broadcast, with little hesitation to be a wrecker (8)
|
|
| IMPAIRER | I (one)+MP (member)+AIR (broadcast)+ER (hesitation) | |
| 9 |
President — genuine fellow but spurned English (6)
|
|
| TRUMAN | TRU[e] (genuine)_MAN (fellow) no English | |
| 10, 5 |
Socialist up for election hopelessly outperformed (4,8)
|
|
| LEFT | LEFT (socialist)+STANDING (up for election) | |
| 11 |
Me — native abroad to the south-east (10)
|
|
| VIETNAMESE | ME NATIVE SE (anag) | |
| 12 |
Runs? Opening bat will miss a century, I’ll say! (6)
|
|
| RATHER | ATHER[ton] missing TON (century) | |
| 14 |
Demanding book should include paintings (8)
|
|
| TOILSOME | TOME with OILS inside | |
| 15 |
A number sitting in boozy US diner? (7)
|
|
| BEANERY | BEERY (boozy) with A Number inside | |
| 17 |
Silly editing gets one fired up (7)
|
|
| IGNITED | EDITING (anag) | |
| 20 |
Final message poet composed with guile — waste of time! (8)
|
|
| EPILOGUE | POE[t]+GUILE (anag) minus Time | |
| 22 |
See 2
|
|
| MINUTE | see 2 down | |
| 23 |
Literary world to stroke good person in welcome (4,6)
|
|
| GRUB STREET | GREET (welcome) around RUB (stroke) and ST (saint) | |
| 24 |
See 26
|
|
| PEAS | see 26 across | |
| 25 |
Slowly pass present back to grab attention (4,2)
|
|
| WEAR ON | NOW (rev) around EAR (attention) | |
| 26, 24 |
Angel’s help is unexpectedly making a task very easy (8,4)
|
|
| SHELLING | ANGELS HELP IS (anag) | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 |
Agree map at sea would show strength of current (8)
|
|
| AMPERAGE | AGREE MAP (anag) | |
| 2, 22 across |
Desperate model, extremely small (4-6)
|
|
| LAST | LAST (extremely) + MINUTE (small) | |
| 3 |
See 24
|
|
| DRIVER | see 24 down | |
| 4 |
Ministers persist in a stupid way (7)
|
|
| PRIESTS | PERSIST (anag) | |
| 5 |
See 10
|
|
| STANDING | see 10 across | |
| 6 |
Compliance in underwater action? (10)
|
|
| SUBMISSION | A mission underwater could be a SUB MISSION | |
| 7 |
Sounds like children’s author demanded money (6)
|
|
| RANSOM | Sounds like RANSOME | |
| 13 |
Bikers take risks ignoring them — hairy types! (10)
|
|
| HANDLEBARS | (double/cryptic def) – handlebar moustaches | |
| 16 |
Dress at about one for Italian food (8)
|
|
| RIGATONI | RIG (dress)+AT+ON (about)+I | |
| 18 |
Gets aboard vehicle, being outside school (8)
|
|
| ENTRAINS | ENS (being) around TRAIN (school) | |
| 19 |
Pope found in English river — a kind of fish (7)
|
|
| TELEOST | LEO (pope) in TEST (river) | |
| 21 |
Piggy is middle character of three in game (6)
|
|
| PORKER | thRee (middle character in POKER (game) | |
| 22 |
Glove making hit but missing the head (6)
|
|
| MITTEN | [s]MITTEN | |
| 24, 3 |
Machine’s very good — was first to get running water (4,6)
|
|
| PILE | PI (very good)+LED (was first)+RIVER (water) |
Number 1 at last
For 2d,22ac I had desperate as the definition and last ( as a noun) for model.
Beanery and Teleost were NHO, so a DNF. Was 12a s22d with the rest, though. Thanks kenmac and Pasquale!
