Another enjoyable puzzle from Fed. 16d is particularly clever. Thanks to Fed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | STRICT | Neighbourhood wanting police officer to be authoritarian (6) DISTRICT less DI (Detective Inspector) |
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| 4 | EDICTS | Journalist is getting to grips with court rulings (6) ED[itor] + CT (court) in IS |
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| 9 | SCAB | Crust should colour artisan bread first of all (4) First letters of Should Colour Artisan Bread |
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| 10 | COHESIVELY | As one actor appears occasionally – the boy’s four, see (10) [a]C[t]O[r] + HE’S + IV + ELY (ecclesiastical see) |
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| 11 | NUCLEI | New clue’s badly constructed using indicator, initially for ‘middle parts‘ (6) N + CLUE + I[ndicator] |
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| 12 | EMIGRATE | Change state of emergency, essentially – maybe Qatar’s hosting (8) Middle letter of emerGency in EMIRATE (of which Qatar is an example) |
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| 13 | ABASHEDLY | Suffering embarrassment when skilfully taking a cast off (9) A SHED (cast off) in ABLY |
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| 15 | LIMP | Feeble Fed’s quietly pursuing cartel at last (4) [carte]L + I’M + P (piano, quietly) |
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| 16 | AWAY | To begin with, ‘anon’ means in the future (4) A[non] + WAY (means). “In the future” as in “five years away” |
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| 17 | ENCHILADA | Nurse infant over advanced influenza, finally getting spicy food (9) EN (Enrolled Nurse) + A[dvanced] in CHILD + [influenz]A |
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| 21 | HONEYDEW | Produce example Nectar card – store review all terms (8) HONEY (nectar) + last letters of carD storE revieW |
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| 22 | FATHOM | Group of footballers – big characters from Tottenham Hotspur – come stripped to work out (6) FA (Football Assocation) + the capital letters from Tottenham Hotspur + [c]OM[e] |
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| 24 | HACKTIVISM | Journalist is working with ITV before mass protest of a modern variety (10) HACK (journalist) + (IS ITV)* + M[ass] |
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| 25 | SOOT | Deposit‘s unreasonably small on reflection (4) Reverse of TOO S |
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| 26 | ORNATE | Busy men with a net at sea (6) OR (other ranks, men) + (A NET)* |
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| 27 | INFECT | Spoil hot iron with constant temperature (6) IN (fashionable, hot) + FE (iron) + C T |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SUCCUMB | Give in as say, snot’s brought up containing cold bacteria’s source (7) C in reverse of MUCUS + B[acteria] |
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| 2 | REBEL | Nonconformist bishop’s breaking wind (5) B in REEL (to wind, rhyming with “kind”) |
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| 3 | COCAINE ADDICT | Someone who loves Charlie Chaplin’s debut – short act prepared with dedication (7,6) C[haplin] + anagram of AC[t] DEDICATION |
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| 5 | DUSTIN HOFFMAN | Film star‘s fans found him wandering around middle of Luton (6,7) [lu]T[on] in (FANS FOUND HIM)* |
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| 6 | COVER GIRL | Miss film’s opening to get model? (5,4) COVER (film) + GIRL (miss) |
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| 7 | SPLIT UP | Separate ends of ship illuminated (5,2) S[hi]P + LIT UP |
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| 8 | THREE-LINE WHIP | Instruction for division from yank – literally 3 over 3’s helping to begin with (5-4,4) THREE (“literally 3”) + LINE (3’s helping – referring to a line of cocaine) + WHIP (to yank) |
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| 14 | SNAKESKIN | Partners ask Nike to change leather (9) S N (partners in the game of bridge) + (ASK NIKE)* |
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| 16 | AVOCADO | Pavlov commands a dog using prime bits of fatty food? (7) pAVlOv CommAnDs a dOg – taking the letters in positions 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 17, i.e. the primes. Fed has used this device before (as have others) but to get all the way to 17, with a phrase that makes sense, is very impressive |
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| 19 | DROPOUT | Beatnik recalled poo lining old river (4-3) O PO (river) in reverse of TURD – not sure about the grammar of this: “lining” suggests the inclusion should be the other way round |
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| 23 | TASTE | Why some like Mars being in transit regularly with Earth (5) Alternate letters of TrAnSiT + E[arth] – Mars referring to the Mars Bar |
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Thanks, Fed and Andrew!
AVOCADO was just superb!
…with an extended def.
Sorry. With a meaningful story in the surface.
