A pleasant crossword and all as usual nowadays: the self-referential clue, the first letters clue, the rhyming pair (pairs this time, at a stretch 6ac and 17ac, but I haven’t coloured them), all of which are coloured.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (homophones, reversal, letter deletion, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.
I’m sure someone will help with the clues I’m not 100% on, like 1ac, 6ac, 24ac, 4dn and 7dn. And they will probably show what obvious thing I’ve missed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GET-UP-AND-GO |
Clobber team denied opening, game displaying this? (3-2-3-2)
|
| get-up [b]and Go — get-up = clobber, band = team, Go is the game — the definition seems to me to be a little vague: I can’t quite relate it to the wordplay | ||
| 6 | GNUS |
Wildebeests celebrated in retrospective (4)
|
| (sung)rev. — sung = celebrated — I’m not convinced by ‘in retrospective’ as a reversal indicator | ||
| 9 | FORTISSIMO |
Because, quaintly, it is mostly Paul singing loudly (10)
|
| for ’tis Simo[n] — for = because, ’tis = it is (quaintly), Paul singing = Paul Simon — I think the ‘singing’ goes with Paul to indicate that it is that Paul Simon, rather than being part of the definition because fortissimo simply means very loudly: you can sing fortissimo but you can also play an instrument fortissimo | ||
| 10 | WREN |
Architect who creates home from moss (4)
|
| The bird called a wren makes its home from moss in its nesting habits | ||
| 11 | CASE THE JOINT |
Cover roast with foil and plan a crime? (4,3,5)
|
| If you cover the roast (= joint) with foil you put a case round it | ||
| 15 | OVEREAT |
After deliveries, with just the starters, Everyman’s apt to indulge (7)
|
| over E[veryman’s] a[pt] t[o] — over = deliveries (an over in cricket consists of six balls or deliveries) — the self-referential clue | ||
| 16 | END USER |
Ensured supply for customer (3,4)
|
| (Ensured)* — supply one tends to read as a noun (ser-ply), but here it means supple-ly | ||
| 17 | TATTOOS |
Needlework showing military displays (7)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 19 | OSMOSIS |
Flipping sibling with sound that’s meditative, very – it permeates gradually (7)
|
| (sis om so)rev. — sis = sister = sibling, om = sound that’s meditative (as in yoga), so = very | ||
| 20 | DECIMAL POINT |
Mark eschewed by the vulgar? (7,5)
|
| CD — it’s a mark, and it’s eschewed by the vulgar in that it doesn’t appear in a vulgar fraction since the numerator and denominator of the vulgar fraction are integers | ||
| 23 | LEAD |
Heavy metal star (4)
|
| 2 defs: when it rhymes with bed and when it rhymes with seed | ||
| 24 | GROUND BEEF |
Argue, with justification, for what goes into burger (6,4)
|
| ground beef — ground = argue (I think, something to do with ‘grounds’), beef = justification (as in ‘your argument has some beef/justification’) | ||
| 25 | ALSO |
And gangster’s love (4)
|
| Al’s 0 — Al as in Al Capone the Chicago gangster, love = zero = 0 | ||
| 26 | HOW-DO-YOU-DO |
Hello, fuss (3-2-3-2)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GIFT |
Present talent (4)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 2 | TORE |
Made haste – and a ladder (4)
|
| If you tore some tights or stockings you would make a ladder in them | ||
| 3 | PRIVATE ROOM |
Soldier, moor up somewhere calm (7,4)
|
| private (moor)rev. — private = soldier, up because it’s a reversal in a down clue | ||
| 4 | NO SWEAT |
Primarily: naturally / oh, so what / easy / any time? (2,5)
|
