This is my first foray into blogging a Gemelo puzzle. I have managed to solve Nos. 1-7, but I would agree with Andrew’s comment from last week, that the style of the clues is a little different from Azed–a style that I am still getting the hang of. This week’s grid is unusual for having six fully-checked three-letter solutions.
Some of the clues this week were rather complicated to parse, and sometimes ventured off into general knowledge with which, fortunately, I had some familiarity, or, failing that, which I could at least piece together from Wikipedia and the like.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BICKIE |
Argue endlessly about Italy and Garibaldi? (6)
|
| BICKE[R] (argue) minus last letter (endlessly) around (about) I (Italy), referring to a type of currant-filled biscuit (or cookie, in my vernacular) | ||
| 5 | ABSORB |
Take in muscles by eye (6)
|
| ABS (muscles) + ORB (eye) | ||
| 9 | SHIELDRAKE |
Duck and cover ahead of fire down the line (10)
|
| SHIELD (cover) + RAKE (fire down the line) | ||
| 11 | ICE TEA |
Fastidiousness, removing jacket with each drink (6, 2 words)
|
| [N]ICET[Y] (fastidiousness) minus outside letters (removing jacket) + EA. (each) | ||
| 12 | SLEPT |
Started dropping Australian after Stokes was out (5)
|
| S (stokes, i.e., the CGS unit of kinematic viscosity) + LE[A]PT (started) minus A (Australian), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 13 | TURBOJET |
Plane returning empty, the craft perhaps fixed course (8)
|
| {T[H]E minus middle letter (empty) + JOB (craft perhaps) + RUT (fixed course)} all reversed (returning) | ||
| 15 | KOREAN |
Question for Buddhist controlling study of the sacred language (6)
|
| KOAN (question for Buddhist) around (controlling) RE (study of the sacred, i.e., religious education) | ||
| 17 | MOI |
Facetiously, one location where indicator is three feet back (3)
|
| IOM (location where indicator is three feet, i.e., referring to the three-legged triskelion symbol of the Isle of Man) reversed (back) | ||
| 18 | TURNOVER |
Ponder newspaper article (8)
|
| TURN OVER (ponder) | ||
| 19 | ALL ROSES |
Happy with no Quality Street? (8, 2 words)
|
| Double/cryptic definition, the latter suggesting that if one has received only Cadbury Roses (an assortment of sweets), one has received no Quality Street (a competing brand of an assortment of sweets) | ||
| 22 | EGO |
Self-confidence is good in gambling game (3)
|
| G (good) inside (in) E O (gambling game) | ||
| 24 | DEARER |
Increasingly highly valued letter-opener previously sent to palace? (6)
|
| DEAR ER (letter-opener [i.e., salutation] previously sent to palace [i.e., facetiously, to the former queen]) | ||
| 25 | SALISHAN |
Native American companion for Paul going west with Chinese (8)
|
| SILAS (companion for Paul, in the Bible) reversed (going west) + HAN (Chinese) | ||
| 26 | HYRAX |
Rock rabbit by following heartless monster (5)
|
| HY[D]RA (monster) minus middle letter (heartless) + X (by) | ||
| 28 | ASHBIN |
Banish dreadfully rubbish container (6)
|
| Anagram of (dreadfully) BANISH | ||
| 29 | SERIOCOMIC |
I’m transfixed by clown, one with resolution to come back only partly funny (10)
|
| [{I’M inside (transfixed by) COCO ([a famous] clown)} + I (one) + RES. (resolution)] all reversed (to come back) | ||
| 30 | POTALE |
Refuse drug and alcohol (6)
|
| POT (drug) + ALE (alcohol), from a grain distillery | ||
| 31 | TESTEE |
Person sitting round bodies, mostly European (6)
|
| TESTE[S] (round bodies) minus last letter (mostly) + E (European), referring to a person taking a test | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BRINKMANSHIP |
Black ice: two vessels getting close to disaster following a line (12)
|
| B (black) + RINK (ice) + {MAN + SHIP} (two vessels) | ||
| 2 | CHEERILY |
While happy with capital of Turkey, what about visiting Cyprus? (8)
|
| [{LIRE (capital of Turkey, i.e., Turkish currency) + EH? (what?)} inverted (about)] inside (visiting) CY (Cyprus). Quibble: Although Chambers does not make a clear distinction, it would appear from other sources that the correct plural of the Turkish lira is either “lira” or “liras,” not “lire,” which would have been the plural of the former Italian or Maltese currency “lira.” | ||
| 3 | KITTEN |
Produce young fish in container, that which may have caught them up (6)
|
| KIT (fish in container) + NET (that which may have caught them, i.e., the fish) inverted (up) | ||
| 4 | E-LA |
Former president spending money – and very high note! (3)
|
| [Nelson] [MAND]ELA (former president) minus (spending) {M (money) + AND} | ||
| 5 | ADORER |
I love your heart, regularly lost before the day starts (6)
|
| AD (before the day, i.e., ante diem) + alternate letters of (regularly lost) [Y]O[U]R [H]E[A]R[T] | ||
