Independent 11,433 by Bluebird

by

Bluebird – a new setter to blog as June begins.

And very enjoyable I found this – around the medium level of difficulty I would say. As to clues:

  • Both 9ac and 26ac had great surfaces
  • 10ac has fabulous misdirection
  • 21ac for pure quirkiness
  • 5dn so simple yet so clever
  • 19dn for the complexity of the homophone and the last one I parsed

Any theme passes me by

Thanks Bluebird – highly enjoyable

Across
1 City where you get cheese sandwiches hot (5)
deli (where you get cheese) around [sandwiches] h (hot) = DELHI

4 Heartlessly edge alongside the place people eat celery? (9)
verge (edge) – r (heartlessly) + table (the place people eat) = VEGETABLE

9 Blast shotgun to get ducks (7)
(shotgun)* = NOUGHTS

10 Figure made from copper and silver stuff (7)
DI (Copper) + ag (silver) + ram (stuff) = DIAGRAM

11 Main part of monumental dish left unfinished (9)
epic (monumental) + entree (dish) – e (unfinished) = EPICENTRE

12 Simpleton‘s excrement going in opposite directions (5)
sn(opposite directions) around poo (excrement = SPOON

13 A phoney journalist is ‘sorry’ (7)
a + sham (phoney) + ed(journalist) = ASHAMED

14 Taps against loose rock, creating harsh sound (7)
scree (loose rock) + CH (taps cold and hot) = SCREECH

16 Maternal figure put on the fronts of narthexes and altars (7)
Ma (maternal figure) + don (put on) + n + a (fronts of narthexes and altars) + MADONNA

19 Beginning in island west of Thailand, one finishes in Haifa, Israel (7)
in + i (island) + t (Thailand) + i (one) + a + l (finishes in Haifa, Israel) = INITIAL

21 Vehicles belonging to Dr No’s antagonist? (5)
Dr + ay’s (antagonist of no) = DRAYS

23 Specks of sea spray whirl and waft (9)
spin (whirl) + drift (waft) = SPINDRIFT

25 Holiday in rugged isle with uniform on (7)
(isle)* + u (unifrm) + re (on) = LEISURE

26 This ‘animal’, incapable of change, is misguidedly paroled (7)
(paroled)* = LEOPARD

27 Seated players toss a ring about (9)
(toss a ring)* = ORGANISTS

28 Unsavoury record on the radio (5)
CD (record?) = SEEDY

Down
1 Hop, move about and start to circle one’s bottom (5)
(and)* + c (start to circle) + e (one’s bottom) = DANCE

2 Rude French king, Henry, taking time (7)
Louis (French king) + h(Henry) around t (time) = LOUTISH

3 Exotic creature supplied by setter, new in Berlin on Monday (9)
ich (I – setter in Berlin) + neu(new in Berlin) + Mon (Monday) = ICHNEUMON

4 Went to rest one’s feet during battle, and died (7)
sit (rest one’s feet) in Vie (battle) + d (died) = VISITED

5 Beautiful woman in gold dress wiping both hands (7)
gold dress – l – r (both hands) = GODDESS

6 They cross the road en masse towards a vacant Debenhams (5)
to (towards) + a + Ds (vacant Debenhams) = TOADS (I assume a reference to Australian cane toads)

7 The law? It’s often black and white (3,4)
DD BAR CODE

8 Helmet man fiddled with, resulting in a sort of cheese (9)
(helmet man)* = EMMENTHAL

13 Bony creature‘s wing put on a herb bagel (9)
arm (wing) + a + dill (herb) + (bagel) = ARMADILLO

15 A shower of swirling drips on a rambler’s head? (9)
(drips on a r)* = RAINDROPS

17 Depiction of temptation in the final part of Götterdämmerung (7)
draw(temptation) + in + g (final part of Götterdämmerung) = DRAWING

18 A cardinal points above the tops of Rome’s skyline, thereby responds (7)
a + nswe(cardinal points) + r + s (tops of Rome’s skyline) = ANSWERS

19 Eavesdroppers spy on Communist representatives, according to reports (7)
Homophone of eye(spy) + sickles(communist representatives) = ICICLES

20 Parrot from India fed outside Cambridge University (7)
i (India) + ate (fed) around MIT (Cambridge [Mass.] University) = IMITATE

22 Brush off special ashcan? (5)
sp(special) + urn (ashcan) = SPURN

24 One in bed beginning to turn and twist (5)
t (beginning to turn) + eddy (twist) = TEDDY

23 comments on “Independent 11,433 by Bluebird”