On the easier side for Fed and like yesterday full of wit and smooth surfaces. Lots of ticks but favourites were REBEL, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, ENCHILADA, the very clever AVOCADO and my clue of the month, COCAINE ADDICT. I enjoyed it so much, I was sorry when it was finished.
Ta Fed & Andrew.
Thanks Fed and Andrew
I found the SW far harder than the rest. I had never heard of HACKTIVISM, and struggled with the others there too – I never saw the parsing of AVOCADO, though noticed that the letters were all there.
“Film” for COVER and “yank” for WHIP seem rather loose.
I liked the contruction of FATHOM
COVER GIRL
muffin@4
I find that there is a film titled COVER. Maybe that’s what’s referred to?
THREE-LINE WHIP
In this sentence ‘He whipped his gun out of its holster’, ‘yanked’ also seems to fit all right.
I’d agree with AlanC – Fed at his more approachable. And with fewer modern cultural references scattered about – they are usually part of the Fed trademark. HACKTIVISM was new to me, too, but not too tricky to work out. ABASHEDLY was the trickiest to coax into place and LOI by a mile. I suspect AVOCADO will generate a lot of comments: a splendid surface to have contrived though ‘prime parts’ is one of those indicators that is very hard to disguise so I knew what I would be doing. Not that that detracts. FATHOM, SOOT, ORNATE, REBEL and DUSTIN HOFFMAN were my other faves.
I did raise an eyebrow at lining. I vaguely recall a discussion with sheffield hatter on this topic – tress/houses or even spectators lining a street comes to mind. I think we ended up retiring with the jury still out.
Thanks Fed and Andrew
19d – DROPOUT – “…recalled poo lining old river” needs repunctuation as “…recalled poo. Lining: old river”
PostMark @7: I wonder if sheffield hatter ever came across DUSTIN HOFFMAN in Luton?
KVa @5 and 6
I think your examples confirm my description as “loose”!
FrankieG@8
Full MARKS!
THREE-LINE WHIP . Failed to parse and never heard of. Interesting derivation. Can’t find my source again, but something about the triply underlined items (top priority) on the WHIP, ie order of business in UK Parliament. The phrase is also used socially to indicate that a spouse, for example, has received a directive from the other. (For the info of others like me.)
Also missed the parsing of AVOCADO, despite, now I’m reminded, that Fed has used that before.
I liked NUCLEI for the joke amongst setter and solvers, and the surfaces in REBEL, and COCAINE ADDICT. For some reason I struggled with SPLIT UP, maybe the visual of both ends of ship, bow?stern? Liked that one too.
I was all set to have a good whinge about the clue for AVOCADO — letters taken at random intervals? What’s going on? Very poor form.
But now I see. Ah, prime!
The puzzle was still a bit above my pay grade. Fed has gone back and forth between my “Good” and “Don’t attempt” lists over the months, and sadly returns to the latter today. Maybe I just wasn’t on the right wavelength.
COVER in the sense of TV or Film coverage of an event?
I thought of the lining inside a jacket, or line the dish with baking paper …
WHY SOME LIKE MARS, resonates with me, or rather why some don’t like Mars. I’ll eat anything, including offal, but I can’t stand caramel of any sort, ice cream, spreads, desserts, nothing. And now salted caramel is the thing. Yukk!!
In my corner store, a person delivering home-made caramel told me that 25% of the population don’t like caramel. I’m one of the lucky ones!
[pdm @16
I used to carry a Mars bar as emergency food in my rucksack, as I knew I would never eat it otherwise. I didn’t look too good when I threw it out after about 15 years!]
24a – HACKTIVISM – I parsed “is working with ITV before” as (ITV)* + IS
Enjoyed this, ta AnF, tho the parliamentary procedure was a nho and needed help. Bunged in avocado, then, after a math hint on the G, went Oh prime, yes we’ve had a couple of those. Hacktivism is one of those neos that’s so inevitable it feels familiar already. Isn’t language great!
Unlike AlanC and PostMark, I found this as tricky as I have found other Fed puzzles. My naivety regarding drug culture meant I took longer to work out 3d and was only able to partially parse 8d (i would never have worked out line as referring to a helping of cocaine). Like Muffin, I feel WHIP is one of the more remote synonyms of yank. I now remember the ‘prime numbered letters’ technique from before but missed it while solving / parsing. Andrew, you have forgotten to indicate CLUE needs to be anagrammed in 11a. Thanks to Fed and Andrew.
