Independent 11479 / Rodriguez

by

Rodriguez sets the Independent puzzle this Thursday.

 

 

 

I thought the clue for STONY BROKE at 9 across was excellent – good surface and complex wordplay. I also liked the clue for BREAK DANCE and the wordplay in SEMITONE.

I don’t think I have seen both EH! and UH! used in wordplay before.

I am impressed by a hidden entry that extends across 5 words as TARANTINO did at 15 down.

ETUI is clearly the crossword setter’s case of choice as the word appears frequently in puzzles in all publications throughout the year.  Obviously it’s  something to do with it being the only four letter word that can be constructed from Blank T Blank I  Chambers offers two abbreviations CTBI (Churches together in Britain and Ireland) and RTPI (Royal Town Planning Institute).  I can’t see the first abbreviation ever being clued and the second one is also a fairly unlikely entry.

No Detail
Across  
1/18

Eccentric in hot pants got to show great determination (4,2,7) 

STOP AT [NOTHING] (be ruthless or unscrupulous or more gently, ‘show great determination’)

Anagram of (eccentric) IN HOT PANTS GOT

STOP AT NOTHING*
5

Upsets in sport, with right wingers in unfamiliar battles (8)

PERTURBS (upsets)

PE (physical education; sports) + RT (right) + URBS (outer letters [wingers] of each of UNFAMILIAR and BATTLES)

PE RT UR BS
9

Soprano in prelude from Samuel Barber periodically clutching fine bust (5-5)

STONY BROKE (penniless; bankrupt; bust)

TONY (reference TONY Soprano in the television series The Sopranos) contained in (in) S [first letter of {prelude from} SAMUEL] + [BRE {letters 1, 3 and 5 (periodically)} of BARBER] containing [clutching] OK [fine])

S (TONY) BR (OK) E
10

Misty zone covered in grass (4) 

HAZY (misty)

Z (zone) contained in (covered in) HAY (grass cut and dried)

HA (Z) Y
11

For example, B to C, E to F, or the inverse of X and I (8) 

SEMITONE (one of the lesser intervals of the musical scale, as from B to C or E to F)

TIMES (X is a symbol for multiply by or TIMES) reversed [inverse of]  + ONE (I is the Roman numeral for ONE)

SEMIT< ONE
12

Let go of worker following extremists in union (6) 

UNHAND (let go)

UN (outer letters of [extremists] UNION) + HAND (worker)

UN HAND
14

Internet tour operator getting case (4) 

ETUI (small case for holding sewing articles)

E (electronic – often used as an abbreviation within words describing activity over the internet, such as E-commerce or E-mail) + TUI (a German leisure, travel and tourism company operating all over the world)

E TUI
16

Feminist I drove away embraces lover (2,8) 

DE BEAUVOIR (reference Simone DE BEAUVOIR [1908-1996], a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist)

Anagram of (away) I DROVE containing (embraces) BEAU (lover)

DE (BEAU) VOIR*
17

Acrobatic performance European nurses caught on holiday (5-5)

BREAK-DANCE (DANCE to rock or disco music using some routines drawn from gymnastics; acrobatic performance)

BREAK (holiday) + (DANE [native of Denmark; European] containing [nurses] C [caught])

BREAK DAN (C) E
19

Experienced protagonist in Kafka novel (4)

KNEW ([was] experienced [in])

K (reference Josef K, the protagonist in the Franz Kafka [1883 – 1924]  book ‘The Trial’) + NEW (novel)

K NEW
20

Old queen holds appendix (6) 

ANNEXE (alternative spelling of annex [appendix to a document])

ANNE (name of a former Queen) containing (holds) EX (former)

ANN (EX) E
21

Feet of horses (8) 

TROTTERS (feet of sheep or pigs)

TROTTERS (horses trained to TROT in harness racing)  double definition

TROTTERS
24

One might easily be cowed with terror (4) 

WIMP (ineffectual or pusillanimous person; someone who could easily be cowed)

W (with) + IMP (colloquially, of a child, a little terror)

W IMP
26

Chart time off touring Italy – an activity for summer? (10) 

ARITHMETIC (someone who adds up or sums, could be called a summer and would be using ARITHMETIC to calculate the total)