NHO Teleost, and thought Mike Atherton a bit “niche” knowledge. (You’ve missed DRIVER from 21,3)
Thanks for stepping in, Kenmac, and thanks Pasquale
As ever with Pasquale, some real obscurities. I had never heard of a BEANERY (presumably our American friends have), and am still baffled by the ENS in 18d.
A very strange first definition in 13d – it’s true, but it would also be true of bends, cliffs, lorries etc.!
I wouldn’t equate LAST MINUTE and “desperate” all that closely.
I was very pleased to parse RATHER – my favourite.
Was it worth the wait Roz?
thanks, Kenmac, for stepping in. The delay forced me to parse “entrains” which I struggled with and finally learned something from (“ens” – one for my etui).
Thanks for the blog, I liked HANDLEBARS , I usually prefer word play but it had a nice definition and a misleading description.
Sorry, 24,3
Yes, I thought a cobbler’s last for the model too in 2,22. Still don’t like the definition.
Thanks to kenmac for stepping in.
I think the parsing of 2d, 22a is ‘model’ (of a foot)=LAST, ‘extremely small’=MINUTE
I had to give up on BEANERY and TELEOST, though I had TEST for the ‘English river’ and LEO for the Pope, but I just couldn’t believe it was a word. And BEANERY is something that I ought to know about as a vegan, but it doesn’t appear to have crossed the pond.
Thanks to Pasquale and kenmac.
Thezed@6 , I am always one of the last, do the puzzle on my way home so never a chance of number 1 until today.
muffin@5 – I’ve lived in America for 23 odd years and have not heard of a beanery – in CA it would be considered somewhat derogatory, but perhaps not elsewhere.
muffin @5. Yes, I was puzzled by ENS too, but it’s in Collins.
Not really on the wavelength today and took ages to spot some straightforward anagrams.
Needed some help parsing a few too.
Favourites were LAST MINUTE, PILE DRIVER, LEFT STANDING, TRUMAN
I think I only ever see ENTRAINS in crosswords but at least I got it this time – but from the crossers and couldn’t parse it. Not heard of ENS being being – can someone explain please
Thanks Pasquale
Thank you for stepping in, Kenmac. The ens part of 18d had me beat, too – and I’d never heard of that fish!
Hey ho
Thanks to Pasquale for the challenge
muffin @9. “I made a desparate/last minute dash for the train.”
An online search for ENS finds a hit that describes it as “obsolete, metaphysics”. I think I’m forgiven for not knowing it…
SH @16
Not convinced – I wouldn’t use them interchangeably at all. They simply don’t mean the same thing, except, very loosely, metaphorically.
Well I’ve been in the States for nearly 50 years, and have never heard of BEANERY. Mrs.Dr.W. is native born and hasn’t either. We are guessing the term is hyper-regional.
ENS is in Chambers , it is from metaphysics, I have seen it a lot before but probably more often in Azed.
Well done Roz. Loved HANDLEBARS for the Hells Angels connotation. Surprised to see TOILSOME 11 days after Brendan’s almost identical clue give or take.
Ya Pasquale & Kenmac
muffin @18. I remember that you don’t like metonymy, and now you disapprove of metaphor too? 🙂
AlanC @21 I make it 43 – 1 to you but the comeback starts now.
AlanC @21. As well as TOILSOME making a rapid reappearance, we also have ‘broadcast’=AIR two days in a row! And in the first across clue both times (8a here and 1a yesterday).
Very loose, metaphor, SH ! 🙂
Sh@16 I thought that too, until I didn’t! The word “dash” in your example carries the sense of desperation more than “last-minute” does, imo. “I made a last-minute change to the recipe” – no desperation implied.
Spent far too long on BEANERY thinking that it must be, as it’s Pasquale, an obscure word for number using an anagram of US DINER. Perhaps a case of the setter using their own reputation for misdirection?
I thought there might be a few grumbles about ATHERTON
Thanks km for filling in and Pasquale for the shenanigans
Dr. WhatsOn @26. A last minute change to a recipe could well be desperate – if you’re making a curry but the only spice in your cupboard is nutmeg!
