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A nicely-pitched puzzle with not too many difficulties, but one or two parsings that took a while to work out. Thanks to Tramp.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | SOLDERING IRONS | They join old singer when playing clubs (9,5) (OLD SINGER)* + IRONS (golf clubs) |
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| 8 | E-CASH | Cut green tree – it might be used for a hedge? (1-4) EC[o] (green) + ASH – hedge as in “a way of protecting oneself against financial loss or other adverse circumstances” |
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| 9 | QUAGMIRE | Complex issue in question: board meeting with anger (8) QU + AGM (board meeting) + IRE |
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| 11 | INTIMAE | They line the arteries in time: fat essentially providing blockage (7) [f]A[t] in IN TIME – intima is “the innermost coating or membrane of a part or organ, especially of a vein or artery” |
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| 12 | PLATEAU | Flatten out gold on layer with metal (7) PLATE (to layer with metal, as in gold plate) + AU (gold) |
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| 13 | WEBER | Women drunk beer: he worked on bars (5) W + BEER* – as a composer, Weber “worked on bars [of music]”. Surely it should be “drank” for the surface reading? |
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| 15 | TEST-DRIVE | Early spin in cricket match: play shot with force (4-5) TEST (cricket match) + DRIVE (play a shot with force). A test-drive is an “early” spin when buying a car |
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| 17 | NONPLUSED | Playing advantage to break John McEnroe – glad, ultimately at a loss for American (9) ON (playing) PLUS (advantage) in [joh]N [mcenro]E [gla]D – the single S is a US spelling, hence “for Americans” |
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| 20 | NESTS | Traps placed outside small dens (5) S in NETS |
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| 21 | ESCORTS | Partners in tight corsets (7) CORSETS* – “tight” means drunk |
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| 23 | SAMURAI | Fighter is harmful when ignoring the odds: right then left from boxer (7) Even letters of iS hArMfUl + R + [Muhammad] ALI less L |
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| 25 | TIRAMISU | I stir middle of cup vigorously drinking morning coffee in this? (8) AM in anagram of I STIR [c]U[P] |
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| 26 | CAPRI | One after wheels? Parking to sit in old Ford (5) P in CAR (wheels) I |
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| 27 | GASTRIC BALLOON | Starter of gazpacho with a mostly tough mushroom: it might stop you getting more food (7,7) G[azpacho] + A + STRIC[t] + BALLOON (to mushroom, grow rapidly) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | STEVIE WONDER | As singer noted reviews when touring (6,6) (NOTED REVIEW)* – “As” is a Stevie Wonder song |
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| 2 | LEAST | Like to cut rent for poorest (5) AS (like) in LET (rent) |
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| 3 | EPHEMERAL | Brief here? Lap dancing to entertain this writer (9) ME (this writer) in (HERE LAP)* |
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| 4 | INQUEST | Judicial review is through: way to receive pardon for Spaniard (7) QUE (Spanish “what?” or “pardon?”) in IN (through) + ST[reet] |
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| 5 | GRAMPUS | All guys round pinball machine, initially excited: American one with flipper (7) Anagram of the initial letters of All Guys Round Pinball Machine, plus US |
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| 6 | RUMBA | Rhythmic music from drum and bass put together (5) Anagram of |
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| 7 | NURSERIES | New focus for court’s set in order — they might take the kids? (9) N + [co]UR[ts] + SERIES (a set, in order) |
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| 10 | SUPERSTITION | Great teaching out of university – son admitted avoiding 13? (12) S in SUPER T[u]ITION |
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| 14 | BONE CHINA | Single friend after bachelor: could be a dishy thing? (4,5) B + ONE CHINA (friend) |
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| 16 | DYNAMICAL | Cad mainly going out full of energy (9) (CAD MAINLY)* |
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| 18 | SASHIMI | Is mash cooked with one Japanese dish (7) (IS MASH) + I |
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| 19 | DISTURB | Upset detective bust criminal without resistance (7) DI (Detective Inspector) + R in BUST* |
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| 22 | ROAST | Slam in the lamb, perhaps (5) Double definition |
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| 24 | REPRO | Referring to master copy (5) RE + PRO (professional, master) |
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I don’t think ‘drank’ would work as an anagrind in the same way as ‘drunk’ which adds humour to the surface imho.
Thank you for the parsings I didn’t get. Easier than I often find Tramp.
Sorry to pick, but:
6d RUMBA is dRUM BAss put together.
