Puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 18, 2023
This Rosa struck me as a little atypical but nevertheless a pleasure as usual. It has two words that were new to me, 2 (PALAESTRA) and 16 (MALLEUS).
My favourite clues are 16 (MALLEUS), 22 (SWEARS), 28 (A PRIORI) and, best of all, 27 (WARM). Thank you, Rosa.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ASPECT |
Expression when audibly kissed (6)
|
| AS (when) + homophone (audibly) of “pecked” (kissed) | ||
| 4 | IN SPADES |
Emphatically wearing suit (2,6)
|
| IN (wearing) + SPADES (suit) | ||
| 10 | SELFISH |
Greedy flesh is wobbly (7)
|
| Anagram (wobbly) of FLESH IS | ||
| 11 | GLITTER |
Good babies sparkle (7)
|
| G (good) + LITTER (babies) | ||
| 12 | NOEL |
Coward perhaps, heartless man of jelly (4)
|
| NO[b]EL (heartless man of jelly — explosive jelly, that is) | ||
| 13 | NORTH KOREA |
A thousand men invading another rogue state (5,5)
|
| K (a thousand) + OR (men, i.e. other ranks) together in anagram (rogue) of ANOTHER | ||
| 15 | HOT TUB |
Spooner’s kindergarten jacuzzi? (3,3)
|
| Spoonerisation of “tot hub” (kindergarten) | ||
| 16 | MALLEUS |
Hammer rebellious ex-Home Secretary following ultimate in careerism (7)
|
| [careeris]M + SUELLA (ex-Home Secretary) backwards (rebellious). How splendidly topical with the reference to Suella Braverman. The malleus is the hammer of the ear. | ||
| 20 | PAUNCHY |
Striking about introduction of agreement with corporation (7)
|
| A[greement] in PUNCHY (striking) | ||
| 21 | SENDAI |
Direct road in Japanese city (6)
|
| SEND (direct) + AI (road, i.e. A1) | ||
| 24 | WELL-CHOSEN |
Playing cellos when appropriate (4-6)
|
| Anagram (playing) of CELLOS WHEN | ||
| 26 | CEDE |
Articulate offspring give up (4)
|
| Homophone (articulate) of “seed” (offspring) | ||
| 28 | A PRIORI |
Theoretical state after 100th day of most years (1,6)
|
| APR IO (100th day of most years) + RI (state, i.e. Rhode Island) | ||
| 29 | CHASSIS |
Conservative nana trapped in male’s body (7)
|
| C (Conservative) + ASS (‘nana) in (trapped in) HIS (male’s) | ||
| 30 | SIDESTEP |
Duck wings and neck the wrong way round (8)
|
| SIDES (wings) + PET (neck) backwards (the wrong way round) | ||
| 31 | SMIDGE |
Small fly-speck (6)
|
| S (small) + MIDGE (fly) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ABSINTHE |
Libertine bathes in liqueur (8)
|
| Anagram (libertine) of BATHES IN | ||
| 2 | PALAESTRA |
Mate regularly ran East Torbay’s old wrestling school (9)
|
| PAL (mate) + [r]A[n] E[a]S[t] T[o]R[b]A[y]. ‘Palaestra’ refers to a public place for the training of athletes in ancient Rome. And, with a different spelling (Palestra ) happens to be the name of the basketball and wrestling arena at the University of Pennsylvania. (Thanks to commenter Braze for this.) | ||
| 3 | CHID |
Husband arrested by cops and admonished (4)
|
| H (husband) in (arrested by) CID (cops). ‘Chid’ is alternative to ‘chided’. | ||
| 5 | NIGHTCAP |
Understanding hard liquor’s brought up for tot at bedtime (8)
|
| PACT (understandinb) + H (hard) + GIN (liquor) all backwards (brought up) | ||
| 6 | PAINKILLER |
Assistant tattooist holding rough analgesic (10)
|
| PA (assistant) + ILL (rough) in (holding) INKER (tattoist) | ||
| 7 | DETER |
Decide to drop bombshell and head off (5)
|
| DETER[mine] (decide to drop bombshell) | ||
| 8 | SCREAM |
Get lost around middle of Bournemouth and cry (6)
|
| [bourn]E[mouth] in (around) SCRAM (get lost) | ||
| 9 | CHAOS |
Bone after tea is dog’s dinner (5)
|
| CHA (tea) + OS (bone) | ||
| 14 | PUGNACIOUS |
Aggressive little dog mauling a cousin (10)
|
| PUG (little dog) + anagram (mauling) of A COUSIN | ||
| 17 | UNDRESSED |