Chambers app has ENS (Philosophy) “Being or existence”
The former Signora Catflap was and remains a devoted and spectacular practitioner of last-minutism. At work, this, while it may not have expressed desperation on her part, certainly provoked it in her support staff.
Like Fiona Anne, I found this rather 14 across this morning. I shall put this down to the box of cheap Australian white that a friend brought round yesterday evening. I remain, however, somewhat perplexed about the clue for VIETNAMESE – ‘to the south-east’ (i.e. of Asia) seems to be the only definition, but south-east (SE) is necessary for the wordplay. Is this a manifestation of the dreaded ‘double-duty’?
Surely no one is suggesting that Boris’ last-minute visit to Ukraine instead of the North was desperate? I am another who tried to make an anagram of US diner. I always want to drop the words I learn from crosswords into conversation, but I might struggle today.
Depends who’s coming to dinner, Dr. WH. I went the cobbler’s last route, but wasn’t sure that nailed it.
Spooner’s catflap @30. I don’t have a problem with double duty, but I think this one is pretty close to an &lit. The whole clue is the definition – starting with ‘me’ i.e. the solution speaking to us through the medium of Pasquale – a native of a foreign country (abroad) which is to the SE (i.e. in the part of the world known as SE Asia). The clue also consists of the wordplay (me native)* + SE.
Beanery aka greasy spoon is familiar to this New Yorker.
PS kenmac, cnu underline the defs please.
Thanks Kenmac for stepping in.
Spooner’s catflap @30 I took VIETNAMESE as an & Lit , the whole clue can give the definition and the word play, but only ME NATIVE as an anagram with SE on the end. Not overly happy with the definition, for many people on here Vietnam is not to the SE.
Me @37 , well beaten by Sheffield Hatter @33
Ingenious, sheffield hatter @33, and you are probably right, but I just cannot ‘hear’ it that way. My fault.
?ns is Latin for being.
It is also a printing measure being the approximate width of an N in typeset, it is half an em. You couldn’t make it up.
Thanks to P and K
Ens is latin for being
From what I remember of Latin from school (many years ago), being is esse.
Thanks kenmac and Pasquale.
But I now see Mr Google also has ens.
TELEOST BEANERY and WEAR IN defeated me. And what is NHO?
Thanks both
It is slightly strange that TELEOST isn’t more commonly known (fairly enough), as they are what most people would regard as “fish”. (I won’t resurrect the argument about “there no such thing as a fish!)
I struggled for ages with BEANERY and had to reveal it. Then I had a vague feeling I’d heard it in a Larry Hart lyric. And sure enough, I had! It’s in Mountain Greenery. Check out Mel Tormé on YouTube
ttt @44 NHO = never heard of
Thanks so much to Kenmac for stepping in and to Pasquale for a good mental workout. Happy to see only one person knows what a BEANERY is… always thought diner was more up market than a greasy spoon. Well done Ros for getting the number 1 spot!
Thank you Pauline , a very rare event. Even on the weekend there are lots of early birds from different time zones.
Sourdough
I use Glosbe through DDG for translations and definitions. Avoid Mr Google
I think that ‘esse’ is the verb to exist whilst ‘ens’ is a noun ‘An existance’ but then my Latin was 60 years ago.
Here in Catalonia ens means ‘to us’
Thanks Crossbar@47
Mr Wiktionary has got it right. ENS is from Medieval Latin, not known in Classical times. (It’s also got your Catalan usage, Clive in Catalogne.)
Roz – is it better to have the first word or the last? 😉
Thanks Pasquale and Kenmac. My top clue was IGNITED for its great surface and anagram. I failed with TELEOST. I knew BEANERY from the Barney’s Beanery chain in California. I still have a matchbook from its West Hollywood location; in the 1980’s many gay men went there but the owner was a bit anti-gay so he printed matchbooks with “Fagots (sic) Stay Out.” That only increased the gay traffic just to collect this memorabilia. Times have changed.
