Independent 11,240 / Phi

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Phi has produced another Friday puzzle for our stimulation and entertainment.

I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle on the Indy spectrum, one through which I made steady progress. I think that I have parsed everything to my satisfaction. As is usual for me, I have not detected any theme in this puzzle – has anyone else, I wonder?

My favourite clues today are 1A and 26D, for overall construction; 7, for originality; 11, for making me smile; and 20, for surface reading and for its wealth of musical content.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 CATCH Observe derisory response not engaging all hearts

CATC<all> (=derisory response; “not engaging all” means letters “all” are dropped) + H (=hearts)
     
04 TAOISEACH The CIA’s wrong-footed about American meeting old European leader

[A (=American) + O (=old, as in OT)] in *(THE CIA’S); “wrong-footed” is anagram indicator; the Taioseach is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland
     
09 SIGNALMAN Remarkable article about male railway worker

M (=man) in [SIGNAL (=remarkable, notable) + AN (=article, in grammar)]
     
10 HAREM Injury besetting English team of women?

E (=English) in HARM (=injury)
     
11 EVENT First Lady’s not without love? It happens

EVE (=First Lady, i.e. in Bible) + N<o>T (=without love (=0, i.e. zero score in tennis) means letter “o” is dropped)
     
12 MECHANICS Chance is at work, in pursuit of money for engineers

M (=money) + *(IS CHANCE); “at work” is anagram indicator
     
14 GASTRIC Bit of grouse – a precise cut – fit for the stomach

G<rouse> (“bit of” means first letter only) + A + STRIC<t> (=precise, exact; “cut” means last letter is dropped); e.g. a gastric band is “fit for the stomach”
     
15 AUSTERE Devil’s victim losing force before grave

<f>AUST (=Devil’s victim, in Goethe’s Faust; “losing force (=F, in physics) means letter “f” is dropped) + ERE (=before, in poetry); austere is severe, stern, grave
     
17 ASSEGAI Charlie, say, with excellent weapon

ASS (=Charlie, say, fool) + E.G. (=say, for example) + A1 (=excellent)
     
19 CLIMBED Went up front of cliff displaying arms and legs

C<liff> (“front of” means first letter only) + LIMBED (=displaying arms and legs)
     
21 EQUIPMENT Male comedians possibly brought in alien gear

“QUIP-MEN” (=male comedians possibly) in E.T. (=alien, in 1982 Spielberg film)
     
23 EXTOL Give good review to former group making comeback

EX- (=former) + TOL (LOT=group; “making comeback” indicates reversal)
     
25 ARRAS Tapestry showing rows of figures, say, but excluding year

ARRA<y>S (=rows of figures, say, arrangement; “excluding year (=Y)” means letter “y” is dropped)
     
26 HORSESHOE Sprays water on garden, adopting gardener’s ultimate talisman?

<gardene>R (“ultimate” means last letter only) in [HOSES (=sprays water on) + HOE (=(to) garden, as verb, to weed)]
     
27 DISMANTLE Break up, being badly misled about soldier

ANT (=soldier) in *(MISLED); “badly” is anagram indicator
     
28 DIRTY Obscene song showing change of heart

DITTY (=song); “showing change of heart” means middle letter changed
     
Down    
     
01 CASTE Social group dispersed by end of Empire

CAST (=dispersed, scattered) + <empir>E (“end of” means last letter is dropped)
     
02 TIGRESS Time to take a different line, heading off predator

T (=time) + <d>IGRESS (=to take a different line; “heading off” means first letter is dropped)
     
03 HEARTHRUG Warm feelings leading to embrace around right spot in front of the fire?

HEART (=warm feelings, cordiality) + [R (=right) in HUG (=embrace)]
     
04 TIME MACHINE Sentence: “Chinese invading West?” – something seen in SF story?

TIME (=sentence, imprisonment) + [CHIN. (=Chinese) in MAE (=West, i.e. US actress)]; the reference is to the 1895 novella by H G Wells
     
05 OWN Admit feeling unhappy, lacking leadership

<d>OWN (=feeling unhappy); “lacking leadership” means first letter is dropped; e.g. to own to a profound feeling of jealousy is to admit one has it!
     
06 SCHWA Often the sound of the school was reduced

SCH (=school) + WA<s> (“reduced” means last letter is dropped); in phonetics, schwa is an unstressed vowel sound, seen for example in the word “the” in continuous speech
     
07 AIRLINE Song lyric? I could get you Leaving on a Jet Plane

AIR (=song) + LINE (=lyric); cryptically, an airline could get one “leaving on a jet plane”!
     