Stripped clothes off sundry messy beds (9)
|
| [s]UNDR[y] [m]ESS[y] [b]ED[s] | ||
| 18 | THEORISE |
Speculate in article on old mutiny (8)
|
| THE (article) + O (old) + RISE (mutiny) | ||
| 19 | CINEASTE |
Church welcomes cool bridge player and film buff (8)
|
| IN (cool) + EAST (bridge player) together in (welcomes) CE (church) | ||
| 22 | SWEARS |
Insists some chaps wear skirts (6)
|
| Hidden word (some) | ||
| 23 | TEACH |
Time every lecture (5)
|
| T (time) + EACH (every) | ||
| 25 | LURID |
Ghastly lout oddly freed (5)
|
| L[o]U[t] + RID (freed) | ||
| 27 | WARM |
Kindly remove animal from war room (4)
|
| WAR[roo]M (remove animal from war room) |
Both the Rosa Klebb and Vlad Saturday puzzles have clues for ASPECT and IN SPADES for the first two across clues. How weird is that.
Lovely puzzle as always.
Liked: CHID, GLITTER, MALLEUS, CEDE, PAINKILLER, THEORISE, CINEASTE
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete Maclean
Enjoyable as ever from Rosa Klebb with some delightfully succinct clues (IN SPADES, SMIDGE), gleeful silliness (‘tot hub’ for HOT TUB’) and the amusingly apt surface of 1d conjuring a decadent ‘libertine’ in thrall to the ‘green fairy’. PUGNACIOUS was also fun.
Thanks to Rosa and Pete.
Thanks, Rosa and Pete.
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog.
Liked NOEL (esp for the ‘man of jelly’ -gelignite). HOT TUB and CHAOS.
And MALLEUS for the topical surface.
I agree with everything Pete and Diane@2 wrote.
I also did not know CINEASTE and CHID. My dictionary tells me the latter is OE, so an indicator would have been appreciated . And how does ‘Nana = ASS? If it is short for banana, it is doubly new to me: not ever having seen ‘nana as the abbreviation of banana nor ever having equated banana with ASS.
While I appreciate the skill that went into making MALLEUS, I think it is a bit unfair to use the first name of a local politician. I know from our discussion earlier in the week that I do not have much support here, so that is all I will write.
Thanks Rosa Klebb for an enjoyable, albeit atypical, puzzle and thanks Pete a typically excellent blog.
Thanks Rosa and Pete
16ac (MALLEUS): Presumably this clue was originally written and accepted without the “ex-“. It would be interesting to know if there were contingency plans already in place. In any case, I think it was good work by someone to keep the clue up to date when Suella Braverman was sacked five days before the appearance of this puzzle.
29ac (CHASSIS): ODE 2010 marks nana as “Brit. informal” and defines it as “a silly person; a fool (often as a general term of abuse)”. The origin is given as “1960s; perhaps a shortening of banana“.
Thanks PB@5 for the help with nana. I guess I should look at a dictionary a bit more often- certainly before posting and preferably while solving.
I confess I did not realize how recently Suellawas defenestrated. The UK news where I was last week focused on the return of Cameron.
Thanks Pete and Rosa Klebb.
Loved this, A PRIORI being top fav.
Fiona @1
Plus SPONDULICKS in Filbert and Monk;
WAX WORKS by Paul, and MADAME TUSSAUD by Bluth.
And INAPT in 2 FT puzzles this week
Thanks Rosa Klebb for another gem. It’s seems silly to list favourites because of the sheer number but I can be silly so here goes: ASPECT, NORTH KOREA, HOT TUB, A PRIORI, ABSINTHE, PALAESTRA, DETER, CHAOS, SWEARS, and WARM. Thanks Pete for the blog.
[Fiona @1, ilippu @7, Martyn @8: It’s no surprise that the same words, even odd ones, reappear in crosswords. Setters are alsobsolvers and I’m sure they’re always thinking, “how would I clue that word?” Some of the “alternate clues” become part of their crosswords.]