| The first letters clue; I feel ‘oh, so what’ is a bit of a stretch as it doesn’t seem to me to mean ‘no sweat’ | ||
| 5 | GYM SHOE |
Gentleman to drive away, we’re told, in casual footwear (3,4)
|
| “Jim” “shoo” — Jim as in Gentleman Jim (there are various references in Wikipedia to people who could be called ‘Gentleman Jim’, and there was a film called ‘Gentleman Jim’: it seems to be a thing) so that ‘gentleman’ indicates ‘Jim’, shoo = drive away | ||
| 7 | NARCISSIST |
Vain man’s crisis? (10)
|
| OK a narcissist is a vain man. But how is this a crisis? | ||
| 8 | SONG THRUSH |
Warbler’s shorts hung up (4,6)
|
| (shorts hung)* | ||
| 12 | JUDGMENT DAY |
With seconds to spare, just damn edgy, worried it’s the end of the world (8,3)
|
| (ju[s]t damn edgy)* | ||
| 13 | MORTADELLA |
To dream: all cured meat! (10)
|
| (To dream all)* — not sure why there’s an exclamation mark — maybe because the idea of dreaming about all cured meat is a bit odd or perhaps amusing — ‘cured’ needs to be the anagram indicator so although mortadella is cured meat, the definition is just ‘meat’ | ||
| 14 | PETTICOATS |
Cat, to spite, shredded lingerie (10)
|
| (Cat to spite)* | ||
| 18 | SALERNO |
New Orleans: it’s SE of Naples (7)
|
| *(Orleans) — Salerno is a province SE of Naples in Italy | ||
| 19 | OROTUND |
Somewhat churrigueresco? Rot! Undeniably magniloquent! (7)
|
| Hidden in churriguerescO ROT UNDeniably — whatever churrigueresco means it doesn’t matter | ||
| 21 | BEAU |
Suitor’s loud ribbon (4)
|
| “bow” — ribbon = bow | ||
| 22 | AFRO |
Do in seafront (4)
|
| Hidden in seAFROnt — do as in hairdo |
Thanks John. I’m not inclined to add to the comments and queries as I found this puzzle a little odd in places, and it’s like having to use too many words to explain a poor joke.
But I believe NO SWEAT has 4 synonyms or near synonyms following primarily.
I can see an anagram of CRISIS in the middle of NARCISSIST. Is it something cryptic or reverse?
GROUND BEEF I read as beef= argue , ground = justification. with is the order of the parts to the clue.
For 7d, I have NARCISSISM as an anagram of “man’s crisis”, with “vain” as the anagram indicator and the answer as an &lit, perhaps.
The meaning of ‘oh, so what’ varies depending on the phrasing, pauses, intonation, facial and body gestures etc. I can hear/see it as being close enough to NO SWEAT.
That’s it, LarryS@3. I entered NARCISSISM too, by the same reaoning, whenever that was.
GET-UP AND GO
My take:
Clobber (the) team denied opening game (already beaten in the first game), displaying this/with energy.
GNUS
We have seen retrospectively and in retrospect/retrospective as reversal indicators before.
Looking back… it works.
GROUND BEEF, NO SWEAT and NARCISSISM : agree with paddymelon and LarryS.
Liked FORTISSIMO, CASE THE JOINT and GYM SHOE.
Thanks Everyman and John.
Another one agreeing with paddymelon, LarryS and KVa over NARCISSISM and GROUND BEEF.
GET-UP-AND-GO seemed to me to have a pretty weak definition, but I guess KVa is right.
Thanks John and Everyman.
Yep, as an &lit narcissism works fine; it could well be [a] vain man’s crisis. Don’t know about vain as indicator though…
I too had NARCISSISM having spotted the anagram but don’t see how the clue really works. Surely the definition should be ‘vanity’ (noun) rather than ‘vain’ (adjective, which in this case should be NARCISSISTIC (my first stab)), so something like ‘Vanity in broken man’s crisis’ (if that’s not too easy)?
On reflection: “Vanity. Man’s crisis?” would work with minimal modification to the original.
Forgot to say thanks to Everyman and John in my first post.
