Independent 11,845 / Mog

by

Mog has set our cruciverbal challenge today, and what a challenge it turned out to be!

I made incredibly slow progress through this puzzle and began to think that I wouldn’t be able to solve enough to make it meaningful to produce a blog of it. I definitely need to solve more of Mog’s puzzles to get into his mindset. Thankfully, I began to make more inroads into the puzzle, and with the help of Google and Chambers, I have managed to complete the grid.

However, since I cannot parse two of the entries successfully (2 and 14), this is definitely a victory for Mog. I am also wondering about “à la” for “cooked for” at 15. I look forward to being enlightened by other solvers! Thanks for the input – blog now updated.

As for the clues that I did manage to solve, my favourites were 1A, 1D, 18, 19 and 20, all for smoothness of surface; 8, for concision; and 27, for making me smirk.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across  
   
01 MISPLACE Lose extremely sharp spike on motorway

M1 (=motorway) + S<har>P (“extremely” means first and last letters only) + LACE (=(to) spike, e.g. a drink)
   
05 GROCER Shopkeeper oddly voided voucher, I’m mad about it

<v>O<u>C<h>E<r> (“oddly voided” means odd letters are dropped) in GRR (=I’m mad, as interjection)
   
09 NEOLOGISM New word energy in ol’Mog’s anagrams

*(E (=energy) + IN OL’ MOG’S); “anagrams” is, hardly surprisingly, the anagram indicator!
   
11 GUESS Reckon inn’s patrons must have time out

GUES<t>S (=inn’s patrons; “must have time (=T) out” means letter “t” is dropped)
   
12 DOOMSCROLLING Pique about son caught streaming bad habit online

DOOM (PIQUE=mood, huff; “about” indicates reversal) + S (=son) + C (=caught, on cricket scorecard) + ROLLING (=streaming, coursing); doomscrolling involves reading large amounts of negative news on the internet
   
14 EXALT Applaud retired singer kicking butt

EX- (=retired, former) + ALT<o> (=singer; “kicking butt” means last letter is dropped)
   
16 ENCHANTER Casting expert put in to secure HK film star

CHAN (=HK film star, i.e. Jackie Chan) in ENTER (=to put in, e.g. data); the “casting” of the definition refers to casting spells
   
17 BRASSERIE Bar supporters, mostly where Juventus play

BRAS (= “supporters”) + SERIE <a> (=where Juventus play, i.e. top tier of Italian league; “mostly” means last letter is dropped)
   
19 THYME This guy finishing what was once your herb

THY (=what was once your, i.e. archaic English) + ME (=this guy, i.e. Mog!)
   
20 SPACE INVADERS Remix a Spencer Davis hit from the late 70s

*(A SPENCER DAVIS); “remix” is anagram indicator
   
24 UTTER Rank // mouth

Double definition: utter is rank, downright, as an adjective AND to mouth is to utter, express
   
25 SHAKSHUKA Rudely ask shah to import UK egg dish

UK in *(ASK SHAH); “rudely” is anagram indicator, shakshuka is an egg dish from the Maghreb
   
26 TIRADE Exchange without one outburst

I (=one) in TRADE (=exchange)
   
27 SAINTDOM Canonisation isn’t occasion to get into kinky stuff

[AIN’T (=isn’t, colloquially) + DO (=occasion, function)] in SM (=kinky stuff, i.e. sadomasochism)
   
Down  
   
01 MINT Leaves // untouched

Double definition: mint is a herb, plant, hence “leaves” AND e.g. “in mint condition” means untouched, unadulterated
   
02 SWORD Perhaps foil spies or scammers?

A foil is a blunt fencing sword; cryptically, since both begin with “s”, “spies” and “scammers” could be described as “s -words”
   
03 LOOK OUT Watch where you go with leader of killers freed

LOO (=where you go, i.e. toilet) + K<illers> (“leader of” means first letter only) + OUT (=freed, i.e. out of prison or custody)
   
04 CHIPS Fatty things, roughly two on each of us

C (=roughly, i.e. circa) + HIPS (=two on each of us, i.e. body part)
   
06 REGALIA Finery on girl, hair barely done up

RE: (=on, regarding) + GAL (=girl) + IA (<h>AI<r>; “barely” means first and last letters are dropped; “done up” indicates vertical reversal)
   
07 CHEMISTRY Rapport is shot after cold interruption

C (=cold, on tap) + HEM (=interruption, i.e. to attract someone’s attention) + IS + TRY (=shot, go, attempt)
   
08 ROSE GARDEN In which one regards blossoms

*(ONE REGARDS); “blossoms”, opens out, seems to act as anagram indicator here; & lit.
   