Anagram of (off) CHART TIME containing (touring) I (International Vehicle Registration for Italy)

AR (I) THMETIC* – either I could be the one contained
27

Sell coats round old back street in March with difficulty (8)

FOOTSLOG (march, with difficulty, implied by SLOG)

FLOG (sell) containing (coats) (O [a round shape] + O [old] + ST [street] reversed [back])

F (O O TS<) LOG
28

Diner scoffing seconds when eggs are on the menu (6) 

EASTER (a time of the year when chocolate eggs are on the menu)

EATER (diner) containing (scoffing) S (seconds)

EA (S) TER
Down  
2

What idiot put up tax? (5) 

TITHE (any levy or fee of one-tenth, originally a tax for church purposes)

(EH! [interjection expressing enquiry or asking ‘what?’) + TIT [idiot]) all reversed (put up; down entry)

(TIT HE)<
3

Bang on entrance to palace at once, if it’s unstable (11) 

PONTIFICATE (speak, in a pompous, self-important way; bang on about something)

P (first letter of [entrance to] PALACE) + an anagram of (unstable) AT ONCE IF IT

P ONTIFICATE*
4

Banned cricketer after skying balls (5) 

TABOO (forbidden; banned)

BAT (cricketer) reversed (after skying; down entry) + OO (characters representing two balls)

TAB< OO
5

Maxim gun soldiers overturned encased in lead (7) 

PROVERB (maxim)

(REV [the internet tells me that REV is an accepted abbreviation for revolver [gun], but I can’t find it in any of the usual dictionaries] + OR [other ranks; soldiers]) all reversed (overturned) and contained in (encased in) PB (chemical symbol for lead)

P (RO VER)< B
6

Tutor once again about to keep tabs on money (2-7)

RE-EDUCATE (tutor once again)

RE (with reference to; about) + (EE [two ecstasy tablets {tabs}] containing [keep on] DUCAT [a gold or silver coin of varying values; money])

RE–E (DUCAT) E
7

What saves frontrunner in government that’s revolting (3) 

UGH (exclamation of repugnance; that’s disgusting!)

UH! (dictionaries focus on this as an expression of hesitation, but it’s a word I use myself when I mean ‘you what?’ or ‘what do you mean?’) containing (saves) G (first letter of [frontrunner in] GOVERNMENT)

U (G) H
8

Very involved in covers of biweekly publication filled by worker? (9) 

BYZANTINE (intricate; tortuous; very involved)

BY (outer letters of [covers of] BIWEEKLY) + (‘ZINE [magaZINE {publication}] containing [filled by] ANT [reference a worker ANT])

BY Z (ANT) INE)
13

Drop litter and lose it (4,7)

HAVE KITTENS (give birth to [drop] a litter of little cats)

HAVE KITTENS (get very angry; lose it)  double definition

HAVE KITTENS
15

Broadcast a rant in Oscars inspiring Hollywood figure (9) 

TARANTINO (reference Quentin TARANTINO [born 1973], American film director; Hollywood figure)

TARANTINO (hidden word in [inspiring] BROADCAST A RANT IN OSCARS)

TARANTINO
16

Magistrate’s absorbing day, given party game (9) 

DODGEBALL (children’s game in which players try to hit one another with a large BALL)

DOGE (formerly the title of the chief magistrate in republican Venice and Genoa) containing (absorbing) D (day) + BALL (party)

DO (D) GE BALL
18

See 1 Across 

[STOP AT] NOTHING
22

Taps into valuable mineral coloured like rust (5) 

OCHRE (pale brownish-yellow colour; coloured like rust)

(C [cold] + H [hot], both descriptive of water taps) contained in (into) ORE (valuable mineral)

O (C H) RE
23

Hike in sunshine, we hear (5)

RAISE (increase; hike [price])

RAISE (sounds like [we hear] RAYS [reference RAYS of sunshine])

RAISE
25

Left to cut right flowers here? (3) 

POT (you can find flowers in a POT)

PORT (left side of a ship) excluding (cut) R (right)

POT

 

28 comments on “Independent 11479 / Rodriguez”

  1. Thanks, Rodriguez and duncanshiell!
    The puzzle was lovely and the blog was excellent.
    Liked SEMITONE, BREAK DANCE and OCHRE.