I took film as a noun meaning cover as in ” felt a film of sweat on my hands” / acetate film on top of the projector / etymology of clingFILM.
The thing with Fed is that you just follow his instructions till it all drops out !
Thank you Fed and Andrew.
Ah, yes, “A Mars a day helps you work, rest, play and rot your teeth”.
I was only vaguely aware of HACKTIVISM (and still couldn’t tell you what it actually was) but the wordplay was very clear. Didn’t get AWAY (as it were). And I’m kicking myself for forgetting the device Fed uses for AVOCADO; I agree that it’s brilliantly done.
I shall be quietly chortling for some time about the idea of Dustbin Hoffman wandering around the middle of the unlovely town which has, not without justice, been referred to as the a***hole of England. Likewise the image of the flatulent cleric in 2d and the superb construction of 3d; but in truth most of the clues in this excellent puzzle are top-class.
Thanks mixed with admiration to Fed and Andrew.
AVOCADO was fun; a very pleasant puzzle indeed
Many thanks
Interesting puzzle which was enjoyable even though I failed to solve 22ac (football clues always baffle me!) & 23d.
I did not parse 16d – I saw it might be as Andrew has explained but did not know why – I’m not good at spotting prime numbers, obviously – can never remember what they are.
Favourites: COCAINE ADDICT, SPLIT UP, INFECT, DROP-OUT.
Thanks, both.
I’m afraid I still don’t understand the prime numbers in AVOCADO, my LOI. If the same letters are prime, surely they should have the same number each time they are used in a clue? So Andrew’s 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 17 makes no sense to me. I would have expected the Os and As to have the same number, and no idea where 3 for V comes from. Sorry everyone, but while I recognise that we’re talking prime numbers here, I simply don’t get it.
Otherwise a great puzzle with only 1 word I disliked – ABASHEDLY. Really?
Thanks all.
It slowly revealed itself. Thought that AWAY was the weakest clue as when I got it I wasn’t quite sure it was correct (a sure sign).
Favourites were EMIGRATE for “change state”, COCAINE ADDICT for the Charlie Chaplin connection, but top clue goes to AVOCADO, just because I love maths (math for our American friends).
SinCam @25, the prime positions in AVOCADO are the numbers corresponding to the position in the clue, not the numbers corresponding to the position in the alphabet. So “evenly” gives the positions 2,4,6,8… in a word or phrase and prime positions gives 2,3,5,7,11,13,17….. in a word or phrase.
[There’s a Rosa Klebb (Arachne, Anarche) in today’s FT]
NeilH@22 – such calumny would have Eric Morecambe spinning in his grave!
SinCam @25: does this help? The fodder is ‘Pavlov commands a dog’
p AV l O v C omm A n D s a d Og
pAVlOvCommAnDsadOg
Not sure how I finished this which I found tougher than yesterday’s Arachne/ Nutmeg. I’d never heard of HACKTIVISM, but easy to work out. Vey enjoyable. With thanks to Fed and Andrew.
Very good as usual from Fed. Just follow the instructions! 5d DUSTIN HOFFMAN was brilliant.
PostMark @7: yes I remember the previous discussion about “lining”. Interestingly the SOED includes for “line” both: to apply a second layer of (different) material to the inner side of; and to cover the outside of. Unfortunately it doesn’t give an example of the latter but maybe it’s referring to the “lining a street” scenario that you mention. FrankieG @8: that’s ingenious but is maybe taking “punctuation may mislead” to extremes!
Many thanks Fed and Andrew.
THREE-LINE WHIP was a favourite, managed to get “3’s helping” as LINE with the crossers and worked back from there.
Didn’t have a problem with “lining” meaning to go around, but minor grumble with “AWAY” meaning “in the future” and COVER for “film”.
All in all an enjoyable and steady solve.
William @29 – A dear friend, no longer with us, hearing the description of the unlovely town of his birth, once remarked in mock indignation “Well, what does that make me, who has issued therefrom…?” 😉
NeilH – and we can’t forget how Leonard Rossiter confused Paradise with Luton Airport whence Lorraine Chase actually wafted!
Thus far I’ve not been a great Fed fan, but I did struggle on to the finish this, which was AWAY. Right half completed before left. Thought it a trifle unfair to have to sort out first which partners were required for the anagrind at 14. Solving DROP OUT felt a bit like trying to force something unpleasant and unmoving down the U bend. HACTIVISM a new one this morning…
This went swimmingly well … until it didn’t. However, pieced the last ones together but I’m annoyed at not recognising the primes since Fed has used this device before, doh!