| 6 | SALON |
Indian tree close to reception (5)
|
| SAL (Indian tree) + ON (close to) | ||
| 7 | OKE |
In Istanbul, weight is all right (3)
|
| Double definition, the second “a clipped form of OK,” according to Chambers | ||
| 8 | BITTER ORANGE |
Preserve element of rule – first, don’t mention it to Klopp or Postecoglou? (12, 2 words)
|
| BITTE (don’t mention it to [Jürgen] Klopp, i.e., “you’re welcome” in German] + R (rule) + OR + ANGE (Postecoglou), referring to a component of marmalade | ||
| 9 | SCHOOLDAYS |
Class hoody wasted opportunity to learn (10)
|
| Anagram of (wasted) CLASS HOODY | ||
| 10 | EPEXEGETIC |
Clarifiying with more words, except ‘i.e.’ and ‘e.g.’, maddeningly (10)
|
| Anagram of (maddeningly) {EXCEPT + I.E. + E.G.} | ||
| 13 | TATOUS |
Skin designs earlier covering over armadillos (6)
|
| TATUS (skin designs earlier, i.e., an earlier spelling of tattoos) around (covering) O (over) | ||
| 14 | BUNSEN |
Creator of burner phone snubbed to a certain extent on the way up (6)
|
| Hidden in (to a certain extent) [PHO]NE SNUB[BED] inverted (on the way up), referring to Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen | ||
| 16 | EVERY BIT |
Just as much volume seen in weird cut (8, 2 words)
|
| V (volume) inside (seen in) EERY (weird) + BIT (cut) | ||
| 20 | SCHMOE |
Klutz that is moving home (6)
|
| SC. (that is) + anagram of (moving) HOME | ||
| 21 | PASHMS |
Infatuation over months for underfleeces (6)
|
| PASH (infatuation) + M/S (months) | ||
| 23 | TIARA |
Bracken surrounding international office of the pope (5)
|
| TARA (bracken) around (surrounding) I (international) | ||
| 27 | RET |
Spoil market without trouble (3)
|
| RET[AIL] (market) minus (without) AIL (trouble) | ||
| 28 | ACT |
Where Canberra is to exert influence (3)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to Australian Capital Territory |
I had entered SHELLDRAKE at 9a when I had a few checking letters, thinking that ‘cover’ could be SHELL and not understanding the rest, and this didn’t cause any problems until 3d was the only clue I had left to solve. I didn’t think KET or KETTEN were words so thought it must be KITTEN, but wasn’t really sure that it could mean ‘produce young fish’, and realised that SHIELDRAKE would make sense. When I finally checked everything I found that KIT is actually ‘fish in container’ and that I had never solved the fully checked RET.
I quite liked EPEXEGETIC, a word I sort of knew except for remembering how to spell it, and BITTER ORANGE, but I only knew Postecoglou’s first name from seeing it in another crossword.
Thanks, Gemelo and Cineraria.
I suppose I should have checked before writing my previous comment, but KET appears as two separate headwords in Chambers.
I found this significantly harder than a plain Azed puzzle, but perhaps that is just a question of familiarity (or lack of it) with the setter’s style. I was grateful that the three-letter words were fully checked and realise now that I never in fact solved MOI. I did wonder if the misspelling at 10 down (clarifiying for clarifying) was significant, but decided that it was just a typo.
I agree that Gemelo is taking a bit of getting used to. This all went in, but with the odd question mark over the parsing (the confectionery reference completely passed me by, for example), so my thanks to Cineraria for clearing these up in the admirable blog.
I too did not know Postecoglou’s first name, nor, indeed, who he is. Should have googled him. Entered the answer from crossers.
Couldn’t quite work out SALON.
Matthew@1: I also put in SHELLDRAKE and then struggled with 3dn. I thought it might be KETTLE, which I believe is a Shetlandic word for producing kittens, and it sounded promising in relation to a fish-kettle, but I just couldn’t make it fit the entire wordplay (nor could I explain the D in 9ac). When I got KOREAN, that put paid to it and I relaised my mistake.
I thought the wordplay of 5dn was pretty tortuous and I agree about LIRE in 2dn, but otherwise it seemed ok.
FAO MunroMaiden. If you’re looking for the Mephisto blog. “Timesforthetimes” can currently be found at the temporary URL:
https://fky.yin.mybluehost.me/website_2c9c4962/
(AIUI: Because of all the recent “Error 500″s, the website was migrated to new servers yesterday afternoon. It’s all working great now. But as predicted, it will take until Monday for the normal URL to work. There was an announcement about this posted midweek – but I think a lot of the “Sunday-only” people may have missed it).
Dnf again. I am not on the wavelength. Too much general knowledge for my taste. Tricky parsing I hope to get on top of with practice. I shall persevere, as one of the two I submitted won a prize. Perhaps there are not many entries.