Coot has the puzzle to start off the Independent crosswording week. All pretty tractable, but with some attractively quirky touches in places.
Turns out they may be part of a ghost theme: it’s the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and many of the answers relate to the film. The giveaway is Zed’s Dead Baby down the right hand side, which discouraged me from looking any further. I have not explored or listed the other references, mainly because I have never seen and have no interest in seeing the gratuitously violent film. Would suit me, since this is a crossword blog, if comments today were about the crossword and its merits and not a succession of Wikipedia cut and pastes about the film. Just saying.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Savoury pie not started by kick-off in Tranmere
TASTY
A charade of T for the initial letter of ‘Tranmere’ and [P]ASTY. The surface is meaningful: some football grounds have legendary half-time pies.
4 Suit and skirts for bride found near Sussex town
BEHOVE
A charade of BE for the outside letters of ‘bride’ and HOVE, which is the posh bit of the town of Brighton and Hove, allegedly.
9 Where one might see sense after reading judgement
THESAURUS
A cd, which works because ‘sense’ and ‘judgement’ are synonyms.
10 Illustrious former student left to join navy base
NOBLE
A charade of N for ‘navy’, OB for Old Boy or ‘former student’, L and the mathematical base E. N for ‘Navy’ is apparently in some dictionaries as an independent abbreviation for ‘Navy’, so setters don’t have to rely on RN for Royal Navy.
11 Rise in allowance taking long?
GRADIENT
An insertion of DIE in GRANT. ‘I’m dying/longing to see her again.’
12 Planes kept by Steven Spielberg
EVENS
Hidden in StEVEN Spielberg.
14 Readily located Audible for Kindle
INCITE
Aural wordplay (‘audible’) for IN SIGHT.
16 Flustered soldier on time after a wild date
AGITATED
A charade of A, GI, T and (DATE)* The anagrind is ‘wild’.
18 Unexpectedly opened and worn, oddly – suggesting it’s this?
PREOWNED
(OPENED WR)* with ‘oddly’ as the anagrind, with an extended definition.
21 Gym class: one that Nadal used to value?
PESETA
A charade of PE, SET and A. Rafa Nadal is Spanish and therefore in a past life would have used the currency of Spain before the Euro, the PESETA.
24 Original pieces from Werner Herzog influenced Richard Linklater’s career
WHIRL
The initial letters of the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth words of the clue.
25 Island excursion cut short, pops in on return
TRINIDAD
A charade of TRI[P] and DAD IN reversed. DAD for ‘pops’ works, but I think the latter is essentially AmEng usage, isn’t it? Perhaps one of our US contributors can elucidate.
28 Retail centre’s turned over minimal quantity of Angora wool
LLAMA
A charade of MALL reversed and A for the initial letter of ‘Angora’.
29 Dance supremo Anna Pavlova denied six consecutive characters
BOSSA NOVA
A charade of BOSS and AN[NAPAVL]OVA.
30 Treasures amount of work put into speech
JEWELS
Aural wordplay (‘put into speech’) of JOULES, which are the SI units of work.
31 It’s sweet taking drugs in Hungary on vacation
HONEY
An insertion of ON E for ‘taking drugs’ in HY for the outside letters of ‘Hungary’.
Down
1 Two notes for French loaf
TÊTE
A charade of two lots of TE for the seventh note of the sol-fa gives you the French word for ‘head’, for which ‘loaf’ is slang in English (from ‘loaf of bread’).
2 Discredit wilderness guru seen cycling
SMEAR
The ‘wilderness guru’ is Ray MEARS. Cycle the last letter to the front and you’ve got a word for ‘discredit’.
3 Disheartened, realise ‘today’ will turn into ‘ages ago‘
YEAR DOT
(R[EALIS]E TODAY)* with ‘will turn into’ as the anagrind.
4 Regurgitated food next to queen, finding bun filling
BURGER
A charade of GRUB reversed and ER for our late queen, Elizabeth Regina. ‘Regurgitated’ suggests ‘thrown up’, which is perfect for a down clue reversal indicator.
5 Social media character maddened aghast husband
HASHTAG
(AGHAST H)* with ‘maddened’ as the anagrind. Here’s what I said in my Quiptic blog of an Anto puzzle in August when this solution appeared:
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ Which is, interestingly, what speakers have done with HASHTAG since it was coined not long ago. Strictly, the # is just the ‘hash’ sign, also referred to as the ‘pound sign’ from its old use to represent the avoirdupois pound. HASHTAG is the word or phrase preceded by the hash sign. So in, say, #NotMyKing, it is the ‘Not My King’ that is the HASHTAG, not the sign itself. But everybody now uses it the way Anto has indicated, saying ‘Hashtag not my King’ before they get arrested for treason by an overzealous policeman.
6 Dutch artist, informally at home, about to pour out drinks
VINCENT
An insertion of IN and C for circa in VENT. The insertion indicator is ‘drinks’. ‘She vented/poured out her frustration at the situation.’
7 Person who’s expected endless sex badly beaten outside
ABSENTEE
An insertion of SE[X] in (BEATEN)* The insertion indicator is ‘outside’ and the anagrind is ‘badly’. Not sure about the definition: a ‘person who’s expected’ is an INVITEE, surely? An ABSENTEE is one who turns into a no-show.
8 Unknown journalist’s letters found finally
ZEDS
A charade of Z for the mathematical ‘unknown’ and EDS.
