Lorraine: Nice easy puzzle this week, thank you Mr. Everyman. I have a small query in 17dn. Please note the spelling mistake in 1dn. as published in the electronic versions; sorry to be picky but I hate spelling mistakes!
Legend to solution comments:
* = anagram.
< = word reversed.
| Across | |||
| 1. |
Could be Mira, twinkling star taken from a city in India (8) | ||
| AMRITSAR | (MIRA STAR)* | ||
| 5. | Very good, or very bad? (6) | ||
| WICKED | dd | ||
| 9. | Following behind king (5) | ||
| LATER | LATE+R | ||
| 10. | Third-rate minstrel and clumsy actor carrying extra weight? (9) | ||
| HAMFATTER | HAM+FATTER an old strange word meaning ‘not very good minstrel’ |
||
| 12. | Lecturer baffled poor serfs (9) | ||
| PROFESSOR | (POOR SERFS)* | ||
| 13. | Honours leader of expedition, extremely overweight (5) | ||
| OBESE | OBE’S+E | ||
| 14. | Talk to an eccentric, revolutionary in the past, in a city in Tennessee (11) | ||
| CHATTANOOGA | CHAT+(TO AN*)+(AGO<) remember Glenn Miller’s ‘choo choo’? |
||
| 18. | Victor’s round? (3,2,6) | ||
| LAP OF HONOUR | cd | ||
| 21. | Bring together in a religious service (5) | ||
| AMASS | A+MASS | ||
| 22. | Private hotel by cobbled Rome street (9) | ||
| INNERMOST | INN+(ROME*)+ST | ||
| 24. | Has to step off rapidly (9) | ||
| POSTHASTE | (HAS TO STEP)* | ||
| 25. | Benefit of dog having no lead? (5) | ||
| ASSET | (b)ASSET | ||
| 26. | Bit of silly nonsense in bar (6) | ||
| STRIPE | S+TRIPE | ||
| 27. | In hiding in hotel, man with changed appearance (2,3,3) | ||
| ON THE LAM | (HOTEL MAN)* | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | 50 introduced to remakably special food flavouring (8) | ||
| ALLSPICE | L in (SPECIAL*) | ||
| 2. | Reasonable grounds detailed (8) | ||
| RATIONAL | RATIONAL(e) | ||
| 3. | Curt, in sister’s estimation (5) | ||
| TERSE | hidden: sisTER’S Estimation | ||
| 4. | A game outside with dad in discomfort (5,3,5) | ||
| ACHES AND PAINS | A CHESS around AND PA IN | ||
| 6. | Lover from Ontario, possibly coming round in the morning (9) | ||
| INAMORATO | (ONTARIO*) around AM | ||
| 7. | Christopher, 10, leads one to new-born pet? (6) | ||
| KITTEN | KIT+TEN | ||
| 8. | County Down’s top store bombed (6) | ||
| DORSET | D+(STORE*) | ||
| 11. | A ballerina not many forget dancing (6,7) | ||
| MARGOT FONTEYN | (NOT MANY FORGET)* nice &lit |
||
| 15. | Discusses business lectures before small dance (5,4) | ||
| TALKS SHOP | TALKS+S+HOP | ||
| 16. | Huge shortfall in fuel (8) | ||
| COLOSSAL | LOSS in COAL | ||
| 17. | Jazz pianist, Greek character, tired all the time, artist brought over (3,5) | ||
| ART TATUM | (MU+TATT+RA<) not sure on the ‘tired all the time’ reference to mean ‘TT’? see comment #1 |
||
| 19. | Affected, American university grounds (6) | ||
| CAMPUS | CAMP+US | ||
| 20. | Emperor is flanked by king and a queen (6) | ||
| KAISER | IS in (K and A ER) | ||
| 23. |
Come to an open stretch of water (5) | ||
| REACH | dd | ||
| 000000000oooooo000000000 | |||
17 down
Collins gives TATT as an abbreviation for tired all the time, so ART TATUM is MU + TATT + RA (all rev).
1 down
I also hate spelling mistakes.
I missed “remakably” when submitting the crossword to the Observer, and again at the proof stage, so there’s nobody to blame but myself. Sorry.
Thank you Traffites and Everyman.
Some problems for me. Never heard of HAMFATTER. 18a seems rather dull.
Not heard 27a for a long time. Same films as when they pussyfoot around.
INAMORATO (in its feminine form) brings memories of ‘Glorious Mud’.
17d. I understand doctors use TATT for their patients’ most common complaint. Pity it wasn’t in an ARUM lily. Lily: tired all the time inside backwards.
Everyman on Everyman Eh?
Thanks Everyman and Lorraine
Generally a good puzzle. I noticed remakably but thought it was deliberate and had no difficulty ‘remaking’ special with an L in.
Hamfatter and on the lam were unknown to me and had to be checked.
Thanks, Lorraine. Enjoyable as always, with one or two ‘quirky’ insertions like HAMFATTER (which I always like because you learn a new word). I liked MARGOT FONTEYN, and had also never heard of ON THE LAM.
Unless we’ve all moved to the other side of the pond, I think there’s a typo in your answer to 18ac, Lorraine.
Thanks Lorraine,
I didn’t think that the puzzle was as easy as your good self and struggled to get HAMFATTER which is indeed a strange word. I searched for hamfatter on dictionary.com and it came back with no results. It asked ‘Did you mean hamster ?.’ which amused me. It’s probably in Chambers downstairs but I couldn’t be bothered looking.
I searched on Google and found an article on Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den fame. He has apparently invested money in a group called Hamfatter. Well I never !.
I created problems for myself by putting in AFTER for 9a (Following behind king) as this fits the clue just as well. In nautical terms, fore and aft (sorry Rufus).
All in all, a very entertaining puzzle with lots of good clues. Thanks Everyman.
Re #5 (myself), it seems that E.R. can refer to either king or queen as follows :-
E.R.?
1. East Riding (Yorkshire).
2. East River (New York City).
3. King Edward. Origin:
< NL Edwardus Rex
4. Queen Elizabeth. Origin:
< NL Elizabeth Regina
5. emergency room.
I think normally when ‘er’ is required there is specific reference to THE queen, or, as in this case, no article – the article used in the clue was actually part of the word play.
Three new exressions for me, being unfamiliar with Art Tatum.
Thanks Everyman and Lorraine – BTW, I would call ‘remakable’ a typo, not a spelling mistake 🙂
Also never heard or the TATT acronym, despite having ME/fibromyalgia, but then I live in Spain…
Thanks Everyman and Lorraine.
I actually found this one fairly easy, and finished it early last Sunday, almost unaided – I had to verify AMRITSAR, could have used an atlas to do so, but typing into the search box it wikipedia is so much faster.
While I got HAMFATTER, I couldn’t verify it, although it is the name of an obscure band – leaving me baffled as to why Everyman was calling them “third rate”!
Also, thanks for the rationale for RATIONAL.
Just as it’s nice to get badly stumped once in a while, it’s also nice to get a neatly filled-in grid all in ink at one sitting occasionally, in my opinion.