13A needs drunk as an anagrind in WEBER, but the clunk in the surface meant it was my first one in.
27a GASTRIC BALLOON needs the A from the surface after the G.
Thank you to Andrew and Tramp
Only Superstition by Stevie W among the answers so far as I know ?
Thanks to A and T
I parsed RUMBA and GASTRIC BALLOON as Shanne @2. I thought this was brilliant with QUAGMIRE my standout. Thought there was a theme going on with car models, ESCORTS, CAPRI, SAMURAI plus TEST DRIVE but perhaps not. I loved the pairing of STEVIE WONDER and SUPERSTITION so why not.
https://youtu.be/0CFuCYNx-1g?si=Dc8S3FneF8lw5YQq.
Ta Tramp & Andrew.
STEVIE WONDER’s SUPERSTITION won 2 Grammys in March, 1974 – a golden anniversary — tilt: it’s Jeff Beck on guitar.
Thanks Andrew for the blog. Sorry for the drunk mistake.
Dnk either song, As or Superstition; as per, stuff goes over my head. Also dnk about the intima[t]e linings. Otherwise pretty straight, and agree with Sofamore re drunk, sort of folk-grammar, like We seen it in the movies … All part of the fun, ta AnT.
Another cracker from my favourite setter. Probably towards the easier end of his spectrum but nonetheless enjoyable.
Plodded steadily in an anticlockwise direction until SOLDERING IRONS finally yielded.
I wouldn’t stake my life on it, but I read somewhere that TIRAMISU was invented by the madame of an Italian bordello, to revive her patrons after their exertions. I believe its a straight translation from the Italian I pick myself up.
In the CAPRI clue, is the use of “wheels” for a car, a synecdoche? Never quite sure when a synecdoche becomes a metonym.
Many thanks, both
… Oh well, never mind 🙂 …
Tramp @6 why is “drunk” a mistake? Where I come from originally (oop North) “drunk” and “drank” are equivalent past tenses of “drink”, although I note that Chambers has “drunk” as ‘old-fashioned’. Suits me. 🙂
[typo -The As singer – nice spot, Andrew – I missed it – needs a “S” in his anagram.
Thanks Andrew for explaining where “As” came into the clue for 1d. This was a fun puzzle; I was sure that we were in for a WONDERful time spotting song titles, but if there was any more than one, I missed them.
Ta for the link, AlanC, remembered it immediately of course. It’s the recall that’s bleeped, not the memory content. [And ta Frankie G; must dig out the Jeff Beck vinyl, the one with Rod Stewart (?) doing I don’t know much about love, people …]
I managed to complete this without quite knowing how. Good fun and mental exercise though.
This fabulous rendition of As was linked in a comment in yesterday’s Quick so I spotted the parsing right away.
Good question William @8.
Waiter to cafe owner:
The ham sandwich left without paying.
Has the crew cut been in today?
10d SUPERSTITION – “avoiding 13” – nice misdirection… What’s Weber got to do with funky groovy music? …from triskaidekaphobia.
grantinfreo: love it. Which are those ?
FrankieG @5: thanks for the link. Your tilt (and mine) reminded me of Picaroon’s brilliant clue yesterday – Hi Ho…..we sing that at the end of QPR games although not a lot to sing about at the moment.
[Sofamore @1, great moniker btw, exactly what I’ve been doing in retirement 🙂 ]
I found STEVIE WONDER but didn’t know As (unlike SUPERSTITION: nice clue). INTIMAE was (were?) new to me, and E-CASH didn’t come readily to mind either.
Several unparsed, so thanks Andrew for doing the hard work. I did eventually parse GRAMPUS but wasted lots of time trying to force STAG backwards (“all guys, round”) to be part of the answer.
WEBER was my first in too.
I thought we were about due for a Tramp puzzle, so was glad to see him today.
I was all set to make a case for ‘drunk’ in 13ac until I saw Tramp had acknowledged it as a mistake – I’m pretty much with Tim C @10.
I enjoyed this puzzle, with ticks for SOLDERING IRONS, QUAGMIRE, SAMURAI, TIRAMISU, STEVIE WONDER, EPHEMERAL, INQUEST and SUPERSTITION. I’m in a bit of a rush to go out, so I’ve no time to elaborate.
Many thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
Lovely puzzle with a lot of clever constructions to give great surfaces, as we expect from this entertaining setter.
