Some more little gems from Slormgorm today
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RECAPPED |
Concerning Excel page my boss summarised (8)
|
| RE (concerning) + CAP (excel, in the sense of “surpass”) + P (page) + ED. (my [i.e., Slormgorm’s] boss), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 5 | PARTED |
District by outskirts of Edmond or Split (6)
|
| PART (district) + outside letters of (outskirts of) E[DMON]D, with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 10 | DIGRESS |
Depart lodgings with secured reservation (7)
|
| DIGS (lodgings) around (with secured) RES (reservation) | ||
| 11 | OCTOPUS |
Month to get over flipping drink for inker (7)
|
| OCT. (month, i.e., October) + O (over) + SUP (drink) reversed (flipping) | ||
| 12 | ATONEMENT |
A pitch by chaps essentially after reparation (9)
|
| A + TONE (pitch) + MEN (chaps) + middle letter of (essentially) [AF]T[ER] | ||
| 13 | ROCKY |
Boxer right to get brashly confident, having knocked head off (5)
|
| R (right) + [C]OCKY (brashly confident) minus first letter (having knocked head off), referring presumably to the Sylvester Stallone movie franchise | ||
| 15 | DICER |
Chopper one spotted heading for rendezvous (5)
|
| DICE (one spotted) + first letter of (heading for) R[ENDEZVOUS]. This confused me a little, as an American. In the US, “die” is singular, and “dice” is plural, but Chambers appears to approve of “dice” for both singular and plural. Live and learn. | ||
| 16 | LEARNING |
Liberal getting cash from Labour for education (8)
|
| L (Liberal) + EARNING (cash from labour), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 19 | INEDIBLE |
Not good to eat in bed and lie about (8)
|
| Anagram of (about) {IN BED + LIE} | ||
| 20 | REEKS |
Intros of really emotive elegies Kenyan soprano hums (5)
|
| First letters of (intros of) R[EALLY] E[MOTIVE] E[LEGIES] K[ENYAN] S[OPRANO] | ||
| 21 | GOING |
Medal worn by one in operation (5)
|
| GONG (medal) around (worn by) I (one) | ||
| 23 | REALISTIC |
It is clear pants can be practical (9)
|
| Anagram of (pants) {IT IS CLEAR} | ||
| 25 | OUTCAST |
Reject unacceptable group of players (7)
|
| OUT (unacceptable) + CAST (group of players) | ||
| 27 | ADSPEAK |
A dead small high point in commercial jargon (7)
|
| A + D (dead) + S (small) + PEAK (high point) | ||
| 28 | EATING |
Chairs lacking legs ultimately can be worrying (6)
|
| [S]EATING (chairs) minus (lacking) last letter of (ultimately) [LEG]S | ||
| 29 | WEBSITES |
Be wisest to go around places surfers go (8)
|
| Anagram of (to go around) {BE WISEST} | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RED PANDA |
Ruddy rubbish lawyer is a beast (3,5)
|
| RED (ruddy) + PAN (rubbish) + DA (lawyer) | ||
| 2 | COGNOSCENTI |
Coin con gets off people in the know? (11)
|
| Anagram of (off) {COIN CON GETS} | ||
| 3 | PREFERRED |
Pet possibly handed over behind centre for RSPCA (9)
|
| Middle letter of (centre for) [RS]P[CA] + REFERRED (handed over) | ||
| 4 | ENSUE |
Characters featuring in women’s UEFA result (5)
|
| Hidden in (characters featuring in) [WOM]EN’S UE[FA] | ||
| 6 | ACTOR |
You might say an extra element (not fluorine) (5)
|
| [F]ACTOR (element) minus (not) F (fluorine) | ||
| 7 | TAP |
Someone from Ireland perhaps getting over cold? (3)
|
| PAT (someone from Ireland perhaps) inverted (getting over), i.e., a possible label on a water faucet | ||
| 8 | DUSTY |
Dutch clown in Springfield loses Swedish currency in Springfield? (5)
|
| D (Dutch) + [KR]USTY (clown in Springfield, referring to The Simpsons) minus (loses) KR (Swedish currency, i.e., krona), referring to the late pop singer | ||
| 9 | BOOTLACE |
One tied up in sack and left by a church (8)
|
| BOOT (sack) + L (left) + A + CE (church) | ||
| 14 | CONTENTMENT |
Tory chaps with time to drink wine will find happiness (11)
|
| {CON (Tory) + MEN (chaps) + T (time)} around (to drink) TENT (wine) | ||
| 16 | LIBERATE |
Free liberal judge locked up close to June (8)
|
| {LIB. (liberal) + RATE (judge)} around (locked up) last letter of (close to) [JUN]E | ||
| 17 | NARCISSUS |
Russians moving to surround carbon plant (9)
|
| Anagram of (moving) RUSSIANS around (to surround) C (carbon) | ||
| 18 | ASHCAKES |
Cook asks each for things to eat (8)
|
| Anagram of (cook) {ASKS EACH} | ||
| 21 | GLOVE |
Good honey that a beekeeper might’ve had a hand in? (5)
|
| G (good) + LOVE (honey) | ||
| 22 | GRAIN |
Old relative restraining one in scrap (5)
|
| GRAN (old relative) around (restraining) I (one) | ||
| 24 | ADAGE |
Proverb: all dictators are generally evil leaders (5)
|
| First letters of (leaders [of]) A[LL] D[ICTATORS] A[RE] G[ENERALLY] E[VIL] | ||
| 26 | TET |
Offensive note written on piece of tissue (3)
|
| TE (note) + first letter of (piece of) T[ISSUE], referring to the Vietnam War |
Very enjoyable with variety and a lot of great surfaces.
