It’s Friday – it’s Phiday.
We felt bereft without 225 but everything has now been sorted and we can now access the blog without any problems. We had a few problems however during the solve. Bert studied Latin so that was a help – no Germanic derivations today so Joyce had to rely upon her solving partner for a number of answers.
Last week’s Phi which had very few comments, was based around Phi’s recent birthday. If you are reading this Phi – Happy 64th Birthday.
We cannot see a theme this week but that is not surprising. If there is one, hopefully someone can help us out.
We will be out and about today so may not be able to respond to any queries or amendments, especially as we are having to rely upon wi-fi as we are currently on holiday in France.
ANTIC (caper) around SEPT 1 (start of month)
STrEW (broadcast) without or ‘overlooking’ R (Republican)
S (special) KIPPER (type of tie)
An anagram (‘permed’) of SURE THIs (losing last letter or ‘cut’)
MOB (crowd) around or ‘accepting’ TOR (feature of Glastonbury) OAT (grass)
Hidden (‘captured’) in brieFEST Epithet
BA (graduate) SIC (transcribed in original form) – we struggled with the parsing here and needed to check in Chambers
An anagram (‘revolutionising’) of OUR SPHERE
DIE (to finish) TIN (rhino as in money) around or ‘having accepted’ CA (cases) around or ‘involving’ I (one)
Reversal (‘returned’) of EAR (attention) around or ‘receiving’ I’S (one’s)
GOT (understood) after ER (hesitation)
HAILS (greets) RM (naval fighters – Royal Marines) around first and last letters only or ‘fringes’ of TobagO
LOOM (appear) around or ‘securing’ EG (say) and R (third letter of surplus)
O (old) FAMINe (shortage of food) without last letter or ‘reduced’ + D (date)
LAW (regulation) reversed or ‘overturned’ + K (king)
An anagram (‘forged’) of A BULLET MEN. Joyce would have had to guess this from the anagram as the answer is derived from Latin – she studied German at school.
AD (notice) SUM (problem) – another word derived from the Latin, but not one Bert was familiar with
An anagram (‘upset’) of SETTER around (‘internally’) IS – not Latin this time but still unknown and needed checking
If you worked in Hollywood you may want a SUPER SCRIPT to act in or produce + ION (a charged particle)
PARLOUrS (rooms) without (‘no place for’) R (king)
IMHO (I think – In My Humble Opinion) + a reversal (‘going high ‘ – in a down clue) of PET (favoured)
A Clue-as-definition – first or ‘primary’ letters of This Really Useful Supporting Structure
HERE (present) FOR E (English) after W (Welsh)
An anagram (‘active’) of KARATE STARS around or ‘keeping’ FOR (supporting). The actual motto above the MGM lion is ‘Ars gratia artis’ but if you studied Latin you already knew that didn’t you? Joyce didn’t.
BELLOW (complain loudly) around an anagram (‘activity’) of FED
A reversal (‘upheld’) of LAIR (place of refuge) O (over) TIDE (time)
INANe (senseless) missing last letter or ‘mostly’ around or ‘restricting’ HUM (sound of activity)
NOISE (rumour) around or ‘about’ OM (Order of Merit – ‘high honour’)
GO GO (two attempts) L (line)
A play on the fact that the different settings could be MODE A, MODE B etc until the thirteenth MODE M
Thanks, Phi and B&J!
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog (which is detailed and neat).
Excellent puzzle. My tops are EDITORIAL, MODEM and ANTISEPTIC (because I coluldn’t parse the spare ‘I’ until read the blog). Took a while to complete but gave a lot of satisfaction after doing so. Haven’t met CA for ‘cases’ before. Can anyone explain? Thanks to B&J and to Phi.
Sofamore@2
‘ca’ is given as an abbreviation for ‘case/cases’ in some online dictionaries.
Sofamore@2 and KVa@3
ca = cases is listed in Chambers too.
@3 & @4 Thanks. I’ll make a note.
Thanks, B&J!
Are there any schools where pupils still answer the register with “adsum”? Unaware of ca for cases, and in full Latin mode I tried to work Datives into 17ac. Thanks all.
BASIC is an early computer high level language.
Thanks Phi and B&J.
Mostly straightforward apart from IMHOTEP which was our LOI; we worked out that it ended -TEP but took ages to get the rest; thought it might be ‘Inhotep’ for which Google directed us to the correct answer. We couldn’t parse it, though – never thought of the acronym IMHO – D’oh!
Thanks, Phi and B&J
Thanks both. Regret not greatly enjoyable for me, as so many unknowns, mostly mentioned here, and I often struggle with words derived from Latin, French etc. As for Egyptian architects?…..really? At least it was the only one which defeated me in the solve, so clearly the clues were fair
Enjoy your holiday Bertandjoyce. I always enjoy your blogs.
TFO@10 – an obscure bit of GK that I happened to know, so it was one of my first ones in. If you have ever seen any of the Mummy films, from Boris Karloff pre-war to the more recent Brendan Gleeson version you would be familiar with the name, at least.
Considering it was the fourth puzzle I’ve done today AND completed it with a migraine I rather enjoyed this, though it was by no means easy, and some of the surface reads were perhaps not the smoothest. GOGOL, TRISTESSE & IMHOTEP were new to me but obtainable from checkers, wordplay and Google.
I particularly appreciated ANTISEPTIC, BASIC, SKIPPER (lol) LEGROOM, OF A MIND and MODEM.
Many thanks Phi and B&J for their usual top blog.
Curiously, I came across the name IMHOTEP this morning (and now can’t remember where) but couldn’t parse it as an answer and only put it in when nothing else fit.
Thanks Phi. Despite failing with PARLOUS and TRISTESSE (new words for me) I rather enjoyed this. My top picks were IMHOTEP, BASIC, HAILSTORM, and LEGROOM. Thanks B & J for the blog.
For the record, I’ve just found the reference to Imhotep I mentioned earlier. It’s in a letter in the latest issue of New Scientist. Apparently he was an early exponent of treating cancers by infecting them with bacteria.
Lots of Latin words here, apart from ‘Ars gratia artis’:
FESTE SIC SUPER ERGO ANTE BELLUM ADSUM SUM TRISTE ESSE
happy thus over therefore before war I’m here I am sadly to be
Tonight at the London Palladium – Beat the Clock – “rearrange them into a well known phrase or saying” in 30 seconds.
Couldn’t help noticing STEW again – it should have been SKEW alibi.
Here it could have been STET – let it stand – as sometimes appeared on my Latin homework.
Here’s 10cc’s ART FOR ART’S SAKE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTdikCon128
Thanks Phi & B&J