Mostly doable, last 20% or so was full of NHO (BEANERY, TELEOST, GRUB STREET) and what I thought was some quite tenuous clueing. Getting to RATHER via ATHERton was a stretch for the non-fan. I still don’t get the definition of WEAR ON. HANDLEBARS was guessable from the crossers but the first half of the clue was oddly, and broadly, worded. MITTEN I guessed from glove but can’t see how the sMITTEN wordplay works.
Ah well. More than usual to grumble about, but I’ll be back tomorrow. I won’t be beaten every day!
Far too obscure for me.
Thanks both,
The only time I’ve heard ‘beanery’ before is in the song ‘Mountain Greenery’ (AuntRuth@46). I’d always assumed it was a nonce word made up because the lyricist had run out of rhymes for ‘scenery’.
[Tyngewick @57
This contains one of the best words included just for a rhyme!
Pete Atkin (now a respected radio producer) collaborated with Clive James to produce several underappreciated albums, though this song was just Pete!.]
Thanks for stepping in Kenmac and thanks for discussion of ENS everyone, funny how we also had Esse not long ago. I enjoyed the tussle, as usual with Pasquale learned two new words ( but gettable from wordplay and a list of popes luckily) and some wordplay. Can’t help but remember my desperate/last minute Christmas shopping most years. Thanks Pasquale.
After the fact, I remembered seeing TELEOST in another crossword — probably the one that I read about the River Test — but neither came to mind.
I did enjoy HANDLEBARS — once I had the 3 lower crossers!
And PORKER was so clever I couldn’t even parse it after a reveal — spent some time on Google trying to find an obscure game named porker and being annoyed at all the poker references!
I have heard the term BEANERY, but not for a long time. [My husband was amazed when he came to America that he couldn’t get baked beans for breakfast]
RobT @55, smitten = hit, with “making” as a joining word. (Now, if you had the glove missing its head, you would have the next stage of infatuation … leave that for another puzzle.)
The suspicion that Lorenz Hart coined ‘beanery’ simply to rhyme with greenery and scenery reminds me of ‘flivver’ which possibly occurs only in Sinatra’s ‘It’s very nice to go travelling’.
Tough but enjoyable puzzle. Took me a while to get going on this.
New: TELEOST (fish); BEANERY; Grub Street (thanks, google).
Liked PILE DRIVER.
I did not parse 12ac, 18d – why is ENS being? Thnaks sheffield hatter @13 for explaining.
Thanks, both.
BEANERY and TELEOST a bit obscure I thought, with VIETNAMESE the &lit. I didn’t think it totes bang-on, but the answer had to be what it is. Bit dreary all round for me, this effort.
Tyngrwick@57:
Quite right. And I quote…
“Beans could get no finer re..
.ception in a beanery”
Painful innit.
Barney’s Beanery In West Hollywood is legendary; it was even featured on the R. Crumb cover art for Cheap Thrills by Big Brother & The Holding Company. But it’s a bar/burger joint, not a diner.
“keener” not “finer” duurrr
Nope. Got Vietnamese from the crossers and wordplay but I still don’t see the definition. Thought for a moment that maybe the Don was from that part of the world but it appears not.
According to this, Barney’s Beanery just had its centenary.
Might meat-eaters prefer a wienery? And weight-watchers a leanery?
And deans presumably eat in a deanery, while their vestments are laundered in a cleanery.
Deadhead @67 (if still with us, and anyone else puzzled by the definition for VIETNAMESE) please see mine @33 for a possible explanation of the clue, which I see as an &lit. (Roz @37 agrees, and no one has disagreed with us.)