Unusually, I spotted SOLDERING IRON immediately, which gave a head start. SUPERSTITION went in long before STEVIE WONDER (the latter because I didn’t understand the significance of ‘As’), so I failed to spot the connection.
INTIMAE was new to me, though it couldn’t have been more clearly clued (it sounds like Ancient Roman underwear).
My favourites were all the peripherals, plus QUAGMIRE and TIRAMISÙ (the origin of which is debated, but it isn’t a traditional dessert, though similar trifle relatives have been around a long time. It first appeared in the Veneto region, no earlier than the 1960s).
‘Beer drunk by woman…’ might resolve the minor problem with the clue for WEBER.
Many thanks to Tramp and Andrew
Gervase@23: yes, INTIMAE sounds much more like a word for Roman underwear than subligoria or subligaculum (the real ones).
I come from Wigan and we often say: “I drunk..”. That’s how I didn’t spot the mistake. I know it’s wrong, so I apologised. Gervase’s version is better.
Thanks for the nice comments, folks.
Neil
Fenix26@15 – George Michael’s version of As is great, too. Just last Saturday, I spotted this bench in Waterlow Park, Highgate.
You can read the plaque in the third photo.
New for me: GASTRIC BALLOON, E-CASH, INTIMAE.
Favourite: BONE CHINA, SUPERSTITION.
New for me: spelling of NONPLUSED with only one S.
I could not parse 17ac; 1d – the AS in the def; 7d.
Thanks, both.
Wrong is in th’eye of the ‘regional’ beholder Tramp @25. I’ve just checked and my Australian “better person” would say “I’ve drunk…” as well, or have I missed something.
I was somewhat puzzled by the clue to 17. Since the accent is on the second syllable on nonplus, the American spelling rule calls for doubling the final S (cf. traveling v. travelling). If I saw NONPLUSED I would have taken it for the British spelling.
Tramp always offers a good challenge and this was no exception. I enjoyed playing both Stevie Wonder songs “As” (from 1d) and 10d “SUPERSTITION”. Meanwhile, 25a TIRAMISU, 3d EPHEMERAL and 14d BONE CHINA were all fun as they had that “Aha!” solving moment attached. Thanks Tramp; thanks Andrew.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew!
Lovely puzzle and a nice blog!
Top faves: E-CASH (Pure gold! Hedge all you want), PLATEAU (a well-layered jewel; gold ultimately), STEVIE WONDER (As good as it gets), SUPERSTITION (luckily, touchwood, I didn’t get stuck in that WEB(er)) and BONE CHINA (Dishy! No breaks-Straight As).
William@8
CAPRI
Yes. Synecdoche. What a lovely word!
In the joke@16 I think …
‘ham sandwich’: metonym (something closely associated with the diner)
‘crew cut’: synecdoche (a part of the person in question)
Am I right?
Unhappy with nonplused which seemed strained, i.e. I didn’t get it even after I put it in! But is taking the last letters of John McEnroe glad really indicated by “breaking”? I’ve not seen that construction before, and I’m going to grumble about it all day.
John W@31
NONPLUSED
The last letters indicated by the ‘ultimately.
The ‘break’ asks us to include ONPLUS in NED.
[I’ve got a comment @26 with the message “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” In my experience that means it may never appear, so I’ll try again]
Fenix26@15 – George Michael’s version of As is great, too. Just last Saturday, I spotted this bench.You can read the plaque in the third photo…
…in Waterlow Park, Highgate.
Brain is slow today so I found this quite hard. Generally good, favourite was SUPERSTITION. A small flaw – for SAMURAI, surely the clue should read ‘left then right from boxer’ rather than as written.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew.
I enjoyed that one. A couple of words that I didn’t know, but worked out from the clues.
Surely the WEBER clue would be referring to Joseph Weber? His Weber bars are used to detect gravitational waves.
Thanks for a fun one today S&B.
Good trick with As at the beginning of 1d. Had me thinking arsenic. I was awake to that one, but wrong this time. I seemed to be off track today with many of my first guesses.
Like Gladys@21, I also thought there had to be a ”stag” in GRAMPUS. Learnt a lot about WEBER (13 in SUPERSTITION), while asking myself that very question, FrankieG@17. Oh, and now I see there’s another WEBER, Lechien@36.
Still, I was happy to see Stevie Wonder and have been having a youtyoub @36.party which more than compensated.
