Bluebird provides the Thursday challenge this week – we think this is his or her 7th Indy puzzle and the 2nd that we have had the pleasure of blogging.
We enjoyed this for the originality of some of the clues, but we suspect that some may be put off by the need for some GK in several of them (12ac, 22ac, 5d, 6d, 8d, 24d).
19c was our LOI – we’ve never been happy with wordplay that involves random forenames, especially when one of them in this case is quite unusual.
It was only after completing the puzzle and starting the blog that we realised that there is a ‘food’ theme in four of the columns despite the fact that 18d and 3d were linked in the clues. 2d also falls within the ‘food’ theme, but we suspect that it is the paired down entries that were the prime objectives of the grid-fill. Unfortunately the menu is not for the healthiest of foods… and to add to the health warning we have 1ac filling 14d!
An anagram (‘renovated’) of BOAT + C (first letter of Carnegie) CO (company)
K (potassium) EH (what) A all in or ‘absorbed by’ MAY (hawthorn)
A RM (Royal Marine) OU (Open University – ‘remote university’) REDCAR (racecourse)
MS (manuscript) round R (first letter or ‘start’ of Romanticism)
M (first letter or ‘beginning’ of music) in or ‘stifled by’ TREBLE (high frequency sound)
RE (on) CLoUSEau (French police inspector – from the ‘Pink Panther’ films) missing or ‘giving up’ ‘o’ (love) and ‘au’ (gold)
ED (editor – ‘journalist’) after MO (‘second’) B B (two more ‘seconds’ – 2nd letter in the alphabet)
An anagram (‘organisation’) of N D (first letters or ‘heads’ of nine departments) and IN HUGE
An anagram (‘translating’) of CROATIAN
This must be BET and RAY (two people), but we were unsure about BET – however, it would appear that it is an alternative to Beth as a girl’s name. Not our favourite clue.
AERO (the chocolate bar that’s ‘bubbly and sweet’) SOL (Mexican beer). We had to check the ‘beer’ and found out that it’s actually a lager – lager now seems to be synonymous with beer in a lot of pubs – but not to us!
IR (Irish) CU (copper) in or ‘wearing’ HAT
Hidden (‘piece of’) in magesteriAL Iintaglio – a reference to the boxer Cassius Clay who renamed himself Mohammed Ali
A MP (politician) + HE + T A (first letters or ‘starts’ to trigger atomic) + MINE (bomb)
EM (first half of Emma) ENDED (stopped)
An anagram (‘set loose’) of SHEEP before or ‘west of’ US (American)
TO A ST (saint – ‘good woman’)
A reversal (‘returning’) of OB (old boy – ‘alumnus’) + ME (yours truly) round or ‘eating’ B (second-rate)
C (middle letter or ‘heart’ of artichoke) RUMBLE (roll)
A homophone (‘when delivered’) of OCHS (Scottish expressions of surprise) AYES (Scottish expressions of approval)
Double definition – the first being a breed of penguin, the second referring to the song ‘Yankee Doodle (dandy)’ – ‘Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony / Stuck a feather in his hat and called it Macaroni’.
KARlA (fictional Soviet Intelligence officer / antagonist in three of John le Carre’s books featuring George Smiley) missing or ‘killing’ ‘l’ (liberal) CHI (first or ‘northern’ – in a down clue – half of chilly)
HR (Human Resources – ‘personnel’) round or ‘taking’ an anagram (‘animatedly’) of UMBRAGE
YES (progressive rock band) + an anagram (‘ruin’) of T (last letter or ‘end’ of get) and READY – a reference to the classic Beatles song
A Spoonerism (‘according to the Reverend’s pronouncement’) of LAMA MADE (‘produced by monk’)
BRIE (cheese) round or ‘stuffed with’ A R (first letters or ‘tips’ of asparagus and rye) and PIP (seed)
WALL (part of building) OP-ED (‘column’ – a newspaper article printed OPposite the Editorial)
A clue-as-definition – custard and mustard could both be described as ‘hot yellow sauces’, but CUSTARD starts with ‘c’ (first or primary’ letter of ‘crumble’ (3 down)), rather than ‘m’ (first letter or ‘topside’ of meat)
EP (record) IT on A PH (public house)
A photographic model might be asked to say (‘express’) CHEESE when posing
C (circa – ‘about’) HIPS (fruit) – we had never heard of this TV show, but the internet came to the rescue
ThREE (3) S (sons) missing or ‘ditching’ the ‘h’ (heroin)
Considering some of the GK we occasionally need to solve puzzles, I didn’t find myself defeated by obscurity in this super puzzle. A clever repeated use of 3/THREE throughout the cluing as well as the nice pairings. Having now assembled the odd grid myself and discovered just how rapidly a few entries starts to constrain one’s options, I am not going to hold against Bluebird that YESTERDAY TREES is not another (possibly unhealthy) food combo!
Favourites today include MAKE HAY, RECLUSE, AEROSOL, HAIRCUT, KARACHI, YESTERDAY, BRIAR PIPE and CUSTARD were my favourites. A smile at OXEYES – our setter might get a ribbing from some of his neighbours for that one. My only slightly raised eyebrow was the def for RAINCOAT: why a fisherman as opposed to any other wearer? Given that the setter had free reign (excuse pun) in how to end the clue, there might have been other options.
Thanks Bluebird and B&J
Well, apart from 1A/14D there’s nothing unhealthy about occasionally enjoying the tasty delights on offer here as long as you combine them with exercise. At 17A I suspect that fishermen would find a plain old raincoat poor protection against the elements. I wonder if, at 11A and 3D, there was an intention on the setter’s part to link ‘rock’ and ‘roll’ in the clues by ‘tremble’ and ‘crumble’ in the answers, as well as several references to rock bands. Just idle musing! Thanks Bluebird and B&J.
