Phiday’s mental exercise from our regular setter.
As usual with Phi, we have a few unfamiliar words: the wordplay in 13a requires one that I had to reverse-engineer from the solution, and I think the English language could probably manage very well without 14d. But apart from the usual minor quibbles, this was a fun puzzle, with 1d my favourite among many good clues.
I can’t see an obvious theme today, but Phi sometimes includes a very non-obvious one – or indeed none at all. I’m sure someone will tell me if I’ve missed something. Thanks Phi as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HOTEL |
Very popular article from Spain identifying holiday venue (5)
|
| HOT (slang for very popular) + EL (masculine form of the definite article in Spanish). | ||
| 4 | LADIES’ MAN |
The French maidens excited – me? (6,3)
|
| LA (feminine form of “the” in French) + anagram (excited) of MAIDENS.
Extended definition: a man who enjoys the company of women and tries to please them. |
||
| 9 | MACADAM |
Scottish engineer, vulgar sort, interrupting formal greeting to woman (7)
|
| CAD (a badly-behaved person = vulgar sort) inserted into (interrupting) MA’AM (contraction of Madam = formal greeting to a woman).
John Loudon McAdam, who developed the “macadam” process for building road surfaces from varying sizes of stones and gravel (later improved further by adding tar to make “tar macadam” or tarmac). I think strictly the spelling used in the solution relates to his invention, and is not the recorded spelling of his name, but the two are clearly related. |
||
| 10 | OCEANIC |
Describing the main area on ice, possibly – cold (7)
|
| Anagram (possibly) of A (abbreviation for area) + ON ICE, then C (abbreviation for cold, as in hot and cold water taps).
The main = archaic or poetic word for the sea; oceanic = relating to the sea. |
||
| 11 | LEARNEDLY |
Yelled and ran around, displaying great erudition? (9)
|
| Anagram (around) of YELLED + RAN. | ||
| 12 | NIGER |
Province, German territory in Africa (5)
|
| NI (abbreviation for Northern Ireland, a province within the United Kingdom) + GER (abbreviation for German).
Country in West Africa. |
||
| 13 | PLAYER |
Trifler late leaving railway worker (6)
|
| P[late]LAYER (a worker who lays railway tracks), leaving out LATE. | ||
| 15 | BULLFROG |
Nonsense and obscurity about river amphibian (8)
|
| BULL (as in “talked a lot of bull” = slang for nonsense) + FOG (obscurity), around R (abbreviation for river). | ||
| 18 | ENVISION |
Imagine return of commotion after new version one’s introduced (8)
|
| NOISE (commotion) reversed (return of . . .), including (after . . . is introduced) N (abbreviation for new) + V (abbreviation for version) + I (one in Roman numerals). | ||
| 20 | LYTTON |
Extremes of literary talent never reflected in name linked to Bloomsbury (6)
|
| End letters (extremes) of L[iterar]Y T[alen]T, then NO (no! = never! = an emphatic denial) reversed (reflected).
I think we’re talking about the writer Lytton Strachey, part of the “Bloomsbury Group” of writers, artists and thinkers. |
||
| 23 | DANDY |
Old comic, one noted for how he dresses (5)
|
| Double definition. Children’s comic magazine printed 1937 – 2012 (and still appearing as annual special editions); or a man who takes particular pride in his dress and appearance, especially in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. | ||
| 24 | INAMORATO |
Lover very keen on receiving revolutionary perfume (9)
|
| INTO (very keen on, as in “he’s into motorbikes”) containing (receiving) AROMA (perfume) reversed (revolutionary).
A male lover or beloved. |
||
| 26 | POLITIC |
Discreet computer material confiscated by cops, except last item (7)
|
| IT (abbreviation for information technology = computer material?) contained in (confiscated by) POLIC[e] (cops) without the last letter.
Discreet = politic = diplomatic = acting in such a way as to avoid causing trouble. |
||
| 27 | BASENJI |
Degraded state of America, seen by one hunter from Africa (7)
|
| BASE (degraded = dishonourable) + NJ (abbreviation for New Jersey = one of the States of America) + I (one in Roman numerals).
A breed of hunting dog originating from central Africa. |
||
| 28 | TRAVELLER |
Holidaymaker, perhaps one offering story about endless party (9)
|
| TELLER (someone offering a story), around RAV[e] (party) without its last letter (endless). | ||
| 29 | SNEER |
Prophet penning note: “It’s an unfortunate look” (5)
|
| SEER (prophet), containing (penning = holding in a pen, as in an enclosure) N (abbreviation for note).
Sneer = a disdainful look. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HUMBLE PIE |
Symbol of humiliation that could make me, Phi, blue (6,3)
|
| Anagram (that could make . . .) of ME PHI BLUE.
As in “to eat humble pie” = to be forced to admit one’s mistake in public. |
||
| 2 | TOCCATA |
Piece of music to start to calm jazz fan with touch of anxiety (7)
|
| TO + starting letter of C[alm] + CAT (slang for a jazz enthusiast) + first letter (a touch) of A[nxiety].
A piece of music, typically for a keyboard instrument, that’s intentionally difficult (with fast-moving notes) to show off the performer’s skill. |
||
| 3 | LADEN |
Burdened boy with heartache and desperation in the end (5)
|
| LAD (boy) + end letters of [heartach]E and [desperatio]N. | ||
| 4 | LAMBDA |
Gentle soul, getting US lawyer for character from Athens (6)
|
| LAMB (a meek person = gentle soul) + DA (abbreviation for District Attorney = US lawyer).