INTIMAE is a Latin feminine plural. To get underwear you’d need what looks like a masculine superlative plurat INTIMISSIMI – ‘for women and men’, it says.
[But that doesn’t really work because INTIMUS is already a superlative – inter (not even an adjective), interior (comparative), intimus (superlative).]
[Oops, me @37, too slow editing. Brain’s in a quagmire today. Don’t let me be misunderstood, I wasn’t having a youtyoub party with Lechien@36, although it could be fun learning about gravitational waves too.]
Probably just my general mood this morning, but this was not one of my favourite Tramp puzzles. Successfully completed, but half a dozen or so I couldn’t parse and made little effort to do so other than come and see what the ever willing Andrew had to say about them. Somehow, my initial read through of the clues didn’t seem to throw up anything particularly appetising. Last one in was INTIMAE which I looked up as I just didn’t know it. Time for a bit of breakfast now, though I’m very glad to see that the majority enjoyed this…
William@8, KVa@30, how about hired hand vs hired gun to illustrate the difference?
paddymelon@37 Me too. I even went as far as googling Stevie Wonder Arsenic. Funny how we are all different I solved this in a clockwise direction. As often happens my favourites mirror Eileen’s.
I don’t understand beaulieu@35. So as per Andrew’s blog, we have SAMU (alternate letters) then R, then (subtract) L from the boxer A(L)I. No? I’m with you, brain slow today and also found this hard. But that was one clue I was happy about, at least I thought I was.
Tramp always delivers a good puzzle and this was no exception. I was in the ‘eyebrow raised’ rather than the ‘howls of outrage’ camp wrt ‘drunk’ which I concluded I’d heard used in the same context often enough for it to pass muster. SOLDERING IRONS, QUAGMIRE, PLATEAU, ESCORTS, RUMBA, NURSERIES and BONE CHINA were my favourites though I also enjoyed a jorum moment with INTIMAE. I did not know of the STEVIE WONDER song but presumed there might be one. Otherwise, it would be an ugly link word at the beginning of the clue which I’d not expect from this setter – or Arsenic had something to do with it but that was beyond my ken.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
Petert @42: your comment wasn’t there when I started typing: good to know I’m not alone in thinking of poison.
Here’s SUPERSTITION by Jeff Beck, Tim Bogert, & Carmine Appice.
paddmelon@39 I’d be up for a YouTube party any time!
Not sure about “not too many difficulties”. I gave up half way through and that doesn’t happen very often. If I’d seen the longer anagrams it might have helped. Just not my day.
Cheers both.
William @18, sorry, long grandpa nap. The sandwich is the meta, the crew cut is the synec.
INTIMA – apparently short for TUNICA INTIMA – “innermost coat” – as in “I’ll get my…”
A lovely puzzle and not that stretching, but plenty of smiles along the way.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
William @8: Synecdoche is a figure of speech where a part is taken for the whole, or vice versa – ‘wheels’ for ‘car’ is certainly an example. Metonymy is the broader class of using something associated with the object, rather than the name itself. Synecdoche is therefore a subset of metonymy.
Thank you Tramp, Andrew & Stevie … a pastime paradise today.
Did not know GRAMPUS which I see can also refer to an orca.
Sorry – l’m probably missing something obvious here but I’m still confused by the DRUNK v DRANK discussion. Surely DRUNK works better? I mean
Women = W. And the word BEER, if drunk (not drank, but drunk, as in squiffy), might appear as EBER. No?
Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
Another toughie with 5 unparsed. I’ve been doing the Grauniad every day for the past 3 years and either I’m getting stupider or they’re getting harder. I think more of the latter.
Thanks both.
I started with large blanks in the top half but slowly worked upwards after solving the bottom half. Unlike Gervase @23, SOLDERING IRON was my LOI!
I liked the wordplays for INQUEST and SAMURAI, the good anagram for STEVIE WONDER, and the surface for GRAMPUS. ‘Avoiding 13’ seemed to me to be the wrong part of speech for SUPERSTITION (?) – maybe someone can explain.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew.
Grizzlebeard@55
WEBER
‘Drunk’ works fine as the anagrind.
‘Drank’ works right in the surface reading.
(Many didn’t find this a problem at all.)
Because of this mismatch, Tramp thought it was necessary to apologise.
Lechien @37 – I’ve never heard of Joseph Weber, but if that’s how the clue works for you, surely that’s fine. For me, it works as explained by our blogger. So I guess we’re both served.