Well, TELEOST and BEANERY were my last two in, had heard of neither word before, but from the wordplay I thought – these look like they could be words, now I wonder if these actually exist. And so I looked them up, and they did. Did like HANDLEBARS, solved this one with a smile as I walked back from my GP’s after a routine blood pressure appt. Shank’s Pony rather than on my velocipede there and back….
Apropos of nothing very much, BEANERY also crops up in the lyrics of Tom Petty’s “Louisiana Rain”, which is the only place I’ve ever heard the word. This was of no help when solving the puzzle of course ! I abandoned ship halfway through, not being on the Don’s wavelength at all.
“ens” (as well as “esse”) is worth remembering for crossword solvers.
The entry in Chambers reads “ens (philosophy) noun (plural entia being or existence; an entity, as opposed to an attribute. [(Late (or Low) Latin ens, present participle of Latin esse to be]”.
Roz @37… the &lit VIETNAMESE was my favourite but the SE didn’t bother me. Although Vietnam is North West of my location, I took the SE to refer to its position in Asia, hence shorthand for South East Asia. If you need more first posts you’ll have to move there or even the antipodes. The blogs usually appear about 6pm local time here.
MikeB @61
I well recall “Ford’s in his flivver, all’s well with the world” being intoned by the faithful in Brave New World.
TimC@72 SE Asia would have been better but would have spoilt the clue. As it stands, the answer (me) is talking to the solver (us) and saying they are a native abroad to the SE , so a bit Anglocentric, only a very minor quibble.
Moving would not help my quest for number 1, I can only solve using pen and the paper and always on my journey home. This one was a very rare event.
My least favourite setter up to his old obscure tricks.
Really tough – had to reveal TELEOST and BEANERY (both NHO), despite all the crossers, needed 225 to parse PILE DRIVER, VIETNAMESE (poor clueing IMO) and ENTRAINS, not convinced about the definition of WEAR ON, and thought Atherton too niche to include. Ugh!
Ian @76. Did you not read the explanations of VIETNAMESE by me @33 & Roz @37? If you think we’re wrong about this clue, please explain why. Just saying “poor clueing” doesn’t really do it.
Apologies, all. It was my turn to blog yesterday’s Guardian, but I was on holiday with limited access to the net, and completely forgot to tell anyone. Thanks to Ken Mac for stepping up.
grantinfreo @35
Sorry – I really did it in a rush and I had people demanding my time.
Apologies are not necessary, you are volunteers doing this out of kindness. Very rarely a hitch will occur and just remind us how lucky we are normally. Kenmac your rushed blog was more than ample.
Just a thought, next time there is a glitch would it be worth just putting a placeholder up with comments allowed ?
We would all be happy to talk about the puzzle, people could ask about particular clues and many would be happy to answer.
Thanks Ken Mac. Your blog at late notice was more than ample and greatly appreciated. Please know how much we appreciate this.
Loonapick@78 and kenmac@79 – you have no need to apologise. The occasional glitch is no big deal, and the fact that we all notice just shows what a good job you do. It takes loads of time and effort. So thank you.
Roz@80 I think your idea of a placeholder with comments is excellent, if something similar happens again.
Thanks to Kenmac for stepping into the breach.
The clue for 14a was considerably better than the last time TOILSOME appeared in a Grauniad puzzle. But for me that was about the limit of the enjoyment. I don’t think 11a works on any level. Yes, Vietnam is in South East Asia, but South East Asia ain’t “to the southeast”. And BEANERY and TELEOST were too obscure to be fun.
Oofyprosser @75 – I think I’m with you.
[MikeB @61 and GregfromOz @73 — I thought the most famous use of “flivver” is from Ira Gershwin:
Fascinating rhythm, you got me on the go.
Fascinating rhythm, I’m all a-quiver.
Fascinating rhythm, the neighbors want to know
Why I’m always shaking like a flivver.
I think it used to be a common word, meaning roughly the same as “jalopy” (which is also archaic now).
Oh, and this American has heard the word “beanery”, but very rarely.]