13 Coot’s restrained by doctor – one with kinky intentions?
GIMP
An insertion of I’M in GP. The insertion indicator is ‘restrained by’. My Collins has:
gimp (n) slang a sexual fetishist who likes to be dominated and who dresses in a leather or rubber body suit with masks, zips and chains
Which is rather too much information for a Monday morning, frankly.
15 ‘150 + 50’ overwhelms Heather in Administration
CLERICAL
An insertion of ERICA for the genus of ‘heather’ in CL and L. The insertion indicator is ‘overwhelms’.
17 Worry greatly about not perhaps reading perfectly
DEAD
‘Reading’ is one of the 3 Rs. Take that out of D[R]EAD and you’ve got a synonym for ‘perfectly’. ‘The line was perfectly/dead straight.’
19 Construction expert memorialised Scottish war hero
WALLACE
A WALL ACE would be good at building. The Wallace Monument is a 67m tower overlooking Stirling, which commemorates Sir William Wallace, a 13th century Scottish hero before he was hanged, drawn and quartered on the orders of Edward I. Braveheart and all that.
20 European/American menu ok for dinner?
EATABLE
A charade of E, A and TABLE.
22 Untidy heap surrounds trench at graveyard, it’s observed
EPITAPH
An insertion of PIT in (HEAP)* The insertion indicator is ‘surrounds’ and the anagrind is ‘untidy’.
23 Notice we’d gone to get wife?
MISSUS
If you noticed that we had gone, you would MISS US.
24 Greedily eat course standing up
WOLF
A reversal (‘standing up’, since it’s a down clue) of FLOW.
26 Ran around clutching party dress
ADORN
An insertion of DO in (RAN)* The insertion indicator is ‘clutching’ and the anagrind is ‘around’.
27 New issue of Graduate Times
BABY
A charade of BA and BY.
Many thanks to Coot for today’s puzzle.
“Hove is” near Brighton. Just thought I’d post a “name” check.
‘Pops’ may be an Americanism but I’ve relaxed my view on these over the years. We often see unindicated Australian, South African and other such words which, nevertheless, appear in UK dictionaries. What is a definite no-no is unindicated American spellings.
I didn’t mind the definition for ‘absentee’. In a roll call, an absentee would be somebody expected to be there.
Top faves: TASTY, INCITE, PREOWNED, HONEY, VINCENT and MISSUS.
THESAURUS
See and Sense seem synonymous (verb)
Reading and judgement seem synonymous.
See and sense come after reading and judgement.
ANSENTEE: The def looks fine to me.
Thanks Coot and Pierre.
Nice job though the theme means nothing to me whatsoever. Absolutely not my kind of movie. I have to say, I did notice the three words down the right hand side and somewhat hoped it wouldn’t be a theme! A couple of things threw me during the solve – I could not get Bear Grylls out of my head so needed crossers to be prompted to think of Mears; I did not make the connections between pluralised pops and singular DAD, again until I had crossers and, unlike the previous two commenters, I did not connect ABSENTEE with its definition in the clue. WALLACE was nicely down and I liked the anagram for PREOWNED plus the pun that gets us to MISSUS.
Thanks Coot and Pierre
I saw the film years ago, but it clearly made little impression on me as I was oblivious to the theme throughout. The only exception was GIMP, where the one in the film did pop into my head. An enjoyable solve nonetheless, with SMEAR and BABY my picks.
Thanks both.
Well, I enjoyed the themette. And the film. All made perfect sense to me. And, for once, it helped enormously. GIMP (very funny) flew in after ZEDS. And VINCENT swiftly followed. Some cunning defs and sly WP, as per usual from Coot. Perfectly’s perfectly lovely. I have to say PESETA’s ‘A for one’ always gives me the fear, but that may just be me. “New issue” tickled me, as did THESAURUS. INCITE was fun and JEWELS reads well. Liked MISSUS, too. Many thanks to Coot and Pierre.
Many thanks to Pierre for an impeccable blog and to everyone who has solved and/or commented on the puzzle. Pulp Fiction could certainly be described as ‘marmite’. I really like it but I quite understand that it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
For the record, the thematic solutions were two quotes: ZEDS DEAD BABY & TASTY BURGER, and various characters: VINCENT, (mia & marcellus) WALLACE, (winston) WOLF, JEWELS (actually, he’s Jules), HONEY (bunny) & (the) GIMP.
The intended parse of THESAURUS was as indicated by Pierre, i.e. if you look at the page in a thesaurus where ‘judgement’ is listed, you will be able to read judgement and then very soon after that you will see sense.
Thanks Coot, lots of fun. Liked GIMP, HONEY, JEWELS (!), WALLACE and his MISSUS.
As an aside, I like Pulp Fiction a lot too, as does a mutual acquaintance 🙂
Coot@6, I’m a fan of the movie, too. It’s also got a great soundtrack. Here’s a clip – no violence involved – of the twist contest, to
Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell (1964, a 60th (Diamond) anniversary – Pierre gets a namecheck in the lyrics).
Thanks C&P
Thanks Coot. Even though I liked the movie I missed the theme. I did, however, enjoy many of the clues including WHIRL, TRINIDAD, ZEDS, EPITAPH, and BABY. Thanks Pierre for the detailed blog.
I liked this. Just noticed it’s not showing up on Independent app search (my initial method for reaching the crosswords) . Crosswords go from Sunday’s to today’s. Searching on 11,866 yields nothing either