I liked the definitions of EMIGRATE and FATHOM, the good charade for INFECT, and the delightful anagram for COCAINE ADDICT.
Thanks Fed and Andrew.
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues and I appreciate the connected Down clues lining up in the grid. AVOCADO pretty special , not seen up to 17 before, 19 is the next challenge. Hard to think how setters can avoid giving it away by not using “prime” .
AWAY seemed to be the only clue below the standard of the others.
PS I thought the dog in the clue for AVOCADO was ‘a cad’, which left me musing about what to do with ‘voo’.
[ Our esteemed contributor MrPostMark is now a published setter, the Independent yesterday, I have not done it yet but I am sure it is worth the effort. ]
Very enjoyable. I had no problem with the backward ‘turd’ lining O and R, (like trees lining a road) but can see the ambiguity now that others have pointed it out. Thanks Fed and thanks Andrew.
William FP@29 “Rubbish!”
Luton has the dubious honour of being voted Britain’s crappest town by the denizens of I Live Here not a website for the easily offended – the humour is a little ribald
I also found myself solving most of these from “first principles” which I think is a testament to both the quality of the wordplay and the subtlety of the definitions. Of course one person’s subtlety is another’s looseness. Each to their own …
Disappointed by the absence of cricket references though 🙂
Cheers F&A
A visitor to Luton once remarked to a resident “This town is the arsehole of England”, to which tbe Lutonite replied “Just passing through are you?”
Failed on the last hurdle. Like some others, NHO 8d THREE-LINE WHIP. Never mind, you learn something new every day – I still enjoyed some clues in today’s challenge. Thanks to Fed and Andrew.
1a – is there something in this clue that tells us to remove “DI” from DISTRICT?
I usually struggle with Fed, but this one (very) slowly became clear. Very enjoyable.
S@46 “wanting” as in “lacking”
Only just looked back after gutter man cleared a blockage, but thank you so much TimC@27, PostMark@30 and FrankieG@31. Now it makes perfect sense!
This was hard, I needed lots of check, but enjoyable. Very good anagrams.
News to me that cocaine = Charlie. Or is it saying that cocaine = C (an abbreviation I’m familiar with) and C = Charlie (NATO)?
Andrew in 6dn you need to underline “model” as the definition.
Thanks, Fed and Andrew.
Great puzzle, on the easier side for Fed(all things being relative). My favourite was COCAINE ADDICT, simply genius to spot that clueing.
Also loved THREE LINE WHIP and HACKTIVISM. AVOCADO had me scratching my head for a long time before the penny dropped.
Thanks Fed and Andrew
Nice puzzle. A few bung-and-15^2’s, I confess I didn’t parse AVOCADO. “Lining” worked out the way I expected because I think of something like the stomach lining surrounding the contents of the stomach, but I can see why people take it the other way.
Thanks Fed and Andrew.
Valentine @50: yes, Charlie is slang for cocaine (not speaking from personal experience).
Underlining in 6d corrected; thanks.
That was an enjoyable solve. Congratulations to Fed on 16. AVOCADO. It’s one of those clues that I imagine is much harder to find than to solve, so you feel a bit bad for the setter in that he/she does not get ‘value for their money’. One slight quibble: I have probably misunderstood the clue but I felt that the definition for 21. HONEYDEW (‘produce example’) was way too general to be of use (I actually found it a hindrance). One may as well use ‘naturally occurring’ or ‘consisting of particles’ as definitions. Anyway I got the answer so not really a grumble.
Many thaks to Andrew for a fine blog and once again to Fed for a lovely puzzle.
I found this hard, as I usually do with Fed. I got all the answers without aids, but was out of my depth on several parsings.
Sorry, Fed. Too tough for my little teeth, so I gave up with three unsolved and more unparsed.
Wee bit too hard for me today, though a good workout. I liked EMIGRATE, FATHOM, ORNATE, REBEL and SNAKESKIN for the surfaces. Thanks to Fed and Andrew.
Thanks Andrew, I had a similar experience to Robi238 in terms of a flying start and then a few stubborn hold-outs – eg I did spot the prime trick but tried to apply it to fATtY fOod for too long.