Nice puzzle today, not too taxing. Thanks to blogger and setter.
Robi@57
SUPERSTITION
‘avoiding’ works as a gerund here. Hence ‘avoiding 13’ is nounal.
No mismatch.
paddymelon@44
SAMURAI
In the cryptic reading, it could be slightly confusing.
My understanding:
….harmful when ignoring the odds (SAMU) right (R) then (ignoring) left from boxer.
This American would have spelled “nonplussed” with two Ss, and according to Google NGram, most of my compatriots have agreed for a long time.
The one-S spelling is more common in American English than in British English, but is a small minority in both. I guess it shows up enough in American English that at least some dictionaries list it as an American spelling, so I’m certainly not going to claim this as an error on Tramp’s part.
I had more trouble with this puzzle than some of you seem to have had, but I made it through and was happy for the workout in the end. I didn’t know the Stevie Wonder song, so I thought that “As” was a bit odd, but now that I know I like it. I think I’d seen AGM before but had forgotten it. I didn’t know INTIMAE, but it was gettable anyway.
Thanks both,
Some pedant’s got to quibble about 9 so it might as well be me. An AGM is not usually a board meeting. The clue’s in the name. A general meeting is a meeting of the shareholders (or equivalent if the organisation is not a company). Even if all the shareholders are directors it’s technically not a board meeting according to my memory of company law classes taken long ago.
Thank you Andrew for some parsings that escaped me and Tramp for the mental workout. 26A took me back to my childhood, when this was a desirable yet realistically affordable car.
I like some others feel “drunk” was fine. First one in for me as bars of music fit Weber perfectly. No need to apologize Neil. Very good crossword so nothing to complain about
paddymelon@44 – you’r quite correct – as I said, slow brain day (and that was a good clue)
It took me a while to get going with this and I didn’t think I’d be able to finish it. Somehow or other I got there. It didn’t help that I became fixated on CARPENTER as the first word of 1A. It doesn’t matter how many times I see the word CLUB, but I never think of golf. With thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
Thanks both.
What fun! The GRAMPUS/QUAGMIRE crossing gave me as much pleasure as anything (I mean in crosswordland) I can remember recently – for on the one hand the use of a favourite obscurity (puffing like a…) and on the other the audible crunching of the little grey cells as they built the answer from the wordplay. On the latter (and pace Tyngewick@63) an AGM could be taken to be a meeting with the Board and so is a ‘Board meeting’.
And a nice TILT in INTIMAE – now to introduce it into conversation…. Ermmm..
Can someone explain why 11a is an anagram? No anagrind mentioned at all in the blog which suggests its so obvious it doesn’t need pointing out. The only remaining wordplay is “providing blockage” so presumably that’s it, though I’ve no idea why. If it’s “these are the blocks [that you have to move around]” then that seems exceedingly tenuous to me. Though possibly I’m just grumpy because I couldn’t get on Tramp’s wavelength, at all! Terrible effort today. Thanks for the explanations, Andrew, very helpful. These things never seem so difficult once you see the answers!
billypudcock @69: It isn’t an anagram. The words IN TIME are ‘blocked’ by A (‘fat essentially’, ie the essence or centre of the word).
Thanks Tramp for an excellent crossword. My top picks were SOLDERING IRONS, the very clever SAMURAI, GASTRIC BALLOON, RUMBA (liked the way a ‘hidden’ answer was put together), DISTURB, and REPRO. I didn’t think twice about ‘women drunk beer’ but I guess ‘women spilled beer’ would work without raising eyebrows. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
The second puzzle this week that relieved some concern about my cognitive decline! Thanks Tramp! That was a lot of fun!
Gervase @ 70: doh. No wonder I couldn’t solve most of the crossword if I can’t even properly understand the answers when they’re written down for me… Thanks for pointing out the obvious! 🙂
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues with a great pair for STEVIE WONDER and SUPERSTITION.
Drunk is fine for me , drank is just the posh version .
INTIMAE – perhaps the least amount of effort needed possible ?
Thanks Andrew and Tramp.
I am with Tyngewick@63 on AGM.
AGM is a meeting of the members any organization including companies.
The Chairperson or CEO who are members of the Board, may preside over the meeting but the Board as a whole need not be present.
In fact, the AGM has the power to appoint or remove Board members. It is a stretch to call it a Board Meeting.
