Brunnie is Monday's setter.
This was a bit tougher than the usual Monday Guardian, but it wasn't overly difficult. There was a theme – groups of people or things, some of which formed compounds with non-theme words, PRESS GANG, FLASH MOB and CROWD FUND being the obvious ones. The definition for HORNBEAM was too loose for my liking, and I'm not sure how the "jerry" in "jerry can" is an anagram indicator, but that may be obvious to others. I'll see what commenters have to say.
Thanks, Brummie
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | LINGO |
Fish having round tongue (5)
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LING ("fish") having O (round) |
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| 10 | ON THE MOVE |
Mobile home, not, unfortunately, very close to lake (2,3,4)
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*(home not) [anag:unfortunately] + V (very) + [close to) (lak)E |
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| 11 | CATATONIC |
Quite unresponsive, Tom needs a restorative (9)
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CAT ("tom") needs A TONIC ("a restorative") |
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| 12 | CODED |
Was a programmer from Delaware into fish? (5)
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DE (Delaware) into COD ("fish") |
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| 13 | CONCAVE |
Depressed old fellow clutching jerry can (7)
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COVE ("old" word for "fellow") clutching *(can) [anag:jerry] I don't see how jerry which is a diminutive of German could be used as an anagrind? |
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| 15 | SHOWN UP |
Backfiring jokes about how to be humiliated (5,2)
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[backfiring] <=PUNS ("jokes") about HOW |
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| 17 | OCTET |
Players shivering, etc in zero temperature (5)
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*(etc) [anag:shivering] in O (zero) + T (temperature) |
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| 18 | MOB |
Almost fail to return for Mass (3)
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<=BOM [to return], where BOM is [almost] BOM(b) ("fail") |
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| 20 | HORDE |
Army store reported (5)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [reported] of HOARD ("store") |
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| 22 | DESERTS |
Kalahari’s flies? (7)
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DESERT'S ("Kalahari's"), a definition by example |
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| 25 | WISE-ASS |
Knowing Charlie’s an insolent American (4-3)
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WISE ("knowing") + ASS ("charlie") |
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| 26 | FLASH |
Showy floor wood (5)
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Fl. (floor) + ASH ("wood") |
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| 27 | NUREMBERG |
City’s name Rex inscribed in fancy beer mug (9)
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N (name) + R (Rex) inscribed in *(beer mug) [anag:fancy] |
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| 30 | NOVOCAINE |
After a month, oxygen added to Michael’s anaesthetic (9)
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After Nov. (November, so "a month"), O (oxygen) added to (Michael) CAINE |
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| 31 | NOT ON |
Unacceptable lament of batsman out on 99? (3,2)
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NO TON (not 100, so potentially the "lament of a batsman out on 99") |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BLOC |
Alliance head: ‘Keir’s first to go!’ (4)
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BLOC(k) ("head") with K(eir) ['s first] to go |
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| 2 | INSTINCT |
Feeling elected court bears up fools (8)
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IN ("elected") + Ct. (court) bears NITS ("fools", up) |
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| 3 |
See 28
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| 4 | HORNBEAM |
Feature of a forest’s warning device light (8)
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HORN ("warning device") + BEAM ("light") |
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| 5 | STACKS |
They smoke a lot (6)
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Double definition |
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| 6 | BEDCLOTHES |
British, these cold spreads that cover kippers (10)
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B (British) + *(these cold) [anag:spreads] |
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| 7 | GOLDEN |
Glorious, glorious leader from an earlier age (6)
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G(lorious) [leader] + OLDEN ("from an earlier age) |
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| 8 | HERD |
Doctor, what’s that you said about crush? (4)
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<=(Dr. (doctor) + EH ("what's that you said"), about) |
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| 13 | CROWD |
Large group that flies by day (5)
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CROW (something "that flies") by D (day) |
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| 14 | AFTERSHOCK |
Disturbing repercussion of dessert wine (10)
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AFTERS ("dessert") + HOCK ("wine) |
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| 16 | PRESS |
Smooth out papers (5)
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Double definition |
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| 19 | BE WARNED |
Note the possible risks of webcast with a nerd (2,6)
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*(web a nerd) [anag:cast] |
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| 21 | REAGENTS |
Men are unlikely leading chemical testers (8)
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*(are) [anag:unlikely] leading GENTS ("men") |
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| 23 | STARVE |
Celeb on Viagra initially needs energy fast! (6)
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STAR ("celeb") on V(iagra) [initially] needs E (energy) |
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| 24 | SUNLIT |
Brightened up by books aimed at tabloid readers? (6)
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Lit. (literature) aimed at SUN ("tabloid") readers would be SUNLIT |
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| 26 | FUND |
Establish nothing’s left to finance (4)
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O (nothing) has left F(o)UND ("establish") |
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| 28, 3 | MINE HOST |
Brummie’s shot crooked landlord! (4,4)
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MINE ("Brummie's") + *(shot) [anag:crooked] |
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| 29 | GANG |
Go north of the border for party (4)
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GANG is a Scots word for "go", so "go, north of the border" |
There is also GOLDEN HORDE
I think ‘jerry’ probably refers to jerry-built or jerry-rigged.