Favourites were abundant, including COGNOSCENTI, ENSUE, DICER, INEDIBLE, GOING, GLOVE and LEARNING.
29ac raised the hope an ex-surfer, alas it produced the www.
I needed Cineraria’s help to understand PAT (possibly the most straightforward of the lot in the end) and DUSTY seemed over-engineered. So saying, Springfield, Ohio in US appeared on the TV news as I was doing the crossword. I love such co-incidences.
Great blog too, par for the course for our blogger.
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria
Never knew tent was a kind of wine. Apparently ‘A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain’
Much enjoyed crossword and blog
Thank you
I also enjoyed this very much as there were some good surfaces like those for REALISTIC and GLOVE. And I must admit, I rather liked DUSTY.
I just felt it was a bit of a shame to repeat ‘liberal’ in 16a and 16d but this is a very minor point.
Certainly time well spent so thanks to Slormgorm and Cineraria.
Liked ROCKY the boxer, REALISTIC pants (not crazy), GLOVE (sweet surface. Sting intact) and ADAGE (Worth mentioning or…saying).
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria. Nice puzzle and great blog.
I fully endorse the favourable comments on puzzle and blog. I would never have guessed that Cineraria was an American until now. But the mask also slipped when he referred to a tap as a faucet.
Thanks to both for a great start to the day.
A fizzer of a puzzle from Slormgorm with some super misdirection and great surfaces. DICER, GOING, REALISTIC, WEBSITES, PREFERRED, BOOTLACE and NARCISSUS were my faves. NHO Krusty the clown so DUSTY went in unparsed. Also NHO ASHCAKES and not in Chambers but Wiki confirms they are a Thing. Always amusing to see the TET offensive – well past its fiftieth anniversary. I agree with Diane that it jarred slightly to see ‘liberal’ used twice in connection with the same letter L; likewise to see ‘chaps’ = MEN in both ATONEMENT and CONTENTMENT. Minor things but it would be nice if the editor picked them up.
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria
Thanks for the blog, very enjoyable set of neat and clever clues .
I wonder if ROCKY is Marciano.
Krusty the Clown was a spoof of Ronald Macdonald and may have contributed to his demise.
ASHCAKES one of the earliest forms of cooking , I suspect it is two words or maybe a hyphen but it is not in Chambers93.
Unlike Diane and PostMark, I thought it was cute to use liberal in both 16a&d, as the two clues are connected physically and notionally (LEARNING LIBERATEs the mind). And, PM, I had the same reaction to chaps in 12a and 14d (if you are AT ONE with the world you will be CONTENT).
Favourites for no discernible reason other than great surfaces were 9d BOOTLACE and 21d GLOVE.
Cineraria, we Canucks, being at one with both the US and UK, are content to use both die and dice in the singular.
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria for the good and lovely puzzle and blog.
Roz@7, I too thought first of Rocky Marciano. Perhaps it’s a function of my age, or maybe it’s because I haven’t watched any of the Stallone movies. I never understood boxing as a sport – the sole object being to knock someone unconscious or otherwise beat them to a pulp – but I read the sports pages, and Marciano figured prominently in them.
Cellomaniac@9 I only know Marciano as the answer to a pub quiz question 49 – 0 .
The singular of dice is douse .
…and the plural of house is hice.
…and the plural of mouse is mousies, as in “Love to eat them mousies, mousies what I love to eat. Bite they little heads off. Nibble on they tiny feet.”
Great puzzle. I took me a bit to get into it but once there I had momentum. Put in rusty thinking it was some unknown Dutch thing and lost parted for that reason. My only miss! Thank you all.