[ AlanC@19 I would have thought some Status Quo more suitable for KPR ]
Back to work today so three visits to the grid during coffee and lunch breaks during the day yielded two thirds of the solutions. Needed a bit of help to finish up NW corner this evening. Completely missed the theme as I always do but then missed the apparent mistake too. Thanks to Andrew and Tramp and to others for all the comments.
Superstition LOI. I kept looking at Weber instead of the number.
[Ted @62: yes I find the double-S to be a greater quandary in American spelling than the double-L. For example, “cancelation” poses no problems for me at all. On the other hand. I can never work out the clearest way to pluralize an omnibus. “Buses” reads as though it is like “abuses”. “Busses” reads as though they are several kisses. Sorta leaves a person non-plussed, doesn’t it?]
Zero.
Zero yesterday.
Zero Tuesday.
On a roll.
Have they all been “difficult” this week for experienced folk?
25a – where does AM come from in the clue?
For some reason I tried to be too clever in 22d, I wrote in BLAST (“B” last in “lamB”) and only corrected it when ESCORTS wouldn’t fit.
I wondered about a mini-theme with ESCORT and CAPRI – but no other possibilities like ANGLIA, CORTINA, FOCUS, PREFECT, FIESTA, SIERRA, etc., made their appearance so I had to give up on that!
And INTIMAE was a new word to me, but the wordplay was simple enough and great surface!
Special ticks for SOLDERING IRONS (something I used a lot in my working days); QUAGMIRE; NONPLUSED (yes I guessed at the American spelling); SAMURAI; TIRAMISU; GASTRIC BALLOON (I’m rather overweight myself, but I sure hope I’ll never need one of those!); GRAMPUS; SUPERSTITION (like the misdirecting cross-ref. – would anyone want to avoid WEBER?); BONE CHINA (though CRS ‘china’ is perhaps a bit overworked in crosswordland?)
Thanks to Tramp – always a challenge – and Andrew.
7d – how do you know to take UR from “courts”?
Steffen @81 it’s “drinking morning” i.e. containing “A.M.”
And @83: ‘focus for’ indicates taking the middle letters [co]UR[ts]
I’m sure it’s obvious but how does POOREST mean LEAST? Least good, or least wealthy etc is fine, I just can’t see how it works on its own.
HarpoSpeaks@: I think it’s Shakespearean: ‘A poor player’=’a lowly player’? Hence poorest and least…
Harpo Speaks @85: in Matthew 25, the specific examples of poverty are hunger, thirst, nakedness, imprisonment, encompassing “…the least of these my brethren…”
I thought it was hard and took a long time to finish it. I parsed drunk in 13@ as an anagram for beer, next to a woman.
It’s always great to see new names on here. My advice to newcomers is to stick around. I’ve seen so many new names pop up over the years, but, unfortunately most of them don’t hang around. It’s such a shame.
Tramp@89: some (ex)newcomers do stick around, but just don’t comment very often.
I’ve been here since the days of hedgehoggy – whatever happened to them?
For this American, NONPLUSED is just wrong. Americans have an alternate meaning for that word, which is very confusing as it’s the opposite of the original, but we spell it with the double S.
…and now I see that Merriam Webster does list it as an alternate spelling, but as a writer, editor, and voracious reader I’ve never seen that in use.
Re 9a and AGM, I think Alphalpha @68 provides a satisfactory answer to the quibble from Tyngewick@63 and illipu@75, although perhaps a ? could have been added to the clue. Normally the AGM is called by the board, the agenda is set by the board and the main (but not sole) purpose of the meeting is to get shareholder or membership approval of decisions or recommendations of the board. Election of board members is another function of the AGM, but the process is normally managed by the board. There, I have qualitatively qualified the quibble.
Re 13a, Laccaria @82, I try to avoid WEBER at every opportunity, but sometimes the orchestra I play in schedules it and I have no choice. Nevertheless, I liked the clue and had no difficulty with drunk in the surface or wordplay.
Thanks Tramp for the fun and Andrew for the help with a couple of parsings.
OK, I give up — how is CHINA = “friend”? Rhyming slang? Television character? Something else?
I might have gotten QUAGMIRE, despite the nho “AGM”, if it had occurred to me that someone might abbreviate “question” as QU rather than simply Q. Never seen that one either.
HarpoSpeaks @85, the KJV (Matthew 25) gives us “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my children, ye have done it unto me.” From context, the sense there is clearly “poorest”.
Them Tates @94 you were right first time , china plate = mate.