  2. A typically clever Bluebird with some nice devices. As our blogger says, GODDESS is delightfully simple yet very clever at the same time. Other big ticks – amongst many – go to NOUGHT, DIAGRAM, MADONNA, LEISURE, ORGANISTS, LOUTISH, DRAWING and ICICLES. I recall EPICENTRE always causes a rumpus in another place and suspect there would be some there who would challenge the def here. My other slight eyebrow raise was for BAR CODE: if the second part is the cryptic def, is ‘The law’ enough to give BAR and CODE?

    twencelas – not sure what you mean with your opening comment insofar as Bluebird has had several puzzles here before, one of which you blogged? 😀

    Thanks both

  3. Liked SPINDRIFT very much. A beautiful word and image. Wasn’t sure about the definition for MADONNA but an all in one is fine. Ich liebe ICHNEUMON and DANCE but I liked everything and enjoyed the way the clues worked perfectly. Thanks twencelas and Bluebird.

  4. Really enjoyable exactly breakfast-length puzzle. Ichneumon can be an insect (fly or wasp) or an Egyptian mongoose – I expect the latter was intended here.

    There are several cryptic crossword conventions that I don’t understand. Here, at 26A, why is it necessary to put ‘animal’ in quotation marks? And at 22D, the question mark seems unnecessary.

    Whatever, thanks Bluebird and Twencelas.

  5. Tatrasman – my interpretation is 24A quotes guide the solver to the proverbial quote about leopards and urn is really a can for ashes so the definition is questionable

  6. Strange that yesterday Velia had PAROLED as an anagram of LEOPARD and today they’ve switched roles.

    Nice to see “noughts” amongst the “crosses”.

  7. Postmark@2
    BAR CODE
    My understanding:
    The law?: This is a whimsical definition (BAR CODE is not the law).
    It’s often black and white: This is a cryptic definition.
    Looks like there is no clear definition. No complaints.

  8. SPURN
    I think…
    An ‘ashcan’ is a garbage can, but the ? leads us to a whimsical equivalent i.e.’urn’ (ash urn is not called ashcan. Right?).

    Please correct me if I am wrong.

  9. A couple of dodgy surface reads apart, I thought this was great.
    I got a foothold in the SE and worked my way around steadily if not speedily with some nice PDMs en route. Didn’t really and still don’t understand BAR CODE but bunged it in regardless
    I liked lots including DELHI, VEGETABLE, DIAGRAM, EPICENTRE, DRAYS, SEEDY (lol) and that’s before we get to the Downs, the highlight of which was LOUTISH.
    I suspect the question mark in 22d is to indicate the urn/ashcan synonym is a bit of a stretch as an ashcan is for domestic waste not human remains.

  11. I sat staring at this for about 10 minutes before I could enter even one answer. Eventually managed to get a few in the SW and it was steady progress from then on. I’d heard the word without having any idea what an ICHNEUMON was but I liked the wordplay. I also liked ICICLES, initially taking the overhearing bait as intended.

    Never heard of SPOON for ‘simpleton’; one more to add to the list of synonyms for twit, fool etc.

    Thanks to Bluebird and twencelas

  12. Hovis@10
    I considered ‘the law?’ bit whimsical. ‘BAR CODE’ doesn’t mean ‘the law’. Or does it?

  14. Thanks, Bluebird and twencelas. Loved the ‘quirky’ 21a – made me laugh. And in 19d, ‘Eavesdroppers’ is a fiendishly clever definition. Great fun.

  15. Thanks, Bluebird and twencelas.
    Liked this. I will add 20d to misdirection list.
    Also liked BAR CODE and SCREECH.

  16. Thanks Bluebird for a well-crafted crossword. I needed a word finder for ICHNEUMON a new word for me; I got the “neu” part but failed to see the “ich” part. I had many favourites including NOUGHTS, SCREECH, INITIAL, LEISURE, GODDESS (great surface & device), and ANSWERS. Thanks twencelas for the blog.

  17. Thanks so much to twencelas for the excellent blog – it’s greatly appreciated.

    Thanks also to all of those who’ve had a go at this puzzle and commented.

    The only thing not already covered above relates to the inverted commas around ‘animal’ in 26a. Here, with the surface, I was going for a Daily Express kind of vibe, with someone criticising the soft treatment of a dehumanised criminal, and thought the inverted commas helped with that.

  19. Hi Bluebird@17 for 24d TEDDY – I was just wondering which of these you had in mind:
    The child’s toy bear named after Theodore Roosevelt or
    The all-in-one women’s undergarment named after Theodore Baer.
    Thanks B&t

  22. I really enjoyed this – thanks to twencelas (I needed help to understand VEGETABLE, having trouble getting from ‘edge’ to ‘verge’ etc) and a shoulder chuck to Bluebird (I’ll be keeping an eye out for you in the future).

  23. Thanks Bluebird for your enjoyable puzzle. I have put you on my list of ‘can do’s’ so will look out for you again.

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