Methuselah fills the Thursday Indy slot this week.
We enjoyed this. It was a fairly quick solve, with a good range of clue types and levels of difficulty, and no unusual words.
We’ve highlighted the four sets of paired words which seem to constitute a theme.
HUM (smell) SAND (polish) HAWS (fruit)
bATHEr fELt both missing first and last letters or ‘stripping off’
LEAKS (escapes) with the E (energy) moved or ‘sent’ to the right (east)
BLUE (sad) and a homophone (‘carried through waves’) of WAIL (lament)
An anagram (‘transformed’) of NIGHTLIFe without ‘e’ (‘drug-free’)
HE’LL (‘that bloke’s going to’)
REM (American group) AT (attending) CH (church)
A reversal (‘from the east’) of AS (like) SIREN (temptress)
A clue-as-definition – R U (a homophone – ‘told’ – of ‘are you’) in or ‘donning’ SKIN (protective layer)
A TICK, used by a teacher to show something is correct, is an ‘alternative’ to X (‘sign of the cross’) showing it is wrong
Hidden (‘involving’) in NeanderTHAL AMUSements
EH (‘pardon’) round or ‘including’ ART (cunning) + a reversal (‘about’) of ROW (argument) + M (money)
AI (‘chatbot’) round or ‘plugged by’ X (social media site) + hOMe missing the first and last letters or ‘exposed’
An anagram (‘terribly’) of RAUNCHY and ED (middle letters or ‘heart’ of Benedick)
H (first letter or ‘beginning’ of hoard) AMuLETS (lucky charms) missing the ‘u’ (horseshoe)
H (hot) ALE (drink)
KING (‘important piece’ – in chess) in or ‘checked by’ MA (master) FOR (pro)
ABS (muscles) O (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of undo) LUTIST (player of a lute – ‘plucky fellow’)
DEBUtS (first outings) with the ‘t’ (Tesla) replaced by G (golf in the phonetic alphabet)
mAD cULT vERY – all three words missing their first letters or ‘lacking in leadership’
ADam (‘gardener’ – as in the Garden of Eden) missing the last two letters or ‘half-cut’ in or ‘wearing’ EVE (his wife)
ALT (key) HAND’S (worker’s) and an anagram (‘potentially’) of FATE in or ‘sealed by’ HEY (welcome)
US and THEM with ‘hale’ (1d) could make an anagram (‘resort’) of Methuselah
SMOKE (cure) A L (large) ARM (supply)
An anagram (‘converts’) of QUITE SOUR
An anagram (‘changed’) of A LOT in or ‘acquired by’ CARD (queen?)
A reversal (‘up’) of RAW (green) + alternate (‘every so often’) letters of MaTcHa
C OR F (‘choice of sides’ from chef) + U (united)
WHO (which people) A (answer)
US (‘superpower’) with EM in front or ‘aloft’ in a down clue
Thanks for a comprehensive blog B&J. The four ANDs are no coincidence, but try looking just at the entries at the four edges…
US AND THEM. That’s very good. I didn’t spot that until I read the blog. In my experience, Methuselah usually has a self-referential clue or two in his puzzle and often biblical (Old Testament) nods. Adam and Eve here and Hell. I didn’t find the puzzle as easy as the bloggers did but I always enjoy this setter regardless. I had big ticks for THALAMUS (another superb hidden clue after Eccles yesterday), the ‘plucky fellow’ in 3d, and I liked seeing ‘card’ for ‘queen’ although I didn’t really fancy the def in that clue. Thanks to the bloggers and the old man.
Methuselah @1 – am I right in saying that they are anagrams of each other?
Methuselah@1
Thanks for dropping by. So it’s not just one methuselah, but 4! WOW.
WOW – we have been staring at the grid after Methuselah’s hint and still couldn’t see it.
Hat’s off 4 times!
I’ve just read the setter’s heads up @1. Talk about self-referential. Talk about brilliant. One day I might clock these sorts of things (as well as feel satisfied I’ve completed the puzzle). Until then … thanks again AND again.
That’s so clever!
In so many ways, Methuselah is the gift that keeps on giving today. Very clever indeed. The grid is the star but BLUE WHALE is COTD – very poignant and a sort of extended definition.
Thanks Methuselah and B&J
What PostMark said.
Brilliant stuff from Methuselah as usual! Loads of goodness here, with my particular favourites being HEALTH AND SAFETY, EVADE, HAMLETS, BLUE WHALE, IN-FLIGHT and WHOA.
Alas it was a DNF because I couldn’t get CARTLOAD; like sofamore@2 I like the wordplay (in hindsight) but not so much the definition.
I noted the “AND” entries as per B&J but not that each of the four edges give X AND Y where the letters of X and Y together make an anagram of Methuselah. Obviously we knew it for the left edge because we were told it explicitly in the clue for US AND THEM; but it never occurred to me that the same thing would be true at the other edges, and I’m sure I’d have never spotted it on my own… so thanks to M for dropping in!
Just for completeness I’ll note that SKI RUN is a non-Britishism [in the UK we call them (ski) pistes, from the french], and that, in maths and logic (which is where it comes from), an AXIOM isn’t so much a truth as a property or statement taken as true without proof, which is a slightly different thing.
[Indeed there are axioms in maths whose truth or otherwise we still don’t know (e.g. the axiom of choice) which means chunks of mathematics either have to be done twice (assuming or rejecting the axiom) or which, more usually, depend on the axiom and will simply become invalidated if it turns out to be possible to disprove the axiom (a highly unlikely thing in the eyes of most mathematicians).
Similarly, in geometry, one of Euclid’s axioms, the parallel postulate leads to Euclidean geometry and was regarded as a fundamental truth; it took millenia for mathematicians to realise or accept that you can take it or leave it, with leaving it giving rise to non-Euclidean geometries such as hyperbolic and elliptic geometry, the latter of which, in its special case of spherical geometry, navigators had been using for time immemorial without recognising the fundamental pure mathematical underpinning.]
Thanks both for the fun
Magnificent – thanks.
Thanks both. Sadly the clue for US AND THEM was not quite explicit enough for me, so as my LOI it went in unparsed, therefore I was never likely to appreciate the other clever devices at play. My experiences with various IT functions lead me to hope DEBUGS also includes removal of said faults, as finding them was rarely what I struggled with.
Thanks B&J and Methuselah.
Fantastic. Enjoyed the intricate construction. Too many likes to list.
Missed the other three Methuselahs.