And the same complaint as Matematico@54, as I would always say “HONEYDEW melon”, though I suppose nobody calls an AVOCADO a pear any more so I’m probably just out of touch. But i though this was another great mix of clues and more new fangled terms to enjoy, so thanks Fed. (I had to solve online though and the wordiness of the clues made for a lot of annoying scrolling up and down.) [PS congratulations PostMark and I will brave the Indy online to do some screenshotting and have a go soon.]
I believe, as many setters have said, that a good surface is an integral component of a good clue. In this case, 21a HONEYDEW fails miserably. I challenge anyone to come up with a meaningful interpretation of “Produce example Nectar card – store review all terms.”
Apart from this ugly clue, I found the puzzle tricky in the best sense, and thoroughly enjoyable. So thanks Fed for the challenging fun, and Andrew for the clear and much needed parsing help.
[ And congratulations, PostMark / Stamp, on your mainstream publishing debut. ]
[THREE-LINE WHIP as an instruction for parliamentarians essentially means “when you hear the division bell you need to turn up (and vote) on pain of death”. It refers to the number of times the party whips physically underline the item of business in question on the day’s order paper.]
Chiefly came here to say that an ENCHILADA is not necessarily all that spicy. For a culture that so warmly embraced those richly spiced Indian items, you might even find the average enchilada a bit mild. It all depends on what’s in the filling, and on what kind of salsa is used.
My favorite are enchiladas suizas, which of course translates as Swiss enchiladas. It just means that they melt cheese on top of them. Never mind that the average Swiss person would be puzzled.
Thanks both. I enjoyed the puzzle, but found several surfaces clunky. And for me beatnik = dropout is about the same as yesterday’s shaman = quack. Dropping out was not a defining feature of being a beatnik – you might as well define them as long-hairs. There were many beatnik’s who weren’t dropouts, and many dropouts who weren’t beatniks.
What does it mean to be called a beatnik?
noun. beat·?nik ?b?t-nik. : a person who participated in a social movement of the 1950s and early 1960s which stressed artistic self-expression and the rejection of the mores of conventional society. broadly : a usually young and artistic person who rejects the mores of conventional society.
Thanks Andrew and thanks all.
Muffin @4 re the ‘looseness’ of Film/COVER and Yank/WHIP, I think Flea covers this well @21. Chambers has various noun refs that help
Film = a thin layer or coating
& = a pellicle or scum on liquids
& = a thin sheet of usu plastic based material used for wrapping
And also as a verb: “to cover with film”
But as I wrote it, I was thinking “film of sweat” or similar.
As for yank/whip. “The magician yanked the table cloth away…”
PostMark @7 re lining. I have no issue with the ambiguity mentioned by paul @42 of the term and have seen it used to mean insertion and containment. But, as the debates that have ensued show that’s because there are examples of it meaning both in real life. But that’s true for lots of words and many that are commonly seen in crosswords. ‘About’ can mean containment or reversal or indicate that things should be anagrammed and nobody insists that it can only mean one of those things. It’s just a peculiarity, I suppose, that in ‘lining’s case the meanings are contradictory.
Matematico @54. If the definition – which essentially means “example of produce” is too vague for, um, an example of produce/fruit&veg, then surely, lots of standard definition-by-examples are also too vague. No more “it’s beastly” for any old animal, or “dish” to describe a food etc etc? I can’t see that it’s really any vaguer than these examples.
Cellomaniac @59. I’m sorry the surface for 21a doesn’t resonate with you, but I’ll attempt to rise to the challenge of coming up with a meaningful interpretation.
A Nectar Card is a store loyalty card accepted by Sainsbury’s supermarkets, Argos, eBay, Esso Petrol Stations and many more. I’m imagining someone in such a shop producing an example of such a card and the store deciding to check all the terms and conditions before accepting it.
Cheers all!
Have we seen “prime” used in the same way recently?
HACKTIVISM new to me.
FEd @64
Your dictionary quotes add substance to the point that it would be difficult to think of a sentence in which “film” could be replaced by “cover” without changing the meaning – “covering” might work, perhaps?
btw bees make honey from nectar, but the two aren’t the same.
Wow, what a crossword. I was stumped with a fair bit of it, and putting in answers unparsed. I eventually worked it all out except AVOCADO and, given your explanation Andrew, I’m not at all surprised. Fed used to be a mathematician, so this device is unsurprising from him.
I thought COCAINE ADDICT was great, and also how Fed worked it into THREE LINE WHIP, a term I’d never heard of. We have whips in the Australian Parliament, but I don’t think they work the same as in Westminster.
I’m sure I was taught that ONE is a prime number. When did that change?
