Independent 11,250 / Skinny

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Skinny has compiled this week’s Wednesday puzzle. Skinny is still a relatively new compiler for me to solve and blog.

I found this to be towards the easier end of the Indy spectrum in terms of difficulty, but nonetheless an entertaining solve on a mid-week day when time is of the essence.

I think that I have parsed every solution satisfactorily, although I needed Google to verify 13. There appears to be no Nina today, despite the grid lending itself to one, but then it is Wednesday, not Tuesday.

My favourite clues today were 15A, for overall construction; 15D, 16, 21 and 25, all for surface reading; and 24D, for originality. I also realised that I had misunderstood the meaning of 26 for the last 50 years.

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

Across  
   
07 PARANOID Afraid no air’s circulating in home

*(NO AIR) in PAD (=home); “circulating” is anagram indicator
   
09 OUNCES Old relative’s ignoring large cats

O (=old, as in OT) + UNC<l>E’S (=relative’s; “ignoring large (=L, in sizes)”)
   
10 VISA Letters picked up with a permit

Homophone (“picked up”) of “vees (=letters, of alphabet)” + A
   
11 GREAT-NIECE Area covered by remarkably energetic family member

A (=area) in *(ENERGETIC); “remarkably” is anagram indicator
   
12 MANTRA Fellow traveller on vacation in front of a sacred text

MAN (=fellow) + T<ravelle>R (“on vacation” means all but first and last letters are dropped) + A
   
14 MARSHALS Orders Dutch artist to pursue damages

MARS (=damages, as verb) + HALS (=Dutch artist, i.e. Frans Hals the Elder); to marshal is to arrange, to place in order
   
15 TOASTY Where a piglet may be taken to get warm

TO A STY (=where a piglet may be taken)
   
16 ETHICS Aristotle finally caught in this moral framework

<aristotl>E (“finally” means last letter only) + [C (=caught, on cricket scorecard) in THIS]
   
19 BEE-EATER Ceremonial guard releasing female bird

BEEFEATER (=ceremonial guard, at Buckingham Palace); “releasing female (=F)” means letter “f” is dropped
   
21 NETHER Bottom two numbers

N (=number, in maths) + ETHER (= “number”, i.e. anaesthetic)
   
23 MAURITANIA Muse about Italian following mother country

MA (=mother) + [IT (=Italian) in URANIA (=Muse, of astronomy)]
   
24 CURT Blunt end of skewer stuck into piece of meat

<skewe>R (“end of” means last letter only) in CUT (=piece of meat)
   
25 SEVERE Divorce wife ultimately finds difficult

SEVER (=divorce, separate, as verb) + <wif>E (“ultimately” means last letter only); e.g. a severe test is a tough, difficult one
   
26 ENERVATE Drifting, veteran explorer’s beginning to weaken

*(VETERAN) + E<xplorer> (“beginning to” means first letter only; “drifting” is anagram indicator; to enervate is to weaken by depriving of nerve, strength
   
Down  
   
01 LAMINA Chicken, perhaps rearing a layer

ANIMAL (=chicken, perhaps); “rearing” indicates vertical reversal; a lamina is a thin plate or layer
   
02 NADA Tennis champion almost gets nothing

NADA<l> (=tennis champion, i.e. Spaniard Rafael Nadal); “almost” means last letter is dropped
   
03 POIGNANT Paignton turned out to be pathetic

*(PAIGNTON); “turned out” is anagram indicator; poignant is touching, moving, arousing pathos
   
04 DOCTOR Go off fish served up for cook

ROT (=go off, putrefy) + COD (=fish); “served up” indicates vertical reversal; to cook the books is to doctor the accounts
   
05 ANTICHRIST Stunt with tattered shirt, one that Jesus may oppose?

ANTIC (=stunt, caper) + *(SHIRT); “tattered” is anagram indicator
   
06 HERCULES Strongman – he’s smuggling riches from the south

ERCUL (LUCRE=riches; “from the south” indicates vertical reversal) in HE’S
   
08 DREAMY Read about Moriarty, void of imagination

*(READ) + M<oriart>Y (“void” means the word is “emptied”, i.e. all central letters are dropped)
   
