Our daily brain exercise is provided by Atrica today.
An enjoyable puzzle with some fairly straightforward clues (including 20d and 22d which both seem familiar, but they’re good enough to bear repeating) and some that needed a bit more thought and some crossers. Favourites included 1a for the amusing surface, 30a for a well-chosen definition by example, 17a for the Orwellian use of language, and 20a for a well-hidden word. I wasn’t convinced by 10a, as noted below, but everything else works for me.
It’s Tuesday so we should be looking for a theme. I think I’ve found it, after reminding myself of the definition of 9d which is related to it: the grid includes a number of typefaces (or words used in the names of typefaces) such as GOTHIC, TIMES ROMAN, SCRIPT and so on. It might be an extendable theme, because there are vast numbers of typefaces available on the internet and there’s probably one named for almost any word you care to pick, whether or not our setter intended it as a themed entry. I managed to find typefaces called CHICAGO, CALAMARI, CAIRO, OVERPASS and SEINE before I stopped looking; you may be able to identify more. Thanks Atrica for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | OVERPASS |
Bridge completed? I don’t know (8)
|
| OVER (finished = completed) + PASS (an “I don’t know” response to a question, as used in the TV quiz Mastermind).
A bridge carrying a road over another road, or the railway equivalent. |
||
| 5 | GOTHIC |
Try almost stupid style of architecture (6)
|
| GO (try, as a noun = an attempt, as in “have a go”) + THIC[k] (slang for stupid) without the last letter (almost). | ||
| 10 | FRO |
The opposite of to cut out of (3)
|
| FRO[m] (out of), without the last letter (cut).
As in “to and fro” – but isn’t “fro” just a variant form of “from”? If so it’s essentially the same word and meaning in both definition and wordplay. |
||
| 11 | PURSE-SEINES |
Nets banker in Paris dividing bags of money (5-6)
|
| SEINE (Parisian river = something that flows between banks = banker) inserted into PURSES (bags of money).
Purse-seine = a fishing net with a drawstring that closes the bottom edge to trap the fish. Supermarkets have started putting details of how their fish is caught on the back of packaging, for customers who care about sustainability, which is probably where I’ve seen the term before. |
||
| 12 | ROMAN |
Former imperialist micromanaging a bit (5)
|
| Hidden answer (a bit) in [mic]ROMAN[aging].
As in someone from a former empire. |
||
| 14 | PENALISES |
Punishes sin? Please not this way (9)
|
| Anagram (not this way = another way) of SIN PLEASE. | ||
| 15 | DETAIN |
Director with no right to employ intern (6)
|
| D (abbreviation for director) + [r]ETAIN (to pay someone for the right to use their services = to employ), without the R (abbreviation for right).
Intern, as a verb = detain = hold in temporary imprisonment. |
||
| 17 | UNFASTEN |
Open space added to slowly? (8)
|
| EN (printers’ term for a medium-width space between characters) added to UN-FAST (which might mean “slowly” in a whimsical way, or in George Orwell’s Newspeak from Nineteen Eighty-Four). | ||
| 20 | CALAMARI |
Not entirely practical, a marinated appetiser perhaps (8)
|
| Hidden answer (not entirely . . .) in [practi]CAL A MARI[nated].
Squid as food, especially cut into rings and deep-fried in batter. Perhaps an appetiser = starter course of a meal, though whether it’s appetising is a matter of opinion. |
||
| 21 | STAMEN |
Partners accepting not very exciting male organ (6)
|
| S + N (South and North, partners in card games such as bridge), containing TAME (not very exciting).
The male reproductive organ of a flowering plant. |
||
| 24 | INCARNATE |
Native clothing maybe convertible, given bodily form (9)
|
| INNATE (native), around (clothing) CAR (perhaps a convertible = a car with a removable sunroof). | ||
| 26 | ASSET |
Blessing the way the clue was written (5)
|
| The way the clue was written = as it was set = AS SET.
Blessing = asset = something that benefits its owner. |
||
| 27 | ANIMALISTIC |
Brutal article about smothering well-ordered militias (11)
|
| AN (a form of the indefinite article) + C (abbreviation for Latin circa = about = approximately), surrounding (smothering) an anagram (well-ordered) of MILITIAS. | ||
| 28 | EBB |
At last idle bishops retire (3)
|
| Last letter of [idl]E + B B (two B = abbreviation for bishop).
Ebb = retire = recede. |
||
| 29 | OBOIST |
Occasionally low blow is to finish off player (6)
|
| Alternate letters (occasionally) of [l]O[w] B[l]O[w] , then IS, then T[o] with the finishing letter taken off. | ||
| 30 | LEGALESE |
Wrongly alleges point, notwithstanding the aforementioned? (8)
|
| Anagram (wrongly) of ALLEGES, then E (abbreviation for East = a point of the compass).