Another for jerry > jerry-built.
Maybe MINE fits with the theme
NOVOCAINE & HORNBEAM were new to my lexicon, along with an education in Scottish. And, as usual, the theme was wasted on me.
Yep, jerry-built, thrown together so to speak.
Thanks for the comments re jerry. I don’t think I’ve come across jerry-built before.
Spotted the theme for once – though not the potential compounds. Slightly slow to get started but then got on the roll. I thought SUNLIT particularly amusing. HORNBEAM worked for me; I have encountered such in forests. (btw loonapick, in case you encounter it in the future, as well as JERRY being the German and the hastily rigged, it can be a chamberpot – though you probably already knew that)
Thanks both
Even given the term jerry-built, I think jerry as an anagrind is a stretch. Otherwise all was fair and fun
Favourites: AFTERSHOCK, SUNLIT.
New for me: JERRY-BUILT (for 13ac).
Smooth solve from Brummie this morning.
I had a faint bell tinkling re jerry-built but don’t know the derivation…anyone?
My faves: NOT ON and SUNLIT.
Thanks Brummie and loonapick.
Trivial misspelling of Brummie in your otherwise excellent blog, loonapick.
Just because the discussion interested me, Merriam-Webster has a discussion about jury-rigged, jerry-built and jerry-rigged here. Jury-rigging I’ve done when something broke sailing. Someone called Jerry apparently built houses badly in the 1800s, the third is a conflation.
Enjoyable puzzle when I got into it and mostly spotted the theme.
Thank you to loonapick and Brummie
I think Jerry-built is related to Jericho whose walls collapsed.
I’m not a fan of “jerry” as an anagram indicator in CONCAVE. Yes, I know about jerry-built, but “constructed hastily and with bad materials” to me doesn’t indicate any form of mixing. Yes, jerry-built houses are crap, but they’re still houses.
I also baulked at “that flies” for crow in CROWD. I’d be happier with “that which flies” even if that indicates a shed load of possibilities.
I had a big smile at AFTERSHOCK.
James @14… from etymonline.com…
jerry-built(adj.)
“built hastily of shoddy materials,” 1856, in a Liverpool context, from jerry “bad, defective,” probably a pejorative use of the male nickname Jerry (a popular form of Jeremy; compare Jerry-sneak “sneaking fellow, a hen-pecked husband” [OED], name of a character in Foote’s “The Mayor of Garret,” 1764). Or from or influenced by nautical slang jury (adj.) “temporary,” which came to be used of all sorts of makeshift and inferior objects.
Thanks Brummie and loonapick
I thought “that flies” for CROW was very loose, and I wasn’t keen on BLOCK for head (I suppose it’s as in “I’ll knock his block off”).
Favourite CATATONIC.
I was content that the common saying “as the crow flies” (giving the crow a kind of generic status) justifies 13d. I was also perfectly comfortable with “jerry” as an anagrind. Knew of the permutations re jury-rigged and jerry-built meaning awkwardly thrown together any old how. Like PostMark@7 I easily spotted the theme but not the compound words. Thanks for the blog and the terrific crossword.
Thanks, folks re jerry. I’m going with the corruption of the naval jury as the most convincing derivation.
I liked CATATONIC and SUNLIT. I think I like BE WARNED but I wondered if it needed a second anagrind for “and nerd”
I’ve given up worrying about whether a word is or isn’t a valid anagrind – it seems you could take half the words in the English language and make a contorted case for them representing some kind of transformation.
There’s always a question mark about whether Brummie will have a theme or not, but I always look and this was a simple one enhanced by the compound words highlighted by loonapick. GOLDEN DESERT is the brand name of various things including hookah burners. I also thought of jerry-built but it feels a bit stretchy. I liked CATATONIC, NUREMBERG, NOVOCAINE and SUNLIT.
Ta Brummie & loonapick.
If you need to relax after a slightly sticky Monday here’s your OCTET earworm. Thank you B&L!
Harder than the usual Monday but got through it. HORNBEAM was new to me.