The letter L in the Greek alphabet = a character from Athens. |
||
| 5 | DIONYSUS |
Deity’s sound is broadcast around yard (8)
|
| Anagram (broadcast = scattered) of SOUND IS around Y (abbreviation for yard).
Ancient Greek god of wine. |
||
| 6 | ETERNALLY |
Following summer in Marseille, sailors will have supporter for all time (9)
|
| ÉTÉ (French for summer, so summer in the French city of Marseille) + RN (abbreviation for Royal Navy = sailors) + ALLY (supporter). | ||
| 7 | MANAGER |
Soccer boss is a long time taking on male title (7)
|
| AN AGE (a long time), surrounded by (taking on) MR (male title).
The boss of a football team. |
||
| 8 | NICER |
Better pound shouldn’t feature King? (5)
|
| NIC[k]ER (slang for one pound in British currency) without the K (abbreviation for king). | ||
| 14 | ESSAYETTE |
Short article for one sitting in dodgy settee (9)
|
| SAY (for one = for example), sitting in an anagram (dodgy) of SETTEE.
I’d just say “a short essay” if that’s what I meant, but it seems that someone has seen fit to create a separate word for it. |
||
| 16 | GONDOLIER |
I’m doing role at sea? On canal, more likely (9)
|
| Anagram (at sea = confused) of DOING ROLE.
Extended definition: a gondolier propels a boat around the canals of Venice, rather than on the open sea. |
||
| 17 | ZODIACAL |
Australian picked up call about account involving twelve houses (8)
|
| OZ (slang for Australian) reversed (picked up = upwards in a down clue), then DIAL (call on the telephone) around AC (abbreviation for account).
Relating to the twelve “houses” (signs) of the zodiac. |
||
| 19 | VANILLA |
Undistinguished vehicle? Wrong one (7)
|
| VAN (commercial vehicle) + ILL (wrong) + A (one).
Vanilla is of course a flavour in its own right. But it’s been used for years to identify “plain” ice cream (which often doesn’t actually taste of vanilla at all), so it’s come to mean basic and unexciting. |
||
| 21 | TRAINEE |
Wet weather in driving area for learner (7)
|
| RAIN (wet weather) in TEE (the area of a golf course from which players drive their first shot). | ||
| 22 | BARBER |
Spiteful comment about rising American composer (6)
|
| BARB (a spiteful comment), then RE (about = on the subject of) reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue).
Samuel Barber, 20th century US composer. It’s very likely that you’ve heard his Adagio for Strings at some point, whether or not you recognise his name. |
||
| 23 | DEPOT |
Mark taking control of record store (5)
|
| DOT (a mark) containing (taking control of) EP (abbreviation for extended-play record). | ||
| 25 | OASIS |
Haven, old, unchanged (5)
|
| O (abbreviation for old) + AS IS (unchanged). |
Gosh. No comments at nearly 11.00? I’m shortly into a meet so this will have to be quick. All went in smoothly bar the SW corner which proved tricky to penetrate. I struggled to parse ENVISION, sure there was an anagram of ‘version’ in there; I had not encountered ESSAYETTE and am as surprised as our blogger that the word exists and I was totally misled by the ‘he’ in the clue for DANDY which had me thinking of comedians beginning with D and never of the paper comic. Very clever (or, if not very clever, certainly enough to beat me). I do agree that ‘computer material’ = IT is not the most obvious synonym and NICER was potentially tricky with two kings contained within the fodder synonym.
LADIES MAN, OCEANIC, SNEER, HUMBLE PIE, GONDOLIER and VANILLA were my favourites.
Thanks Phi and Quirister
I think I can live without a ZODIACAL ESSAYETTE, but still nice to encounter some lesser used words.
Got HUMBLE PIE early on, so hopeful of some Peter Frampton connections. Maybe next time?
Maybe I’m not sufficiently LEARNED, but LYTTON to me is the David Niven character in The Pink Panther…
Thank you Phi and Quirister.
Thanks both. For me having looked up American composers to solve BARBER, the crossing BASENJI and LYTTON were both unknowns – for the former I tried 3 other state abbreviations NY NC NH before striking gold, and the latter leaves me wondering whether the individual was known mainly by the first name or we were somewhat short-changed in the clue?
Liked LADIES’ MAN, ENVISION (the ‘after’ was misleading me for a while), MANAGER (got the word first and then parsed. Took a while to see AN AGE) and NICER (making some political statement?).
Thanks Phi and Quirister!
ESSAYETTE looks like the sort of word that would sit nicely in the rightmost column and provide lots of friendly ending letters – shame I didn’t put it there… And so many LYTTONs – I wondered about the ‘dark and stormy night’ man, but he was Bulwer-Lytton and I felt he needed his hyphenation if he was to appear.
There is a theme, and I was wondering if Dormouse might spot it. I have been plundering a few Britten operas recently and here we have the seven different roles performed by one singer in Death in Venice (as recently staged in Wales: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/08/death-in-venice-review-britten-final-opera-soars-in-captivating-staging-welsh-national-opera).
No, didn’t spot that, it’s been some years since I’ve seen it, although I have a DVD of a production with Robert Tear somewhere.
Messed up by entering Carter for the composer, although I know Samuel and Elliot’s music quite well. My favourite Barber piece is probably Knoxville, Summer of 1915.