I haven’t finished this puzzle yet, but I had to come here to thank Rosa Klebb for the exceptionally WELL-CHOSEN clue at 24a. And I would say that it is always appropriate.
Thanks for the blog, it has all been said, I will just mention A PRIORI for the clever and precise use of APRIO and NOEL for the hidden capital and man of jelly. PALAESTRA gave a lot of help with the spelling using regular letters.
I built PALAESTRA from the clue (on the tube somewhere) and guessed it was Roman.
I didn’t solve this on Saturday, but on Monday, with several crosswords in between, so had managed to forget IN SPADES and ASPECT were both in the Vlad, just that I’d seen them before recently.
I knew MALLEUS, together with incus and stapes, hammer, anvil and stirrup, as the three bones of the inner ear, so was just in awe of the cluing.
Thank you to Rosa Klebb and Pete Maclean.
MALLEUS: what a brilliant spot – and what a surface! Bravissima, Rosa!! Were it not so utterly ephemeral, it would have shot straight into my little book of classic clues. (Congratulations and thanks, too, to the Editor.)
As for the rest, my favourites were the same as Pete’s, with the addition of everyone else’s.
Thanks to Rosa for a superb puzzle and to lucky (as crypticsue would say) Pete, for a blog to match.
I didn’t know PALAESTRA (which I worked out from the wordplay) or SENDAI (last in, for which I resorted to a list) and failed to identify the man of jelly, but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment. Favourites ABSINTHE, NORTH KOREA, MALLEUS, UNDRESSED and SCREAM for a funny surface.
Thanks Rosa for a great puzzle with a little bit of everything added together to make a very enjoyable crossword.
I couldn’t say whether this is atypical for Rosa Klebb but I can certainly say I enjoyed it. And, doing it immediately after the Vlad over morning coffee last Saturday, I was struck by the remarkable coincidence and have been looking forward to the observations on 225 today. I repeat myself from elsewhere on the site, but it has been a week of repetitions. And they say God doesn’t play dice …
An absolute delight to solve as always; I am full of admiration for Rosa’s cluing – always the perfect mix of simplicity, accessibility, cunning and elegance. MALLEUS has an extra topical edge to it, given what happened late in the week following publication concerning Mr Sunak and a hammer. Other favourites include SELFISH, PAUNCHY, ABSINTHE, DETER, CHAOS, PUGNACIOUS and WARM.
Thanks Rosa and Pete Maclean
Now that I have finished this typically brilliant puzzle from one of my favourite setters, here are the clues I liked best.
As noted @10 above, 24a WELL-CHOSEN tops my list. Playing cellos is always appropriate.
I couldn’t parse 13a SOUTH KOREA, because I had “rogue state” as the definition, a marvellous misdirection. When Pete explained it, it joined my list.
Others were 5d NIGHTCAP (clever construction and witty surface), 17d UNDRESSED (perfect surface), and 27d WARM (for the image of the belligerent kangaroo).
Thanks to Rosa for the unalloyed pleasure and Pete for the excellent blog.
Enjoyed this, but missed Sendai and Malleus. I remember the bone from biology in school, but my memory is failing because I thought it was spelt without the E. Should’ve checked in the dictionary. I’ve never heard of the Japanese city Sendai. That’s the sort of clue I don’t like.
But otherwise an excellent crossword
On the coincidences, it was I think the great biologist and statistician R.A. Fisher who did most to establish the following principle. Consider an event that is extremely unlikely given a single opportunity for it to occur. Then, once the number of opportunities becomes sufficiently large, it is the non-occurrence of the event that becomes a near impossibility.
We are talking about coincidences this week because this is a week in which coincidences have occurred, but we are only talking about them after they have occurred.
There was once a week when the top four teams in the English Premier League (Soccer) were (not in this order) Arsenal, Charlton Athletic, Liverpool, and Manchester United, all of whom play in red shirts. I remember seeing articles in the press at that time speculating about the advantages of playing in red. We did not see such articles at other times.
The Palestra (without the second A) is the basketball and wrestling arena at the University of Pennsylvania(where I work) so that one was easy to get.