10 MIRACLE Mystery vehicle lifts skyward mid-race

RAC (CAR=vehicle; “lifts skyward” indicates vertical reversal) in MILE (=race, i.e. one mile in length)
   
13 TEA BISCUIT Snack is crumbly, but it is ace

*(BUT IT IS ACE); “crumbly” is anagram indicator
   
15 ALABASTER Cooked for culinary tool White

A LA (=cooked for) + BASTER (=culinary tool)
   
16 ERRANDS Blunder with introduction of see-through runner things?

ERR (=(to) blunder, make mistake) + AND (=with) + S<ee-through> (“introduction of” means first letter only); cf. to run errands
   
18 SPEARED Mushy peas, barely cooked, on a fork?

*(PEAS) + RED (=barely cooked, of meat); “mushy” is anagram indicator
   
19 TREASON Crime ultimately without motive

<withou>T (“ultimately” means last letter only) + REASON (=motive)
   
21 ASANA Pose as an American

AS + AN + A (=American); an asana is a yoga position
   
22 SQUID Head of spatula pounds molluscs

S<patula> (“head of” means first letter only) + QUID (=pounds, in plural)
   
23 FARM Grow significantly more when taking mineral

FAR (=significantly, as in far/significantly more than) + M<ore> (“when taking mineral (=ore)” means letters “ore” are dropped)
   
   

 

15 comments on “Independent 11,845 / Mog”

  2. ALABASTER
    A LA
    Collins
    as prepared in (a particular place) or by or for (a particular person)
    Cooked for seems OK.

    SWORD
    Parsed it as the blogger (S-WORD).

  3. I think ALABASTER works better if you read a la baster as a whole phrase meaning cooked in a baster kind of way. I agree about the s-words. I thought this was a great puzzle.

  4. Found top half easy, bottom half hard but all excellent.
    ALABASTER: ‘for’ can be ‘in the character of’ which would make ‘cooked for’ for A LA fine, though ‘with’ might have been more obvious. I thought ‘culinary tool White’ was pretty funny.

  5. Goodness. With SHARENTING yesterday and DOOMSCROLLING today, I really feel I’m plumbing the depths of Web etiquette via the Indy of late. I found this tough but doable thought the NW was very hard to finish – with that word (inc pique =MOOD) as well as the crafty SWORD (I just don’t think of an epee/foil as a sword but I should) and the very tough CHIPS with its exceedingly hard def for HIPS. Fair and accurate but I wonder how many solvers read ‘two on each of us’ and thought ‘Ah, that’ll be hips then’? SAINTDOM was also very tough – a tricky word to recognise from the def – and I never know whether ‘sadomasochism’ is cluing SM or SANDM.

    Thanks for the workout Mog and RR for the blog

  8. Also found this tough in places. Really liked the clue for SPACE INVADERS but didn’t care much for SWORD. Re-arranging the setter’s name to get OMG seems appropriate.

  9. Thanks both. I can admire a lot of this for its individual style and fairly novel cluing. Couldn’t see the ‘s-word’ angle in SWORD and I wonder is this a conventional expression as I’m only familiar with it in the sense of something unmentionable. Failed at first attempt only on CHIPS as I had entered CHINS in the sense that a fatty one is a double, at which time I thought I was applying no more artistic licence than in many of the other clues e.g. ‘casting expert’ for ENCHANTER

  10. This was a game of two halves for me, with most of the top half going in considerably faster than most of the bottom. Funnily enough, I got CHIPS almost immediately just from the C, though I can’t say that hips immediately sprang to mind from the surface… it was a simultaneous forward- and back-parse from toying with C-WORDS.

    I struggled with ENCHANTER and ALABASTER, whose definitions for me were too indirect to be accompanied by loose or relatively obscure wordplay. (HK actors, and A LA for “for” instead of “in the style of”.) I couldn’t see the parsing for EXALT though it was the only plausible word that fitted the E—T checkers, so thanks to Mallinac@1. ASANA left me cold; you’ve either heard of it (which I hadn’t) in which case it’s presumably a write-in or else you’re searching in vain for something more complicated. And SAINTDOM was simply tough.

    Favourites were DOOMSCROLLING, MINT and UTTER.

    A enjoyable ride overall; thanks both!

  11. This was Tough with a capital T and I’m with PostMark when it comes to SHARENTING & DOOMSCROLLING, neither of which I’d heard of nor wish to hear of again. Struggled to parse both SWORD & BRASSERIE so definitely needed help from our blogger.

    Thanks to Mog whose puzzle is probably beyond my paygrade and to RR for the clarity.

  12. Hmm.. as the opening remarks.. was hoping for less of yesterday in terms of “definitions à la setter”.. but it was not to be.. I had to get down to the egg dish before anything made any real sense, and worked back from there… so quite a different experience to others, worst for me was NW, except on rereading 2d I instantly saw SWORD, which was helpful, as I never graduated to the épée… but a long n painful solve.. I went CHINS as TFO@9, but I can grudgingly acknowledge that CHIPS works nearly as well.. at least I know DOOMSCROLLING from personal experience..
    Thanks Mog n RatkojaRiku

  13. Many thanks to Mallimack @1 and Kva @2 for teasing out the things that had eluded me. I just couldn’t see the wood for the trees at 14, having convinced myself that “retired” had to indicate some form of reversal. As for “à la” at 15, perhaps I need to refer to Collins more often 😉

  14. Thanks RR, and all, for the great blog and fun discussion. I know tough puzzles like this are a time commitment and I’m always grateful that people put the effort into wrestling with them. Until next time!

  15. A really enjoyable puzzle. Beaten by ‘doomscrolling’ (an NHO but one to remember) – and I was determined the bad habit on line was ‘trolling’. Compliments to setter and blogger. Look forward to more like this.

Comments are closed.