Totally missed the theme.
I am sure I’ve seen the jerry can trick before in a different word. The idea came to me straight away and that must be from familiarity rather than any reasoning.
Liked the anagram for BE WARNED.
Thanks Brummie and Loonapick
Simonc@21: In similar vein it has been observed before that one can create a synonym for “drunk” out of virtually any past-participle (or even noun+”ed” e.g. trolleyed). Given that anything meaning “drunk” can be an anagrind we can take it that your assertion is correct!
I didn’t like jerry either, but Chambers has: Jerry adjective: constructed hastily and with bad materials.
poc @26… see me @15
Another available compound is HERD INSTINCT. Thankee Brummie & loonie.
An almost identical clue for AFTERSHOCK appeared in Thursday’s Independent
Good to start the week with a Brummie. I noted the theme as I went along but it didn’t help the solve. I liked the surface for ON THE MOVE, the NO TON, and the wordplays for BEDCLOTHES and BE WARNED. Jerry can was such a temptation that I’m one who quite liked using jerry as an adjectival anagrind.
Thanks Brummie and loonapick.
Surprised myself by how many I was able to get after reading the comments on the Guardian site, with CATATONIC, NOVOCAINE, and SUNLIT as some standout answers.
Haven’t heard of HORNBEAM or MINE HOST before, but overall a pretty great start to the week.
Thanks for mentioning my hometown! Even if “flash” may not be the mot juste I appreciated the juxtaposition… Great theme, deftly done. Thanks Brummie and loonapick.
For those of you who don’t think you know HORNBEAM, many (most) of the pollarded trees in Epping Forest are hornbeam, the ones with spooky faces. As trees they look a bit like beech but have different flowers and seeds – although the trees vary a bit across the Forest. And I am certain you’ve seen Epping Forest in something, given how often it’s used in films and TV.
They are often the trees in the Brambly Hedge illustrations, for anyone who’s seen those books.
Ordinarily I’d have thought of the use of JERRY as an anagrind as a bit of a stretch, but I can see why its use with CAN was tempting. First time in a while I’ve got here with no blanks to fill. Good stuff, Brummie and loonapick!
NHO HORNBEAM, but then my knowledge of the natural world is minimal and the cluing was straightforward.
I was fine with jerry, even if it is a bit of a stretch from its literal meaning.
And as always I missed the theme; although I did note in passing MOB and HERD being related, it did not occur to me to look for more.
James etc @14 and Tim C@16: I didn’t have a particular issue with jerry as an anagrind (though I did think it a bit odd), but I had also assumed that the word derives from the Book of Joshua. However, thinking about it, God told Joshua to circle the walls of Jericho for (six?) days and blow trumpets etc. and they, of course, collapsed; so I doubt the quality of the build mattered especially. That was of course followed by the total massacre of every person (including all the children) who dwelt within the city, and all the animals. Except a particular “harlot” for some reason (?!) All with God’s approval. Perhaps worth keeping in mind when people lazily regret the passing of so-called “Judeo Christian values”.
I’m confused about MINE HOST. I would have thought it was MEIN HOST. What am I missing?
posterntoo@37 In this context “mine” is an old-fashioned variant of “my”, used before a word beginning with a vowel or h. It has only survived in fixed expressions, such as “mine host”, or in poetic uses. The most famous might be The Battle Hymn of the Republic – “Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord”.
Missed the theme as usual but that never detracts from my enjoyment of a Brummie (or Brunnie as loonapick would have it!). I also thought that this was trickier than the average Monday, but I didn’t get totally stuck at any point, just a steady solve with lots of ticks including SUNLIT, CATATONIC, OCTET, NOT ON, BE WARNED and my last one in, HERD.
Yes, I liked BE WARNED too, and my loi in was HERD also, which was I thought was a bit of a fiddly one to end up with…
Thanks Brunnie and Loonapick.
Bit meh for a Monday. Felt more like an exercise in being technically correct than clever. Unfortunate to basically recycle AFTERSHOCK from last week’s Independent and have similar clues riffing on catatonia and deserts in Everyman; all would’ve looked good if this had happened to be published last Wednesday.
Typical that the comments today are losing their minds over jerry being an anagrind, which I was fine with; but an old fellow is a cove? Never heard of it, too antiquated for my liking.
I’m surprised at all the surprise over “jerry” as an anagrind. As soon as I saw ‘jerry can’ I was looking for a synonym for ‘old man’ with the rearranged letters of CAN inside. Took me a while to remember COVE though. 🤔
As always, I couldn’t remember which of HORDE and HOARD I should be inserting in the grid. 🙁 (Not a fault in the clue, but my faulty recall of crazy English spelling, I hasten to add )
I had WISE GUY at 20a for ages, until P_E_Y didn’t look likely at 16d and prompted a rethink.