08 HOMESTEAD Top teacher keeping various tomes in residence

*(TOMES) in HEAD(master) (=top teacher): “various” is anagram indicator
     
13 CHARCUTERIE Each recruit gets busy in 20’s shop

*(EACH RECRUIT); “gets busy (=messy, of a picture)” is anagram indicator; a charcuterie is a butcher (=entry at 20)’s shop, a delicatessen
     
14 GRACELAND Favour light pop album

GRACE (=favour, goodwill) + LAND (=light, as verb, set down); the reference is to Paul Simon’s 1986 album
     
16 SWINEHERD Farmworker has drink, tucking into a bit

WINE (=drink) in SHERD (=a bit, of pottery)
     
18 SQUARES Specific types of product // for unexciting people

Double definition: a square is the “product” of a quantity multiplied by itself, in mathematics AND an unexciting, traditional person
     
20 BUTCHER Ruin arrangement of Schubert, omitting soprano

*(<s>CHUBERT); “omitting soprano (=S)” means letter “s” is dropped from anagram, indicated by arrangement; to butcher is to spoil, botch, ruin
     
22 PASTA Historic area producing foodstuff

PAST (=historic) + A (=area)
     
24 LEERY Cautious sort of line taken about old royal insignia

ER (=old royal insignia, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) in LEY (=line, i.e. straight line between landscape features)
     
26 HOT Very popular place to stay offering reduction of 40%

HOT<el> (=play to stay; “offering reduction of 40%” means 2 of 5 letters are dropped)
     

 

10 comments on “Independent 11,240 / Phi”

  1. Very good as ever. I originally had BNB (it also have 2 of 5 letters dropped) for 26d, but didn’t think that was very Phi-ish so reconsidered. Failed to make the mathematical leap when putting SQUARES in, so thank you for the parsing explanation RR.

    LEERY, TIME MACHINE and AIRLINE among favourites but only by tiny margin.
    I can’t see a theme but at points thought there was a space, science, time travel thing going on, so looked for words to complete phrases (quantum) MECHANICS, EVENT (horizon). Not to be.

    Will Phi enlighten us this week?

    Thanks to Phi and RR

  2. There’s an alternative parsing for 1A. Although not in my normally trusty go-to wordlist Crossword Solver King, I found ‘chatch’ in the online Urban Dictionary, meaning someone unimportant or worthless, and therefore a derisory response. (It can also mean chest hair!) So ‘not engaging all hearts’ means one H is dropped. Is this what Phi meant? Very entertaining anyway so thanks Phi and RatkojaRiku.

  3. No theme I can spot either; just a really lovely normal Friday puzzle with nothing that’s not to like. Having had quite some discussion this week about succinctness versus surface, I found Phi’s clues quite delightful today. My only raised eyebrow – and it’s on behalf of a much maligned profession rather than betraying any concern of my own – is the equation of mechanics with engineers in 12a. Many is the highly qualified aspirational Brunel who has been asked to take a peek under a friend’s bonnet to identify the source of a pinking noise.

    Thanks Phi and RR

  4. I can’t let your alternative parsing for 1a go past Tatrasman, without saying very interesting. Good find even if P meant nothing of the sort.

  5. I wish I had had time to work out the few I needed a word search to find, as this was, as PostMark says, a really lovely puzzle. I would pick out BUTCHER from a strong field as my favourite.

  7. Phi has usually stepped in well before now. He didn’t post he last week either. I hope all is well with him.

  8. Thanks RatkojaRiku and Phi.
    Parsing 1a, thought of catch-all (in stead of cat-call) and was stuck there. Well…
    EQUIPMENT, HOMESTEAD, SQUARES are favs.

  9. No, I’m still here, enjoying a long weekend.

    This is my annual plundering of the weird names given to burgers in the Wellington Burger Festival back in August. Not quite as good a range as previous years, but I could still make use of DIRTY CHARCUTERIE. HOMESTEAD BUTCHER, HOT CATCH, TIME MACHINE and GRACELAND to structure the grid. There were over 200 on the list this year, and my own sampling didn’t overlap with the ones in the grid.

    Nor did I try GOGIGYEOPBBANG, either as human or grid fodder. I can recommend Googling it, though.

  10. Hurrah! I should really put a reminder on my phone for the Wellington Burger Festival for next year, though I am sure to forget.

    GOGIGYEOPBBANG duly googled. Well, what a wealth of talent that ‘man’ has. I will, of course, google the rest. I am hoping a GRACELAND includes a fried peanut butter sandwich.

    Thank you for breaking the suspense.

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