13 TEABERRIES Has a go at drinking a beer, developed as a source of wintergreen

*(A BEER) in TRIES (=has a go at); “developed” is anagram indicator; in botany, teaberry leaves have a distinctive oil of wintergreen scent
   
15 TEENAGER Young man brewing green tea

*(GREEN TEA); “brewing” is anagram indicator
   
17 TINTAGEL Time left for supporting cast to discover Arthurian site

TINT (=cast, tinge) + AGE (=time, era) + L (=left)
   
18 GRANGE Good-for-nothing fruit farm

ORANGE (=fruit); “good (=G) for nothing (=O)” means that letter “g” replaces letter “o”
   
20 TITFER Eastender’s hat refurbishment takes time, on reflection

T (=time) in REFIT (=refurbishment); “on reflection” indicates reversal; in Cockney rhyming slang, a titfer is a hat, from “tit for tat”
   
22 ERRATA I’m not sure a sailor lies about mistakes

ER (=I’m not sure) + RATA (A + TAR (=sailor); “lies about” indicates reversal)
   
24 CAVA Wine in Bordeaux, it’s OK

In French (=in Bordeaux), “ça va” means “it’s ok”
   
   

 

12 comments on “Independent 11,250 / Skinny”

  1. Lots to like in here with the lovely spot and indicator in GRANGE; POIGNANT and DOCTOR, again for the spots and the surfaces; ETHICS and MARSHALS for the neat surface images; BEE-EATER for the simple deletion and NETHER for the lovely use of two totally different numbers. I felt ‘end’ could just as easily apply to either S or R in ‘skewer’ so was held up a bit with CURT. My only bit of a gripe is LAMINA which I feel could work either way. Not a major gripe as there are crossers to resolve the ambiguity but it’s nicer if the clue is standalone.

    Thanks Skinny and RR

  2. Should have got 24A/D but didn’t, so a DNF for me today. TITFER has appeared twice in recent Indie puzzles. Interestingly (to me anyway, a ship lover), Mauritania the country is spelled differently from the grand old Cunard liner RMS Mauretania. Great puzzle, so thanks Skinny and RatkojaRiku.

  3. I was ultimately defeated by LAMINA (I had an unparsed PATINA, and I still associate animals with mammals, not birds) and TITFER which was new to me, although I did think TATHER was a good effort (HAT* around T, then RE<)! ETHICS, NETHER, and CAVA were my picks.

    Like RR, I didn't know that was what ENERVATE meant – I've always assumed it meant the opposite.

    PM@1, I think I've only ever seen 'end' for a final letter in the wild (and likewise 'tip' for first letter), although I think they could both be justifiably either.

    Thanks Skinny & RR

  4. Amoeba @3: yes, we like to have our cake AND eat it. A word has one end if we want to use ‘end of’ but two when we want to use the both ends/either end (X AND Y or X OR Y) tricks. Or, to put it more simply, there are two ends but one of them’s at the beginning.

  6. I’m sure I’ve seen the ca va cava trick before but it still evaded me for a long time. I think I must be too auditory.

  7. All solved with one or two hiccups on the way. In 13dn we started off looking for the botanical name of wintergreen and actually found trientalis for chickweed wintergreen which almost parsed but not quite – and would have been somewhat arcane GK anyway. Also, we couldn’t parse TINTAGEL, and for 23ac we needed recourse to Brewer to decide which of the Muses we needed.
    Lots to enjoy, though. Favourite was DREAMY for the surface reading that seemed to imply the opposite.
    Thanks, Skinny and RR.

  8. HERCULES was really good and I enjoyed – well on review practically everything.

    I don’t really get TINTAGEL: tinge/tint=cast? Anyone?

    Thanks Skinny and RR

  10. Thanks Skinny, this was great fun. The clue for NETHER is a cracker. Also very much liked GRANGE and TOASTY anmong others. Nho TEABERRIES but I was able to deduce it from the clue.

    And thanks for the blog, RR.

    Alphalpha – OED has “dash or shade of colour” as one of the meanings of cast. Perhaps not the most obvious synonym but it works for me.

  11. Alphalpha @8: for cast = tint, think photography, especially the old pre-digital film version. For example, a picture may have a “green cast” (everything looks a bit greenish) if it’s taken in the wrong lighting conditions, or if something goes wrong in developing or printing.

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