Clobber is also cothes, gear and maybe get up, Band without the opening ‘b’ and GO game
I have the Observer in front of me and I can reveal, drumroll, that 7d is in fact NARCISSISM
I entered NARCISSISM for 7d – and like LarryS@3 and grantinfreo@8 was happy to read it as an &lit. I completed this puzzle a little speedier than usual which pleased me!
I couldn’t parse 20ac.
7d I had it as NARCISSISM / anagram of man’s crisis and parsed it like LarryS@3 and others above.
Architect = Wren is a reference to Sir Christopher Wren the architect of St. Pauls Cathedral
24 across
Ground beef = minced beef in North America.
Marieb@16: yes, the US term for minced meat is ‘ground beef/chicken/pork/…’ for reasons that escape all understanding. Grinding and mincing are two different things so this always annoys me. Furthermore, there is no indication in the clue that the solution is American.
Thanks for explaining DECIMAL POINT.
16, Marieb
It’s simply “mince” in many parts of the UK.
So-called ground meats seem to be more finely cut, for use in e.g. bolognese sauce.
Cheers all.
Fifteen squared is playing up. If one edits a comment one seems to be very unlikely to be able to get through the process. So I’ll comment here, where it seems more likely to succeed.
Yes I missed the nice &lit. (but agree that it would be better so that the definition wasn’t vain but vanity) in the NARCISSISM clue and my answer was wrong.
Etu@19: I don’t think there is any difference between minced meat (not to be confused with mincemeat of course) and ‘ground’ meat. In both cases the meat is finely chopped, so the term ‘ground’ has always jarred with me.
I’m also with paddymelon@2 re: GROUND BEEF (and also had NARCISSISM as LarryS@3 and others)
Upon returning to the puzzle to compare my answers to this blog, I was once again presented with an empty grid and a timer starting at zero. This despite having submitted my answers last Sunday. Do others have this problem? I may have to start saving screenshots.
Dewey — I returned to the puzzle (4,116); the grid was still filled with my answers and the SUBMIT button was not to be seen. I usually click on ‘Result’, which confirms that your puzzle has been submitted, the time you took to complete it, and your name and email.
For 1ac I had ‘clobber’ = ‘clothes’ = ‘get up’; ‘team’ = (b)and; and ‘Go’ the game. Is that too convoluted in a Paulesque way?! 🙂
I don’t think it’s too convoluted. Just that I can’t really see what this has to do with the definition.
John 26 – no , you’re right – I was just feeling clever having extracted the parts. I can’t see how all that works either!
I think the blog has missed a few references- Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis for 5dn; Christopher Wren the architect for 10ac; OROTUND is indicative of the overtly flowery language used in the clue; LEAD is heavy; it is a metal; and you can be the lead role.
Anyway – really enjoyed the crossword today. CASE THE JOINT; GYM SHOW & ALSO are our top picks.
Thanks Everyman.
PipnDoug@28: I’m not sure that I missed a reference to Lucky Jim. This doesn’t seem to have any connection with ‘gentleman’. When doing a blog one has to tread a fine line between saying too little and swamping the reader with a whole lot of detail, most of which is unnecessary. In my opinion virtually anyone would know that lead is a heavy metal. And most people would know that Sir Christopher Wren was an architect, although perhaps that only applies to people in the UK.
Rather easier than usual- maybe it was just luck. 7D was not quite the anagram but had to be this. I liked WREN, TATTOOS, DECIMAL POINT CASE THE JOINT & HOW DO YOU DO.
PS I spell it judgEment and first thought was that it didn’t fit.
PS I spell it judgEment and first thought was that it didn’t fit.
In 20A the reference is to vulgar fractions. But in Europe they use a comma instead of a point.
Yet again I had GNUS / SUNG round the wrong way. But I think that was my bad, the clue is okay.
Liked Decimal Point, but otherwise this felt a bit bland.