Greg @68
I won’t paraphrase as it’s a good read
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/why-isnt-1-a-prime-number/
I was also taught one was prime – so your question set me searching
Greg @68: 1 is not prime. A prime number is a whole number with exactly two whole-number factors: itself and 1. The number 1 has only one factor: 1. This isn’t mere pedantry: so many properties of prime numbers wouldn’t work if 1 were included. 1 is sui generis (as is 0).
Muffin @66: what do the British call what Americans call Saran wrap? That thin clingy plastic stuff that you use to temporarily prevent food from going bad? That’s a film and also a cover. I was thinking of that when I solved this.
Muffin @66 how about, “crops grown under a plastic film/cover”?
Greg@68 ONE has been in and out of the primes historically , including part of the last century. There is no compelling reason to exclude 1, certain theorems are neater without 1 but still work with 1. Perhaps the main reason for exclusion is that every humber can then be expressed as a unique product of primes.
It is simply a human decision, mathematicians like to pretend that the subject is a logical construct based on axioms but this always fails miserably. It is a human construct based on agreed rules that change over time.
MrPenney@71, good example, we call it Clingfilm and it is widely used as a cover.
Muffin @66 re nectar/honey not being the same.
The honey you or I might eat, might not be the same as nectar but Chambers gives:
Nectar: noun 2. The honey of glands of plants
And
Honey: noun 3. Nectar of flowers
I don’t know if you will get round to seeing this, but thanks Fed @54 for your reply. Yes indeed I do owe you an apology – I took the word ‘produce’ as a noun to mean any kind of product from nuts and bolts, to handkerchiefs to computers. I don’t have a Chambers (or any other dictionary) but even the online Collins restricts the meaning of produce just to agricultural products. Moral of the story: check the dictionary before commenting!
Matematico @76 – thanks.
My first (earlyish) comment was prompted by, to me, the stonking brilliance of AVOCADO – I was surprised by how many here couldn’t spot it. Personally, I thought it wonderful to have made such a delightful construction – though hardly abstruse. I always used to think that 15² contributors were mostly aficionados but, since the arrival of some newer verbose commenters with the pandemic, and the inability of so many to parse this clue for example, I’m rethinking….. !
Roz@39 – You’re right, and why I solved clue immediately! But there are other possibilities – indivisible, irreducible, non-composite, with (only) two factors….. and many less accurate but still indicative: “nothing divides”, “nothing goes into”, “without factors” and so on. Of course, 90% of people might complain if these ‘definitions’ were relied on but, should the conceit continue to be used more regularly, people will twig! I thought the example here, for AVOCADO, was fabulous btw
William@79 PRIME in this sense has a very precise definition , hard to replicate in a few words.
Prime numbers ARE divisible, reducible , composite , with multiple factors , many things divide and go into them.
To give a trivial example 5 = ( 2 + i )( 2 – i ) .
Ronald @37 no partners were required for the anagrind. They come before the anagram and aren’t a part of it.
As I implied earlier, I would call clingfilm a food covering rather than a food cover.
For those questioning how long 1 has not been a prime number, it is that way in Euclid’s elements so since at least a few hundred years BC. You could of course change the definition of prime to include one but you break the “fundamental theorem of arithmetic” which has been around (or proven at least) for two centuries so do try to be careful. 🙂
Ok re prime numbers. My recollection was it’s a whole number only divisible by itself and one.
It is trivial to modify the “fundamental theorem of arithmetic” to include 1 as a prime. It starts with ” Every integer larger than 1….” we simply need to modify the bit ” product of one or more primes LARGER than 1 ” .
Greg there is no compelling reason to exclude 1 , it just makes some theorems less awkward if you do .
Thanks Fed (and Andrew) I found this really challenging, clever and fair. HONEYDEW was a write in because of the crossers and Nectar but I couldn’t parse the ‘dew’ bit. I hadn’t thought of terms as meaning the ‘end of’.
I didn’t remember the prime trick this time so AVOCADO was wasted on me. HACKTIVISM was new. The use of “terms” meaning terminators was also new to me so unparsed HONEYDEW.
Thanks both if anyone still listening
Total failure here; probably 1/4 unsolved. I’m another nho THREE-LINE WHIP, and “terms” to mean endings isn’t any English I’m familiar with. Also hard to consider avocado a “fatty food” in any nation that eats bacon. I got COVER GIRL, though cover = film doesn’t work this side of the pond. Many of the others just too clever for me. Oh well; progress is slow…