    KNEW
    Read ‘protagonist in Kafka’ as the principal character in Kafka (K).
    Enjoyed the Josef K allusion in the surface reading.

  3. Ridgerunner@2
    I think this topic came up a few months ago in this forum. Didn’t remember this sense while solving the puzzle or afterwards. Thanks.

  5. Etymology 1 – Abbreviation of revolutions, rpm
    Verb – rev (third-person singular simple present revs, present participle revving, simple past and past participle revved)
    To increase the speed of a motor, or to operate at a higher speed. “He revved the engine in a rather macho style.” “You could hear the engines revving from a mile away.”
    1979, Al Greenwood; Lou Gramm, “Rev on the Red Line”, in Head Games: “Two in a row, everybody knows at the green light you rev it on the red line.”
    2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer?:
    “It is impossible to see inside the mind of a killer. What was he thinking, the young man who sat at the wheel of the white van at the top of Las Ramblas and purposefully revved the engine? What warped ideology, what distorted belief system, what bitter life experience had brought him to this fateful tipping point?”

  8. I can’t say that Duncan’s parsing is not correct (probably Hovis said the same thing).
    ‘keep EE on DUCAT’ seems to work ok as if DUCAT is wearing EE.

  9. For SEMITONE – I Parsed the “I ” = ONE without Roman numerals: “I do the crossword” = “One does the crossword”. Your way works, too, of course.

  10. What crypticsue said (here and on the Guardian thread about enjoying “Double Pirate Day”).
    (I loved the ingenious clue for the hoary old ETUI!)

  11. The Kafka clue can be even more concisely parsed, since K (without ‘Josef’) is the hero of ‘The Castle’.

  13. Agree R(EE+DUCAT)E is better than RE+E(DUCAT)E
    Didn’t think the UH in UGH worked but my OED has ‘exclam. used to express hesitation or enquiry‘. My Chambers has no entry for UH at all – I’m amazed.
    Liked the EH in TITHE. I’ve noticed a tendency among TV presenters and subtitlers to replace EH with HEY as if they are correcting a cockney ‘EY.
    Looks like EH might be on the way out – Shame.

  14. The Pirate must be thinking about going on holiday as we have tour operators in both puzzles today. KNEW is such a great clue, as well.

  15. KNEW
    An academic question.
    One can say ‘I have read Kafka’.
    Similarly, can you say ‘I like many characters in Kafka’?
    If Kafka can metonymically mean Kafka’s books, the second sentence above
    also should be correct. Or am I wrong in assuming that?
    Someone may help.

  16. KVa @ 15 I think your second sentence stands, eg “There are many interesting characters in Shakespeare”.

  18. Simon S@16
    Thanks.
    KNEW
    ‘Protagonist in Kafka =K’ is a simple way to deconstruct the clue (as opposed to my convoluted approach explained @1).

    Hovis@17
    🙂
    The first step is K (which is ok!). Will take it slow…

  19. Thanks Duncan for reminding me of TONY Soprano
    I think Kafka was K in The Trial and The Castle
    Two lovely puzzles from the Corsair today!

  20. Hovis@17
    ‘Protagonist’ is ‘the principal character in a book, play…’
    Call it ‘the central character’. All the same?? Not quite!!!

  22. We found this a (foot)SLOG in places but got there in the end. Not being familiar with Kafka’s works we just read ‘protagonist’ as meaning the first letter which works fine. We liked HAVE KITTENS which RAISEd a smile when we got it.
    Thanks, Rodriguez and Duncan.

  24. KVa. I actually picked ‘f’ as it was the central character. Shame it’s surrounded by ‘kaka’.

  25. Made heavy weather of this and was very pleased to get our blogger’s take on some of the parsing.
    Tops for me were BREAK DANCE, WIMP & HAVE KITTENS.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and to Duncan.

  26. Top stuff. I’m always surprised by which clues people like. While there are plenty of excellent clues knocking around (generally, not just here), very few are memorable, but the one for TITHE is, for me.
    Thanks R&D

  27. Thanks duncanshiell and Rodriguez.
    Lovely stuff.
    SEMITONE, ETUI, DE BEAUVOIR, RE-EDUCATE, OCHRE make my list.

Comments are closed.