Definition by example, indicated by the question mark: complicated language that may be appropriate in a legal document to ensure that the meaning is unambiguous, but is generally ridiculed when used in other contexts. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | OFF-GRID |
Not connected, rotten crossword layout (3-4)
|
| OFF (rotten = of food, no longer good to eat) + GRID (crossword layout). | ||
| 2 | EGO |
Periodically verge on conceit (3)
|
| Alternate letters (periodically) of [v]E[r]G[e] O[n].
Conceit in the sense of “being conceited” = an inflated view of oneself. |
||
| 3 | POP IN |
Come by secret code protecting procedure (3,2)
|
| PIN (Personal Identification Number = secret code providing access to a bank account), containing (protecting) OP (short for operation = medical procedure).
Come by = pop in = make a casual visit to someone. |
||
| 4 | SCRIPT |
Recruit disregarding trick words delivered by actors (6)
|
| [con]SCRIPT (someone subject to enforced recruitment for military service), without CON (slang for trick). | ||
| 6 | OVERLEAPT |
Cleared broken elevator trapping VIP after sex (9)
|
| Anagram (broken) of ELEVATOR, containing the part of [vi]P that comes after VI (six in Roman numerals; sex = Latin for six).
Overleap = to jump over = to clear. |
||
| 7 | HINTS |
Husband wearing trousers inside out? One might suggest dropping them (5)
|
| H (abbreviation for husband) + IN (wearing = clothed with) + T[rouser]S with the inside letters taken out.
Dropping hints = suggesting something without actually saying it explicitly. |
||
| 8 | CASTS ON |
Shy boy starts knitting (5,2)
|
| CAST (shy, as a verb = throw) + SON (boy = male child). | ||
| 9 | KERNING |
Monarch tours English warships, spacing out (herein a famously bad example) (7)
|
| KING (monarch), around (touring) E (abbreviation for English) + RN (abbreviation for Royal Navy = warships).
Kerning = in typography, adjusting the spacing between particular pairs of letters to improve appearance and readability, depending on the shape of each letter. I think the “famously bad example” refers to the word “kerning” itself in lowercase: if there isn’t enough space between “r” and “n”, they may be misread as a single letter “m”, hence the industry slang term “keming” for bad kerning. |
||
| 13 | METAL |
Minister on the far left and others lead? (5)
|
| Left-most letter of M[inister] + ET AL (abbreviation for Latin et alii = and others).
Definition by example, indicated by the question mark: lead is a metal. |
||
| 16 | IMMORTALS |
Tenor adopted by corrupt society superstars (9)
|
| T (abbreviation for tenor) contained in (adopted by) IMMORAL (corrupt) + S (abbreviation for society).
Immortals = metaphorically, significant people who are likely to be remembered long after their death. |
||
| 18 | TIMES |
Occasions second issue to be raised (5)
|
| S (abbreviation for second) + EMIT (issue, as in a fire emitting smoke), all reversed (raised = upwards in a down clue). | ||
| 19 | CROATIA |
Split region turning to Africa after renouncing force (7)
|
| Anagram (turning) of TO A[f]RICA without the F (abbreviation for force).
The country in which you would find the city named Split. |
||
| 20 | CHICAGO |
Musical fashionable in the past (7)
|
| CHIC (fashionable) + AGO (as in “a long time ago” = in the past).
1975 musical by Kander and Ebb. |
||
| 22 | NOTABLE |
Famous incompetent (7)
|
| NOT ABLE (incompetent). | ||
| 23 | SEETHE |
Understand, and shortly after that become livid (6)
|
| SEE (understand) + THE[n] (after that) without the last letter (shortly).
Seethe = become livid = become angry. |
||
| 25 | CAIRO |
Atmosphere in Colorado metropolis (5)
|
| AIR (atmosphere, perhaps metaphorically as in “clear the air”) in CO (abbreviation for the US state of Colorado).
Capital city of Egypt. |
||
| 26 | ACCRA |
African city‘s electrical current giving rise to spark (5)
|
| AC (abbreviation for alternating current), then ARC (spark) reversed (giving rise to = upwards in a down clue).
Capital city of Ghana. |
||
| 28 | EVE |
The First Lady under no circumstances unclothed (3)
|
| [n]EVE[r] (under no circumstances) without the outer letters (unclothed).
The first woman in the Bible. |
Liked OVERPASS, LEGALESE, KERNING (Did not know the word or the backstory), SEETHE and EVE.
Agree with Quirister about FRO.
Thanks Atrica and Quirister.
OVERLEAPT provided a very nice slow motion penny drop moment. Thanks for the usual excellent blog. Kemping was new to me. I assumed that bad kerning resulted in herein appearing as two words or here in appearing as one.
Sorry, missed the edit window. Keming, not kemping, which I imagine is what Germans do in tents.
I remember having to adjust my writing style because ‘rn’ looked the same as ‘m’. Writing something like ‘She had a nasty burn’ created problems.
I can see a whole new type of clue emerging. “Poor typesetting led to my ancient American friend becoming embodied. 9” as an alternative for 24 across, for example.
Thanks all! There’s a famous example of bad kerning hidden in the grid.