Thanks to Monk for a fabulous puzzle.
Excellent fun. And a Happy Christmas Eve to Monk and solvers as well!
CHISEL* (*cast) by E (European)
Egon Schiele, Austrian painter
(M (male) + PUG (dog) charging IN) + S[ettee] (front of)
[s]UPPER (meal, excludes S (seconds))
TOILER (worker) pinching B (barrel) after OP< (work, <held back)
(LYING (mendacious) + S[alesma]N (cleared out)); FAKE (counterfeit) rings
EVE[n] (flat, unfinished)
First lady biblically
Pursuing (STAR (brilliant); SAND (French novelist)); (PRIESTS)* (*high)
The nickname for the US flag
(BY MR + MRS with TIES)* (*adapted)) around HIVE (colony)
D[unce] (first) + OT (books, Old Testament)
PIQUE (animosity) about STERNE* (*novel)
CHAS (knees up singer) hosts (IST (first) + M (minutes) after R[ock] (opening of))
From British pop duo Chas & Dave who did a Christmas TV special called Chas & Dave’s Christmas Knees-Up in 1982, followed by a Knees-Up series the following year
THE (article) by FT (newspaper, Financial Times)
SODA< (drink, <knocked back) after F (fine) + U[nusually] M[ild] (starters of)
Classic Spanish/Portuguese dish
OTT (too much, over the top) into (S (Sabbath) + WED (day))
(TUSSLES with F[ightin]G (exhausted))* (*clumsy) – &lit
[c]HAPPY (fellow, doffs cap)
ER (former monarch, Elizabeth Regina) to appear on RANDS (South African money)
[s]EX POS[itions] (some)
IN (concerned with) + TRANSIT (Ford van)
ONE (joke) in PIER (seaside entertainment spot)
For ONE, think “good one” or “funny one”
(LIEGE, LIPS)* (*in action)
Dizzy Gillespie, jazz legend
SEE (bishop’s office) welcomes PR (priest)
AIM (intend) checking TINDER* (*fake)
(SEE MAN (recognise bloke) holding MAN (another))< (<up)
(PSEUDS ETC)* (*fickle)
ED (journalist) ushered in by EXPOS (from 4 down)
19. Join up with threesome missing one genius (7)
SEAM< (join, <up) with TR[i]O (threesome, missing I (one))
FACED< (resisted, <after rising)
[c]EASES (stops, blowing top)
QU[e] EST (that is, in France, half-hearted)
I took the writer of pot boilers in
10ac to be the recently deceased Jilly Cooper. 26ac FUMADOS was a jorum and nho Chas & Dave.
Fun puzzle ,a good start to the festive season.
Thanks to Monk and Oriel.
Yes, I thought of Jilly Cooper too. I couldn’t parse the CHRISTMAS although it was the obvious answer, and FUMADOS is a new one on me, but otherwise that was good fun. Thanks Monk and Oriel, and Merry Christmas to everyone.
I’ve only just started learning how to do cryptics, and this has been my most successful so far. I got about 8 answers right on my own.
FUMADOS was a jorum for me too (a delightful term I only learned here a couple of days ago!).
I think a lot of us have yet to try FUMADOS. I’m afraid my only experience of pilchards is out of a tin. I did get it though. SLUGFESTS was the one that defeated me. Not a word that springs to mind, and not very festive unless you spend your Christmas holiday watching action movies. Well, one has to find something to fill the time over the next two crossword-less days.
Thanks Monk and Oriel
Nothing further to say on today’s crossword, but, in response to Babbler@4, last year the FT and Independent had puzzles on 25 and 26 December and the Guardian had one on 26 December. I have no specific information about this year, but I think it will be worth looking on the various websites.
The graun will have a Maskarade (Gozo here) puzzle, in the paper only, on Saturday.
Thanks Monk for a top-drawer crossword. Lots of good clues including UPPER, SLUGFESTS, PIONEER & GILLESPIE. I also enjoy clues like FUMADOS, an unfamiliar term that came to light via wordplay; for me that’s one of the greatest joys of cryptics. HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE to you & to Oriel.
Another fairly tricky one with a fair bit of fill in first then parse later. Liked Stars and Stripes, pinteresque, Christmas.
Happy Christmas Eve to monk, oriel, and everyone on 225!
Similar to James P@8, I found several clues not difficult to solve but tough to parse (or impossible where I did not have the required GK). I thought this a good, solid Monk puzzle wth about the usual dose of obscure references. No favourites today.
Thanks Monk and Oriel. I echo Tony@7 and James P@8, and wish everyone a HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE
Couldn’t parse CHRISTMAS & didn’t peg the message either. FUMADOS new to me also as was the artist. Otherwise reasonably straightforward & very entertaining. SHIVER MY (ME surely) TIMBERS prompted a blast of the Tom Waits track off The Heart of Saturday Night album so was my fav.
Thanks to Monk & Oriel
17ac: Brewer 2018 p 1263 has “Shiver my timbers An imprecation used by ‘stage sailors’ and popular with children’s story writers,” with the illustrative quotation “I won’t thrash you Tom. Shiver my timbers if I do. Captain Marryat : Jacob Faithful, ch ix (1834)”. It also appears in that form in SOED 2007 p 2806 and Chambers 2016 p 1440.
And for Cooper: (Jilly Cooper,’10ac),Wiki states me she “is recognised as one of the key writers of the bonkbuster novel,”
Thanks to Oriel for their usual excellent blog, and to all festive commenters for taking the time to pop in. Alas the (online, at least) version of the puzzle didn’t contain what was planned beforehand, namely a preamble that stated “To” 24-12-25 which, when read as answer enumerations, spelt out the message [2(=”To”)] HAPPY [24] CHRISTMAS [12] EVE [25] THE/FT. Ah well, season’s greetings nonetheless!
Thanks Monk@13. At least some of us know about the extra bit of planning now.
23 D. The explanation should be QU[I] EST
I am French and “que est” n’existe pas en français. The correct form is “qu’est” but is never translated into “that is.” However “qui est” can be translated into “that is” in some cases, e.g. “La tasse qui est sur la table” translates into “The cup that is on the table.”
In particular the clue:
“Pursuit in France that is half-hearted”
translates into
“Poursuite en France qui est sans conviction”
At the start of my previous message:
‘I am French and “que est” n’existe pas en français.’
Should be
‘I am French and “que est” does not exist in French.’
As I was writing about the French language, I started mixing languages!
Merci Frogman #26, et joyeux Noel!
Oriel’s blog comment would indeed represent what I’d intended if simply augmented by a couple of plus signs — “QU[E] + EST (that + is, in France, half-hearted)“. Both ‘that’ and ‘is’ were intended to be juxtaposed fodder over which the operator “in France” acted distributively. That is, both your QU[I] EST and Oriel’s (as) QU[E] + EST offer correct alternative parsings of the clue.
If one doesn’t allow such distributivity over juxtaposed operands, one has to ‘correct’ every past puzzle (probably the vast majority) that deploys distributive adjectival or adverbial operators. For example, “A B finally” is never disputed as signifying {last letter of A} + {last letter of B} when it could be parsed more literally as {A} + {last letter of B}.
PS Forgot to add at #17 that Oriel’s parsing of ‘half-hearted’ reflects the definition (@ Clue Clinic) “one of a central pair lost”, in which usual usage has the pair as repeated letters.