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It’s Friday – it’s Phi-day.
Joyce blogging today and Bert checking.
I used to teach Maths and am always pleased when I come across a clue based on my subject, even if I spent most of my career teaching it to people who couldn’t understand the subject and often didn’t like it or were scared of it. Numerous students would not accept that there were different forms of averages so I was very amused by the term – true mean. The median and mode were not thought of as true averages by many of my students!
As soon as we looked at the grid, we thought NINA. It wasn’t long before Bert was ‘singing’ (definitely needs the inverted commas)
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have the recipe again
from ‘MacArthur Park’ by Richard Harris. There have been a number of versions of the song which was written in 1968 by Jimmy Webb in Los Angeles.
However, it wasn’t too long before we realised that the nina was about a wedding cake left out in the rain. So, not the song but a quote by W H Auden in 1967 describing his face. He was living in Los Angeles at the time and his quote appeared in the papers – perhaps Jimmy Webb read it and was inspired! I remembered skimming through an article in The Indy last weekend which mentioned that the 50th anniversary of Auden’s death was on Sept 29th which is obviously why Phi chose the theme. What I had missed, was the quote about his face and David Hockney’s comment on meeting Auden – “If that’s his face, what must his scrotum look like?”
Thanks Phi – an enjoyable solve but I had even more fun rereading the article. WH Auden had a notoriously awful standard of personal hygiene. His cleaners quit regularly. He lived behind closed curtains in a dingy environment, refusing to shower or bathe, whilst wearing a smoking jacket covered in food droppings and ash – he was a lifelong heavy smoker.
We are walking in Minorca at the moment so it may take us a while to respond to any comments.
An anagram (‘working out’) of TRUE MEAN
AIR (broadcast) BAG (game – as in animals hunted)
IT (computer department) and a reversal (‘overturned’) of L (left) RIG (equipment)
E (European) RUB (difficulty) ‘getting into’ CHIC (style)
Hidden (‘retained’) in IndiAN NAtionalist – the ‘bit’ being a small coin, no longer used
C (contralto) in an anagram (‘fancy’) of CONTAINER
IS inside or ‘adopted by’ a reversal (‘setback’) of E (English) USER (computer client)
An anagram (‘mistaken’) of FOR KOLN
TREE (plant) in an anagram (‘evolving’) of A SYSTEm without the last letter or ‘endlessly’
ACE (expert) around or ‘covering’ R (river)
HEED (pay attention) around or ‘welcoming’ L (lecturer) MET (encountered)
TILL (work) around or ‘restraining’ HR (Human Resources – ‘Personnel’)
ThINNER (material for painter) without or ‘eliminating’ H (hydrogen)
AT TEN (an hour into working day but only if you start at 9 o’clock) and DEEp (profound) missing last letter or ‘not entirely’
AUS (Australian) ThEN (subsequently) without or ‘ditching’ the ‘h’ (husband)
WE and an anagram (‘stimulated’) of BRAINS
EAR (attention) L (Liberal)
DET (detective) around or ‘about’ SCAN (scrutinise)
D (day) and a reversal (‘pointing up’ – in a down clue) of ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival – ‘landing time’)
I (one) and an anagram (‘out’) of PUT around or ‘about’ RR (a pair of Kings)
NATAL (‘covering’ or relating to a birth) around or ‘carrying’ ION (charged item)
CRU (vineyard) ET (and) – both in French
EAT (worry) about BO (personal hygiene problem)
Hidden (‘involved’) in somE LATER INcidents – the purgative is apparently derived from the squirting cucumber
An ultra-nationalist might RANT about their FLAG – the ‘diatribe’ might be a FLAG RANT
FED (supplied with) and EAU (French word for water) around Y (the end of play). The French farceur is Georges Feydau. He is remembered (but not by us, as we had only vaguely heard of him) for his farces written between 1886 and 1914.
YEN (longing) around or ‘welcoming’ ME (the writer) followed by I
REF (official) around or ‘accepting’ LIE (story)
TORTe (cake) missing last letter or ‘a lot of’
TOO (very much) around or ‘circling’ T (first letter or ‘capital’ of Tasmania). The OZ though does not refer to Australia but the character in the Wizard of Oz.
Most impressed to discover our blog has been written in or around the home of mayonnaise and Gin Xorigeur. And that you found the time to do it.
I did not recognise the nina quote but I do remember reading a comment about Auden along the lines that he was the ugliest man alive. This was a satisfying puzzle to complete – the trickier words and the unknown FEYDEAU all landed from the wordplay and nothing held out for too long. Plenty of nice clues but with an absolute standout in NORFOLK.
Thanks Phi and B&J
I always started work at 7 and lunched at noon (so home by 3.30). Means more time with the wife and kids (emphamism for pub with mates).
I think we all remember Jimmy’s advice about leaving cakes in the rain-especially if you’d
lost the recipe but it took a Phi puzzle to make the leap between McArthur Park and WH AUDEN
Very fine puzzle with lovely wrapping.
But I am completely stumped on his Inqy
Thanks B&J
“they were never wrong, the old masters” and Phi, too, got it just right today. Thanks all.
Thanks B&J and Phi.
Got the nina towards the end, that confirmed 10a starts with I, and 19d ends with U…not enough to get the answers…
WEBINARS, NORFOLK, CRUET favs.
We saw the nina in time for it to help us finish, but although we recognised the quote we couldn’t place it (we thought it might have been someone’s comment about a modern building).
An enjoyable solve with just the right amount of challenge; we hadn’t come across ELATERIN before, but it was easily worked out and checked in Chambers.
We liked NUMERATE, CONCERTINA and, especially, NORFOLK.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
Thanks Phi, that was great. I saw the nina forming and that helped me with a number of answers. Good clues all around especially NORFOLK and CRUET. Thanks B&J for the blog and supplying the context for the quote.
Took me a while to get the last two (17ac and 18dn, as it happens) and only then did I notice the Nina. There was a recording of Auden reading a poem on the radio this morning so I was aware of the significance.
Spotted the Auden anniversary a while back and booked the slot without really thinking what I would do. Tinkered with a few of the poems, but once I counted the letters in this quote it had to be. I have seen an article saying that MacArthur Park was at least partially inspired by the quote.
Wikipedia users will have spotted Feydeau turning up as Featured Article on Tuesday.
Thank you, Phi and Bertandjoyce. Didn’t know elaterin (always good to learn a new word) but I do remember seeing a Feydeau farce in Bristol many moons ago – it was very funny at the time.
Mercifully free of those tedious letter-counting clues or obscure parsing, though I didn’t get Feydeau. Unforgivable since he’d just been mentioned in the margin notes of the book I’m reading.
Absolutely brilliant Phi as always, with a worthy blog to match. One of the first times I saw the Nina in time to have it help me get the last couple answers…fabulous all around. Thanks!