Thanks, Bluebird & B&J. Enjoyed this, a bit tricky in places but all came together nicely. Especially enjoyed the gloriously daft homophones at 4d and 13d.
Not bothered by the GK. Took me a while to remember the American TV series but it’s one I was a big fan of as a small person so got it eventually. Similarly, it’s a while since I’ve read any Le Carré so Karla took a while to dig up from the memory bank.
I also thought the two random names could have been more generously clued but I got it from the definition.
I still don’t understand the def for RAINCOAT. I enjoyed the puzzle and agree with the blog that Bluebird brings an original touch. I especially liked the clues for RECLUSE and KARACHI. Perhaps we’ll have a Le Carre-themed crossword one day. CHIPS was good too. I remember the show. It was about a couple of handsome police officers on motorcycles. The most entertaining clue IMHO was MACARONI. Lovely images on Google. Many thanks.
A tricky one from bluebird, that took me three passes to complete. Didn’t parse KARACHI as dnk Karli, but solved from def and crossers. I do think Northern part is a little inexact for top half, though that’s perhaps sour grapes.
Other than that though most enjoyable, with plenty of smiles and and pleasurable groans at OXEYES and MARMALADE. I particularly enjoyed HAIRCUT.
I’m with widders re the GK, I’ve no objection to googling a reference I’m not familiar with.
Thanks B and B&J.
Lovely crossy. I prefer to read 18d as an &lit.
Nice to see Bluebird back again. I enjoyed this, especially when the food pairings started to appear. This helped with MACARONI, which I couldn’t parse properly and for which I was tempted to put an E at the end. Didn’t know the ‘DA’ HAIRCUT.
I liked CHIPS which I remember from way back. One of the “handsome police officers on motorcycles” referred to by Sofamore @4 was played by Erik Estrada who was a bit of a cult figure at the time.
Topped off with the v. clever CUSTARD and a good OCHS AYES homophone; hope our Scots contributors approve.
Thanks to Bluebird and B&J
I can just about stomach B for second (B side, B grade, 2nd in alphabet) but i would not equate BUSY with MOBBED-and neither does the CCD.Yellow card.
Marmalade on toast fine (so long as its Coopers Vintage)but the rest of the menu made me feel sick
So I sought refuge on Picaroon’s where I was served rum and lime juice
Thanks, Bluebird for the enjoyable puzzle and B&J for the detailed blog.
Liked MOBBED, MARMALADE, WALLOPED and TREES.
HAIRCUT
DA is Duck’s Arse, it seems.
CUSTARD
I took it as &lit (just as Hovis did).
RAINCOAT
I think there is more to the fisherman bit.
What I guess here may or may not sync with what Bluebird originally intended. If my explanation is not PC,
please bear with me.
a raincoat means a condom as well (slang).
There are two ways to look at our fisherman.
1. A routine angler attempting to catch fish. Condom balloons are used by some fishermen for some purpose, which I can’t explain, but plenty of info is available online. An article a fisherman may have on him/about him (Do you have a pen about you?).
2. A fisherman is one who fishes (sounds derogatory, but I took this from a slang dictionary) for women. This guy is expected to have that article on his person always.
Both sound weak to me. A simpler explanation must be there.
Personally, I assumed ‘fisherman’ was used simply as an example of somebody out in all weathers. I’d probably have gone with a ‘flasher’. Reminds me of when a flasher flashed in front of two old women. One had a stroke but the other couldn’t reach.
A pleasant solve with no problems, but despite the hint linking 18 to 3 we missed the other foodie connections.
Thanks, Bluebird, for today’s earworm at 8, and to B&J for the blog.
Hovis @10 – my thoughts too. Best not overthink it. Could have been “article about Columbo” but maybe that’s too much of a GK requirement.
Hovis@10 Flashers are nothing to joke about
Thanks both. An enjoyable solve whilst escaping winter in Lanzarote. If MOBBED for busy is not defined as such, then it still resonates for me as in ‘the place was mobbed’ and ‘article for fisherman’ being RAINCOAT I regarded as a welcome variation from what ‘article’ normally represents in a puzzle
Thanks to Bert and Joyce for the excellent blog – it’s much appreciated.
Thanks and appreciation as well to everyone who had a go at this puzzle, and who took the time to comment.
Although it wasn’t in line with my intended parsing, I enjoyed
KVa’s condom theory for RAINCOAT!
So, a fisherman is wearing a raincoat because it’s always raining in the UK?
In my head I picture a fisherman in a boat wearing a yellow sou’wester raincoat. Clearly not everyone links fishermen with raincoats as much as me though! Apologies.
Thanks Bluebird for a solid crossword. My favourites were RECLUSE, RAINCOAT (I saw it the same way as Bluebird), AMPHETAMINE, BRIAR PIPE, and CHEESE, the latter two for their descriptive surfaces. I couldn’t parse KARACHI — that was the only unfamiliar GK for me — but the crossing letters made the answer obvious. Thanks B&J for the blog.
I understand the def now. My apologies. I see fishermen and women in shorts in the sunshine. If it’s raining we’d stay home. Order DoorDash. Watch the fishing channel.
TFO@14: Chambers actually defines MOBBED as “crowded”, which works for me.
Very nice crossword and satisfying to finish. Top half flew in but not the bottom. I was quite happy with a fisherman wearing a raincoat (actually, I loved that clue!) and would never have thought of the alternative explanation. Excellent blog too.
Cannot believe I finished this. Took me a long time and were several I couldn’t parse. Had to Google things like George Smiley’s antagonist , had no idea Hawthorne was known as may, that DA was a haircut and various other things.
Thought macaroni was very clever, as was the brilliantly groanworthy oxeyes.
Many thanks to Bluebird and B&J.