Apparently there was a theme?
Thanks to Brummie and Loonapick
Judge @39. To which night be added, off the top of my head, Nigel Balchin’s novel. Mine Own Executioner , Sir Thomas Wyatt’s anti-court satire, ‘Mine own John Poynz, since ye delight to know …’ and Ferdinand’s declaration to Prospero concerning Miranda in Act IV, scene 1 of The Tempest: :The most opportune place, the strong’st suggestion. / Our worser genius can, shall never melt / Mine honour into lust ,,,’
As ever, 4 clues revealed, still only completed a handful of crosswords this year.
No idea there was a theme, but that’s because I never look for one.
Thanks both.
I thought of jerry as poorly constructed, or maybe thrown together. Sort of works.
Isn’t GANG Scot’s for going not go?
After the Quiptic and Everyman yesterday, this seemed on another level of difficulty although it was scattered with easier clues.
Thanks both.
Balfour@43 The breadth of your learning far exceeds mine own, good sir.
nicbach@45 GANG=go, as in “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley”
Petert @20.
There’s no “and nerd”.
The wp is “web”
cast (*) with “anerd”.
Only one anagrind needed.
Thanks Brummie for a challenging but ultimately solvable crossword. I couldn’t parse CONCAVE, not knowing ‘cove’ as ‘old fellow’ & not seeing ‘jerry’ as an anagram indicator. (Jerry-built makes sense to me.) I saw the theme which added to the fun. My favourites were ON THE MOVE, BLOC, AFTERSHOCK, and PRESS. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
Nice challenge today, thank you Brummie. Failed on Herd but obvious once I saw the solution.
The Jerry-built discussion reminded me of Auf Wiedersehen Pet when Oz was complaining about the quality of work on the German building site and claimed that was the origin of the term Jerry-built. Barry counters by telling the story of the walls of Jericho and says the phrase comes from that biblical story. Well, says Oz, if trumpets brought down the walls they couldn’t have been that strong in the first place. They must have been built by Germans!!
“Jerry-built nac” perhaps?
Calling something jerry-built is far older than “Jerry” as slang for German, though its exact origin seems to be unknown. However, “jerry” as an adjective by itself was a new one on me, as was fl=floor.
Since I didn’t see the other one earlier in the week, I liked AFTERSHOCK. In any case, Brummie can hardly be blamed for inventing, independently, a similar clue to a different setter published in a different paper.
Hadrian #23 I thought it was going to be Mendelssohn.
Good puzzle. Seemed appropriately Mondayish to me. ON THE MOVE was a peach; hon mensh for dessert wine too. Probably been done before but I didn’t recall it.
So gan (Geordie) and gang (Scotland) have the same derivation? Guess I should have known that.
Thanks, Brum and loon.
With 13ac seemingly providing most of the discussion on here today re Jerry, the word Cove provided me with echoes of the word used frequently in Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”…
nicbach @45 To Judge’s excellent citation of Burns’s ‘To a Mouse’ I would add the famous (in its time) Harry Lauder song:
Just a wee deoch an doris, just a wee drop, that’s a’.
Just a wee deoch and doris afore ye gang awa.
There’s a wee wifie waitin’ in a wee but an ben.
If you can say It’s a braw bricht moonlit nicht,
Then yer a’richt ye ken.
The dictionary definition of “Depressed” has the entry
“(of an object or part of an object) in a lower position, having been pushed down.”
and lists “concave” as synonym.
For me this looks strange as depressing a shape by pushing down should transform that shape into a “convex” rather than “concave” shape.
Re jerry, and especially simonc@21 and JOFT@25, I have invented a party word-game. The host lists a number verbs, adjectives, and participles, chosen at random, and the guests try to come up with a rationale for each one being an anagrind. Whoever gets the most is the winner.
I always enjoy Julius’ puzzles, and his contributions to the blog. And thanks Loonapick for the excellent blog.
Judge @ 46 – I’m very fond of quoting that myself, but it didn’t stop 29 being my LOI.
Not only that but I needed hints from Mr T to get hornbeam – really annoying as we have a hedge of it only feet away from where I was sitting. Think I’ll change my name to Carpinus…
I was able to complete this one, and enjoyed it. Surfaces are uniformly excellent. What theme?
25a I also had WISE GUY for a while
Favourite 24d SUNLIT. No one else has mentioned 22a DESERTS, which was another favourite for me